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l
s it unrealistic and unscientific to
believe that Noah could have
saved all the earth's fauna in an
ark? Traditional images and popu–
lar literature picture the .Ark as
scarcely larger than an ordinary
fishing smack. But the Bible paints
a far different picture of the Ark
than most realize. Genesis 6:15
gives the Ark's dimensions: "The
length of the ark shall be three
hundred cubits [450 ft. - based on
an 18-in. cubit, its commonly ac–
cepted Jength], the breadth of it
fifty cubits [75 ft.}, and the height
of it thirty cubits [45 ft.}"
Based on the 18-in. cubit. the
figures show that the box-shaped
Ark [..ark" means "box" or "chest"
in the Hebrew] was ocean-liner
size in cubic capacity.
1t
had a volume of about 1.5
million cubic feet. and virtually
the entire capacity of the Ark
could be used for storage. (lt had
no engine room or fuel tanks!) The
Ark had a capacity equal to
mor~
than
500
standard American rail–
road freight cars!
Still, could Noah get all those
animals into the Ark?
First of all. God specifically in–
structed Noah to select one pair of
every "kind" of unclean animal
and seven pairs of every ' 'kind" of
clean animal. The Bible term
"kind" refers generally to a group
of creatures. all of which inter–
brecd. The horse kind could be
represented. therefore, by one pair
of animals having the genetic po–
tential to produce after the Flood
all the varieties we have today.
The same would be true also for
dogs. cats, etc.
Second. only air-breathing, ter–
restrial animals were included in
the Ark. Genesis 7:22 states: "All
in whose nostrils was the breath of
life:' This excludes all sea crea–
tures and simple forros of life
which could survive the deluge.
Now consider this. Only
40%
of
the animal kingdom lives on land,
and 70% of all species
of
land ani–
mals are insects. The remaining
30%
of the terrestrial animal king–
dom are on a mean average the
size of a rhesus monkey.
Most animals can be maintained
in small confinement for long
periods and remain healthy. A
rhesus monkey. for example, can
be maintained in a cage about 2
ft., 6 in. cubed (15.6 cu. ft .).
Estimates of the number of
land-living mammal, bird, reptile,
and amphibian species on earth
today totals about 18,000. Recog–
nizing that only kinds, not species,
were included,
it
would have been
necessary to represent far fewer
than 18,000 animals on the Ark.
Most animals are "unclean" (Lev.
ll ). so most animal kinds would
have been represented by one pair.
But let's be liberal and say
40.000
animals, whose average size is that
of a rhesus monkey. were on the
Ark. How much room in tbe Ark
would be needed for all these ani–
mals? About
40%
of the Ark's 1.5
million cubic fcet would suffice!
What áb()ut insects? Remember,
the Ark had a storage capacity of
500
freight cars. Two hundred cars
would be occupied by mammals.
birds. and reptiles. Giving every
pair of known species of insect 1-6
cubic inches of space. another 21
such freight cars would be re–
quired. (Counting Genesis kinds
only, the req uired space would be
far less.)
And so. viewed from the per–
spective of simple arithmetic, only
about half of the space on the
three decks would have provided
plenty of room to accommodate
"all those animals." That left the
other half of the ship for food and
supplies and for Noah and bis
family.
So the final question: What did
Noah ever do with all the extra
space?
ture built as a monument lo the Ark
story. "There is no reason for a
building to be that high in the
mountains other than as a hermi–
tage or a monumenl," he says, " like
St. Kather ine's Monastery built in
the Sinai desert on the spot where
Moses supposedly saw the burning
bush. Since the Ark was a common
belief in the heritage of the people
around Ararat. it is quite possible
that a hermitage was built to pay
homage lo the belief, and lhey
needed wood for lhe roof. "
But those who have scaled th e
perilous slopes of Araral are in–
credulous al the thought of such an
undertaking. The volcanic rubble
that is Ararat's composition is some–
what akin to walking up a mountain
of ba ll bearings. One climber re–
call ed that "rocks the size of an au–
tomobile can suddenly give way
under foot, and one man's shoul can
sta rt an ava lanche."
" I can't conceive of packing hard–
wood timbers up that mountain to
build a monumenl whe11 there's
rock righl there 011 the spot," says
Cummi11gs. ' 'I' II tell you one thi 11g.
lt 's hard enough to pack
70
pounds
011 your back up there. let alo11e four
or five tons ofwood."
A Universal Trad ition
As tangible as the wood samples
a re, their dubious age and o ri gin
have given Ark hunters no concre te
evid ence . ln s tead, em p has is is
placed on the rich history of Ark
sight ings recorded through time by
explorers and historians. i11cluding a
re ference in Josephus' ancient writ–
ings. Theopoli s of A11tioch alluded
to its existence in the seco11d ce11 tury
A.D. , as did Marco Polo in
1300.
Though hardly conclusive, the sim–
ilarity between these and more con–
tempora ry stories causes inlriguing
speculation.
lgnoring local taboos, J.
J.
Frei–
drich Pa rrot was the first foreigner
to sca le Ararat in
1829.
He report–
edly found wood. Near the base of
the mountain was the vil lage of Ah–
ora, where many Ark relics had sup–
posedly been stored. Unfortuna tely.
an
1840
earthquake tota lly buried
the vil lage and any evidence therein.
lt remains buried to this day, an
area which sorne day Cummings
also hopes to excavate.
The
PLAIN TRUTH October 1976