Genesis 8:20-22

Here is this verse from The New American Bible: "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered holocausts on the altar. When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself: 'Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done. As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." After the flood is receding and the human race and creatures of nature are saved, Noah built an altar to the Lord, and killed sacrificial animals and birds, offered as an offering to the Lord, and God was pleased to receive them." Noah offers up a sacrificial animal in praise and thanksgiving and God is happy to receive this offering. Yahweh vows to himself not to wipe out all on earth again to exact a harsh justice upon humans, whose hearts are evil from the start. Note that this is one of the earliest Biblical references to human depravity revealed as the human condition. The New American Bible carries an explanatory footnote on this on Page 11: "8,21: From the start: literally 'from his youth.' It is uncertain whether this means from the beginning of the human race or from the early years of the individual.' My hunch is that both interpretations are coequally correct and apt. Here is this verse from the Holy Bible (KJV): "And Noah built an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered the burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." One wonders if these burnt sacrifices anticipated that Jesus Christ, the son of God, would one day die on the cross sacrificing himself to pay for human sins, so the way of heaven would be open for all humanity. It is a strange and indirect admission that humans are in charge of the earth, that all live on earth was almost wiped out to pay for human sinning. Note that this older translation of the Bible refers to the imagination of the human heart being evil from his youth, a remark of natural human depravity--no ambiguity about it in this older translation.