Noah's Ark

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

For other uses, see Noah's Ark (disambiguation). Not to be confused with Ark of the Covenant.
Noah's Ark (1846), by the American folk painter Edward Hicks

Noah's Ark (

Arabic: سَفِينَةُ نُوحٍ "Noah's ship") and al-fulk (Arabic: الفُلْك). The myth of the global flood that destroys all life begins to appear in the Old Babylonian Empire period (20th–16th centuries BCE).[2] The version closest to the biblical story of Noah, as well as its most likely source, is that of Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[3]

Early Christian and Jewish writers, such as

Flavius Josephus, believed that Noah's Ark existed. Unsuccessful searches for Noah's Ark have been made from at least the time of Eusebius (c. 275–339 CE). Believers in the Ark continue to search for it in modern times, but no scientific evidence that the Ark existed has ever been found,[4] nor is there scientific evidence for a global flood.[5] According to Robert Moore, the boat and the natural disaster as described in the Bible would have been contingent upon physical impossibilities.[6] Some researchers believe that a real (though localized) flood event in the Middle East could potentially have inspired the oral and later written narratives; a Persian Gulf flood, or a Black Sea Deluge 7,500 years ago has been proposed as such a historical candidate.[7][8]

Description

The structure of the Ark (and the chronology of the flood) is homologous with the Jewish Temple and with Temple worship.[9] Accordingly, Noah's instructions are given to him by God (Genesis 6:14–16): the ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high (approximately 134×22×13 m or 440×72×43 ft).[10] These dimensions are based on a numerological preoccupation with the number 60, the same number characterizing the vessel of the Babylonian flood hero.[1]

Its three internal divisions reflect the three-part universe imagined by the ancient Israelites: heaven, the earth, and the underworld.[11] Each deck is the same height as the Temple in Jerusalem, itself a microcosmic model of the universe, and each is three times the area of the court of the tabernacle, leading to the suggestion that the author saw both Ark and tabernacle as serving for the preservation of human life.[12][13] It has a door in the side, and a tsohar, which may be either a roof or a skylight.[10] It is to be made of gopher wood "goper", a word which appears nowhere else in the Bible, but thought to be a loan word from the Akkadian gupru[14] – and divided into qinnim, a word which always refers to birds' nests elsewhere in the Bible, leading some scholars to emend this to qanim, reeds.[15] The finished vessel is to be smeared with koper, meaning pitch or bitumen; in Hebrew the two words are closely related, kaparta ("smeared") ... bakopper.[15] Bitumen is more likely option as "koper" is thought to be a loanword from the Akkadian "kupru", meaning bitumen.[14]

Origins

Mesopotamian precursors

Main article: Flood myth

For well over a century, scholars have said that the Bible's story of Noah's Ark is based on older Mesopotamian models.

First Dynasty of Isin.[18]

Nine versions of the Mesopotamian flood story are known, each more or less adapted from an earlier version. In the oldest version, inscribed in the Sumerian city of Nippur around 1600 BCE, the hero is King Ziusudra. This story, the Sumerian flood myth, probably derives from an earlier version. The Ziusudra version tells how he builds a boat and rescues life when the gods decide to destroy it. This basic plot is common in several subsequent flood stories and heroes, including Noah. Ziusudra's Sumerian name means "he of long life." In Babylonian versions, his name is Atrahasis, but the meaning is the same. In the Atrahasis version, the flood is a river flood.[19]: 20–27 

The version closest to the biblical story of Noah is that of Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[3] A complete text of Utnapishtim's story is contained on a clay tablet dating from the seventh century BCE, but fragments of the story have been found from as far back as the 19th century BCE.[3] The last known version of the Mesopotamian flood story was written in Greek in the third century BCE by a Babylonian priest named Berossus. From the fragments that survive, it seems little changed from the versions of 2,000 years before.[20]

The parallels between Noah's Ark and the arks of Babylonian flood heroes Atrahasis and Utnapishtim have often been noted. Atrahasis's Ark was circular, resembling an enormous quffa, with one or two decks.[21] Utnapishtim's ark was a cube with six decks of seven compartments, each divided into nine subcompartments (63 subcompartments per deck, 378 total). Noah's Ark was rectangular with three decks. A progression is believed to exist from a circular to a cubic or square to rectangular. The most striking similarity is the near-identical deck areas of the three arks: 14,400 cubits2, 14,400 cubits2, and 15,000 cubits2 for Atrahasis, Utnapishtim, and Noah, only 4% different. Irving Finkel concluded, "the iconic story of the Flood, Noah, and the Ark as we know it today certainly originated in the landscape of ancient Mesopotamia, modern Iraq."[22]

