Chuck Larsen

The task that God gave to Noah seemed like an impossible one. In Genesis 6:19 God tells Noah, “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.” There are a lot of problems related to this command. First, how did he get the animals to come? Second, how did he identify males and females? Thirdly, did this include the smallest of insects? Most conservative commentators agree that Noah did not have to go out and collect them. The Handbook for Translators seems to suggest that the command was to “catch” the animals. It says, “In some languages the two actions that are involved in bringing must be expressed separately: ‘Get [Catch] two of every kind … and take them inside.…’”^[1] That would indeed be an impossible feat. As Butler says, “The amazing thing is that they came to the ark on their own. God of course put it in the animals to come just as He puts instinct in birds to fly south or north at given times.”^[2] Thus as Leupold observes, “Consequently, all thoughts about elaborate trapping expeditions may readily be dismissed.”^[3] Now, can’t you imagine Noah’s relief when he found out that God would do the collecting?

In the same vein, we’d understand that Noah didn’t have to make the distinction between “male and female” of all kinds of animals. I often get the image of Noah turning the rabbits upside down to determine their gender. How about the turtles? Or, as Bill Cosby joked back in the ’60s: “Mosquitos, male and female.” It would have been impossible without divine intervention. Augustine dealt with this issue by suggesting that there was no need to gather those insects because they just spawn out of rotting material. Noah didn’t have to collect them. “Augustine follows the Aristotelian theory according to which insects generate spontaneously from putrid matter. This theory, technically defined as abiogenesis, was confuted in the seventeenth century by the Italian scientist and poet Francesco Redi.”^[4] No, they didn’t automatically spawn themselves, but neither did Noah collect them. God brought them!

J. Vernon McGhee adds a little story to his commentary on this issue. He writes, “Animals in danger will do that. I remember the first time that we went into Yosemite Valley when our daughter was just a little thing. She had never seen snow before, and when we put her down in the snow, she began to whimper. But she quit when she looked over and saw a little deer. I believe we could have gone over and petted that little deer, but realizing the possible danger, of course, we did not approach him any closer. When I mentioned the deer to the ranger, he laughed and said, ‘Yes, there’s snow up in the High Sierra right now, and when there is snow up there and there’s danger, they come down here and are as tame as any animal could possibly be. But the minute the snows melt in spring, they leave this area, and you couldn’t get within a country mile of any of them.’ Why? Because when an animal is in danger, he will come to man. At the time of the Flood, I do not think Noah had any problem at all, for the animals all came to him.”^[5]

^[1] Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. 1998. A Handbook on Genesis. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

^[2] Butler, John G. 2008. Analytical Bible Expositor: Genesis. Clinton, IA: LBC Publications.

^[3] Leupold, H. C. 1942. Exposition of Genesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

^[4] Louth, Andrew, and Marco Conti, eds. 2001. Genesis 1–11. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

^[5] McGee, J. Vernon. 1991. Thru the Bible Commentary: The Law (Genesis 1-15). Electronic ed. Vol. 1. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Genesis 6:16 continues God’s instructions to Noah regarding the building of the ark. In the previous verse, he laid out the size of the ark. In this verse, he lays out three unique details. He talks about the roof, the door, and the three decks. The verse says, “Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.” This ship is to have a roof! It was a big box in a way. The people and animals within were protected from the torrential rains that would fall for a long time! Many think that the phrase “a cubit above” in this verse means a gap between the main body of the boat and the roof enabling fresh air and ventilation. Kidner says regarding the cubit phrase, “…an opening of this depth was to be left near the roof, as in some buildings of the Ancient Near East, perhaps running right around the vessel.”^[1] It would also allow for light to come into the Ark.

The door is an integral part of this construction. It could only be opened from the outside, according to most commentators, and that’s why we see that the text says God is the one that closed them in and let them out. When Jesus talked about the sheepfold, he referred to himself as the “door” for the sheep. The only way to get into the fold is through the door, and it looks as Jesus claims, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the father but through me.” It also brings to my mind the vision Jacob had in Genesis about a ladder reaching into heaven. Depending on the translation, it refers to something like a door from this realm to the spiritual realm where God dwells and sits enthroned. Jesus could tell Nathaniel that the angels ascend and descend from and to heaven on himself. Again, he was referring to the only way in and out is through faith in himself. The religious leaders killed him for this blasphemy.

The ark would have three decks. One ancient Jewish commentator says, “Make it with bottom, second, and third decks. The top deck for the people, the middle deck for the animals to live, and the bottom deck for the dung.”^[2] Regardless of what was on the three decks, we can see that the ark’s capacity would be enormous. It was no mindless project built by a caveman. Leupold says, “A Dutchman, Peter Janson, in 1609–21 made a novel experiment in building a vessel thus proportioned and thus satisfying himself both of its seaworthiness as well of its relatively high storage capacity. But a bit of reflection might have satisfied almost any man of the seaworthiness of such a box. Furthermore, the enormity of the project harmonizes well with other huge enterprises carried through by men of antiquity and argues well for the high intelligence and the wonderful capabilities of antediluvian man—a fact, which clashes rather roughly with the conceptions of evolution.”^[3]

^[1] Kidner, Derek. 1967. Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 1. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

^[2] Carasik, Michael, ed. 2018. Genesis: Introduction and Commentary. Translated by Michael Carasik. The Commentators’ Bible. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.

