The olive branch, birds, and St. Jerome

. "Noah's Ark" . It's part of the Bible Stories exhibit still going on at Mamilla mall. Genesis 8: 8 And he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him to the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth; and he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her in unto him into the ark. 10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came in to him at eventide; וְהִנֵּה עֲלֵה-זַיִת טָרָף בְּפִיהָ and lo in her mouth an olive-leaf freshly plucked; so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. . . An interesting tidbit from Wiki:

In his 4th century Latin translation of the story of Noah, St Jerome rendered "leaf of olive" (Hebrew alay zayit) in Genesis 8:11 as "branch of olive" (Latin ramum olivae). In the 5th century, by which time a dove with an olive branch had become established as a Christian symbol of peace, St Augustine wrote in On Christian Doctrine that, "perpetual peace is indicated by the olive branch (oleae ramusculo) which the dove brought with it when it returned to the ark." However, in Jewish tradition there is no reference to an olive branch in the story of the Flood and no association of the olive leaf with peace in the story of the flood. 

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