NOAH'S ARK
The Biblical Deluge Myth
Long ago in the time of Noah, either people lived for a very long time, or time was counted differently. Otherwise, how could it be that Noah didn't have any children until he was 500 years old, when he begat three sons?
Noah was a tenth generation descendant of Adam and Eve through their son Seth. He was a grandson of Methuselah, who lived from 2,948 B.C. - 1,998 B.C., i.e. 969 years. Longer than any man who ever lived. You understand now why there is a saying in English "...as old as Methuselah!"
The world of Noah's time had fallen into a dreadful state. As God looked down on the world he made he saw how wicked the humans in it had become. How every thought and act of man was evil and only evil, continually. Almost everyone had turned away from God except Noah, so God saw only one good man. Noah tried to do right in the sight of God, and Noah walked and talked with God.
God said to Noah, "The time has come when all the men and women on earth are to be destroyed. Every one must die because they are all wicked. You and your family shall be saved because you alone are trying to do right."
Then God told Noah how he might save his life and the lives of his family. He was to build a very large boat: a three level "ark" made of cypress, a very light and durable wood, made water-tight inside and out with pitch, and with a roof over it. This ark was to have many "nests" or small separations inside, as places for animals and their food. There was to be a door in the side of the ark, and a window on the roof to let light in. It was about half the size of one of today's ocean liners. The purpose of the ark was only to float. Not to travel. It was like a floating house, and had no mast, sail or rudder. Noah was to have it ready for the time when he would need it.
"For," said God to Noah, "I am going to bring a great flood of water on the earth to cover all the land, and to drown all the people on the earth. And as the animals on the earth will be drowned with the people, you must make the ark large enough to hold a pair of each kind of domestic animal, and several pairs of some animals that are needed by men, like sheep and goats and oxen; so that there will be animals as well as men to live on the earth after the flood has passed away. You must take in the ark food for yourself and your family, and for the animals. Enough food to last for a year, while the flood shall stay on the earth."
Noah did what God told him to do, although it must have seemed very strange to all the people around to build the great ark where there was no water for it to sail upon. And it was a long time, 120 years, that Noah and his sons were at work building the ark, while the wicked people around wondered, and no doubt, laughted at Noah for building a great ship where there was no sea. At last the ark was finished.
Noah was told to take his wife, and his three sons and their wives into the ark. He was also told to choose one pair of animals of all kinds, and birds, and things that creep, seven pair of those that will be needed by men, and one pair of all the rest; so that all kinds of animals may be kept alive upon the earth." When the ark was finished to God's careful specifications, and they were all safely aboard, the door of the ark was shut so that no more people or animals could come in.
Then there was a pause of one week before the rain began to fall as it had never rained before. It seemed as though the heavens opened to pour great floods upon the earth. The streams filled, and the rivers rose higher and higher. The ark began to float on the water. The people left their houses and ran up to the hills, but soon the hills were covered, and all the people on them were drowned.
Some climbed to the tops of higher mountains, but the water rose until even the mountains were drowned in the great sea that now rolled over all the earth where man had lived. All the animals, the tame and the wild were covered. All cattle and sheep and oxen were drowned; and the wild animals, lions and tigers and all the rest were drowned too. Even the birds drowned, for their nests in the trees were swept away, and there was no place where they could fly from the terrible storm. Forty days and nights the rain kept on, until there was no breath of life remaining outside the ark.
After forty days the rain stopped, but the water stayed on the earth for more than six months; and the ark with all in it, floated over the great sea. Then God sent a wind to blow over the waters to dry them up; by degrees the waters grew less. First the mountains rose, then the hills; and finally the ark ceased to float, and lay aground on a mountain which is called Mount Ararat. Noah could not see what had happened on earth because the door was shut, and the window may have been in the roof. He felt the ark no longer moving, and he knew that the water must have gone down. So after waiting for a time, Noah opened a window and let loose a raven. The raven has strong wings; and this raven flew round and round until the waters had gone down and it could find a place to rest, so it did not come back to the ark.
After Noah waited for it awhile he sent out a dove. The dove could not find any place to rest so it flew back to the ark. Noah took it into the ark again. Noah waited a week longer, and then sent the dove out again. At evening the dove came back to the ark, its home. In its bill was a fresh leaf which it had picked from an olive tree.
Noah knew the water had gone down enough to let trees grow once more. He waited another week and sent the dove out again; this time the dove flew away and never came back. So Noah knew the earth was becoming dry. He took off part of the roof, looked out, and saw that there was dry land all around the ark. Noah and the rest had lived in the ark a little more than a year, and he was glad to see green land and trees. God said to Noah:
"Come out of the ark, with your wife, and your sons, and their wives, and all the living things that are with you in the ark."
Noah opened the door. He and his family came out and stood once more on the ground. All the animals and birds and creeping things in the ark came out and began to bring life again to the earth.
The first thing Noah did was to give thanks to God for saving all his family when the rest of the people on the earth were destroyed. He built an altar and laid an offering to the Lord, gave himself and his family to God, and promised to do his will.
God was pleased with Noah's offering, and said:
"I will not again destroy the earth on account of man, no matter how bad they may be. From this time no flood shall again cover the earth; but the season of spring and summer and fall and winter shall remain without change. I give to you the earth; you shall be the rulers of the ground and of every living thing upon it."
Then God caused a rainbow to appear in the sky. He told Noah and his sons that whenever they or people after them saw a rainbow, they should remember that God placed it in the sky, over the clouds, as a sign of his promise that he would always remember the earth and the people on it, and would never again send a flood to destroy all humans from the earth.
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The Bible often says "all the earth" when it means all the known world, or even all the land which was the home of the race being spoken to. The known world then was very small. It is believed the flood was probably limited to a comparatively small area in Asia, which includes modern Mount Ararat.
There are traditions all over the world about the memory of a great and very destructive flood, from which only a small part of humanity escaped. These may have come from the common centre where it happened, as families descended from Noah's sons who were told by God to disperse in all directions, carried them with them as they wandered east and west.
Flood stories most like the biblical account come from western Asia. Closest are Chaldean, and Phoenician mythology. Ancient medals or coins from Phrygia show a square vessel floating in the water. Through an opening in it are seen a man and woman. On top of the vessel a bird is perched, and another flies toward it carrying a branch between its feet. In front of the boat are the man and woman, now on dry land. On some of the medals the letters NOE have been found on the vessel. These medals date back earlier than the time of Septimius Severus.
Noah became head of a new human family, the representative of the whole race. God made a covenant with him and selected a natural phenomenon as the sign of that covenant. The rainbow, seen by every nation under the sun is an unfailing witness to the promise of God. For the rest of his life Noah farmed and planted. He lived to be 950 years old. *********
