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.
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