Noah
By Genelle Austin-Lett
Categories: Men in the Old Testament, Noah
- Noah preached righteousness to the people,
while he built the ark.
- Noah and family and animals sat in the ark
seven days before the first drop of rain. Even
more time for people to rethink their life styles.
- God sealed the ark. He didn't let human will
or human timetables affect the departure.
- God gave directions for a floating ship,
not a sailing ship. Noah received no instructions
for a rudder.
- The ark was one and a half football fields
long.
- It was three stories tall within the hull.
- They were on the ark one year, and ten days. 1
- There are two accounts of the number of animals. Gen. 6:19 tells Noah to take male and
female of every kind of animal. Gen. 7:2-3 tells him to take seven pairs (male and female)
of clean animals and only one pair of unclean
animals.
- The clean animals were presumably for food
and sacrifice.
- There are many flood stories, all have a
boat, animals, and a hero. The Gilgamesh Epic
is the Babylonian version of a flood story that
mostly resembles Noah's excursion. The gods
were annoyed by the noises of man so they decided
to destroy the earth. Atrakhasis was warned
in a dream to build a boat, take his family,
and animals. He was to announce to the rest
of the world that he was being punished, but
they would benefit from this action. The gods
caused it to rain and flooded the earth. Atrakhasis
sent out birds to determine whether or not to
get off the boat. He offered a sacrifice to
the gods and they promised never to destroy
earth with a flood again. The Genesis flood
story is so similar that many suggest they are
one and the same.2
- Noah's ark was 450 feet long; the Mayflower
was 90 feet long; the Cutty Sark is 212 feet
long; and an aircraft carrier that can carry
5000 people and hold 90 planes is 1000 ft. long.3
- One account said the ark was large enough
to hold 330 railroad cars. 4 Another
source says 520 railroad box cars.5
- "Only 150 box cars would be needed to
comfortably carry two of each air-breathing
creature in the world today!" That's just
one floor of the ark. 6
- Noah was 480 years old when he began building
the ark.
- Noah didn't have any children during the first
twenty years of building the ark.
- According to the Hebrew calendar the ark
voyage started about the middle to the end of
our November. 7
- Noah didn't race off the boat. He waited
for God's signal. Not like passengers on the
plane when you get to the gate.
Bibliography
1 Sandy Silverthorne. The Awesome Book of Bible Facts. Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 1994.
2 Eerdmans' Handbook of the Bible. England: Lion Printing, 1973.
3 _________.
4 Sandy Silverstone
5Ian Brown. Along the Puzzle Trail. Ambassador Publication. p. 28.
6 Ian Brown
7 Alfred Edersheim |
