Noah and the Ark is one of the most well known accounts from the book of Genesis. It fascinates adults and children alike, and at the same time it leaves the skeptics laughing at the idea; they doubt the entire earth could be covered by a flood leaving only a few people alive on a wooden ‘boat’ with with a load of animals on board. Others struggle to understand why God would kill so many living creatures, all because of one mistake made by the first two humans, this makes no sense to them. To understand God is to know the deluge was not a simple case of punishment through judgment for one mistake by two people; resulting in every creature with the breath of life being drowned. In the lead up to the catastrophic event there are scriptures in Genesis explaining why God decided to wipe out all life on the surface of the earth, saving just eight humans along with various animals on board the Ark.
During the times leading up to the flood the world was filled with extreme violence, but God could see a person who was righteous, a man who was not like the others of his generation; his name was Noah. God chose him as the one who would survive the flood, along with seven other members of his family. To escape certain death from the coming deluge, God directed him to build an Ark. Imagine someone trying to warn a person of a coming event that made no sense. Why would it make no sense? According to scripture it’s thought very little to no rain had ever fallen leading up to the flood, it’s thought a mist watered the vegetation; with sufficient water supplies from streams and rivers to irrigate the land (there are plenty of scriptures that state these facts). Even without knowing what the deluge was, Noah trusted God and did as He commanded. The Bible is silent on how he was treated by others when warning them of the coming flood, but it’s likely they would have laughed at him, were maybe apathetic, especially when he began constructing the Ark as a place of refuge ready for the waters that would destroy so much.
Noah made the right choice by obeying God, and began construction of the Ark. The measurements were given to him by God, along with the type of timber he should use, and how to assemble it to make a vessel that would preserve his own life, the lives of his family, and the animals: Genesis 6:14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. It’s not clear how long it took Noah to complete the Ark, or how many people were hired to construct it. The Bible does say that Noah lived until he was 950 years old and (according to some Bible scholars) it’s an estimate only that it may have taken him and his team around 75 years to complete the Ark. If that estimate is true, that’s surely enough time to warn others of the coming judgment of water; and the population of the world at that time was far smaller than it is today (yet only 8 humans were saved), perhaps making it easier to spread the warning. It’s all good and well being asked to make an Ark but where do you start on the design, what about the measurements for a massive vessel to protect against something you had never even seen? God gave Noah the answers: Genesis 6:15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high (that’s approximately 500 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high). Genesis 6:16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. The Ark was a truly impressive design, with all the right dimensions for it to not capsize or break apart during the stormy waters, and with room enough for all the life on board to be safe from the flood.
But surely there’s no way such a large wooden boat could be made to withstand the rough waters and storms that would have been present during the deluge? Much later on there was one very large wooden boat that did become famous, and it was constructed out of wood. In just nine months at the Percy and Small Shipyard in Bath (from where it made its maiden voyage), Maine, USA, the Wyoming was completed. It’s maiden voyage took place on December 15th 1909, it was the largest wooden boat built after the Ark. The Wyoming was a Schooner, an impressive design that had over 40,000 square feet of sails, and was able to carry a load of up to 6000 tons of coal. It had a total deck length of 350 feet (around 150 feet less than the Ark) but with it’s booms at the stern and bow made a total length of 450 feet. It sank after breaking in half when sailing through a storm on the night of March 10th 1924 off the coast of Chatham, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, all 14 of the crew were lost; the wreckage was discovered almost a century later in 2003, near Monomoy Island. It had made many successful voyages during its years of service, providing solid evidence on record that a very large wooden boat can survive on the seas. The Wyoming sailed for 15 years before sinking; way more time than the Ark (which never sank) was on the waters.
Even with proof of the Wyoming, if the idea of the Ark ever existing is a problem for the skeptics, then surely there must be an issue with the account of so many animals being rounded up and then remaining on board the boat for such a long period of time. This is the next problem for skeptics; the livestock. This question is often raised when discussing the flood account. The issue, rounding up the animals, is not really an issue at all when scripture is examined. The fact is, Noah did not round up any of the animals at all. God brought them to him: Genesis 7:15 Pairs (some came in groups of seven) of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. Noah didn’t have to travel the world capturing animals, transporting them back to his home to place them on the Ark, God directed this for him.
But if the animals were on the Ark, what about the millions of different species required to repopulate the world when the flood waters receded? This is another issue for the skeptics. Our modern world has so many variations of insects, birds, animals, and other living creatures that it would have been impossible to fit every single one on board the Ark. Instead, one kind was all that was required (male and female), and from them would later come the varieties we see today. For example, dogs have more variety than any other land animal. They come in extremely different shapes and sizes, appearance and personalities. Yet around the time of Noah and the flood there were likely just a few varieties at most. All that was required on the Ark was one kind (male and female) and from those two dogs we’d eventually have what we see today. The same can be said of birds, insects, and other living creatures; just one male and female of each creature was needed to produce future populations. There have been many examples of conservationists introducing just one pair of formerly endangered animals into an environment where they have later thrived, breeding to produce massive populations over short periods of time; all it takes is just one male and female to do this. The same is exactly what happened after they left the ark when the flood water levels were no longer a danger.
Can the Ark be found today? In scripture the Ark is said to have come to rest on the Mountains of Ararat, not Mount Ararat. There are those who believe something that closely resembles the shape and size of the Ark can be found on Mount Ararat in Turkey, various findings along with these remains suggest it could well be Noah’s Ark. There is no solid proof, but it is very interesting to conduct research into this. Even if the objects are not the remains of the Ark, we have scripture and evidence of a global flood that makes a connection to the account of Noah, his family, and the animals all surviving the judgement of water that wiped out everything with the breath of life that was outside of the Ark.
In the next article we’ll examine how the world could be flooded, in the the second part of this series.
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