Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 8:20

"And Noah builded an altar unto Jehovah, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar." — Genesis 8:20 (ASV)

Noah builded an altar unto the Lord (Jehovah). —The account of this sacrificial act is said to have been an interpolation by the Jehovist. In reality, it forms an integral part of the numerous traditions of the flood. Thus, in the Chaldean Genesis, after the sending forth of a dove, a swallow, and a raven, we read (p. 280):

“I sent them forth to the four winds; I sacrificed a sacrifice;
I built an altar on the peak of the mountain.”

This extreme antiquity of sections ascribed to the Jehovist, and supposed to be an afterthought, is seriously detrimental to the whole theory.

One result of the flood was to sweep away all traces of the earthly paradise and of the subsequent dwelling of Adam. It is also probable that Noah was removed far away from his previous home by the floating of the ark. Thus, to him and his family, it was a new earth, with no holy places, no spots hallowed by the past history of humanity.

He therefore resolved to consecrate the earth to Jehovah, who had been the object of his family’s worship since the days of Enos, and so he built an altar, the first mentioned in the Bible. By doing so, he provided for future generations a central spot and sanctuary, around which their religious ideas would gather. The animals offered were probably the seventh of all clean kinds (see Note on Genesis 7:2).

With Noah’s burnt offerings, we must not connect any of the later Levitical ideas. Apparently, it was a simple thank-offering, the dominant thought of which was the hallowing of humanity’s future life by beginning it with worship. It thus contained within it the presage that a better state of things had now begun.

Subsequently, the thank-offering became a feast, at which the offerer and his family partook of the victim as Jehovah’s guests. Since God, during this sacrifice, gave Noah permission to eat flesh (Genesis 9:3), it is probable that this was also the case at this time, and that the eating of flesh was inaugurated in this solemn way. We have, however, previously seen reason to believe that the flesh of animals had occasionally been eaten before, though not as an ordinary article of diet.