Noah's Ark
Q) What was the flood? How many people survived the Flood? And how did they survive this flood?
A) The news is filled with terrible disasters which kill hundreds or even thousands of people. But, can you imagine a disaster so terrible that only 8 people in the whole world survived. Its true, Noah and his wife, his three sons, and their wives were the only people saved from the largest flood of all time.
The Bible tells of a great flood that covered the entire earth - Noah's Flood. This was the greatest disaster in history. Nothing else has even come close. The Flood waters rose above all the world's mountains and killed most of the air-breathing, land animals. It destroyed the entire surface of the earth.
Great supplies of water stored underground came bursting out. The earth's crust heaved and buckled unleashing terrible volcanic eruptions and massive earthquakes like the world has never seen before or since.
Rain poured out from dark, thundering skies in unending torrents. Waves of loosened earth and trees slid down hillsides burying plants by the thousands. All of the cities were totally destroyed. And so was God's Garden in Eden. For forty days the rains continued. And the waves continued to rise, fed by vast amounts of underground water which used to feed the rivers and springs of the world, including the Garden in the land of Eden.
Under the pressure of this worldwide disaster, the earth shook again and again causing huge tidal waves to sweep across the sinking land. So great was the destruction that every human being died and with them, millions of animals and plants.
The only people spared were Noah's family. According to God's instructions, Noah built a great barge-shaped boat to save his family and thousands of animals to be used to refill the earth. God protected this precious ship and its passengers throughout the disaster which lasted over one year.
When the destruction was finished, peace slowly began to return to the earth. Eventually, the waters dropped to a level safe enough for Noah and his family to leave the Ark on dry ground.
How could the Ark hold all of those animals?
In the Babylonian myth of the great flood, the vessel was a perfect cube with nine decks extending 120 cubits on each side. Such a boat would be hopelessly top-heavy, causing it to spin, break down, and eventually sink.Scholars have tried to ascertain the feasibility of such a vessel in the light of our present day knowledge of both shipbuilding and zoology. The Hebrew cubit was about 18 inches long, which meant that the ark would have been 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The length to width ratio of 6 to one is considered ideal, and would have provided excellent stability for the ark in the open seas.
In Noah’s ark, the floor space would have been more than 100,00 square feet, or more than in 20 basketball courts. With a volume of 1,518,000 cubic feet, it would have the capacity equal to 569 modern railroad cars!
But the real question is, "Could all of those animals have actually fitted inside that ark?" Of the more than one million species of animals in the world, the vast majority could survive in water and would not have been brought aboard. These include 21,000 species of fish; 1,700 species of turnicates; 107,00 species of mollusks; 10,000 species of coelenterates; 5,00 species of sponges; and 30,000 single-celled protozoan.
Aquatic mammals—whales, seals, and porpoises—and reptiles such as sea turtles and alligators would have been excluded as well. The more than 838,000 arthropods would have survived outside the ark, as would many species of worms and insects.
What does this leave? Some scholars estimate 35,000 individual animals would have needed to go on the ark. Others, who say that the biblical term "created kinds" is much more general than the modern term "species" conclude that as little as 2,000 animals would have needed to go aboard the ark. Let’s give doubters a huge advantage and say, for arguments sake, that 50,000 animals went on the ark.Assuming that larger animals could have been represented by smaller ones of the same kind, it is reasonable to assume that the average animal size on board the ark was about that of a sheep. Returning to boxcar comparison, a typical double-deck car can accommodate 240 sheep. On that basis, three trains hauling 69 cars each would have sufficient space for 50,000 animals—and that would only take up about on third of the capacity of the ark.
Q) Do we have any evidence of the existence of the great ark?
A) The Bible says Noah's boat came to rest on "the mountains of Ararat" (Genesis 8:4). "Ararat" probably designated a region (the ancient kingdom of Urartu) and not a specific mountain peak. After Noah and his family left the Ark on the mountain, the boat virtually disappeared from the pages of the Bible. Later Biblical writers never suggested they knew it could still be seen.
The mountain called Ararat today is more like a mountain range with twin peaks. Interestingly, there have been numerous reports throughout history of a large boat on a mountain in this region. Earliest references (beginning in the 3rd century B.C.) suggested it was common knowledge that the Ark could still be viewed on Mount Ararat.
Reports over the past century range from visits to the vessel, to recovery of wooden timber, to aerial photographs. It is generally believed that at least large part of the Ark is intact, not on the highest peak, but somewhere above the 10,000 foot level. Apparently encased in snow and ice for most of the year, only during certain warm summers can the structure be witnessed or accessed. Some have spoken of climbing onto the roof, others say they have walked inside.
In the 1980s, "ark-eology" was given an air of respectability with the active participation of former NASA astronaut James Irwin in expeditions up the mountain. In addition, Ark investigation was also given a boost with the breakup of the former Soviet Union, because the mountain was right on the Turkey-Soviet border. Expeditions up the mountain had been considered a security threat by the Soviet government.Unfortunately, return visits to proposed sites have produced no further evidence, the whereabouts of all photographs are presently unknown, and different sightings do not suggest the same location on the mountain. Furthermore, Astronaut James Irwin has since died, a purported eyewitness has recently recanted publicly, and there have been few new expeditions up the mountain in the 1990s.
But efforts are still ongoing. While the Associates for Biblical Research is not engaged in any of these efforts, we are aware of continued research into ancient reports, further testimony from eyewitnesses and renewed efforts to pinpoint the Ark's resting place. More expeditions are pending. If it's up there, we will certainly hear about it.