Total Genesis

[Olde Tymer]

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● Gen 6:4 . .There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward,
when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to
them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

One of the Bible's Hebrew words for "giant" is rapha' which appears in numerous
places throughout the Old Testament and typically always indicates brutish people
of large physical stature. But that's not the word for giants here. Instead it's ha
nepihilym which appears in only two verses in the entire Old Testament; one here
and the other in Numbers 13:33.

The word is somewhat ambiguous, but in this context it pertains to bullies:
especially to men famous for tyranny; e.g. Genghis Khan of Mongolia, and
Alexander the Great of Greece; Napoleon of France, Peter Alekseyevich Romanov of
Russia, Chandragupta Maurya of India, shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo of Japan,
conquistador Hernando Cortes of Spain, Timur: founder of the Timurid dynasty, and
Zahir-ud din Muhammad Babur: founder of the Mughal dynasty that ruled the
Indian subcontinent for over three centuries; and of course guys like Adolf Hitler,
Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Mao Tse-tung, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin,
Robert Mugabe, Muammar Gaddafi, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un.

In other words: ha-nepihilyhm doesn't necessarily indicate a unique race of people;
but mostly strong personalities, i.e. especially bullies whose ambition is to quite
dominate others, i.e. despots, dictators, and tyrants, etc. Those kinds of people
don't just want power: they want to own your soul, censor your information, control
the content of your thoughts, and regulate the quality and quantity of the food on
your table.

Men (and women) who seek to dominate others are often the least suitable to do
so; and back there in Noah's day that was certainly true. The moral quality of the
world built by the governance of the ha-nepihilym was so poor that the situation
required God to step in and do something about it.

● Gen 6:5 . . And The Lord saw that the evil of man was great in the earth, and
every imagination of his heart was only evil all the time.

Thus far it appears that the wide-spread proliferation of evil among men was due,
at least in part, to the mixed marriages.

* Man's descent into depravity didn't catch his creator by surprise. After all; not only
can God see the future but He can also manipulate it; so He was well aware even
before beginning that many of the people He was about to create would become
degenerate.
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[Olde Tymer]

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● Gen 6:6 . . And The Lord regretted that He had made man upon the earth, and
He became grieved in His heart.

If it can be safely assumed that God saw man's depravity coming well in advance--
prior to creating even one of the many forces, energies, and particles that would go
into the construction of the cosmos --then we have to wonder why it is that He felt
remorse for going ahead as planned. Surely it wasn't because He made a terrible
mistake. I seriously doubt that a master architect with the creator's intelligence
would fail to foresee every possible ramification of His actions.

Well; it's at least comforting to know the destruction of life is not something God
enjoys as if He were an outdoor guy who kills fish and wildlife for sport with no
more sensitivity than a kid blasting aliens in a video game. Man's creator knew the
day was coming when He would have to do what He was about to do next, and
clearly wasn't looking forward to it, but nevertheless; leaves us with unavoidable
questions about His sanity because from a rational perspective, God's procedures
make no sense at all.

Anyway, aside from all that; it appears to me that God had high expectations for
the people of man, and was very disappointed that numbers of them went bad; sort
of like how parents feel when a kid, whom they've given every privilege, every
opportunity, and every advantage imaginable, lets it all go overboard and somehow
ends up incorrigible and a total failure instead.

NOTE: The Hebrew word translated "regret" is somewhat ambiguous. Though it
includes feeling rue for making a mistake, it also implies taking an unpleasant
course of action that you know will cause people harm and/or inconvenience though
for sure the course is the wise thing to do.

For example: God was poised to destroy the city of Nineveh lest they changed their
ways. Within that city were 120,000 underage children, and numbers of beasts,
that would've been collateral damage had not the adults heeded Jonah's preaching.

God impressed upon Jonah that He would not take pleasure in destroying those
children, nor those beasts. However, God would have done so because it was the
wise thing to do.

I cannot even begin to imagine how it was wise (or right) for God to go ahead and
create mankind while knowing well in advance that they would go bad and He
would have to kill off just about everything-- birds, beasts, men, women, and
underage children too.

From a purely rational perspective, the Judeo/Christian God is fiendish. I mean
think about it: why would a sensible designer proceed to bring into existence,
without their consent, human lives whom he knew in advance that some day He
would have to destroy most of them like when destroying a dog infected with
rabies.

For example: the creator knew in advance that if He went ahead as planned, the
end result would be the termination of untold numbers of terrified people not only
in a Flood, but also in the brimstone depicted by Rev 20:10-15.

It's a mystery, and people brighter and better educated than I have thus far been
unable to figure it out. Some make excuses for God (a.k.a. apologetics) instead of
coming to grips with the reality that we're all little more than an insect zoo: just
bugs imprisoned in a terrarium constructed for the supreme being's amusement.

"O Lord our God . . you created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they
exist and were created." (Rev 4:11)
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[Olde Tymer]

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● Gen 6:7 . . And The Lord said: I will blot out man, whom I created, from upon the
face of the earth, from man to cattle to creeping thing, to the fowl of the heavens,
for I regret that I made them.

The destruction of earth's birds and beasts was unavoidable; they became collateral
damage in God's contention with the evil antediluvians.

Apparently God intended to not only remove the antediluvians from the face of the
earth, but also to scrub off all of their works too-- i.e. their entire cultural footprint
--so that when He was done, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to even be
able to tell the antediluvians were ever here at all.

It's always been a mystery to me why paleo-anthropologists have managed to find
so few fossilized remains of pre-historic human beings.

In 1992, Tim White of the University of California at Berkeley, discovered the
fossilized skeletons of human-like creatures in Ethiopia's Afar Rift who lived 4.4
million years ago but those are not the remains of h.sapiens; but rather, of beasts
that resemble h.sapiens. To my knowledge; no truly human remains have been
found from that era.

While mysterious; that lack of remains isn't exclusive. Take for instance the
Passenger Pigeon; a bird that at one time numbered an estimated four to five
billion individuals; which is a number equal in quantity to the current year-round
population of all North American birds combined. Yet an archeological search for the
pigeon's bones left behind by people who ate the bird for food, through all pre
Columbian times, has thus far yielded very few remains; at only two sites.

But my point is: where are the remains of the antediluvians? They're gone; lock,
stock, and barrel-- no metal implements from Tubal-Cain's blacksmith shop, no
musical instruments from Jubal's work shop, no dwellings, no footprints, no bones,
no pottery, no pictographs, no petro glyphs, not even any geological evidence of a
world-wide deluge: nothing. It's like they were never here.

God moved against the antediluvians like a relentless newspaper editor deleting
superfluous words and sentences so skillfully that the reader cannot even tell those
superfluous words and sentences ever existed in the original copy.

Why would God do that? I would hazard to guess that His purpose in doing so was
to prevent people from believing too easily that the Flood actually happened.

A curious thing about the Bible is that portions of it are just as effective at driving
people away from God as they are at attracting them. No doubt it is God's wishes
that everybody believe the Bible; but at the same time it seems He's thwarted His
own longings by taking steps to ensure that a substantial number of people don't.
For example:

"Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: You have seen all that The Lord did
before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his
land; the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders.
Yet to this day The Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor
ears to hear." (Deut 29:2-4)

● Gen 6:8 . . But Noah found favor with The Lord.

The Hebrew word translated favor is chen (khane) and means graciousness;
defined by Webster's as kind, courteous, inclined to good will, generous, charitable,
merciful, altruistic, compassionate, thoughtful, cordial, affable, genial, sociable,
cheerful, warm, sensitive, considerate, and tactful.

The New Testament's Greek word for grace means pretty much the same.

