However, not all the stories of the Physiologist about animals are just empty and absurd fables. Some of his tales, borrowed from the works of ancient naturalists, are based on actual observations and facts from the life of nature, but facts that were misunderstood and distorted beyond recognition by the imagination of various kinds of writers who took part in the design of these legends.
We will now trace the birth and development of legends about some of the most popular in Christian literature and folk beliefs creatures. Many of the heroes of The Physiologist have long been forgotten, but four fantastic creatures: the unicorn, the basilisk, the siren and the dragon still live in fairy tales, fine arts, in heraldry and church symbolism of our time.
We will talk about them.
The biblical myth tells that one day people became such sinners that they forgot true god. Only Noah and his family lived righteously. And God decided to destroy people with a flood. Every single one of them, except Noah.
Noah, warned in advance, built a large ark, that is, a ship. Noah took with him “a pair of every creature” on the voyage: from each species of animal there were two representatives - a male and a female.
Without much comfort, all the animals were housed in the cabins of the floating menagerie. (Since more than a million different species of animals live on Earth, it must be assumed that the ark was thoroughly overcrowded.) There was no room in the ark for only one beast. He was so big, the Hebrew texts say, that he could have overturned the ark by climbing on top of it. Therefore, he had to swim astern. Only occasionally, to take a short rest, the supergiant swimmer rested the end of his horn on the side of the ark.
This beast is one of the most famous and popular animals in Christian myths, one of the most ancient legendary creatures, perhaps the most ferocious and most pious monster in the world.
Of course it was a unicorn!
For two thousand years people have been talking about him amazing stories. The belief in the unicorn was born at the dawn of ancient culture and has not died to this day in the popular beliefs of the East and the Christian myths of the West.
Over the centuries, the size and appearance of the unicorn has changed. But the main symbol of faith in him remained inviolable. It was always a fierce but noble animal, and its miraculous horn, rising on its forehead like a pike, had truly magical properties.
In Arabian tales, the unicorn appeared as a giant of fairy-tale size. It cost him nothing to impale several live elephants on his horn, as if on a spit. They were strung so tightly that the unicorn, no matter how hard he tried, could not shake off their corpses. So this monster with a horn, decorated with a terrible necklace of elephant skeletons, wandered through the eastern lands.
Having hooked three or four elephants on its horn, the unicorn lost its mobility. Carrying an excessive weight through the mountains and forests, he was completely exhausted and became easy prey for the roc bird.
Christian saints competed with Arab storytellers in writing wonderful stories about a unicorn. Despite the savagery and ferocity of this monster, some righteous people, however, managed to God's help tame him and force him to serve you faithfully. Little by little, the unicorn of Christian legends turned into a very pious and well-mannered animal. He immediately humbled his indomitable temper when he saw a holy man from afar, and especially a sinless maiden.
“The Physiologist” teaches that there is only one way to catch a unicorn: choose the most pure one among the girls of the state. Let him, armed only with his innocence, boldly go into the forest where the unicorn wanders and patiently wait for his appearance. Drawn by the irresistible force of pious humility, the unicorn will soon appear among the trees. Having lost both strength and rage, he will approach the virgin and, caressing, put his horn on her lap. And then he falls asleep at her feet. The hunters, who are hiding in the bushes in the meantime, can only throw lassos on the sleepy beast.
But still, the most amazing quality of a unicorn is its magic horn. As soon as you touch poisoned foods with this horn, they immediately become edible. Rarely did a king or feudal lord of a smaller scale not sit down at the table in those days without taking the appropriate precautions: first, the servant had to touch all foods and drinks with a magic wand made from a twisted unicorn horn.
Unicorn (unicorn horn) could even bring the dead back to life if the cause of their death was poisoning. It worked flawlessly against all poisons. You just need to scrape off the thin shavings from the unicorn with a knife and let the victim drink its infusion with wine. If you make a cup from such a horn, it will save you from poisoned drinks in advance.
An erudite reader will immediately mentally object: “The Ark was built not by Moses, but by Noah,” and he will, of course, be right. These two biblical characters are often confused. So, first you need to figure out who is who. But first things first.
Reasons for confusion
First of all, it is worth noting that it arises due to insufficient familiarity with the Bible, because this book is the source of reliable information about these people. But the majority prefers watching feature films on biblical themes to reading, but they often contain many inaccuracies or fiction. Many directors distort history by creating stories that combine characters whose life paths never crossed in time. For example, in one of them, Noah, sailing on the ark, met Lot (who lived about 500 years after the flood), who was moving through the water on a catamaran! Therefore, it is not surprising that questions arise such as “How many animals did Moses take on his ark?” and the like.
