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It was bigger than you probably
think! Gen. 6:16 gives the dimensions
as 300 cubits wide x 50 cubits long x 30 cubits high. That's at
least 450' long x 75' wide x 45' high. Its three decks could
have had 15 feet of headroom each, with a volume of about 550
railroad boxcars.
How many animals needed to be on
board? Estimates run about 16,000 to
20,000. There were two each of "unclean" animals, and
either seven individuals or seven pairs of "clean" animals.
Average size: that of a sheep, and many were smaller than a kitten.
Only land animals needed to be included. And he needed
2 of every "kind" (Hebrew: "bara") of creature.
(Wolves, coyotes, jackals, foxes, fennets, dingos and dogs are
likely only one or two "kinds" of animals, since most
or all can freely interbreed.)
Did dinosaurs get on board? Yes!
God ordered Noah to take at least two of every "kind" of
animal. He needed young (=smaller) adults, not the oldest (=largest).
After the Flood, they became "monsters" and "dragons" known
now from legends around the world, and likely were the "behemoth" and "leviathan" in
Scripture. They were painted on cave walls in France and on canyon
walls in the American Southwest; they are depicted in pottery figurines
unearthed in Peru, and it sure looks like dinosaur and human tracks
in the same rocks in different places around the world.
More info is
available on the materials in our library-by-mail.
Here's a website devoted
to answering questions
about Noah's Ark. There are many excellent articles, at www.answersingenesis.org. (Here--I've already run a query for you on "ark".)
To look up the Biblical story of the Flood, you may use the form
below. It will take you to another web site, in a new window.
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