5 April: Noah's Ark

It is estimated that on this date in 2348 BC, Noah's ark grounded on Mt Ararat. Here are 10 things you might not know about Noah and his ark, gleaned from the Genesis story and other Jewish texts:

1. Noah is a 10th generation descendant of Adam, descended from Seth, one of Adam's sons. His father's name was Lamech and his grandfather was Methuselah, the oldest person mentioned in the Bible, who lived to be 969. Noah had three sons called Ham, Shem and Japheth. The Bible doesn't mention the names of Noah's mother, his wife, or the wives of his sons.
2. Noah lived a pretty long life, too. The first 500 years were uneventful but at 500, he became a father. He was 600 years old when he built the Ark. He lived for another 350 years after the flood, finally shuffling off this mortal coil at the grand old age of 950. As well as being a righteous person, God's choice to build the Ark was even more appropriate since Noah was a farmer by profession and therefore perfectly qualified to take care of all those animals.
3. According to ancient Jewish texts, as Noah was building the Ark, he tried to warn his neighbours that a flood was coming, but they just laughed at him. Later on, though, when they realised Noah had been right, God placed Lions and other ferocious animals to stop the neighbours from forcing their way onto the Ark.
4. Popular culture always imagines the Ark with pairs of each type of animal on board, but the Bible says that there were more than two of some animals – there were seven pairs of every "clean" animal and just one pair of the "unclean ones". Since the definitions of which animals were clean and which were not didn't come along until much later, Noah would have no way of knowing which was which. However, the "clean" animals helped out by kneeling before him as they approached the Ark. Some versions of the story say Noah didn't sleep for the entire time because caring for the animals took 24 hours a day. The animals, however, obligingly didn't procreate and were extremely well behaved.
5. How big was the Ark? The Bible gives the dimensions in cubits: 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. A cubit isn't a precise measurement as it's defined as the distance from a man’s (presumably Noah in this case) elbow to the tip of his middle finger. This would normally be around 18 and 21 inches, although we can't be certain people weren't bigger in Noah's time. Assuming they weren't, the Ark's dimensions in modern measurements would be 440×72×43 ft or 134×22×13 m. That's about a third the size of the Titanic. Which could fit about 1,300 standard 20-foot shipping containers, although since they were all going to be on board for several months, there would have to be living space and room to store enough food for animals which couldn't live exclusively on fish. Some sources say that one of the three decks was used simply to store the huge amounts of animal poo that must have been generated, until it could be shovelled into the sea. Estimates as to how many animals would fit range from 16,000 to over two million. There was no steering wheel on the Ark. It was made to float, and be steered by God.
6. What was it made of? The Bible says it was made from "gopher wood" but there's no such thing. It's not even mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. Scholars suspect something was lost in translation. Perhaps the translators got confused with "koper", a word meaning meaning pitch or bitumen, which would have been used to smear the vessel to make it waterproof. Historians believe it may have actually been made from cypress wood, which was a common material in ship building in ancient times.
7. According to the Bible, the Water was 15 cubits high, or about 23 feet. The floodwaters stayed for 150 days, then they receded for another 100 days. As one source put it, "Noah and his family (wife, sons and sons’ wives) were stuck on the Ark for one year and ten days." As the pandemic drags on, we all know how he must have felt! They knew it was coming to an end when a dove was sent out and returned with an Olive branch. A Raven had been sent out prior to that, somewhat reluctantly, but hadn't come back. Hence ravens came to be seen as somewhat evil birds while doves are symbols of peace.
8. So what did Noah and his family do after the flood? Presumably one priority was to repopulate the Earth. However, according to the Bible, they didn't get going on that for a couple of years. According to Genesis 11:10 the first baby born after the flood was Arphaxad, the son of Noah’s son Shem. I suspect, however, that there were more babies before that, but they were probably all girls – and since the Bible didn't bother mentioning the names of any of the women on board the Ark or Noah's mother or grandmother, it's entirely likely the author of the book of Genesis didn't think them worth mentioning. Noah, meanwhile, planted a vineyard and, the story goes, got so completely blotto on the Wine that he passed out naked in his tent. His son Ham found him that way, and rather than help him, called to his brothers to come and look. I imagine that today, he would have taken his phone out and posted pictures of his Dad naked and drunk all over social media. Shem and Japheth were allegedly more helpful. They dragged Noah out of the tent, covering their eyes so they didn't see him naked. Ham was cursed to be their slave for not being helpful.
9. The Jewish and Christian religions aren't the only ones to tell of mankind being saved from a flood by a bloke with a big boat. The Quran tells the story, too, and refers to the Ark as "Safina Nūḥ" or "Noah's Boat". In fact, around 300 cultures agree there was a catastrophic flood. The first such story originated with the Mesopotamians in which the hero is called King Ziusudra. The name means "He of long life." The Babylonian version features a man called Atrahasis whose name means the same thing. The various tales feature round or cube shaped arks.
10. The Bible says the Ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. So is it still there? Or on another mountain nearby? If there is anything there, it's buried under centuries of Snow and ice so finding it would be tricky. That hasn't stopped people from trying. Marco Polo went looking for it, and Ark hunters in modern times have included astronaut, James Irwin—the eighth man to walk on the moon. Bob Cornuke, president of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration (BASE) Institute, believes that the Ark may be on a different mountain. Referring to scriptures supporting the idea that the Ark settled in the nearby Elborz Mountains, he took a team of people to investigate in 2007. They did make an intriguing discovery. A rock formation 14000 above sea level, which not only looked like fossilized wooden beams, but which was surrounded by fossilized sea shells.

My Books:

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Available from:

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