Naturally, there are many skeptics who question both the fact and the miracles of the time of Moses, for example, the fact that the waters of the Red Sea parted and allowed an entire people to pass on the dry bottom. This is their opinion, to which they are entitled. Of course, there are many arguments and facts proving the opposite, but that’s not the point now. The purpose of this article is to summarize the information that is in the original source, and leave the right to believe or not to the reader.
What is known about Moses?
The first mention of him is in the book of Exodus, which tells about his birth and life until the age of 80. His father was Amram and his mother Jochebed, both descendants of Levi, the great-grandson of Abraham. According to biblical chronology, Moses was born in 1593 BC. in Egypt at a time when its people, the Jews, were in slavery. Moreover, a threat immediately loomed over the life of the newborn Moses: shortly before his birth, an order was given to kill all male babies. But his mother put him in a papyrus basket and placed it on the banks of the Nile, where the child was found by the pharaoh's daughter, who adopted the boy. Therefore, they gave him the name Moses, which translated means “taken out of the water.”
He was brought up at the court of Pharaoh, received high education, and had a wonderful career ahead of him, but he was aware of his origins and was very eager to help his enslaved people. When he was 40 years old, he left Egypt and went to live in the region of Midiyam. After another 40 years, he received a task from God to return to Egypt and lead the Jewish people out of captivity and bring them to the land where their ancestors used to live. This was preceded by 10 plagues on the Egyptians, and the climax was the crossing of the Red Sea, which became the grave for the pharaoh and his army.
What followed was a grueling 40 years of walking. But Moses was unable to cross the threshold; he died at the age of 120. If we answer in a nutshell the question of what Moses did, who this man was and what role he played in it, it should be mentioned that he was an outstanding leader, military leader, judge, prophet and writer of six books of the Bible. But it had no direct relation to the flood, so the question of how many animals Moses took on his ark does not make sense.
Briefly about Noah
He was born about 1000 years before Moses. His father was a contemporary of Adam, the first man. Due to severe moral decline, God decided to destroy evil people water and instructed his faithful servant Noah and his family to build a ship, later known as Noah's Ark. Animals, as well as people, could be saved if they went there. But unfortunately, only Noah's family did this.
"A pair for every creature"
Those who ask how many animals Moses took on his ark are interested in how many of them could fit on one ship. According to the narrative from (chapter 7), it was necessary to take seven from each genus (now zoologists call them species) of the so-called clean animals and two from unclean ones (hence the expression “a pair of each creature”).
What do the numbers say?
Does this mean that the ark had to fit everything? existing species animals? This sounds implausible. It is believed that hundreds of thousands of species of modern animals can be reduced to a relatively small number of “genera”, such as the “genus” of sheep or the “genus” of dogs. Therefore, some scientists have calculated that if only 10 “kinds” of reptiles, 43 “kinds” of mammals and 74 “kinds” of birds were in the ark, they could produce the entire population of the living world that exists today. There was no need to save the inhabitants of the seas and oceans from the water.
Now the calculations: 10 + 43 + 74 = 127 species of animals could approximately get on the ark. The animals were both clean and unclean, but it is not known how many there were and how many others. Therefore, the number of individuals could range from 254 (127*2) to 889 (127*7). Even if their number really was within 9 hundred, they would fit well on a ship whose length was 133 meters, width 22 meters, and height 13 meters.
Based on all this, if we answer the question of how many animals Moses took on his ark, then the answer is one: not at all, because Noah did this, it was he who had to place several hundred animals on his ship.
For skeptics, all of the above sounds like a fairy tale. Nevertheless, even many respected archaeologists and historians admit that at some point the entire earth was suddenly covered with water, and the search for the ark continues.
Skeptics often ask this question or make a similar argument against the truth of the global flood. This objection is as popular as the question: "". The following quote illustrates frequent statements made by skeptics on this topic:
“It is believed that our planet is inhabited by 30 million species of animals. Perhaps, after these words, comments seem unnecessary. Even if Noah had a whole fleet of “destroyers,” cramming in “a couple” of each type (a total of 60 million individuals) would be a very difficult task.”