Linguistic parallels between Noah's and Atrahasis' arks have also been noted. The word used for "pitch" (sealing tar or resin) in Genesis is not the normal Hebrew word, but is closely related to the word used in the Babylonian story.[23] Likewise, the Hebrew word for "ark" (tēvāh) is nearly identical to the Babylonian word for an oblong boat (ṭubbû), especially given that "v" and "b" are the same letter in Hebrew: bet (ב).[22]

However, the causes for God or the gods sending the flood differ in the various stories. In the Hebrew myth, the flood inflicts God's judgment on wicked humanity. The Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh gives no reasons, and the flood appears the result of divine caprice.[24] In the Babylonian Atrahasis version, the flood is sent to reduce human overpopulation, and after the flood, other measures were introduced to limit humanity.[25][26][27]

Composition

Main article: Genesis flood narrative § Composition

A consensus among scholars indicates that the

Babylonian exile.[28] Since the 18th century, the flood narrative has been analysed as a paradigm example of the combination of two different versions of a story into a single text, with one marker for the different versions being a consistent preference for different names "Elohim" and "Yahweh" to denote God.[29]

Religious views

Rabbinic Judaism

Main article: Noah in rabbinic literature

The

Zevahim relate that, while Noah was building the Ark, he attempted to warn his neighbors of the coming deluge, but was ignored or mocked. God placed lions and other ferocious animals to protect Noah and his family from the wicked who tried to keep them from the Ark. According to one Midrash, it was God, or the angels, who gathered the animals and their food to the Ark. As no need existed to distinguish between clean and unclean animals before this time, the clean animals made themselves known by kneeling before Noah as they entered the Ark.[citation needed] A differing opinion is that the Ark itself distinguished clean animals from unclean, admitting seven pairs each of the former and one pair each of the latter.[30][non-primary source needed
]

According to Sanhedrin 108b, Noah was engaged both day and night in feeding and caring for the animals, and did not sleep for the entire year aboard the Ark.[31] The animals were the best of their kind and behaved with utmost goodness. They did not procreate, so the number of creatures that disembarked was exactly equal to the number that embarked. The raven created problems, refusing to leave the Ark when Noah sent it forth, and accusing the patriarch of wishing to destroy its race, but as the commentators pointed out, God wished to save the raven, for its descendants were destined to feed the prophet Elijah.[30][non-primary source needed]

According to one tradition, refuse was stored on the lowest of the Ark's three decks, humans and clean beasts on the second, and the unclean animals and birds on the top. A differing interpretation described the refuse as being stored on the topmost deck, from where it was shoveled into the sea through a trapdoor. Precious stones, as bright as the noon sun, provided light, and God ensured the food remained fresh.[32][33][34] In an unorthodox interpretation, the 12th-century Jewish commentator Abraham ibn Ezra interpreted the ark as a vessel that remained underwater for 40 days, after which it floated to the surface.[35]

Christianity

An artist's depiction of the construction of the Ark, from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)
A woodcut of Noah's Ark from Anton Koberger's German Bible

The

Nativity of Christ). Hippolytus furthermore stated that the Ark floated to and fro in the four directions on the waters, making the sign of the cross, before eventually landing on Mount Kardu "in the east, in the land of the sons of Raban, and the Orientals call it Mount Godash; the Armenians call it Ararat".[38] On a more practical plane, Hippolytus explained that the lowest of the three decks was for wild beasts, the middle for birds and domestic animals, and the top for humans. He says male animals were separated from females by sharp stakes to prevent breeding.[38]

The early

Church Father and theologian Origen (circa 182–251), in response to a critic who doubted that the Ark could contain all the animals in the world, argued that Moses, the traditional author of the book of Genesis, had been brought up in Egypt and would therefore have used the larger Egyptian cubit. He also fixed the shape of the Ark as a truncated pyramid, square at its base, and tapering to a square peak one cubit on a side; only in the 12th century did it come to be thought of as a rectangular box with a sloping roof.[39]

Early Christian artists depicted Noah standing in a small box on the waves, symbolizing God saving the Christian Church in its turbulent early years.

