Genesis, the first part of the Old Testament (Bible), talks about Noah and the ark; Noah’s ark is a giant wooden boat. Whose construction was ordered by God to Noah so that that man could survive the Flood with his family? Noah’s ark also houses a couple of animals of each species to repopulate the Earth.
According to Wikipedia, Noah’s Ark is a vessel in which Noah took refuge with his wife, sons, and several animals of each species during the Flood. The many expeditions to find Noah’s Ark make us wonder about the Flood myth. Is it a story invented by the Jews? Did they inherit an older tradition? Translations of tablets from Mesopotamia have revealed other versions of the same level.
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Was Noah’s ark real?
There is a mountain that has the privilege of being visited, climbed, studied, and publicized by the media. It is the famous Mount Ararat. All its fame comes from the fact that, according to the Bible, it was where the ark failed—equipped by Noah and his three sons after the famous universal Flood, which ended the lives of humans, animals, and plants on the planet. Ararat is a small mountain range, 13 kilometers long, located between the present-day countries of Turkey and Armenia. It has two prominent peaks: the Great Ararat in the north, 5,516 meters high and covered by eternal snow, and the Lesser Ararat in the south, 4,300 meters high.
According to tradition, Noah’s ark with its particular zoo would have existed and arrived on Mount Ararat, on the southwestern side, which belongs to Turkey, and would have run aground at 2,000 meters. The mountain was shrouded in fascination for a long time and enjoyed much veneration.
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Is the story of Noah a true story?
According to Bible, the Flood is not limited to only a biblical myth. And the much older Mesopotamian version influenced it. Indeed, the story of a man named Atrahasis who escaped a divine flood thanks to a boat dates back to around 2,700 BC.
Some say that Noah and the Flood story is faithful is a true story. But at the same time, a retelling of a natural disaster that happened and the Bosphorus breaking up due to the ice melt is commonly cited. The opening of the Black Sea would have driven away the indigenous peoples, who would have dispersed, taking with them the memory of this terrible catastrophe that struck them. Others evoke an extrapolation of the Mesopotamian floods.
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Origins of the Flood
The leading cause of the Flood turns out to be man’s wickedness. Indeed, God criticizes humans for their attraction to Evil. The author of the Bible uses several words such as “wickedness,” “evil,” qualifications on people, and other terms, which characterize God’s behavior, such as “repent” and “be angry,” which inform the reader about the prevailing atmosphere on Earth at that time.
From the beginning of the text, God appears all-powerful. He is, in fact, the only one who decides on the Flood. When he sees the contrast that has been established between pure man, as God created him in his image, and what he has become. God, by his power, is the King of creation and can destroy all living species on Earth. Thus animals, even the most harmless, are included in the punishment, while they are not responsible for the sin that God reproaches humans. God, in this text, is, therefore, a supreme being.
But before unleashing the Flood, God chooses a “righteous” among men. And this would be Noah. This man, indeed, was selected for his faith. The text praises this forgiven character: “Noah was a righteous man, perfect among his contemporaries” (Gen VI, 9). As this verse shows, we can estimate that this man attracted God’s attention because he is perhaps one of the least contaminated by wickedness. The “righteous one” represents the human race who will embark on Noah’s ark to be rescued from the waters. He is thus the only human who is a source of salvation for other humans.
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The Flood
According to the Bible, it rained without ceasing for 40 days and 40 nights (Genesis 7:17). However, we know that the hydrological cycle of evaporation that causes rainfall is incapable of generating that amount of water. Similarly, the mass of water is said to cover the entire world. It proved conceivable when the Earth was thought to be a flat, shallow disc and the vault surrounding it, the sky, allowed more water to accumulate quickly. But we can go on thinking that in 40 days of rain, it would cover the entire planet, knowing that it’s 509,880,000 square kilometers in area.
It is also stated that the waters rose 7 meters above the Earth’s highest mountains (Genesis 7:19-20). The tallest mountain on the planet is Mount Everest, at 8,846 meters. Thus, for the waters to reach this height of almost 9 kilometers. All the seas needed to rise by an average of 222 meters daily.
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Flood Course
The text from the Bible may be a description of reality. Indeed, it could be the explanation of an event that has taken place. Thus, to respect the realism of this cataclysm, the author shows great precision: the disaster is very precisely situated in “the six hundredth years of Noah’s life, the second month, the seventeenth day of the month.” The event is described with some attention to detail, especially regarding the loss’s extent. The priestly text teaches us that the waters even covered the mountains and had risen fifteen cubits.