Imagine that someone asked you the question: “Why do you beat your wife?” How would you respond? There are already at least several assumptions in this question, firstly, that you are married, and secondly, that you beat your wife. The question only makes sense if the assumptions are correct.
A similar situation occurs in our case with the number of animals on Noah’s Ark. The question already suggests that there must have been millions of species of animals on the ark. The reason for this false assumption is that skeptics think that Noah needed to place on the ark every species of animal that exists today. However, in the book of Genesis it is written:
“Bring also into the ark two of every living creature and every flesh, so that they may remain alive with you; let them be male and female. Of birds according to their kinds, and of livestock according to their kinds, and of every thing that creeps on the earth according to their kind, two of every kind will come to you, so that you may live.” (Genesis 6:19–20)
In this case, the phrase “according to their kind” is key. The Bible does not say that Noah had to introduce two animals from each species. It says: “a pair from each kind.” The same phrase is used in Genesis 1 when the Lord created the animals (1:11, 12,21, 24,24). In order to understand how many animals were on the ark, it is important to understand first of all the meaning of the word “kind”.
What does the phrase “created race” mean?
The Bible says that animals will multiply “according to their kind” (Genesis 1:25). The biblical classification was invented long before the modern classification of animals (species, genus, family, order... etc.) was created. Therefore, the biblical word “genus” almost always corresponds to the concept of “family” in modern classification.
For example, there is a family of dogs, which includes many species of dogs and wolves. Noah did not need to take all these species, he needed to take two individuals, which would then, after leaving the ark, spread throughout the whole earth. In this case, the canine family = the created genus of canines, i.e. Noah would have taken a couple of ancestral individuals from which all varieties emerged modern family canine.
There are many types of dogs in the world. All these types of dogs came from one pair of dogs that Noah took on the ark. He didn't have to take every type of dog that exists!
The same applies to the equine family, which includes zebras and donkeys. Noah did not have to take a pair of each type of donkey, horse, zebra, etc. on board the ark. Instead, he took two individuals whose genetic code included all the equid variations that exist today. In other words, he took a couple of ancestral individuals onto the ark, from which then, due to adaptation, all appeared modern views equine.
Same with cat family, which also includes lions, tigers, domestic cats, etc. They are all representatives of the same created genus of cats, the ancestral pair of which was on the ark.
Over the past 4,000 years since the ancestral pairs of all genera (families in the modern classification) left the ark, all varieties within the created genera have appeared.
The mistake of skeptics is that they count all species from the family of dogs, horses, cats, etc., obtaining cosmic numbers, and therefore think that it would not be possible to accommodate such a number of animals. And here their assumption, turning out to be false, leads them to a false conclusion!
“Woodmorappe counted about 8,000 genera, including extinct ones, so about 16,000 individual animals must have been present on board the ark.”
When calculating the number of animals that were on the ark, skeptics also take into account all types of insects, fish, worms and invertebrates. However, this is also a false assumption, because the only animals on the ark were animals, which the Bible says “have the spirit of life” (Genesis 7:15). It is also written:
“Everything that had the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils on the dry land died” (Genesis 7:22).
According to Ernst Mayer, a leading taxonomist, there are about a million animal species on the planet. Dr. Henry Morris, in his book The Genesis Flood, comments on this:
“...Noah did not need to look for a place for fish (18,000 species), larval chordates (marine chordates, such as the sea squirt, make up 1,700 species), echinoderms (sea inhabitants, including starfish and sea urchins– 4,700), soft-bodied (mussels, clams, oysters – 88,000), coelenterates (corals, sea anemones, jellyfish, hydroids – 10,000), sponges (5,000) or protozoa (microscopic, single-celled organisms mostly aquatic - 15,000). This excludes 142,000 species of marine life... a large number of arthropods (815,000 species), such as lobsters, shrimp, crabs, water fleas and gags, which are marine life... and also 25,000 species of worms that could survive outside the ark, just like insects. And, if we also take into account that Noah did not need to take adults of each kind, ... then the problem disappears.”
Noah could have sired cubs
The Bible does not tell us how old the animals were, but it is logical to assume that there were young animals on the ark old enough to not need their mother's milk. This is a smart move primarily because:
1) It will be easier for the cubs to survive the stress of being on the ark;
2) After they come to land, they will have more offspring than adults.
Were there dinosaurs on the Ark?
God created dinosaurs along with man, so they lived with people before the flood, and Noah took them on board as well. He could take young, as is the case with other animals.