^[3] Leupold, H. C. 1942. Exposition of Genesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

People argue that Noah’s Ark, described in the Book of Genesis, is one big fairy tale.  The Wikipedia article says, “No scientific evidence has been found that Noah’s Ark existed as described in the Bible. More significantly, there is also no evidence of a global flood, and most scientists agree that such a ship and natural disaster would be impossible.” Well, many scientists “Don’t Agree!” I invite you to visit https://arkencounter.com/noahs-ark/ to see a scientific presentation of the reliability of the data recorded in Genesis 6:15. God’s blueprint for the ark described a vessel ideally suited for the task God had set for it. It was the instrument God designed for man’s salvation from the flood.  God instructed Noah, “This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.”

It was long enough. At approximately 510 feet long, it would take nearly one and a half football fields to equal the Ark’s length. That’s big enough that NASA could lay three space shuttles—nose to tail—on the Ark’s roof![1] The roof of Noah’s Ark was more than 50 feet from the ground—higher than a modern four-story house. As the Bible describes, that’s plenty of space for three extra-tall inner decks. The Ark had the same storage capacity as about 450 standard semi-trailers. A standard livestock trailer holds about 250 sheep, so the Ark could save at least 120,000 sheep.  Few wooden ships have ever come close to the size of Noah’s Ark. One possible challenger is the Chinese treasure ships of Zheng He in the 1400s. An older contender is the ancient Greek trireme Tessaronteres. The Ark is near the maximum size known to be possible for a wooden vessel.

Just as God designed the ark to be entirely sufficient for the salvation of Noah and his family, so too is Jesus, our means of salvation from the coming judgment of God upon the world, sufficient to save all who come to Him in faith. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 30, the apostle Paul wrote, “In Christ, we have all wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” 2 Corinthians 12:9  says, “My grace” – that is the grace of God in Christ – “is sufficient for you.”  Ephesians 1:3 says, “We have in Christ been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” And Hebrews 10:14 says, “By one offering He has perfected forever them that are His, or sanctified for ever them that are His.”

[1] https://arkencounter.com/noahs-ark/size/

Beginning in verse 14 of Genesis chapter six, we begin to read God’s instructions to Noah regarding the building of the ark. It says, “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch.” Four things are most frequently commented on: 1) What’s an Ark? 2) Gopher wood, 3) Make rooms, and 4) cover inside and out with pitch. Regarding God’s instructions to Noah to make an “Ark,” the only other time in the Bible that this word is used refers to Moses’s basket when set adrift in the Nile River to be found by Pharaoh’s daughter. “Just as Moses was preserved in dangerous circumstances and was saved out of the Nile, Noah was preserved from a larger body of water and brought safely out by God. The original readers, Israel on the edge of entering the promised land, would undoubtedly make this connection.”^[1] Commentators will also attempt to align the construction of the Ark by Noah with God’s instructions to build the tabernacle. But the two words are different.

Gopher wood was used to make coffins in Old Testament times because of its density and strength. The commentators will argue about what kind of wood this was, and many think it was cedar. We do not know what wood is referred to in this passage. The New International Version calls it “cypress” because of its strength and durability. But cedar is also a possibility. Cedar is mentioned as precious wood of Lebanon several times in the Bible, and it is of similar quality. Driver suggests that it was “Probably some kind of resinous tree, either pine or cypress”^[2] As a type of Jesus, the one thing we can be sure of is that it was of a material sufficient for the salvation of Noah and his family.

 The word for “rooms” is literally “nests.” We can’t be sure whether there were three or four or five decks. The commentators can argue this forever. But the point is that God ensured that there would be room enough for all. Unlike the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who will say that only 144 thousand will be in heaven, I’d say that there is room for all. Anyone who believes in Jesus will never perish but have everlasting life (See John 3:16). The pitch, or caulk, was used inside and out to guarantee water could not get in and sink the means of salvation for Noah and the crew. Courson connects this with Christ well, “This is the only time in the Old Testament where the Hebrew word kapher is translated ‘pitch.’ In the seventy other passages this word is used, it is translated ‘atonement’—a wonderful word that essentially means ‘at-one-ment.’ Just as the salvation God provided Noah was surrounded by the pitch of atonement, so God provided us ‘at-one-ment’ with Him by sending His Son to die for our sin.”^[3]

^[1] Kissling, Paul J. 2004–. Genesis. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

^[2] Driver, S. R. 1904. The Book of Genesis, with Introduction and Notes. Westminster Commentaries. New York; London: Edwin S. Gorham; Methuen & Co.

^[3] Courson, Jon. 2005. Jon Courson’s Application Commentary: Volume One: Genesis–Job. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.