City of God, demonstrated that the dimensions of the Ark corresponded to the dimensions of the human body, which according to Christian doctrine is the body of Christ and in turn the body of the Church.[40] Jerome (c. 347–420) identified the raven, which was sent forth and did not return, as the "foul bird of wickedness" expelled by baptism;[41] more enduringly, the dove and olive branch came to symbolize the Holy Spirit and the hope of salvation and eventually, peace.[42] The olive branch remains a secular and religious symbol of peace
today.

Gnosticism

According to the

Gnostic text, Noah is chosen to be spared by the evil Archons when they try to destroy the other inhabitants of the Earth with the great flood. He is told to create the ark then board it at a location called Mount Sir, but when Norea wants to board it as well, Noah attempts to not let her. So she decides to use her divine power to blow upon the ark and set it ablaze, therefore Noah is forced to rebuild it.[43]

Mandaeism

In Book 18 of the

Mandaean text, Noah and his family are saved from the Great Flood because they were able to build an ark or kawila (or kauila, a Mandaic term; it is cognate with Syriac kēʾwilā, which is attested in the Peshitta New Testament, such as Matthew 24:38 and Luke 17:27).[44]

Islam

Main article: Noah in Islam
Shah Rukh
himself.
Noah's Ark and the deluge from Zubdat-al Tawarikh

In contrast to the Jewish tradition, which uses a term that can be translated as a "box" or "

Abd Allah ibn Abbas, a contemporary of Muhammad, wrote that Noah was in doubt as to what shape to make the Ark and that Allah revealed to him that it was to be shaped like a bird's belly and fashioned of teak wood.[47]

The medieval scholar

better source needed
]

The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge (1829), a painting by the American painter Thomas Cole

Baháʼí Faith

The Baháʼí Faith regards the Ark and the Flood as symbolic.[48] In Baháʼí belief, only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the "ark" of his teachings, as others were spiritually dead.[49][50] The Baháʼí scripture Kitáb-i-Íqán endorses the Islamic belief that Noah had numerous companions on the ark, either 40 or 72, as well as his family, and that he taught for 950 (symbolic) years before the flood.[51] The Baháʼí Faith was founded in 19th century Persia, and it recognizes divine messengers from both the Abrahamic and the Indian traditions.

Ancient accounts

Multiple Jewish and Christian writers in the ancient world wrote about the ark. The first-century historian

Ancient Greek: αποβατηριον). He goes on to say that many other writers of "barbarian histories", including Nicolaus of Damascus, Berossus, and Mnaseas mention the flood and the Ark.[52]

In the fourth century, Epiphanius of Salamis wrote about Noah's Ark in his Panarion, saying "Thus even today the remains of Noah's ark are still shown in Cardyaei."[53] Other translations render "Cardyaei" as "the country of the Kurds".[54]

John Chrysostom mentioned Noah's Ark in one of his sermons in the fourth century, saying ""Do not the mountains of Armenia testify to it, where the Ark rested? And are not the remains of the Ark preserved there to this very day for our admonition?[55]

Historicity

quadrupeds."[56] It also endorses a supernatural explanation for the flood, stating that "many attempts have been made to account for the deluge by means of natural causes: but these attempts have only tended to discredit philosophy, and to render their authors ridiculous".[57]

The 1860 edition attempts to solve the problem of the Ark being unable to house all animal types by suggesting a local flood, which is described in the 1910 edition as part of a "gradual surrender of attempts to square scientific facts with a literal interpretation of the Bible" that resulted in "the '

higher criticism' and the rise of the modern scientific views as to the origin of species" leading to "scientific comparative mythology" as the frame in which Noah's Ark was interpreted by 1875.[56]

Ark's geometry

This engraving features a line of animals on the gangway to Noah's ark. It is based on a woodcut by the French illustrator Bernard Salomon.[58] From the Walters Art Museum.