Not all dinosaurs reached such enormous sizes as Brachiosaurus, and even those on the ark were "teenagers" or young individuals. According to recent research, dinosaurs go through a growth spurt. Therefore, God could bring dinosaurs of an age that would allow them to sail with Noah, and the leap would begin immediately after they left the ark.
How big was the ark?
The Bible tells us the following about the size of the ark:
“And you shall make it this way: the length of the ark is three hundred cubits; its breadth is fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.” (Genesis 6:15)
This amounts to 140*22*13.5 meters according to our modern units of measurement. The volume of the ark was 43,500 m3. The average size of the animals on the ark was approximately the size of a sheep.
Ark Dimensions
“The volume of the ark is equal to the volume of 522 standard American railroad boxcars, each of which could hold 240 sheep,” writes Dr. Jonathan Sarfati. — “If the animals were kept in cages with an approximate size of 50*50*30 cm (volume 75,000 cm3), then 16,000 individuals could occupy only 1200 m3 or 14.4 wagons. Even if there were a million species of insects on board, this would not be a problem because they do not take up much space. If each pair was kept in a cage with a side of 10 cm or 1000 cm3, all types of insects would occupy a volume equal to 1000 m3 or 12 more cars. This meant there was room for five trains (each with 99 cars) - for food, Noah's family and additional "territory" for the animals.
Thus, the animals could fit on the ark without any problems.
A life-size model of Noah's Ark was built in Kentucky (USA). On this moment it is the largest wooden structure in the world. (https://arkencounter.com/noahs-ark/)
Food requirement
God told Noah to gather food for himself and the animals:
“Take for yourself all the food that people eat, and gather it for you; and it will be food for you and for them” (Genesis 6:21).
The Bible also teaches that before the Fall, all animals ate only plant foods, and there were no predators (Genesis 1:30). Predation most likely emerged after the flood due to climate change. Then God allowed man to eat meat, and only after that did animals begin to fear man (Genesis 9:2).
Knowing there was enough on the ark free space to place food, we can also assume that Noah could have used compressed feed, grain and hay. According to Vurdomapp's calculations, the volume of food collected should have been 15% of the total volume of the ark. For drinking, they could collect rainwater, which would flow into drainage troughs.
Waste collection
The animals were on the ark for a year, so Noah and his family had to clean up after them. Farmers who have to keep animals indoors during the winter face something similar.
Dr. Zhdonatan Srafati offers the following solutions to the problem:
“Perhaps the Ark had sloped floors or cages with holes in the floor where manure fell in and was washed away (there was plenty of water!), or it was destroyed by vermicomposting (composting with worms), while earthworms could serve as an additional source of food. Very thick bedding can sometimes last for a year without replacement. Absorbent materials (such as sawdust, soft wood shavings and especially peat) could reduce moisture and therefore odors.”
Air circulation
Some skeptics believe that Noah's voyage was impossible because the ark could have collected gases from animal waste, which could have resulted in suffocation or explosion.
But it is known that a window was made at the top of the ark for ventilation:
“And thou shalt make a hole in the ark, and bring it up into a cubit...” (Genesis 6:16).
There could also be a "central slit" inside the ark - a hole in the bottom of the ark that would allow water to rise and fall, which would circulate air inside the ark and solve the gas problem.
Photo of Glomar Explorer with a view of the central slot
Hibernation
The Bible does not say anything about hibernation, but it does not exclude it either. If you pay attention to your dog during storms or rainy weather, you will notice that he sleeps more than usual. It is possible that something similar happened on the ark. Many animals hibernate when the climate around them changes.
“Hibernation has been observed in all species of oviparous, marsupials, insectivores, placentals, rodents, and carnivores.”
Hibernation is a poorly studied phenomenon:
“Hibernation in mammals has been of interest to many zoologists in the past, and sporadic studies have been conducted on this issue over the past 100 years. However, the underlying causes of this condition are still a mystery."
Most likely, God laid this mechanism in animals so that the created genera could be preserved in extreme conditions. During the flood, these conditions were met, and the animals could hibernate, which most likely happened.
“It was pointed out that when an organism encounters an unfavorable environment, it has three options: it can die, adapt or migrate. Hibernation and hibernation are clear means of adaptation to unfavorable climate or weather."
Bottom line
Without a doubt, there is nothing that could prevent Noah from placing all the animals on the ark. The only obstacle is the false assumptions of skeptics who don’t really want to believe, so they come up with excuses for themselves. One day we will all stand in judgment, as the Bible says:
“And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from what was written in the books, according to their works... And whoever was not written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12,15).