In a nutshell; grace is what you'd expect from someone who wants the best for you
which, when in someone's eyes, is quite a bit nicer than the eyes of someone who
looks at you with knives.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

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● Gen 6:9a . .This is the line of Noah. --Noah was a righteous man;

The Hebrew word translated "righteous" means: just.

Webster's provides several definitions of "just", but perhaps the ones best suited
for our purpose are: conscientious, honest, honorable, right, scrupulous, true,
dependable, reliable, tried, trustworthy, dispassionate, equal, equitable, impartial,
nondiscriminatory, objective, unbiased, uncolored, and unprejudiced. So then, Noah
was not only religious to his fingertips; but he was a pretty decent guy to boot.

● Gen 6:9b . . he was blameless in his era; Noah walked with God.

Blameless in the Bible means something altogether different than what you'd
expect. In this case, "blameless" means that God had nothing negative to say about
Noah; i.e. on the books, Noah's performance was satisfactory, i.e. he measured up
to God's expectations. How is that possible? Well; if God chooses not to record your
badness, then the only thing remaining to record is your goodness.

This is a very important aspect of not just Old Testament piety, but New Testament
too.

"God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses
against them" (2Cor 5:19)

The Greek word translated "counting" basically means to take an inventory; i.e. an
indictment. 2Cor 5:19 is quite an advantage because when there is nothing bad on
the books, then there is nothing that can in any way be used to prove that
somebody has ever been anything less than 100% innocent; i.e. blameless. This
may seem like cooking the books, but God has a way to do it on the up and up.

NOTE: Too often Supreme Court judges-- the State level and the US level --are
unjust; viz: they're biased, partial, partisan, and prejudiced; and that's because
seldom, if ever, are they nominated on the basis of their objectivity; rather, they're
typically nominated primarily on the basis of their politics.

God highly recommended Noah, but it's doubtful Noah would ever be considered for
a federal judgeship let alone America's supreme.

The most incredible thing about Noah was his degree of piety in a world gone mad
with evil. He was actually a nobody in his day; eclipsed by the nephiyl types. They
got all the press, the publicity, and the notoriety while God's man went
marginalized and largely ignored. Yet he persisted; and continued pounding a pulpit
right up to the end.

● Gen 6:10 . . Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Were those the only kids Noah had? And no daughters? I seriously doubt it. Noah
was six hundred when the flood began. It is unlikely that a healthy, hard working,
robust man would live that long without engendering a much larger family than
three; especially in those days without birth control. But these three boys are the
only ones that count now because they're going on the ark with their dad.

● Gen 6:11a . .The earth became corrupt before God;

Technically, this particular verse isn't saying the world became corrupt, rather, it's
speaking of the planet whereupon the people lived.

The Hebrew word translated "corrupt" speaks of ruin, decay, pollution, waste, and
destruction. In other words; the planet's human inhabitants were rapidly making
the Earth uninhabitable, just like they're doing even now. Were the people of that
day not stopped, they would've made the Earth unfit not just for human life, but for
all life.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

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● Gen 6:11b . . the earth was filled with lawlessness.

At this particular point in time, Earth's occupants were on a sort of honor system.
As yet there were no God-given controls in place to regulate people's use of the
Earth's resources; nor anything God-given in place to regulate the people
themselves.

● Gen 6:12-13a . . God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people
on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah: I am going to put an end
to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.

That was indeed tragic. Things finally became so bad that the only way to save the
planet was to exterminate the people. Quite a few environmentalists are saying the
very same thing in our day.

The Hebrew word for "violence" covers a lot of ground-- cruelty, injustice, abuse,
dishonesty, fraud, injury, brutality, discord, etc. in other words: mistreatment.

* If there is anything Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl, and Fukushima have taught
us it's that we today have the capability to do the very thing that caused God
concern back in Noah's day; and we can do it quicker, and far more efficiently.

● Gen 6:13b . . I am about to destroy them with the earth.

Here is set a precedent of God forewarning His own when He is about to execute a
calamitous event. The Passover was another such example. God forewarned Moses'
people of the imminent annihilation of all the firstborn of Man and Beast in Egypt;
which would also impact Moses and his people if they didn't take precautions
exactly as God instructed. (Ex 11:1-13) Much of the book of Revelation is dedicated
to informing Christ's followers about some pretty serious future events. (Rev 1:1)

And our man Noah, super-duper righteous man that he was, would have drowned
right along with the rest of the antediluvians had he neglected to construct an ark.
When God gives a warning, it is best to respond accordingly.

"A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer
for it." (Prov 22:3)

● Gen 6:14a . . Make yourself an ark

The Hebrew word translated "ark" indicates, not a ship, but a nondescript box. The
only other object in the Old Testament identified by that word is the little watertight
container Moses' mom constructed to hide her little boy from Pharaoh's assassins.
(Ex 2:1-10)

● Gen 6:14b . . of gopher wood;

Nobody really knows for sure exactly what kind of tree Noah used to make the ark.
The word for "gopher" has nothing to do with little subterranean rodents. It's a
transliteration of the Hebrew word gopher (go'-fer) which only suggests a kind of
tree suitable for building structures out of wood. Some think it was cypress because
the wood of those trees is so resinous that it resists rotting even after prolonged
submersion in water. Others think it may have been cedar or spruce; which are
good too.

Noah would've needed some massive structural members so in my estimation;
Redwood-- a.k.a. Sequoia --would've been an excellent choice seeing as how the
wood is not only resistant to rot, but the trees themselves are typically very large
and yield huge quantities of lumber.

Unfortunately, this is the one and only occurrence of gopher in the entire Old
Testament so there's no other passages that might help identify a specific kind of
tree.

● Gen 6:14c . . make it an ark with compartments,

The word for "compartments" basically means: a nest (as fixed), sometimes
including the nestlings; figuratively, a chamber or dwelling. The construction of
nests (and stalls) indicates the animals weren't just herded or jammed together like
the crowds attending an outdoor rock concert. They were neatly stowed aboard in
their own areas and apparently made to feel quite comfortable.
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[Olde Tymer]

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● Gen 6:14d . . and cover it inside and out with pitch.

The Hebrew word translated "pitch" in his case basically pertains to bitumen; a
naturally-occurring kind of asphalt formed from the remains of ancient, microscopic
algae (diatoms) and other once-living things.

In order for bitumen to be available in Noah's day, the organisms from whence it
was formed had to have existed on the earth several thousands of years before
him. In point of fact, I read somewhere that the biomass that gave us fossil fuels
existed even before the dinosaurs. That's really going back a ways.

Coating the ark with bitumen not only served to waterproof it; but also preserved
the wood for future uses after the Flood subsided and Noah no longer had need of a
titanic water craft.

● Gen 6:15a . .This is how you shall make it:

What if Noah had some ideas of his own? Would that have been alright? No; when
God says "you shall" and/or "you shall not" then that's the law.

Some object that since paper and writing were not yet invented in Noah's day, then
God couldn't possible have provided him with plans for the ark. But even a
pictograph, or a petro glyph, would've sufficed.

Other skeptics object that a wooden vessel the size of Noah's ark couldn't be built
because the timbers required for its structural strength would have been so
massive that Noah would never have managed to assemble its pieces and parts.

But ancient craftsmen were far more ingenious than most people living today
realize. For example, nobody yet has really figured out how the Egyptians built the
pyramids nor how the people of Easter Island cut, carved, and moved all those big
stone heads around. And those aren't the only projects to mystify us. There are
ancient stone structures around the world-- e.g. Stonehenge --that seem
impossible to be erected by human hands prior to the age of heavy industrial
machinery; but nevertheless, there they are.

