DAVID ADAMS takes a look at the Biblical account of Noah…
With the Noah movie making waves all around the world (yes, pun intended), we take a look at 10, sometimes startling, facts about the Biblical account of Noah’s Ark…
An image of Noah as seen in a mosaic at the Basilica di San Marco, Venice. PICTURE: Wikipedia
• Many of us have grown up with the story that Noah and his family were mocked for building the ark. Nowhere in the Bible does it say this occurred. It does, however, say that Noah “preached righteousness” to the people although none of his words are recorded.
• No steering apparatus was specified for the ark – it was a craft built simply to float.
• The mysterious Nephilim – whom some see as fallen angels living on earth although debate rages as to what they actually were – are only mentioned in the Bible once, in the lead-up to the story of Noah.
• The names of Noah’s wife and the wives of his sons are not mentioned in the Biblical account.
• Apart from the account of the flood – contained in Genesis chapters 6 to 9 – and other mentions in Genesis, Noah is also mentioned by name in I Chronicles, Ezekial, Matthew, Luke, Hebrews and I and II Peter.
• While there are references to Noah taking two of every kind of animal onto the ark, Noah was also told to take seven pairs of every kind of clean animal and seven pairs of every kind of bird onto the ark but only one pair of every kind of unclean animal. No specific mention is ever made of fish with regard to the ark.
• As well as taking his family and animals on the ark, Noah was instructed to take “every kind of food that is to be eaten”.
• Noah was the grandson of Methuselah, who lived to 969 years old and was the oldest person in the Bible (he is traditionally thought to have died in the year of the flood).
• Tubal-Cain, cast in the film as the enemy of Noah, is only mentioned once in the Bible – in Genesis 4:22 – and described as a man who “forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron”.
• In the Biblical account, the flood is caused by both rain and springs in the earth – “in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life…all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened” (Genesis 7:11).
