Noah

Noah begins to welcome the first Animals to the Ark

Noah was a great prophet who was commanded by the Lord to build an ark.  According to the bible people lived much longer back then.  Noah was living in a time when mankind had chosen to do much evil and violence.  God told Noah to build and ark and He, God, would kill everyone else with the flood.  There is much controversy about Noah and his ark.  Noah is mentioned in many passages of the New Testament.  So both Jews and Christians believe that Noah was a real person. 

The ark was said to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.   In modern measurements that would be 450 ft long, 75 ft wide, and 45 ft tall.  In metrics that is 137 meters x 22.9 meters x 13.7 meters.  There are some scientifically minded people who say it would not have been possible to fit all species of land animals into the above quoted size of an ark.   One explanation for this was that if the Great Flood of Noah’s time was a baptism by immersion of the Earth, maybe some animals that were not on the ark did not die…they just got very wet.  .   .  or maybe they were submerged for a short time but did not die. 

Let me explain.  Some religious people and religion scholars view the Great Flood as a type of baptism for the Earth.   Some religions believe in baptism by immersion in water.  So, if immersion needed to happen then there is the thought that even one millimeter of water all at the same time could still be complete immersion of the Earth.  So even if there was deep water at lower points on the planet, high mountains would not necessarily need to be covered in deep water.  Then, of course, some religions believe in baptism by sprinkling so that would not require the whole planet to flood.  Clearly, according to the Bible, the wicked people who rebelled against God were drown.   But to do this God would probably not have needed deep water everywhere.  IF some of the animals that were left out of the ark survived they just might have survived the rain storms. . . if the flood was not deep everywhere.  Some historians have wondered if the people were all killed where Noah lived, but not necessarily everyone on Earth was killed.  From Noah’s perspective he would still view the flood as being total destruction of all people except for his surviving family. 

Now, don’t get angry at my above explanations.  I believe that the Ark and Noah were real. . . I guess I just think we maybe can interpret some of the Bible stories a little differently that many traditional people interpret them.  Now, I do not necessarily accept all the explanations above, but they are some I have heard. . . and some of them I do accept as a definite possibility.  If one day I find out that the story should be interpreted absolutely literally then that will be fine with me.  But thinking as a scientist who is also a believer in the reality of a divine being who did have the Book of Genesis written… I think that we may want to keep an open mind.   Some science minded people use the story of Noah and the Great Flood to totally discredit the Bible.  They point at scientific evidence like from archaeology and zoology and even paleontology.  I am trying to show that perhaps traditional believers are interpreting the story too literally.  If it was not quite as literal as most believers interpret it, then the argument that it was all impossible falls apart.   Again, maybe it should be interpreted literally.   But, the possibility of looking at other views seems reasonable to me.

 

This drawing at the top of the page shows a small portion of the ark with Noah welcoming some of the first animals to arrive.  I imagined that there would have been small ramps for smaller animals and  there would be big ramps (not seen in drawing) for large animals.  

The following is from Mormon or Latter Day Saint scripture found in the Pearl of Great Price.  If you don’t agree with it then skip reading the rest of this post. 

The book called The Pearl of Great Price teaches that Noah had other children before Ham, Shem and Japheth.  Those earlier children rebelled against God and went for the ways of the World. It was Noah’s later sons and their wives that chose to follow God.  This sheds new light on the tragedy of the Great Flood when we see that Noah had children and grandchildren etc...who would have died in the flood. So it was another great trial for Noah.  Most of his decedents had rejected the teachings of God…that even way back then were the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Noah preaching to the People

(This is an older drawing.) 

The LDS scripture also says that Noah tried to teach repentance all to the wicked people but they refused to repent.  So the only people that were on the ark were Noah, his wife, his 3 later sons, and their wives.