And not to forget that Noah's God was in the project. Since that's the case, it's not
unreasonable to assume God also provided Noah the tools necessary to complete
the task He assigned; and very, very possibly chipped in to help out with the
construction too. When people fail to factor in God, they invariably end up
mystified. To this day scientists are baffled about the origin of the cosmos, with all
of its life, matter, and energy, because they refuse to factor intelligent design into
their thinking.

How did Noah cut the logs that went into constructing the ark? Well; according to
the Bible, Cain's people were proficient with metals. If nothing else; it's probably
pretty certain that Noah had at least a metal hammer and an axe; maybe several
metal hammers and axes; and quite possibly saws and wedges too.

How did Noah join the logs and other wooden pieces that went into constructing the
ark? Well; you know, a good cabinet maker can assemble a very nice armoire
without using nuts and bolts by the strategic use of dowels and clever joinery like
grooves, rabbets, dovetails, mortises, and tenons.

Others object that a wooden vessel the size of the ark would never hold up on the
open sea without steel reinforcement; especially when the super storm of Gen 8:1
began blowing to mop up the water. But again; those skeptics typically fail to factor
God's involvement in the Flood. You really think He left the only surviving humans
and the only surviving beasts on the whole planet to the mercy of the elements?

The Flood was a miraculous event that worked by manipulating the laws of nature.
With God's involvement, even a house of cards would've survived the Flood had He
wished it to because the strength of natural materials isn't fixed; they can be
greatly enhanced, e.g. Samson (Judg 13:2-16:31). He was just an ordinary man of
flesh and bone; but God made Samson strong enough to do things that no one man
alone could possibly attempt unassisted.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

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● Gen 6:15b . . the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty
cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

There was a cubit among the Babylonians, and one in Egypt too. But there seems
to have existed double standards in both countries. Because of that, there exists no
undisputed example of the cubit that remains to the present time; so the length of
the cubit has been variously estimated.

One of the ancient cubits was the length of a man's forearm, from the elbow to the
tip of the middle finger, as is implied from the derivation of the word in Hebrew and
from the Latin cubitum. It seems to be referred to also in Deut 3:11 as "after the
cubit of a man." But that's too vague, and unsuitable for a scientific standard
because not all men's arms are exactly alike.

The Babylonians employed two different cubits: the so-called royal cubit and the
common cubit. From the remains of buildings in Assyria and Babylonia, the royal
cubit is made out to be about 20.6 inches. A cubit of similar length was used in
Egypt. This was probably the cubit mentioned by Ezek 40:5 and possibly that of
Solomon's temple as "cubits after the first measure" (2 Chr 3:3)

The commercial cubit was shorter, and has been variously estimated at between 16
and 18 inches or more, but the evidence of the Siloam inscription and of the tombs
in Palestine seems to indicate 17.6 inches as the average length. This was the cubit
of six palms, while the longer one was of seven (Ezek 40:5). The cubit mentioned in
Judges 3:16 is from a different word, the Hebrew gomedh, and was probably
shorter.

The cubit of Noah's day remains a total mystery. We have no way of knowing
exactly how long it was. Maybe Noah and his boys passed on their antediluvian
knowledge of weights and measures to the post-flood world and it stayed pretty
close to the original standards over the years; but it's impossible to know for sure.

If we use an 18-inch cubit as a close approximation, then the ark would have been
in the neighborhood of 450' long x 75' wide x 45' high. The ark's beam was 30 feet
wider than its height, so should have proved very stable, and difficult to capsize
even in rough seas-- especially since it had a flat bottom, which was good too for
the purpose intended.

Nothing fancy. Since the ark didn't have to navigate; then it didn't require a means
of propulsion nor was there any practical use for a bow, or a stern, or a wheel
house, a rudder, sails, engine room, anchor, windlasses, or masts-- not even a
handrail around the main deck. Since the ark didn't have to cut through the water
like a schooner, then it didn't need tapered undersides. All the ark really had to do
was float. It was really nothing in the world but a barge: and a very crude barge at
that. Really little more than a very large watertight crate.

Compared to modern ships, 450 feet is not all that big. Oil tankers are around
1,500, and the Nimitz aircraft carrier is about 1,092 feet. The distance from home
plate to the center field fence in major league baseball, averages 400 feet or better.
So the ark would just about fit into Yankee stadium. The main playing area of a
football field is 300 feet. Add 26 more for the end zones, and the total is 326; which
is still 124 feet short of the ark's length but at least gives some idea of its scale.

● Gen 6:16a . . Make an opening for daylight in the ark, and terminate it within a
cubit of the top.

The ark was probably capped with a steeply sloped roof so the immense volumes of
water falling from the sky during the rain stage of the Flood wouldn't impinge it
perpendicularly; but rather strike a glancing blow; and the eves were likely quite
considerable so water running off the roof wouldn't find its way to the window. The
window was shuttered (Gen 8:6) which was a practical consideration. The first forty
days of the Flood were extremely inclement; and later on down at the end of the
voyage there was a howling wind to reckon with.

The dimensions of the window aren't stated, and it's design is a bit of a mystery
because later we'll see that Noah was apparently unable to look out and see for
himself whether the ground was dry. It could have been as wide as six feet and
extended the full length and width of the ark-- all the way around it; who really
knows. The only requirement was that it be adequate for light; but undoubtedly
served for ventilation too. With all that respiration going on in there, Noah's air
supply would become foul in very short order.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

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● Gen 6:16b . . Put the entrance to the ark in its side; make it with bottom, second,
and third decks.

A hatch in the hull was practical. Its cover could be let down as a boarding ramp.

The very bottom of a ship is normally not counted as a deck. The lowest deck is
usually somewhat above the bottom and separated from it by a void called the
double bottom. That way if the actual bottom is pierced, the ship won't sink
because the void is sealed.

Whether or not Noah's craft had a double bottom is unknown; but likely it had at
least a bilge because the lowest deck needs to be above the bottom a bit so the
passengers and crew don't have to slosh around down there in the lower parts of
the ship where fetid water and other unsavory liquids typically collect.

The spaces between decks were fairly tall. If we divide 45 by 3 we get roughly 15
feet apiece not counting a bilge, nor the thickness of the deck planks and their
beams. Fifteen feet can accommodate pretty tall animals; and provide enough room
for the birds to exercise now and then too.

An ark 450 feet by 75 feet, with three decks would have provided 101,250 square
feet of living space. If Noah were resourceful, he might have installed shelves and
cabinets on the hull and the bulkheads, plus more on the overheads, and the
underside of the ark's roof for even more storage/living space. thus he would have
taken advantage of not just the ark's square feet; but also its cubic feet.

Critics insist there wasn't enough space aboard for all the various creatures in
Noah's day, but they fail to take into account a few facts. For one, nobody really
knows how long the cubit of Noah's day was and, most importantly, nobody really
knows how many species of life existed in his day.

By the time h.sapiens appeared on this old earth of ours, some colossal mass
extinctions had already taken place; and on top of that, the species that exist on
earth in our day, may not have existed in Noah's day, but instead what we are
seeing in our day is the result of millennia of somatic mutations and adaptations.

Larger creatures could have shared their spaces with smaller creatures, even
permitting the ones smaller than themselves to climb up and rest on their backs.
Life finds a way.

They say there are seven wonders of the ancient world, but that is not quite
accurate. There's actually eight if we include Noah's ark. Sure, building a giant
floating barn like Noah's would be child's play for a modern shipyard like Northrop
Grumman Newport News; but in his day, it had to be quite a feat.

● Gen 6:17 . . For My part, I am about to bring the Flood-- waters upon the earth--
to destroy all flesh under the sky in which there is breath of life; everything on
earth shall perish.

