Noah and the Ark

[theophilus]

Originally Posted by Reverend Keith

For example, was Noah supposed to take seven of every bird (Gen 7:3) or two (Gen 6:19-20)?

And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive.
(Genesis 6:19-20 ESV)

There were the instructions God gave to Noah before he began to build the ark. He was to take two of each kind of animal to save it from extinction. But when he was ready to enter the ark God added something to this command.

Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
(Genesis 7:2-3 ESV)

He was to take extra clean animals and birds. The reason for this is found in Genesis 8:20.

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

The first command was to take animals to keep their kinds alive. The second command added that he was to take some extra animals to serve as sacrifices.

Did the flood only reach 15 cubits (which would have covered only the hills (Gen 7:20) or did it cover the high mountains (Gen 7:19)?

And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.
(Genesis 7:19-20 ESV)

There is no contradiction. The water was fifteen cubits above the mountains. Of course the topography of the earth was very different then and it is possible that these high mountains would be considered hills today.

http://clydeherrin.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/where-did-the-water-go/

Did Noah stay in the ark for 52 days? (40+7+7 Gen 8:6,10,12) or more than a year (Gen 7:11 and Gen 8:13-14)?

If you read the context you will find that the 54 days is how long Noah was in the ark after it had come to rest on Ararat. (40 + 7 + 7 =54.) The total time he spent in the ark was over a year.

If you read the story carefully you will find that it is all a single account.

[theophilus]

Originally Posted by Reverend Keith

If there had been a world-wide flood with only a few human survivors, we would have expected the flood story to be universal and nearly identical.

The stories wouldn't have been identical because they would have been passed on by word of mouth and changes in the details would inevitably have occurred. But all of the flood stories do agree on the main point, that only a few people survived to carry on the human race.

[Arcturus]

it's allegorical, there were many noah's

Well said!! Also, a point that I'd like to make.. they also had no knowledge of the world outside their travels or outsider's views. No knowledge of other continents ie.. North and South America. The flood depicted was not Water World, just a local flood.

Originally Posted by Reverend Keith

And yet we shouldn't overplay the universality of the flood story. Many cultures don't have a flood myth. Most of Europe, Africa, Central and Northern Asia, Japan, etc. In some cases, the flood myths of other cultures are quite unrelated in details to the story in the Bible and Mesopotamia. After all, bad floods happen in many places in the world. In other cases, there is a clear derivation.

If there had been a world-wide flood with only a few human survivors, we would have expected the flood story to be universal and nearly identical. But we don't find that. The flood of Bible was probably catastrophic to the local cultures. But it was local.

Originally Posted by necta3

it's allegorical, there were many noah's

Of course there are many flood stories from different nations who have a man named Noah, noa, nuu, etc, who was the father of the sole family that survived the flood, that was handed down to them.

Noah, who died 58 years after his Chaldean descendant "Abraham," from the Sumerian city of Ur was born, would have recounted the flood story to "Abraham," in which he had taken his wife, his three sons, and their wives into the ark.

The Miao flood account from China, which has 8 survivors, with Noa as their head, gives the wickedness of man as the reason for the flood,

An Australian aboriginal account has Ngadgja, the Supreme One, who is the great Father, telling Gajara to take his wife, his sons, and his sons' wives.

The Masai account from East Africa has Tumbainot taking his two wives, his six sons, and their wives. The Masai like to double up.

A Hawaiian story has Nuu (Noah, Noa, Nuu.) taking his wife and three sons.

The Chaldean month of “Daesius,” is the second month, which corresponds with the biblical account that it was in the second month that the flood came. But there is a two day discrepancy. The biblical account is the 17th day of the second month, whereas the beginning of the Chaldean flood is the 15th day.

The greater majority of the flood accounts of the different nations of the world, all have the head of the family, sending out a bird, to see if the flood was receding, which would appear to suggest that it is the one story that was recorded by the sole survivors, and has been orally handed down through the generations to their descendants, who have migrated to all the different nations of the world, and even the Australian aborigines would have heard it from one of the distant descendants of Noah..

[Lightspirit]

It probably was true but what was Noah thinking rescuing the mosquitoes?

[Arcturus]

i'll add a few finds and thoughts if i may which i offer purely for circumspection with no real concrete view, as of yet, what they actually mean, if anything.

i once read of steiners view on the flood...in it he cites the name manu as the noah and prtoclaims him to be an inititiate...which i take to mean as an awakened or enlightened being. the reason given for the flood is that during the time of atlantis the air was filled with mist and one could barely see the sun. when the earth changed and the mist condensed we had the flood..it was then he states that the first rainbow was seen because of the change in atmosphere. much of this is from memory so bits maybe different. they eventually landed in india where they started a new agricultural based society.

Steiner points out that the ratio of the dimensions of Noah's Ark as given by God in the Bible, exactly corresponds to the ratio of dimensions of the human physical form: 30:5:3 in length, width and depth. this from here http://www.doyletics.com/_arj1/occsigns.htm

i thought it interesting to read the aboriginal story of the the rainbow snake and see simlarities::

Then one day after a huge rainstorm his huge coloured body was arched up from the waterhole, over the tree-tops, up through the clouds and across the plain to another waterhole.

To this day, aboriginals are careful not to disturb the Rainbow Snake as they see him going across the sky from one waterhole to another. from here : http://www.dreamtime.auz.net/default.asp?PageID=71

and this:

Thus the divine leader who lead the migrations eastward from Atlantis was the Manu of our Fifth Great Epoch, working with the below-embodied Noah or Mani. During this time, in addition to a select group of human beings, animals representing the seven principal animal group souls were likewise saved, for there was to be continued work within the animal kingdom. It goes without saying that in various other areas of the world, isolated groups of human beings, plants and animals, would have survived the final cataclysms, but Manu's work was directed toward the appropriate forms for the future, toward the new epoch and the true evolution of earth and humanity.
from here : http://tcpubs.com/brunnen/articles/

which seems to state that manu was more a spiritual being and noah the physical part--two beings in one.

i do disagree with some of steiners hypothesis in general but i have not researched this deep enough to knowe my mind on it...i shall do though at some point.

[Adrienne]

Originally Posted by lightworkerAu

It probably was true but what was Noah thinking rescuing the mosquitoes?

I often ask myself the same question !

[Morpheus]

I've pondered two things regarding all of this.

Given what we are being told in Physics, regarding Time and Space, and considering the nature of the world, pre"fall", and lifespans of people after the fall, you get the idea that the Archeologists and Geologists don't have the whole picture.

Lately, we are being informed that the solar system is entering in to a new situationin in space, regarding a charged energy field, and, also we are told in scripture that things will return to how they originally were, with respect to life span, as to immediately after the Fall.
That people will be living hundreds of years.

Regarding also, S-Word, about the continents being divided, there is the verse in Genesis, about how "in the days of Peleg, the, Earth was divided."

There is something amiss regarding time and space that is not being recognized, regarding the early Earth, and the early nature, and siituation of life, and mankind.

Quantum Physics is not getting much attention, if any, by either the Evolutionists, and the Creationists, both.

[Adrienne]

Has anyone considered.... perhaps we are not meant to know the answers to everything ? I know, difficult to believe