In Europe, the

Augustine. At the same time, however, a new class of scholarship arose, one which, while never questioning the literal truth of the ark story, began to speculate on the practical workings of Noah's vessel from within a purely naturalistic framework. In the 15th century, Alfonso Tostada gave a detailed account of the logistics of the Ark, down to arrangements for the disposal of dung and the circulation of fresh air. The 16th-century geometer Johannes Buteo calculated the Ark's internal dimensions, allowing room for Noah's grinding mills and smokeless ovens, a model widely adopted by other commentators.[42]
: 40–41 

Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum, came into the possession of a cuneiform tablet. He translated it and discovered an hitherto unknown Babylonian version of the story of the great flood. This version gave specific measurements for an unusually large coracle (a type of rounded boat). His discovery led to the production of a television documentary and a book summarizing the finding. A scale replica of the boat described by the tablet was built and floated in Kerala, India.[59][page needed]

Searches for Noah's Ark

The Durupinar site in July 2019
Main article: Searches for Noah's Ark

eastern Turkey, but geological investigation of possible remains of the ark has only shown natural sedimentary formations.[65] While biblical literalists often maintain the Ark's existence in archaeological history, its scientific feasibility, along with that of the deluge, has been contested.[66][67]

Var in Zoroastrianism

In Videvdad 29 and 37,[68] mythical Iranian king Yīmā, was ordered by Ahura Mazdā to build a subterranean enclosure known as Var, which had a function similar to Noah’s Ark, he was instructed to gather plants, animals, and humans with some exceptions.[69]

Cultural legacy: Noah's Ark replicas

Noah's Ark depicted on a silver bullion coin of Armenia.

In the modern era, individuals and organizations have sought to reconstruct Noah's ark using the dimensions specified in the Bible, Noah's Ark replicas and derivatives[70] Johan's Ark was completed in 2012 to this end, while the Ark Encounter was finished in 2016.[71]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English aerca, meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, teva, occurs twice in the Torah, in the flood narrative (Book of Genesis 6–9) and in the Book of Exodus, where it refers to the basket in which Jochebed places the infant Moses. (The word for the Ark of the Covenant, aron, is quite different.) The Ark is built to save Noah, his family, and representatives of all animals from a divinely-sent flood intended to wipe out all life, and in both cases, the teva has a connection with salvation from waters. (See Levenson 2014, p.21)