Some think the Flood was merely a local event rather than a global deluge. But that
is not the way Genesis describes it. The author quotes God saying; to destroy "all
flesh under the sky" and: "everything on earth" shall perish.

If the Flood were to be local, then it would only be necessary for Noah and his
family and the animals to simply migrate to a different region rather than go to all
the trouble of building an ark. No. The idea of localized flooding is totally
unacceptable because "the sky" is everywhere.

Ironically, and perhaps even humorously, many of the people arguing for a
localized Flood are convinced it's a myth anyway so I have no clue where they see
the point of arguing its extent.

The Hebrew word translated "waters" is a plural noun that can be used either in a
plural sense as here in Gen 6:17, or in a singular sense as in Gen 21:14.

Were the waters of the Flood fresh or salt? It doesn't matter, since the one who
created the physical requirements of all life is easily able to adapt it to suit His
purposes. But the sea's saltiness isn't static; it's increasing all the time, and always
has. Which means that if you were to go back in time, the sea was a lot less salty in
Noah's day than it is today; ergo: aquatic life's adjustment to dilution back in his
day wouldn't have been as extreme as its adjustment would be in our day.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

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● Gen 6:18 . . But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall enter the
ark, with your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives.

Biblical covenants are legally-binding contracts; and may include stipulations for all
parties involved; and then again may stipulate responsibilities for only one of them
with the other simply being along for the benefit; sort of like an irrevocable trust.
Covenants may, or may not, include penalties for breach of contract; and
sometimes those penalties are very severe; e.g. Lev 26:3-38, Deut 27:15-26, and
Deut 28:1-69.

● Gen 6:19-20 . . And of all that lives, of all flesh, you shall take two of each into
the ark to keep alive with you; they shall be male and female. From birds of every
kind, cattle of every kind, every kind of creeping thing on earth, two of each shall
come to you to stay alive.

Apparently one pair of each kind was a minimum; I mean; Noah took four pairs of
humans aboard; and he was later given updated instructions to take seven pairs of
some species.

Fortunately Noah didn't have to go on safari to round up his passengers. The Bible
says two of each "shall come to you." which implies of course that species who
failed to come got left behind and died in the Flood.

There was plenty of time for them to make it because Noah was 120 years building
the ark and getting it ready. Since the animals selected were cooperative and
docile, then the smaller beasties could hitch rides on the larger ones and thus save
themselves some steps.

A man named Dave Kunst walked across today's world in just a little over 4 years
from June 1970 to October 1974. Kunst walked a total of 14,450 miles, crossing
four continents and thirteen countries, wearing out 21 pair of shoes, and walking
more than 20 million steps. That was an odd thing to do, but does prove it can be
done in a relatively short time; so 120 years was plenty enough for all the critters
to make it on over to Noah's place in time for the Folly's maiden voyage.

If the ark were to launch in 2023, critters would have been on the move towards it
since 1903-- same year as the Wright Brothers historical flight, and nine years
before the Titanic foundered --and probably reproduced many times along the way
since there are not all that many species that live to see 120 years of age.

But how did they cross oceans? In the past that was doubtless a thorny theological
problem. But with today's knowledge of the geological science of plate tectonics,
the answer is as simple as two plus two. Scientists have discovered that continental
land masses can be shifted, and in point of fact the dry parts brought so close
together as to form one single super continent.

Scientists have also discovered magma hot spots and pressure points that can raise
and lower the earth's crust like a service elevator. Subduction no doubt played a
role by pushing sea beds up above sea level and made to form land bridges; thus
expediting migration.

This idea is by no means novel. For example: ten miles off the coast of Alabama in
60 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, are the remains of a Bald Cypress grove
that's estimated to be eight to fourteen thousand years old; testifying that the
earth's topography was quite a bit different in the ancient past.

Actually the Earth's mantle is one continuous (albeit fractured) mass anyway,
although its profile is so irregular that dry land sticks up above sea level at various
high spots; which is a good thing because if the mantle were smooth, the world
would be quite flooded all the time. In point of fact, if the Earth's mantle were
perfectly smooth, like a billiard ball, there's enough water present even today to
cover the land to a depth of 9,000 feet of water. That would be equivalent to a
global ocean approximately 1.7 miles deep.

Normal geological processes take thousands of years to accomplish, but when you
factor in the creator's participation in the Flood event, it's no problem at all for the
supreme being who has absolute power over not just the earth's geological
processes; but all the rest of nature's processes too.

What about dinosaurs? Did they go aboard with Noah too? No; too late.
Paleontologists are pretty sure the Jurassic era was over and gone by means of a
mysterious mass extinction event several millennia before the entrance of human
life on the earth; which, in my layman's opinion, is pretty good proof that the six
"days" of creation were quite a bit greater in length than 24 hours apiece.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 6:21-22 . . For your part, take of everything that is eaten and store it away,
to serve as food for you and for them. Noah did so; just as God commanded him,
so he did.

God didn't specify precisely how much food to load aboard. He only instructed Noah
to store things that are edible; but not their quantity. Nobody can be sure whether
or not Noah knew just how long the Flood was going to last. If he didn't, then of
course he would have no idea how much food he needed to bring along.

So what about the carnivorous animals that came aboard with Noah-- the lions and
tigers and hawks and eagles and meerkats and alligators and crocodiles? Well;
those kinds of animals can live on vegetation when they have to. According to Isa
11:6-9 and Isa 65:25, there's a day coming when the diet of carnivores will be
changed to that of herbivores; which was actually their diet in the first place. (Gen
1:30)

Some have proposed that the animals hibernated so they wouldn't have to be fed
very often nor require much room for exercise nor would they generate much
manure to clean up. That's actually a very plausible explanation. For example:
arctic ground squirrels can lower their body temperature below freezing and avoid
serious head injuries while hibernating for as long seven months. Why the little
guys don't freeze to death is a mystery.

Others have proposed that Noah loaded a minimal amount that God then
miraculously sustained. That too is a very plausible explanation. For example: 1Kgs
17:8-16 & 2Kgs 4:1-7

I'm not insisting that God sustained everyone aboard the ark via hibernation and/or
miracles. But in the light of nature's examples, and the Bible's, it isn't unreasonable
to suggest that's exactly what happened.

Another logistics problem was feeding everybody when the Flood was over. What
would they eat then?

The Flood left some species of vegetation intact. For example Gen 8:10-11 tells of
an olive leaf which-- according to the Hebrew word taraph (taw rawf') --was
freshly plucked off the tree rather than found lying around dead on the ground.

Also, a number of plants produce underground, e.g. carrots, turnips, radishes,
yams, beets, peanuts, parsnips, rutabagas, onions, and Jerusalem artichokes, and
radishes. If Noah was directed where to look, he and his family could dig those up.

Plus, Noah was ordered to take aboard common foot stuffs for himself and for the
menagerie. I've a hunch that some of that was left over; maybe even quite a bit;
especially if God kept it resupplied like at 1Kgs 17:8-16 and 2Kgs 4:1-7.

Also, according to 1Kgs 19:5-9, God is capable of strengthening the nourishment of
common food so that those who eat it can get by on less than usual amounts.

NOTE: It's not unreasonable to believe vegetation survived the Flood. (It lasted
scarcely one year) The prairie grass that once flourished in America's corn belt was
some really hardy stuff. Prior to the White Man, prairie grass roots grew as deep as
four feet, and sometimes eleven, so that no matter how much or how often the
grass was burned off or withered by drought, it bounced right back.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 7:1 . .The Lord then said to Noah: Go into the ark, you and your whole
family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.