Different numbers surround the course of the Flood, so inform the reader of the duration of the cataclysm. Again, we can see the presence of two sources: the first states thus: “there was rain on the earth forty days and forty nights,” or again: “the Flood lasted forty days. On the earth”; the second states: “and the waters rose above the earth a hundred and fifty days.” There are, therefore, two different views, depending on whether the author is from the Yahwist or the Priestly tradition. Indeed, the Yahwist story seems to follow a moon rhythm, while the priestly is inscribed in a solar rhythm.
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Why did God flood the world? 🌊
The story of the Flood is one of the great episodes of Genesis (VI, 5-IX, 17). It ‘follows’ the appearance of Evil because it is set after the myth of Cain and Abel and precedes another divine punishment: the multiplication of human tongues at the Tower of Babel. In this text, God wants to annihilate the human race because of its crimes. By pouring all the waters of heaven and the seas over it. Only Noah, the one he calls “the righteous,” will be warned and spared with his family.
According to the Bible, God would have triggered the Flood to cleanse the Earth of its corruption and asked Noah to build an ark. And after he makes it, to place a specimen of each living species there. Also, according to the Bible, when the flood waters caused the Flood to recede, the ark landed dry on one of the high places.
At God’s command, Noah built an ark that would house a pair of each species of animal. After the Flood, he releases a dove that tells him the Earth has become habitable again. Through him, God then makes his first covenant with humans. The text comes from two source documents, no doubt already compiled. It is a mixture of Yahwist and Priestly narrative: God is sometimes called “Yahweh,” sometimes “Elohim.” Moreover, according to the passages, the Flood does not last the same length of time, and Noah does not take on the same number of animals.
Who did God save in the Flood?
The Flood episode, as presented in the book of Genesis, bears several essential similarities to the Mesopotamian account. The biblical narrative tells how God, seeing people doing Evil around them, regrets having created them and decides to destroy them.
During the Flood, God only wants to spare Noah, who he asks to build an ark and gather his family (wife, sons, and wives), as well as a couple of each species of animal. God then unleashes the Flood, which continues for forty days and forty nights, and the waters occupy the earth for 150 days before receding. From Noah’s ark, he also decided to conduct more experiments to detect the presence of land. After the first failure (he releases a raven into the air that does not return). He casts a dove that brings him an olive branch, undeniable proof of the existence of land. And the survivors rescued by the rising waters leave the ark.
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What is the characteristic of Noah?
Finally, from another perspective, we can see that the ark is opposed to God: it represents the mother’s womb in which the child nestles to escape the father’s wrath. It is called the Noah complex. Thus, Noah’s ark that preserves life is a testimony to God’s goodness despite his wrath. God save Noah, the most beautiful of the wicked. Since then, the Flood has been unable to eradicate Evil because the ark saves man. But why did God choose Noah, and what is his main characteristic?
Noah stands out to God among the other men described as “flesh” while he is characterized as “the most righteous.” Yet all men are evil, even Noah, and God no longer recognizes his creation. Therefore, God will punish man’s violence with violence: the Flood. But we can see that the Flood results from reflection: ‘the end of all flesh came to my mind.’ God gives Noah this reflection: we can see from it that God trusts this man to understand the reasons for the Flood and obey it.
This absolute obedience testifies to Noah’s faith, which is why God chooses him. His faith will bring salvation: the salvation of the inhabitants of Noah’s ark. God, therefore, entrusts him with life. The Flood is a punishment for man because God saves Noah so that he can witness His power and also wrath. Thus, the text insists on unfolding the Flood to demonstrate God’s power.
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Was Noah’s Ark discovered in Turkey?
After the Flood, Noah’s Ark was found stranded on Mount Ararat (Turkey). At least so, claims a mission led by Chinese evangelists. Mount Ararat has already been the subject of several expeditions to find the boat that saved life on Earth. These expeditions, often funded by American evangelical structures and guided by sometimes controversial project leaders such as Ron Wiatt, aimed to prove that a hull-shaped geological formation was the fossilized footprint of the biblical ship.
The Chinese expedition differs from the others in that it does not focus on this geological formation. But on an excavation at the bottom of a wooden hull, remains were found. Anyway, this discovery proved the remains of Noah’s Ark are more than 4,800 years old.
Conclusion
Noah’s ark remained in history as an essential lifeline of the birth of a new humanity. The ark represents Noah because he is a savior, and man is the master of the ark. Moreover, for the Jews, Noah’s ark symbolizes the flame, the life, because it is built in a pyramid: “you shall make the ark a roof and finish it with an elbow on the top.” Note that the flame is the opposite of the water of the Flood. But the ark represents Noah because he is a savior.
