15 West – Dove with Olive Sprig
Wilson Chaney – Donor
The dove returning to Noah’s Ark with the olive sprig provided proof that the Flood was over, land had become exposed once more, and Noah and his family were rising out, as in baptism, to renewed life.
See also 01 West – Dove with Nimbus, and 18 East – Olive Branch.
At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven, and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark, and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him any more. —Genesis 8:6-12