Righteousness varies; for example there's the righteous of God (Rom 3:23) which
of course Noah couldn't possibly match because the bar is set just too high.

Then there's a righteousness that comes from following instructions to the letter;
for example Luke 1:6 & Phil 3:6.

And there's a righteousness relative to one's fellow men (Ezek 14:12-20)

And imputed righteousness (Gen 15:6)

And innate righteousness (1John 3:9)

Noah preached on righteousness (2Pet 2:5) so I think we may safely assume that
he practiced what he preached in order to receive such a high mark from God.

NOTE: Noah is sometimes criticized for not utilizing more of the ark's cargo space
to take human life aboard instead of animals. But it wasn't for Noah to say. Passage
aboard the ark was by invitation only; and to qualify for an invitation, the
passengers had to be righteous. Well; only Noah was righteous, so he alone was
invited to go aboard with his family.

The antediluvian folks weren't left on their own to figure out what's righteous and
what's not righteous. According to 2Pet 2:5, Noah was a preacher; and he wasn't
the only one at it. Prior to him, Enoch pounded a pulpit. (Jude 1:1)

So then, the people who died in the Flood had no one to blame for missing the boat
but themselves. Had they listened to the available preaching and changed their
ways; the Flood wouldn't have been necessary to begin with.

● Gen 7:2-3 . . Of every clean animal you shall take seven pairs, males and their
mates, and of every animal that is not clean, two, a male and its mate; of the birds
of the sky also, seven pairs, male and female, to keep seed alive upon all the earth.

Official specifications for identifying clean, and unclean animals, are located at Lev
11:1-46, and Deut 14:3-20. Those specs were written many, many centuries after
Noah; so precisely which animals he regarded as clean in his day, and which not
clean is impossible to tell. But I think we can safely assume that "clean" animals
were those suitable for ceremonies and/or for human consumption, because up
ahead Noah will be given the green light to begin eating meat.

The specific species that Noah took aboard were limited to the ones that God said in
6:20 "shall come to you". Any, and all, species that failed to come to Noah were
destroyed by the Flood. He didn't go out and hunt them down, nor take them by
force against their will. No; they had to show up on their own, or be left behind;
and I have a sneaking suspicion that many were.

● Gen 7:4 . . For in seven days' time I will make it rain upon the earth, forty days
and forty nights, and I will blot out from the earth all existence that I created.

The expression "all existence" is from yequwm (yek-oom') which means: standing
(extant) i.e. a living thing. Yequwm appears in only three verses of the entire Old
Testament. Two of them are here in chapter 7, and the other one is in Deut 11:6.

God's prediction didn't include vegetation; because when the Flood ended, at least
one olive tree was still standing. So "all existence" only meant creatures; in
particular those that live on land and need air to survive; like birds, bugs, and
beasts; whether subterranean or on the surface. (Gen 7:21-23)

The seven-day deadline hung over the world's head like a guillotine; and the Flood
was now imminent. But a final warning was issued probably just in case somebody
might change their mind about going along with Noah. Compare this moment of
silence to the one at Rev 8:1 just prior to sounding the seven trumpets.

● Gen 7:5 . . And Noah did just as the Lord commanded him.

Not many people can say, with all honesty and a good conscience, that they do
"just as" the Lord commands. It is a very unusual person who is careful to comply
with God's will to the letter. (cf. John 8:29)
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 7:6a . . Noah was six hundred years old

Noah's age is expressed in what's known as prophetic years. They consist of twelve
equal months of thirty days each; adding up to 360 days; which is roughly 4.25
days short of a normal year. So his 600 was roughly 593 of ours.

Noah died at 950. According to the US Department of Health, the average USA life
expectancy is currently around 79. Using that as a point of reference: one year of
America's average age is around 11.88 years of Noah's age. So in comparison;
Noah would have been equivalent to 50 when the Flood began.

● Gen 7:6b . . when the Flood came, waters upon the earth.

The word for Flood is from mabbuwl (mab-bool') which means: a deluge. There's
another Hebrew word for "flood" in the Old Testament, but its meaning is different.
Mabbuwl appears twelve times in Genesis regarding Noah's worldwide cataclysm.
The only other place in the entire Old Testament where that word shows up again is
Ps 29:10; and even there it relates to Noah.

● Gen 7:7-9 . . Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark
because of the waters of the Flood. Of the clean animals, of the animals that are
not clean, of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two of each,
male and female, came to Noah into the ark, as God had commanded Noah.

Here again it's mentioned that the animals came to Noah rather than he and his
sons going on safari to round them up.

It was right about there that I would have become very nervous had I lived next
door to the Noahs. Up till then, he probably seemed like an ordinary crack pot-- a
nice enough guy, but kind of kooky. I mean: who builds a great big barge on dry
land? But when all those birds and animals showed up out at his place, and started
boarding Noah's Folly all by themselves, in neither chaos nor confusion, and without
Noah and his boys having to herd them in-- that was definitely cause for alarm.

It's true that wildlife at that time was not yet afraid of humans; and it was probably
a very common sight to see them mingling with people all over the place-- maybe
even assisting Noah to construct the ark --but not on such a scale as this. People
had to wonder why all those bugs, and beasties, and birdies were migrating out
there to Noah's spread. What's that all about? Did they maybe think to themselves
that old fool might know something after all?

Well; maybe they did; but according to Matt 24:38-39 they didn't really take Noah
seriously enough but instead went about their daily lives as usual.

● Gen 7:10 . . And on the seventh day the waters of the Flood came upon the
earth.

Thus far Genesis has defined days on Earth as periods of time when the Sun is up
rather than down, so we may safely assume the rain began in daylight rather than
when it was dark outside.

Back in verse 4, God gave Noah seven days to get moved into the ark. The water
came right on time, just exactly when God said it would. God's word carries
different force in different circumstances. Sometimes He makes predictions,
sometimes He makes promises, and sometimes He even makes threats.

Threats are often negotiable; sort of like an "or else". Like when Jonah went to
Ninevah around town heralding that within forty days they would be overthrown.
When the people changed their ways, God backed off.

But a prediction isn't negotiable; nor is it open to discussion. When God makes a
prediction, you can make bank on it because He's seen the future. The Flood was
predicted. He said it was coming in seven days; and sure enough it showed up.

NOTE: The apostle John saw the great white throne event depicted at Rev 20:10-15.
That event is now inevitable because John's vision is a revelation; viz: a glimpse into
not just one possible future, rather, it is what it is, i.e. it is the future.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 7:11a . . In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on
the seventeenth day of the month,

The Flood isn't dated according to a calendar; but rather, relative to Noah's life. In
other words: let's say that Noah was born in the month of July. Had that been the
case; then the second month of his life would have been August. More about this
later.

● Gen 7:11b . . the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up,
and the windows of heaven were opened.

The Hebrew word translated "deep" basically means an abyss (as a surging mass of
water) especially the deep (the main sea or the subterranean water-supply).
Tehowm occurred very early on in the Bible's texts at Gen 1:1-2.

The difference between this deep and the deep of Gen 1:1-2 is that this deep is the
great deep. The Hebrew word for "great" means abundant (in quantity, size, age,
number, rank, quality), so that this particular deep could be thought of as
bottomless; viz: an abysmal source of water beyond human imagination whereas
the Earth's indigenous sources are limited. The precise location of the great deep is
currently unknown.

The "windows" of heaven are translated from a Hebrew word that means a sluice;
viz: a trough and/or a channel for moving water from one place to another; in this
case for transferring water from the great deep to the Earth.

Seeing as how Gen 7:11 speaks of heaven and sluices, then I think it's safe to
assume that the water used to flood the Earth came from somewhere out in the
cosmos; which is actually a reasonable assumption.

