Is the Biblical Account of the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark True and Accurate?

Part 1

Genesis Chapter 6 through 9 documents the great flood and Noah’s Ark..

This article continues the narrative from an earlier article published on Ghanaweb. In this article the account of Noah and the Flood will be reviewed in a line-by-line manner.

Christians generally hold the Flood story as one of the defining pillars of their belief due to the fact that the world was destroyed but restored, with a warning to mankind that a final judgment shall come to pass.

“001 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,002 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”

COMMENT: Whoever these “sons of God” are is unclear but they married human women and had children with them.

“003 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”

COMMENT: So here God says his “spirit” will not be with man for the long haul, therefore human life span will now be 120 years. The tone of the narrative however does not suggest this reduction in life span was in response to the fact that certain “sons of God” had come down and interbred with humans.

“004 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

COMMENT: So in those days there were giant humans, then in addition came along the half “sons of God” half human population. Ostensibly in addition to “regular” humans. So far no physical evidence has been found that supports this claim. There have been remains of several extinct hominids found but none of these descriptions. The closest match I can make from the confirmed and undeniable fossil evidence of the chain of human evolution would be Homo Erectus. But again from the biblical accounts no such creature is mentioned.

“005 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

COMMENT: So in spite of these mythical giant and mighty beings it was the actions of HUMANS that bothered God.

“006 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 007 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”

COMMENT: So God regretted creating humans. So his six day miraculous creation which he described as “good” was now considered a mistake and he decided to destroy it. So as a result of human bad behavior God will destroy humans but also all the beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the air. Note that animals living in water are not included, eg whales, fish, dolphins, manatees sharks and others. May I ask, what wrong did those creatures do to deserve to be obliterated because humans did something? If humans are guilty why not punish humans? The emotions being exhibited here – regret, anger, frustration, disruptive and destructive tendencies, ‘I will beat you up and teach you a lesson”, etc, all sound too human and not that of an all knowing omnipotent eternal creator being that is beyond space and time as Christians say, but that is my conjecture.

“008 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 009 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

COMMENT: “… perfect in his generations …” means what? And he walked with God, like physically took a walk in the park?

“010 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 011 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 012 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 013 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

COMMENT: The earth is now corrupted? In what sense? So ALL flesh shall be destroyed. Note that in verse seven specific types of flesh were mentioned for destruction, but now he changed his mind and said ALL flesh? I can see how humans may be culpable, but how and what kinds of corrupt practices can animals exhibit? As for the violence I can agree because in order animals to each they must kill other creatures, for example reptiles eat insects and fellow reptiles, carnivores such as lions attack deer, antelope zebra etc in order to eat. Even those that eat exclusively plants are damaging them in some way or the other. And as for viruses and bacteria, when they feed humans get sick and can die. But was this behavior and sources of nutrition not considered “good” under the divine perfect creation plan? So we may expect that after all flesh has been destroyed and new un-corrupted ones put in their pace such behaviors may go away. Let’s continue.

“ 014 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 015 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.”

COMMENT: To put this in perspective I used the Mesopotamian standard cubit and converted to feet and the calculated cubic feet. It turns out this ark can hold the load of 345 18-wheeler Mack trucks (with the 60 foot trailer. As to whether all species in the earth can fit inside I will defer to the biological scientists on this forum to provide insight. Note that some species will require special enclosures else they may attack and consume some of the others. We shall see the specific details of how this ark was organized.

“016 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.”

COMMENT: So there will be one window, and the ark will have three levels. The ark is 30 cubits high, this comes to about 50 feet, divided by 2 gives 25 feet from floor to floor assuming the 30 cubits includes the “roof” space. This is very reasonable. Only maybe giraffes and elephants may not be able to stand up inside but the rest should be OK.

“017 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.”

COMMENT: So now we have confirmation that the edict of killing specific animals has been changed to all, ALL animals, including those that live in water.

“018 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. 019 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. 020 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.”

COMMENT: Now we are apparently going back to the verse 7 regulation where marine creatures are not included for death as they are not mentioned to be saved. More back and forth. Which is exactly which?

“021 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. 022 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.”

COMMENT: So the problem is how were bacteria and viruses gathered. For example the HIV virus, the syphilis bacterium for example which cannot survive outside the human body. What about amoeba? So were Noah or some of his family members harboring some of these diseases on the ark?

This topic will be continued in another post.

kwaku ba © July 2010