Will you be among those written in the book of life?
Links and notes
1. Noah's Ark - did it exist? http://x-files.org.ua/articles.php?article_id=4388
2. How did all the animals fit on Noah's Ark? — https://creationist.in.ua/reading/articles/218-noahs-ark-feasibility#textref1
3. John C. Whitcomb, Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood, 1968, p. 68
4. Link 3, p. 68-69
5. W.C. Alee, A.E. Emerson, Orlando Park, Thomas Park, and K.P. Schmidt: Principles of Animal Ecology (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co., 1949) p. 106
6. C. P. Lyman and P.O. Chatfield: Hibernation, Scientific American, Dec. 1950, p. 19
7. Link 5, p. 539
8. Were there dinosaurs on Noah's Ark?
Found it on the web interesting information on the topic “Could Noah’s Ark have contained all the animals?” I think it will be useful to other readers...
“Skeptics very often ask the question: how could representatives of the entire animal world fit in the ark? It turns out that this is not surprising.
The dimensions of the ark vary depending on how long a cubit is considered to be. Its minimum size is 44.5 cm, and its maximum (long elbow) is 52 cm. But usually its length is taken as 45.5 cm.
At its smallest cubit size, the ark was 133.5 m long; 22.25 m. - width, 13.5 m. - height. This corresponded to a volume of 39,655 m3, and a displacement of 13,960 tons. Regular dimensions: length - 136.5 m, height - 13.65 m, width - 22.75 m, volume - 42388.369 m3. A maximum dimensions: length - 156 m, height - 15.6 m, width - 26 m, volume - 63273.6 m3.
One car has a useful volume of about 76 m3. This means that even the minimum size of the ark corresponded to 522 carriages (the usual one was 557, and the maximum one was 832). Considering that a typical boxcar holds 240 sheep, it is clear that the ark could accommodate between 125,280 (at the cubit minimum) and 199,680 (at the maximum) sheep. This volume is sufficient to accommodate all land animals (birds, insects (winged), mammals, reptiles and amphibians) both living and extinct.
To be convinced of this, firstly, remember that the “genus” of the book of Genesis does not always coincide with the “species” in the modern classification, but is often closer to the “family”, and secondly, the animals included in the ark were most likely teenagers, and not by adults, because they had to repopulate the world. Therefore, they took up less space than adult animals.
To be more convincing, let’s use the calculations given in the scientific film “The Lost World.” So, there are now 1,075,100 species of animals in the world, but most of them did not need saving, because they either live in water or are able to spend unlimited time in it. for a long time in the form of caviar. Noah didn't have to worry about the 21,000 species of fish, 1,700 species of tunicates, 600 echinoderms, including starfish and hedgehogs, 107,000 species of mollusks, 10,000 species of coelenterates (corals, hydras), 5,000 species of sponges, 30,000 species of protozoa. Some mammals are aquatic animals, such as whales and dolphins, as are some reptiles (sea turtles) and amphibians. Most arthropods (there are 838,000 species) are marine animals (crayfish, lobsters, shrimp). And insects are very small and take up almost no space (especially if they pupated), most of the 35,000 species of worms could have escaped without the ark.
It is stated that the ark needed to accommodate no more than 35,000 animal specimens; if we add some more extinct animals, then the ark should have accommodated 50,000 creatures. There are few very large animals - elephants and rhinoceros, but they were most likely represented by young individuals. Returning to the comparison of the volume of the ark with the cars, these 50,000 animals would occupy 208.3 cars, which was only 37.3% of the average volume of the ark (minimum - 39.9%, maximum - 25%).
Thus, 60% of the ark was left for Noah's family to live on and for food. - “Take for yourself all the food that they eat, and gather it for you; and it will be food for you and for them.” (Gen.6:21). - That is, God returned people and animals to a paradise state at the time of the flood. They ate the same food - plants (meat was allowed only after the flood) and did not quarrel with each other. Noah regained the power over animals that Adam had lost.
Noah was not ordered to take water with him, for the rains that fell from beyond the firmament were fresh and could be drink for all the inhabitants of the ark. Noah took them through a special hole (window - Gen. 8:6).