In an article I found on the internet dated July 22, 2011; astronomers have
discovered the largest and oldest mass of water ever detected in the universe-- a
gigantic cloud harboring 140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans
combined. Well; I'm pretty sure that's a sufficient quantity of water to inundate the
Earth to a depth required by the Flood.

● Gen 7:12 . . (The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.)

● Gen 7:13-16a . .That same day Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth,
went into the ark, with Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons-- they and all
beasts of every kind, all cattle of every kind, all creatures of every kind that creep
on the earth, and all birds of every kind, every bird, every winged thing.

. . .They came to Noah into the ark, two each of all flesh in which there was breath
of life. Thus they that entered comprised male and female of all flesh, as God had
commanded him.

Again it's reiterated that the critters "came" to Noah; he didn't have to go on safari
to round them up; and then they entered the ark on their own without Noah and his
boys having to herd them in. That is really remarkable. It's like those critters
somehow knew that there was something terrible brewing and Noah's ark was the
only safe haven.

This is another example where a "day" can be longer than twenty-four hours; in
fact, the day here in Gen 7:13-16 is a whole week plus forty more days and nights.
Thus from the time of God's invitation to come into the ark, and up until it stopped
raining, was a day period consisting of 47 calendar days.

● Gen 7:16b . . And the Lord shut him in.

The Lord not only shut him in, but sealed him in too. The hatch to hull mating
surfaces had to be waterproofed with bitumen the same as all the rest of the ark.

The Hebrew word for "shut" actually means to shut up; like as when a corral gate is
closed to pen livestock and/or the door of a jail cell is locked to confine a convict. In
other words: Noah, his crew, and his passengers were trapped inside the ark by a
door that could be opened only from the outside.

● Gen 7:17-18 . .The Flood continued forty days on the earth, and the waters
increased and lifted the ark so that it rose above the earth. The waters swelled and
increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark drifted upon the waters.

That was no week-end sailing trip. The ark drifted; viz: it was completely at the
mercy and the whims of the elements. It had no means for steering, no
navigational equipment, and no means of propulsion; it floated about like flotsam.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 7:19-20 . .When the waters had swelled much more upon the earth, all the
highest mountains everywhere under the sky were covered. Fifteen cubits higher
did the waters swell, as the mountains were covered.

FAQ: Is it possible that the Flood was local rather than global?

REPLY: Well; the problem with that theory is: the waters breached the highest
mountains by fifteen cubits (22½ feet). So then, if perchance Noah lived in a
geographic basin, the waters would have overflowed the mountains surrounding
him and kept on going before they ever got up to that 22½ feet of extra elevation.

But the water would start spilling past Noah's area long before it breached the tops
of the highest mountains surrounding him because mountain ranges aren't shaped
smooth, level, and planed like the rim of a domestic bath tub. No; they're very
irregular and consist of high points and low points; viz: peaks, valleys, canyons,
saddles, and passes.

Thus mountain ranges make poor bath tubs because you would lose water through
the low points before it even had a chance to fill to the peaks. In point of fact, were
the sides of your bathtub shaped like a mountain range; you could never fill it. And
in trying to; just end up with water all over the floor.

22½ feet may not seem like a lot of water but when you consider the diameter of
the Earth, that is an enormous amount when it's above the highest mountains. How
high were the highest mountains in Noah's day? Nobody really knows. But just
supposing the tallest at that time was about equal to California's Mount Laguna east
of San Diego; viz: 5,738 feet above sea level-- about 1.1 miles. Adding 22½ feet to
that comes out to approximately 5,761 feet.

The amount of rain it would take to accumulate that much water in only forty days
would be something like six global feet of depth per hour (not taking into
consideration that the diameter of the water's surface would increase as the water
got deeper)

To put that in perspective: the lobby of the Empire State Building in New York city
is approximately 47 feet above sea level. At 6 feet per hour, the lobby would be
under water in less than eight hours. The whole building, lightening rod and all;
would be under water in just a little over ten days. The new One World Trade
Center would be gone in about thirteen days, and Denver in less than thirty-seven.

* It's sometimes objected that there is no geological evidence to support the Flood.
Well it only lasted a year so what do the skeptics expect? And besides, it was
essentially standing water rather than flowing water so it would've produced
relatively little erosion, if any. It's likely effects would've been sedimentary.

And the water was removed all at the same time from all over the globe rather than
drained off from a single location, viz: God didn't pull the plug, so to speak. And
then we should also take into consideration that though the Flood's arrival was swift
and violent, it's removal was relatively gradual and gentle.

● Gen 7:21-23a . . And all flesh that stirred on earth perished-- birds, cattle,
beasts, and all the things that swarmed upon the earth, and all mankind. All in
whose nostrils was the merest breath of life, all that was on dry land, died.

. . . All existence on earth was blotted out-- man, cattle, creeping things, and birds
of the sky; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those
with him in the ark.

All "existence on earth" was limited to fauna life on land. Apparently flora life and
aqua life were spared.

● Gen 7:24 . . And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.

One of Webster's definitions of "prevail" is: to triumph. In other words; the Flood
won and humanity lost. Man can dam rivers; he can divert streams, he can build
sea walls, dikes, and channels, he can drain swamps and wetlands; but every one
of those kinds of hydraulic engineering feats would've failed to control the Flood.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 8:1a . . God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were
with him in the ark,

Does that mean God forgot all about the ark's passengers until He realized why
there was a string tied around His finger? (chuckle) No; it reaffirms that they were
always on God's mind. He isn't forgetful. God doesn't need reminding.

But what about Noah's sisters and brothers, and/or his aunts and uncles? Did God
think of them too? No. Noah's kin, except those aboard the ark; were all wiped out
in the Flood. He and Mrs. Noah may have had other children too; and grand
children. If so, then those also perished: and their family pets too right along with
them.

Out ahead, at the final judgment, many of us are going to have to watch as our
own kin are condemned and thrown alive, wild eyed, bellowing like wounded dogs
and screaming like little children, into the impoundment of brimstone depicted at
Rev 20:11-15. That will be an awful ordeal.

● Gen 8:1b-3a . . and God caused a wind to blow across the earth, and the waters
subsided. The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were stopped up,
and the rain from the sky was held back; the waters then receded steadily from the
earth.

The Hebrew word translated "receded" is somewhat ambiguous. It can mean draw
back, return to the beginning, or simply diminish. The very same word is used in
Gen 3:19 thusly:

"By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

In that example; the word indicates that Adam went right back where he came
from; viz: the dust.

According to Gen 7:11 the waters of the Flood came from the springs of the great
deep and from heaven. So then, I take shuwb to mean that the waters went right
back to heaven and the great deep as the Flood dried up so that the waters didn't
drain off, they were dried off; which is a good thing because had the waters drained
off, they would have caused quite a bit of erosion; but actually, there was nowhere
for them to drain; they had to be removed.

Gen 8:1-3 strongly suggests that the Flood's waters were dried off by the process
of evaporation like the way women use blow dryers to remove dampness from their
hair after washing. But there's just no possible way that much water got absorbed
by the earth's atmosphere or it would still be here. No, I'm convinced the wind was
more like a vacuum cleaner than a hair dryer.

● Gen 8:3b-4 . . At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters diminished, so
that in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to
rest on the mountains of Ararat.

The Hebrew word for "Ararat" appears three more times in the Bible: one at 2Kgs
19:36-37, one at Isa 37:36-38, and one at Jer 51:27. Ararat in the Bible always
refers to a political area-- the country of Armenia --never a specific geological
feature by the same name.

