Dove With Olive Branch, Genesis 8:11 Wall Art

The dove comes back

A white dove, wings raised high and tail fanned, glides in from the left carrying a small olive twig with six narrow silver-green leaves. On the right rises the side of the ark, built of rough weathered planks, with a dark square window cut into it. From the window a man's arm reaches out, the sleeve cream with a red stripe, palm open and fingers relaxed, ready to take the bird in.

Below them the water is calm now, rippling in grays and blues, and along the horizon the first low mountains have come back into view under a soft, clearing sky. The lettering reads “Lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off”, with Genesis 8:11 underneath.

Why did Noah send out a dove?

After the rain stopped, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, but Noah could not see how far the water had gone down. He first released a raven, which flew back and forth without returning. Then he sent a dove, which found nowhere to land and came back to his hand. Seven days later he tried again. The King James Version tells what happened: “And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.”

“Pluckt off” means freshly torn from a living tree. That detail is the whole message: something was growing again. Olive trees are low and tough, so a green leaf meant the lower slopes were dry and life was returning. After one more week the dove was sent out a third time and never came back.

From that verse comes one of the most widely understood signs in the world, the dove with an olive branch as a picture of peace. For Christians it carries a further meaning. The First Letter of Peter compares the eight people saved through the water of the flood to baptism, and at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan the Holy Spirit descends like a dove. Early Christian art in the Roman catacombs already shows Noah welcoming the dove.

For a christening and a nursery

With its white bird, open sky and message of a fresh start, this print is a natural baptism or christening gift, from godparents or grandparents to mark the day. Its light blues and creams suit a nursery or a child's room, and as the child grows it becomes the first picture Bible story they can tell by themselves.