Jan. 8, 2012 - Genesis 8

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals…

I don’t know if this means that God helped Noah to care for all the animals and everything during the flood or not, but I do know that God still isn’t abandoning anybody.

Now, we’ve still got those different accounts intertwined throughout here. So for instance, with the P account we see more exact measurements of time:

-For 40 days the flood kept coming

-At the end of 150 days the water had gone down

-17^th day of the 7^th month the ark came to rest on the mountains

-1^st day of the 10^th month the tops of mountains became visible

-1^st day of the 1^st month, Noah’s 601^st year, water dried up

Specific days and months to mark the time of the flood, and when things were happening.

On the other hand, the J account gives us:

-Rain fell for 40 days and nights

-The water receded steadily from the land.

-After 40 days Noah opens window

-7 more days

Instead of focusing on the exact length of the flood though, this section gives the story about the dove, and the search for land. After getting off the ark, we also see the sacrifices portrayed in this account, and the promises by God not to ever curse the land because of man again(Adam), or destroy all living creatures.

Now, I would like to point out again that the whole thought about the different accounts is really only a theory. Nobody knows if there ever were such documents, or who would have written them if there were. Or, if they were just different ‘drafts’ that were edited together. I’ve never written the bible, I don’t know how God works with that. Apparently, not many other biblical scholars have either. It’s crazy. Anyways, with the internet and everything, you can find a zillion sources to tell you absolutely anything you want. Honestly, the idea was just something new for me, and I found it an interesting way to study this story. I’m going to try to keep giving as many disclaimers as I can, so you hopefully you’ll remember that I don’t really know anything. I’m just hoping to introduce you to new ideas, or ways to think about things, as I find them myself. In the end, just read the book. That’s the only thing I really know is right.

While we’re speculating, though…

How did all the animals fit on the ark? How long did it take to build the ark? Where the water come from? Where did it go? What about dinosaurs?

How did they fit? Well first of all, remember we’re talking about ‘kinds’ of animals. Possibly species, or something of the sort, but we don’t really know how big a ‘kind’ is. Anyways, we’re only getting a pair from each, so it’s not like we have exactly every specialized animal, just representatives. Also, it seems reasonable to assume this pair would be younger, not completely fully grown, so as to give them a better chance of actually having enough babies to establish themselves and survive. Now I haven’t even tried to do the math on how much area was in the ark, or estimate how much space so many animals would take, or any of that. The bible says they fit, that’s good enough. They fit. However many there were, however old or big they were, however much food was required. It all fit.

How long did it take to build the ark? Well, Noah had his first son at 500, the flood came when he was 600, and when God told him to build the ark, he included instructions for Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives. Sounds like all his sons were born, and even possibly had wives themselves already. So probably something like 60-70 years after that to build the ark before the flood. I don’t know. It got done in time.

Where did the water come from? Above the sky. Whether this means from some water-atmosphere, or like above everything(aka, from heaven), it’s almost certainly coming from wherever it was at creation.

Where did it go? The oceans? Gigantic underground aquifers? I don’t know. I have no idea how much water was on earth before the flood, but I do know that the majority of the surface area is water now…

Dinosaurs? Sure, why not. They could have been on the ark. Most of them weren’t so gigantic anyways, and again, younger specimens, less space. If we really want to go for it, we could say that due to the drastic environmental changes after the flood, most of them died off. Some got called dragons, whatever. Human life spans definitely took a drop-off, seems reasonable the same thing could happen to dinos, except their life span eventually dropped all the way to zero.