The Hebrew word for "mountains" doesn't always indicate a prominent land mass
like Kilimanjaro; especially when it's plural. It can also mean a range of hills or
highlands; for example:

In California, where I lived as a kid, the local elevation 35 miles east of San Diego,
in the town of Alpine, was about 2,000 feet above sea level. There were plenty of
meadows with pasture and good soil. In fact much of it was very good ranchland
and quite a few people in that area raised horses and cows. We ourselves kept
about five hundred chickens, and a few goats and calves. We lived in the mountains
of San Diego; but we didn't live up on top of one of its peaks like Viejas, Lyon's, or
Cuyamaca.

It makes better sense to beach the ark on the soil of one of Armenia's elevated
plains rather than up on one of Turkey's ancient volcanoes seeing as how Noah took
up agriculture after the Flood. Plus, had he been forced to abandoned the ark atop
a mountain, Noah would've lost ready access to an abundant supply of hewn wood
that he could appropriate for other purposes. Noah's sons reproduced so we can be
fairly certain that Noah's posterity-- which eventually numbered quite a few people
--would want lumber from the ark for useful purposes too.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 8:5 . .The waters went on diminishing until the tenth month; in the tenth
month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

Gravity assists rain to fall. But to get the Flood's waters off the planet required
overcoming gravity enough to get it up off the planet. The mechanical nature of
that wind would be an interesting study. Was it a global hurricane, or was it more
like a global tornado, or a combination of both: one for evaporation, and one for
sucking it all out into the void? Well, whatever; it must have howled and roared like
the sound of a thousand World Trade Center collapsing at once.

● Gen 8:6-7a . . At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that
he had made and sent out the raven;

Although the raven is listed in Israel's covenanted law as an unclean bird,
sometimes it's an excellent choice for assisting in a divine task; for example 1Kgs
17:1-6. (Clean vs Unclean isn't absolute, viz: what's unclean for Jews, isn't
necessarily unclean for Christians. Compare Acts 10:9-15 & Rom 14:1-23)

Ravens are intelligent, sociable, and highly adaptable. Although they don't usually
trust Man, they have been known to associate with him in remarkable ways.

● Gen 8:7b . . it went to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.

Ravens will eat just about anything, including carrion; and there was probably
plenty of that floating around out there. With all the dead stuff to feast on, the
raven could spend the whole day out on its own. However, no tree tops were above
the water yet and crows need to get off the ground at night so it probably returned
to the ark in the evening to roost. The very fact of its return was evidence to Noah
that the waters were still pretty deep out there.

● Gen 8:8-9 . .Then he sent out the dove to see whether the waters had decreased
from the surface of the ground. But the dove could not find a resting place for its
foot, and returned to him to the ark, for there was water over all the earth. So
putting out his hand, he took it into the ark with him.

The word for "Dove" is from yownah (yo-naw') which is a general term for either a
Dove or a Pigeon. Pigeons are well known for their homing instincts. So why didn't
the Pigeon roost up on the roof of the ark instead of letting Noah take it inside?
Well . . a Pigeon's nature is different than a Raven's. The big guys are somewhat
independent, but Pigeons readily take to human care. That's probably why they are
so much more common in cities than Crows; where people can feed them popcorn
and bread crumbs.

Pigeons and Doves don't eat carrion; but prefer to forage on the ground for seeds.
But bare ground was inaccessible at this point in time. The yownah no doubt
became very hungry; and certainly knew Mr. Noah had plenty of grain on board
with him back at the ark. Pigeons also prefer a roof over their heads; like docks and
wharfs, and bridges and roadway overpasses. It almost seems they were actually
made to live in coops; and what better coop than the ark?

● Gen 8:10-11 . . He waited another seven days, and again sent out the dove from
the ark. The dove came back to him toward evening, and there in its bill was a
plucked-off olive leaf. Then Noah knew that the waters had decreased on the earth.

The word for "plucked-off" basically means recently torn off; viz: fresh, i.e,. alive;
which of course the skeptics are only too happy to point out is impossible seeing as
how olive trees cannot survive under water very long before they die. But wasn't
the Flood itself impossible? (sigh) Some people are just naturally miracle
challenged; what can I say?

Old-world olives prefer a Mediterranean climate, which is pretty good empirical
evidence that the ark did not come to rest on the top of Turkey's Mt. Ararat; a
snow-capped dormant volcano consisting of two peaks: Lesser Ararat @ 12,782
feet, and Greater Ararat @ 16,854 feet.

Tall mountains like Ararat have what's called a timberline; which is an elevation
beyond which no trees grow. The elevation of Mt. Hood's timberline here in Oregon
is right around 6,000 feet. So it's a pretty safe bet that the olive tree, from which
the dove plucked a leaf, wasn't growing up on Mt. Ararat prior to the Flood. It
would've preferred neither the elevation nor the climate.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 8:12 . . He waited still another seven days and sent the dove forth; and it did
not return to him anymore.

Apparently the dove finally found some dry, bare ground to forage for seeds, and
minute gravel for its craw.

Why didn't Noah just look out the window and see for himself? Well; the structural
location of the ark's window is a bit of a mystery. For one thing, it wasn't cut into
the sides like the windows in an airplane, rather, it was located up on top. The
design of the ark's top is itself a bit of a mystery. Apparently the position of the
window was such that structural portions of the top obscured Noah' view.

● Gen 8:13-14 . . In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first
of the month, the waters began to dry from the earth; and when Noah removed the
covering of the ark, he saw that the surface of the ground was drying. And in the
second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

Calculating the duration of the Flood is not only an interesting exercise but also an
opportunity to get the hang of prophetic time keeping.

It began to rain on the 17th day of the second month of the 600th year of Noah's
life. The Earth was dry on the 27th day of the second month of his 601st year. So,
reckoning time according to prophetic months of 30 days each, and not counting
the final day, Noah's passengers and crew were aboard the ark for a total of 370
days; which is roughly 5 days over a solar year, and 10 days over a prophetic year.

FAQ: Whence came the so-called prophetic year?

REPLY: The Flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month of Noah's life,
and it rained for forty days. Then the rain stopped so the water could begin draining
off and leave the ark aground. A period of exactly five months went by. Those five
months are recorded as exactly 150 days. If we were to try and use the months of
the Jewish calendar, the number of days would not add up to 150. Here's why.

The months of the Jewish calendar supposedly equivalent to the months of the
Flood are:

lyar . . . . . . . . 29 days
Sivan . . . . . . . 30 days
Tammuz . . . . . 29 days
Av . . . . . . . . . 30 days
Elul . . . . . . . . 29 days
Tishri . . . . . . . 30 days

Using the Jewish calendar, it would begin raining on the 17th of lyar, thus flooding
a total of 13 days during that month. Following would be 30 in Sivan, 29 in
Tammuz, 30 in Av, 29 in Elul, and lastly 16 in Tishri if we don't count the day that
the ark ran aground. The total number of days from the beginning of the Flood until
the day the ark went aground, would have been, according to the Jewish calendar,
147; which is three days short of 150.

However, we can safely ignore the Jewish calendar, and just reckon the elapsed
time relative to Noah's birthday. The 150 days then average out to five months of
30 days apiece. That doesn't really cause any problems because a dating method of
that nature is not intended to mark off the actual passage of astronomical time in a
calendar year; only the days of time elapsed during an important event such as the
Flood.

So; here in Genesis, very early in the Bible, a standard is set for specifying the
length of a special kind of year: the prophetic year. Since the months in a year of
this type are of thirty days apiece, then twelve such months add up to 360 days;
which is 5¼ days less than a calendar year.