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Bailey 1990, p. 63.
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  3. ^ a b c Nigosian 2004, p. 40.
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  5. ^ Lorence G. Collins (2009). "Yes, Noah's Flood May Have Happened, But Not Over the Whole Earth". NCSE. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  6. ^ Moore, Robert A. (1983). "The Impossible Voyage of Noah's Ark". Creation Evolution Journal. 4 (1): 1–43. Archived from the original on 17 July 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  7. S2CID 129316719. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
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  9. ^ Blenkinsopp 2011, p. 139.
  10. ^ a b Hamilton 1990, pp. 280–281.
  11. ^ Kessler & Deurloo 2004, p. 81.
  12. ^ Wenham 2003, p. 44.
  13. ^ Batto 1992, p. 95.
  14. ^
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  15. ^ a b Hamilton 1990, pp. 281.
  16. ^ Kvanvig 2011, p. 210.
  17. ^ Chen 2013, pp. 3–4.
  18. ^ Chen 2013, p. 253.
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  20. ^ Finkel 2014, pp. 89–101.
  21. ^ "Nova: Secrets of Noah's Ark". www.pbs.org. 7 October 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  22. ^ a b Finkel 2014, chpt.14.
  23. ^ McKeown 2008, p. 55.
  24. ^ May, Herbert G., and Bruce M. Metzger. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. 1977.
  25. ISBN 978-0-19-953836-2. Archived from the original
    on 24 April 2016.
  26. ^ Alan Dundes, ed., The Flood Myth Archived 14 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 61–71.
  27. ^ J. David Pleins, When the Great Abyss Opened: Classic and Contemporary Readings of Noah's Flood Archived 24 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 102–103.
  28. ^ Enns 2012, p. 23.
  29. ^ Richard Elliot Friedman (1997 ed.), Who Wrote the Bible, p. 51.
  30. ^ a b "Sanhedrin 108b:7–16". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  31. ^ Avigdor Nebenzahl, Tiku Bachodesh Shofer: Thoughts for Rosh Hashanah, Feldheim Publishers, 1997, p. 208.
  32. ^ a b McCurdy, J. F.; Bacher, W.; Seligsohn, M.; et al., eds. (1906). "Noah". Jewish Encyclopedia. JewishEncyclopedia.com.
  33. ^ a b McCurdy, J. F.; Jastrow, M. W.; Ginzberg, L.; et al., eds. (1906). "Ark of Noah". Jewish Encyclopedia. JewishEncyclopedia.com.
  34. ^ Hirsch, E. G.; Muss-Arnolt, W.; Hirschfeld, H., eds. (1906). "The Flood". Jewish Encyclopedia. JewishEncyclopedia.com.
  35. ^ Ibn Ezra's Commentary to Genesis 7:16 Archived 24 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine. HebrewBooks.org.
  36. ^ The Early Christian World, Volume 1, p.148, Philip Esler
  37. ^ 1Pt 3:20–21
  38. ^ a b Hippolytus. "Fragments from the Scriptural Commentaries of Hippolytus". Translated by S. D. F. Salmond. New Advent. Archived from the original on 17 April 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
  39. ^ Cohn 1996, p. 38.
  40. ^ St. Augustin (1890) [c. 400]. "Chapter 26:That the Ark Which Noah Was Ordered to Make Figures In Every Respect Christ and the Church". In Schaff, Philip (ed.). Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers [St. Augustin's City of God and Christian Doctrine]. 1. Vol. 2. The Christian Literature Publishing Company.
  41. ^ Jerome (1892) [c. 347–420]. "Letter LXIX. To Oceanus.". In Schaff, P (ed.). Niocene and Post-Niocene Fathers: The Principal Works of St. Jerome. 2. Vol. 6. The Christian Literature Publishing Company.
  42. ^ a b Cohn 1996
  43. ^ Marvin Meyer; Willis Barnstone (30 June 2009). "The Reality of the Rulers (The Hypostasis of the Archons)". The Gnostic Bible. Shambhala. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
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  47. ^ Baring-Gould, Sabine (1884). "Noah". Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets and Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources. James B. Millar and Co., New York. p. 113.
  48. ^ From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 28 October 1949: Baháʼí News, No. 228, February 1950, p. 4. Republished in Compilation 1983, p. 508
  49. ^ Poirier, Brent. "The Kitab-i-Iqan: The key to unsealing the mysteries of the Holy Bible". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
  50. ISBN 978-0-87743-036-0. Archived
    from the original on 23 October 2008. Retrieved 10 August 2008.
  51. ^ From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, 25 November 1950. Published in Compilation 1983, p. 494
  52. ^ Josephus, Flavius. "3" . The Antiquities of the Jews, Book I  – via Wikisource. Now all the writers of barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this ark; among whom is Berosus the Chaldean. For when he is describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus: "It is said there is still some part of this ark in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets for the averting of mischiefs." Hieronymus the Egyptian also, who wrote the Phoenician Antiquities, and Mnaseas, and a great many more, make mention of the same. Nay, Nicolaus of Damascus, in his ninety-sixth book, hath a particular relation about them; where he speaks thus: "There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote.
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  56. ^ a b Cook, Stanley Arthur (1911). "Ark" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 02 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 548–550, see page 549. Noah's Ark...
  57. ^ Cheyne, Thomas Kelly (1911). "Deluge, The" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 07 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 976–979.
  58. The Walters Art Museum. Archived from the original
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  59. ^ Finkel 2014.
  60. ^
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  61. ^ Lanser, Rick (26 October 2011). "The Landing-Place of Noah's Ark: Testimonial, Geological and Historical Considerations: Part Four". biblearchaeology.org. Associates for Biblical Research. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
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  63. ^ Mayell, Hillary (27 April 2004). "Noah's Ark Found? Turkey Expedition Planned for Summer". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 14 April 2010. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
  64. ^ Stefan Lovgren (2004). Noah's Ark Quest Dead in Water Archived 25 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine – National Geographic
  65. ^ Collins, Lorence G. (2011). "A supposed cast of Noah's ark in eastern Turkey" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  66. ^ "Review of John Woodmorappe's "Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study"". www.talkorigins.org. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  67. ^ "The Impossible Voyage of Noah's Ark | National Center for Science Education". ncse.ngo. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  68. ^ "AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 2: Yima (Jamshed) and the deluge". www.avesta.org. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
  69. ^ Wolff, Fritz. Avesta: the sacred books of the Parsen. K.J.Trübner.
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  71. ISBN 978-0-567-68714-2
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Bibliography

Further reading

Commentaries on Genesis

General

New International Encyclopedia article about "Noah's Ark
".
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