Another objection to the biblical account is the fact that 8 people could not feed and clean so many animals. But it is known that even with normal bad weather many creatures become drowsy. According to some reports, before the flood Atmosphere pressure was 2 times higher than modern, and the atmosphere contained 30% oxygen, and during the year of the cataclysm, the pressure dropped to modern levels, and most of the oxygen was bound in the form of limestones and other sedimentary rocks (now there is 21% of this gas in the atmosphere). All this inevitably plunged most of the animals into suspended animation and their care was minimal.
So there is nothing in the story of the Flood that cannot be explained in terms of natural laws."
Atheists insist that there is no way that the Ark could have accommodated representatives of all kinds of animals and, therefore, the Bible lies. Because of this, many Christians stopped believing in the Flood story; they now believe that the flood was "local" and that very few animals entered the Ark.
It usually turns out that the skeptics simply did not fully understand the situation. On the other hand, the classic work on creationism "The Flood from the Book of Genesis" ("TheGenesisFlood")- a comprehensive analysis of the Flood - was published back in 1961. 1 New book by John Woodmorappe "Noah's Ark: Justification" ("Noah'sArk:aFeasibilityStudy”) is an expanded and expanded study that sheds light on the history of the Flood and other related issues. 2 This chapter is based on material from these books and some independent calculations. We face two main questions:
How many kinds of animals did Noah have to take into the Ark? - Could the Ark accommodate representatives of all kinds of animals?
How many kinds of animals did Noah have to take into the Ark?
The Bible says:
Also bring into the ark two of every animal and every flesh, so that they may remain alive with you: male and female. Of birds according to their kinds, and of livestock according to their kinds, and of every thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind...(Gen. 6:19-20) And take seven of every clean animal, male and female, and two of the unclean cattle, male and female. Likewise, of the birds of the air, seven by one, male and female, to preserve a tribe for all the earth.(Gen. 7:2-3)
In the original Hebrew text, the word translated "beast" or "cattle" in the Bible is the same in these verses: "behemah", and it applies to terrestrial vertebrates in general. The word used for reptiles is "craft", which has in Holy Scripture several meanings, but here probably refers to reptiles. 3 Noah did not need to take the inhabitants of the sea into the Ark, 4 since the Flood did not threaten to destroy them. However, rapid flows of water, carrying with them a colloidal mixture of sediments, killed a great many living creatures, which is reflected in the fossil record. Many species that lived in the oceans did not survive the Flood. But if God, in His wisdom, decided not to leave certain inhabitants of the sea alive, it means that this was His will, and Noah had absolutely nothing to do with this.
Noah had no need to take plants into the Ark. Some of them survived in the form of seeds, others in the form of floating plant masses; We see this even today after severe storms. Many insects and other invertebrates could have escaped on these natural “rafts.” According to Genesis 7:22, the Flood destroyed all land animals that had "the breath of the spirit of life in your nostrils"- except those who entered the Ark. Insects do not breathe through their nostrils, but through tiny openings (tracheas) in the exoskeleton.
Clean animals: On the question of what is meant by original text The Bible - "seven" or "seven pairs" of each kind of pure animals - the opinions of commentators differed equally. Woodmorappe insists on the second option, thereby making a concession to atheists. However, there are many more unclean animals than clean ones, and each species was represented by only one pair. In general, the term “clean animals” is defined only in the Law of Moses; however, since Genesis was also written/compiled by Moses, then according to the principle “Scripture is the best commentator of Scripture,” the definitions of the Law also work in the situation with Noah. In fact, the eleventh chapter of Leviticus and the fourteenth chapter of Deuteronomy list very few “pure” land animals.
What is "genus"?
God created a certain number of kinds of animals and endowed them with the ability to vary within certain limits. 5 The descendants of these genera, with the exception of the human race, are today predominantly represented by more than one so-called view (species). From one created genus a whole series of species arose, and modern taxonomy (the biological science of classifying living things) in many cases combines them into the category biological kind (genus).
One of the definitions of a species is: “A species is a group of organisms that interbreed freely and produce fertile offspring, and do not interbreed with members of other species.” However, most species of the same genus or even family have not been tested for intercrossing; it is even more impossible to carry out such a test for fossil species. In fact, the situation is like this: not only are so-called species capable of interbreeding, but there are also many examples of interbreeding between biological genera. Thus, in a number of cases, the created genus could generally correspond to the systematic category of family! But the identification of the created race with the biological race is also quite consistent with the Holy Scriptures, because when the Scriptures spoke about the “kind”, the people of Israel understood perfectly well what they were talking about, without any need to check for crossing.