The prophetic year is sort of like a baker's dozen. Though a baker's dozen is not a
dozen of twelve; it is nonetheless a dozen in its own right. As long as students of
the Bible are aware of the existence of such a thing as a prophetic year, they won't
be tripped up when they run across it in prophecy; for example the one below:

"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God,
that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." (Rev
12:6)

"And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into
the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and
half a time, from the face of the serpent." (Rev 12:14)

Those two passages speak of a 3½ year period of exactly 1,260 days. Well, 3½
solar years is 1,274+ days; which is almost fifteen days too many. But if we reckon
those 3½ years as prophetic years of 360 days each, then it comes out perfectly to
1,260 days.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 8:15-19 . . God spoke to Noah, saying: Come out of the ark, together with
your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives. Bring out with you every living thing of
all flesh that is with you: birds, animals, and everything that creeps on earth; and
let them swarm on the earth and be fertile and increase on earth.

. . . So Noah came out, together with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives. Every
animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that stirs on earth came
out of the ark by families.

The Hebrew word translated "families" basically speaks of taxonomy; viz:
classifications.

NOTE: It's sometimes argued that Noah couldn't possibly have carried every kind of
insect aboard his ark; but then, he didn't have to. Noah took aboard only the
species that came to him (Gen 6:20). Those that didn't come, died out (Gen 7:21
23).

However, Insect eggs are pretty tough, and capable of surviving extremes of
weather. In point of fact, quite a few birds depend upon insect eggs for food to
carry them through the winter. The parents of many of those insect eggs no doubt
perished in the Flood, but I have a hunch their species survived by means of the
eggs they left behind.

So; how did all the various species end up in their respective environs-- e.g. arctic,
rain forests, deserts, and tropical islands? Nobody really knows, but we can take an
educated guess.

According to an article in the October 2011 issue of National Geographic, around 56
million years ago, the Atlantic Ocean had not fully opened up and it was possible for
animals to migrate from Asia through Europe and across Greenland to North
America. They wouldn't have encountered a speck of ice because the earth was
quite a bit warmer than today.

We suggested previously that with the knowledge today of the science of plate
tectonics, it isn't unreasonable to assume that God simply crunched all the dry land
together in order to facilitate migrations to the ark, and left the land that way until
the Flood was over and it was time for the animals to go back where they came
from.

Sometimes when I contemplate the earth's crust consisting of solid stone like
granite, schist, and gneiss; its seems impossible to me that any force could crunch
it; but in the hands of the earth's creator, what's solid to me is little more than
modeling clay to its maker.

As the planet's topography underwent continual alteration by enormous geological
forces, resulting in a variety of global climatic conditions, many species became
isolated and underwent some interesting adaptations and mutations in order to
become the highly specialized creatures that we find living around the world today.

Classical evolution per se, is, I believe, a spurious fantasy because it discounts
intelligent design and an outside source of all life. But Bible students have to allow
for a least a degree of genetic and somatic adaptations and mutations or Genesis
won't make any sense at all. It is just too unreasonable to assume that the
incredible variety of life existing in our world today all existed during Noah's too.

After all, every known variety of Man existing today came from just eight people. If
those eight are responsible for producing all the different kinds of human beings in
our world today, then why couldn't the creatures aboard the ark have been the
foundation for all the varieties of non human life?

So; what happened to the ark? Well; according to the dimensions given at Gen
6:15, the ark was shaped like what the beautiful minds call a right rectangular
prism; which is nothing in the world but the shape of a common shoe box. So most
of the lumber and logs used in its construction would've been nice and straight;
which is perfect for putting together houses, fences, barns, corrals, stables, gates,
hog troughs, mangers, and outhouses.

I think it's safe to assume that Noah and his kin gradually dismantled the ark over
time and used the wood for many other purposes, including fires. Nobody cooked or
heated their homes or their bath and laundry water using refined fossil fuels and/or
electricity and steam in those days, so everybody needed to keep on hand a pretty
fair-sized wood pile for their daily needs.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 8:20a . .Then Noah built an altar to The Lord

This is the very first mention of an altar in the Bible. I don't really know if anyone
else constructed one before this. Abel and some of the others may have, but it's
very difficult to be certain. At any rate, Noah's altar was dedicated to Jehovah
rather than to one of the heathen deities people worshipped prior to the Flood-- and
according to Rom 1:22-23 there were many.

● Gen 8:20b . . and, taking of every clean animal and of every clean bird, he
offered burnt offerings on the altar.

This is the very first mention of the burnt offering. The Hebrew word is 'olah (o
law') which means: a step (or collectively, stairs, as ascending) or a holocaust (as
going up in smoke).

The burnt offering was the very first sacrifice of any kind involving worship in the
new world; and it set the tone for God's future association with mankind in the
years to come. How Noah knew about the 'olah can only be attributed to revelation.
But what's odd about the 'olah is that the word itself doesn't show up in Scripture
again until the Akedah scene in the 22nd chapter. (the Akedah is the traditional
title of Abraham's offering of his son Isaac)

Although 'olah can indicate a step (or collectively, stairs, as ascending); it's
improper to construct an altar with stairs (Ex 20:24-26) so that the ziggurats that
man eventually constructed were of course offensive to God not just because ritual
murders were conducted on them but also because they were essentially stairways
to heaven.

Killing and burning on such a scale as Noah's can be taken as a ritual intended to
dedicate the post Flood world to God; sort of like the quantity of Solomon's
sacrifices that he offered to dedicate the new Temple. (1Kgs 8:62-64)

● Gen 8:21a . .The Lord smelled a pleasant odor,

Anyone who has ever been in the kitchen when something is burning on the stove
knows that overcooked meat does not give off a pleasant odor. A scented candle
smells a whole lot better. But the chemical odor of the burnt offering really has little
to do with it. The expression "a pleasant odor" is a biblical idiom that means just
the opposite of something that's objectionable; for example: "I hate that woman's
opinions about men. They stink." (cf. Ex 5:21)

● Gen 8:21b . .Then the Lord said in His heart: I will never again curse the ground
for man's sake,

True, God never again cursed the ground; but neither did He lift the original curse
that was pronounced in the third chapter. The first curse remains, but at least God
hasn't put additional burdens on the soil. According to Rev 22:3, the first curse is
slated to be removed once and for all.

● Gen 8:21c . . although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;

Had God encumbered the ground with additional curses He would have been
entirely justified in doing so because the Flood did nothing to rectify the intrinsically
evil condition of the post-Eden human heart. However, God is a sensible person not
easily given to futility.
_

 

[Olde Tymer]

.
● Gen 8:21d . . nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done.

All the living things in this case refers to that which survives by means of the
breath of life. (Gen 6:17, Gen 7:22)

The promise is qualified by the phrase "as I have done"

So Gen 8:21 doesn't mean God will never again destroy all the living, nor that He
will never again destroy the Earth-- only that He won't repeat the method He
employed the first time. (Gen 9:11)

In point of fact, next time, it's by fire rather than water.

"The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

. . . Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for and hasting unto
the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" (2Pet 3:10-12)

NOTE: The blackball temperature produced by a thermo-nuclear device is
something like 180,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Just imagine if God were to turn
the atomic structure of the entire universe into one great big self-destructing
thermo-nuclear device. The noise, and the heat, generated by such a detonation
would be beyond one's comprehension.

● Gen 8:22 . . So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.

The promise of Gen 8:22 was prefaced by "so long as the earth endures." Well; the
Earth is definitely not permanent. It is in fact running out of time. But until the Day
Of The Lord, everything will proceed as normal; which can be dangerous because
people are easily lulled by the routine of status quo and fail to look far enough
ahead and get ready for the future. (cf. Luke 21:33-36)
_