Bible Study Genesis Verse By Verse

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● 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.

● 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 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 while 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 the ark's 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 +/- 100,000
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 back then.

By the time h.sapiens appeared on this old earth of ours, some colossal mass
extinction events 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.
And also Gen 6:19-20 & Gen 7:7-9 say that the animals selected for the ark "came"
to Noah so I think we have to assume that the animals who didn't come were left
behind.

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 back in that day, it was quite a feat.
_

 

[hawkman]

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.

About Easter Island , there have been some discoveries .

The Famous Easter Island Heads Have Hidden Bodies

Practically everyone has seen the iconic images of the Easter Island heads. What you may not have known is that those Easter Island heads actually have hidden buried bodies.

www.forbes.com

 

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● Gen 6:17a . . For My part, I am about to bring the Flood-- waters upon the earth

(This event almost sounds like a potluck, to wit: Noah brought the boat, and God
brought the water.)

● Gen 6:17b . . 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 immense water craft. No. The idea of localized flooding is
totally unacceptable because "the sky" is everywhere.

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.

● 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 went extinct 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.

If the ark were to launch in 2025, critters would have been on the move towards it
since 1905-- just two years after the Wright Brothers historical flight, and seven
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.

Plus magma hot spots and pressure points serve to raise and lower the earth's
crust like a service elevator along with subduction which plays a role by pushing the
ocean's floor up above sea level and made to form land bridges; thus expediting
migration.

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 because
the supreme being 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.
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[Beetow]

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● 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; but then so is
torpor, which is a modified version of hibernation whereby critters alternate periods
of unconsciousness with periods of activity.

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

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.

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 --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, 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.

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.

● 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.

The antediluvian folks weren't left on their own to figure out what's righteous and
what's not. 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.

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.
_

 

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● 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 liturgical ceremonies and/or 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.

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 sword of Damocles; 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.

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

Noah's age is expressed in what's known as prophetic years; which consist of
twelve equal months of thirty days each; adding up to 360 days; which is roughly
+/- 4¼ days short of a normal year. So his 600 was roughly 593 by our years.

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 equivalent to 11.88 years of Noah's age. So in
comparison; Noah would have been roughly 50 when the Flood began.

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

The Hebrew word translated Flood basically means a deluge. There's another word
for "flood" in the Old Testament, but the Hebrew 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 take Noah
seriously enough but instead went about their daily lives as usual.
_

 

[Beetow]

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● 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.

The water came right on time, just exactly when God said it would back in verse 4.
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.

● 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 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 imagination. 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 an aqueduct 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 to inundate the Earth to
a depth required for 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.
_

 

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● 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, and no means
of propulsion; it floated about like flotsam.

● 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.
_

 

[Beetow]

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● 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.

● 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 it 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 this particular
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-- specifically the country of Armenia --never a 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 an elevated plain rather than
up on the tippy top of a mountain 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.
_

 

[Beetow]

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● 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 Hebrew word for Dove 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 Dove 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.
_

 

[Beetow]

.
● 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 common 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 passage of time in a common 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 common year.

Prophetic months and years are sort of like baker's dozens and troy ounces. Though
a baker's dozen isn't a dozen of twelve, and though a troy ounce is heavier than a
standard ounce; baker's dozens and troy ounces are both true values in their own
way. The same goes for mean solar time vs. sidereal time, and/or geographic north
vs. magnetic north. As long as Bible readers 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
common years add up to +/- 1,278 days; which is eighteen 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.
_