Thus, the horse, zebra and donkey most likely descended from the same equine lineage, since they can interbreed with each other - although their offspring are mostly sterile. The dog, wolf, coyote and jackal are also probably from the same genus - the canine genus. All varieties of large cattle(pure animals!) descended from the bison, 6 so that only 7 (or 14) such animals entered the Ark. The bison, in turn, is a descendant of that “large horned” family from which the bison and buffalo also came. We know that tigers and lions are capable of interbreeding, which results in the so-called “tiger lions”; so, probably, these animals also came from the same created race.
Woodmorappe counted about 8,000 genera, including extinct ones. Thus, about 16 thousand animals should have entered the Ark. Regarding extinct genera, it is worth noting the tendency of some paleontologists to assign a new generic name to each find. Since this practice is highly controversial, the number of extinct animal genera may be greatly exaggerated.
Let's consider the largest of the dinosaurs - giant herbivorous lizards, such as Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, etc. They usually talk about 87 genera of lizards, but only 12 of them are “precisely defined”, and another 12 are “precisely defined”. 7
Dinosaurs?
One of the most frequently asked questions is “How did Noah fit huge dinosaurs into the Ark?” First, of the 668 estimated genera of dinosaurs, only 106 reached weights of more than 10 tons as adults. Secondly, nowhere in the Bible does it say that adult animals should have been taken into the Ark. The largest animals were probably represented by "teenagers" or even younger individuals. Surprisingly, according to Woodmorappe's newest tables, most animals on the Ark were no larger than a rat, and only about 11% were animals larger than a sheep.
Microbes?
Another issue often raised by atheists and theistic evolutionists is “How did pathogens survive the Flood?” This question is fundamental - it assumes that the microorganisms of that time were the same specialized carriers of infections as modern ones - therefore all passengers on the Ark should have suffered from all the diseases that exist on Earth today. However, most likely, microbes at that time were much healthier than they are now; they may have only recently lost the ability to survive in different hosts or independently of hosts. In fact, even now, many microbes survive in dry and frosty conditions, or in the bodies of insects that carry the infection, or in the corpses of dead individuals, without causing disease. Moreover, even today many microbes cause disease only in a weakened body, but in those days they could live, say, in the intestines of the owner, without causing him any inconvenience. This loss of resistance to microbes is probably due to the general decline of life after the Fall. 8
How could all the animals fit in the Ark?
The Ark had dimensions of 300 x 50 x 30 cubits (Gen. 6:15), which is approximately 137 x 23 x 13.7 meters, that is, its volume was ultimately equal to 43,200 m 3 - the same as 522 ordinary cattle cars, each of which could hold 240 sheep .
If animals were kept in cages with an average size (some smaller, some larger) 50x50x30 cm, that is, 75,000 cm 3 , then 16,000 animals occupied only 1,200 m 3 of space, or 14.4 cattle cars. Even if there were a million more insects in the Ark, this would not pose a problem, since insects take up very little space. If each pair of insects were kept in cages with a side of 10 cm, that is, a volume of 1000 cm 3, then all types of insects would occupy only 1000 m 3 - that is, another 12 cars. This would leave space in the Ark equivalent to 5 trains of 99 cars each. Noah and his family could easily fit there, along with supplies of food and feed, and there would still be some free space left. But insects don't fit into any category "behemah", neither under category "craft", and therefore Noah, in all likelihood, should not have taken them on board.
The calculation of the volume of the Ark is most likely correct, since it shows that there was more than enough room for food, space for movement, etc. - as would be expected. The cages could be placed one on top of the other, and food containers could be placed on top of or next to them; thus, it was easier for people to feed animals, and space was freed up for normal air circulation. Please note: we are not talking about a joyride, but about the need to survive in difficult conditions. The animals had plenty of room to move around in space (especially since skeptics exaggerate their need for movement).
Even if one cell was not placed on top of another, there were still no problems. Woodmorappe showed that, based on modern animal housing standards, all the Ark's inhabitants could fit on less than half the space of its three decks. This placement would allow for maximum food and water supplies to be placed on top of the cages, closer to the animals.
Nutritional needs
Most likely, the Ark contained compressed and dry food and concentrates. Noah probably fed the animals mainly grain with the addition of hay. Woodmorappe calculated that the volume of food supplies was only about 15% of the total volume of the Ark, and drinking water occupied less than 10% of the volume; in addition, the passengers of the Ark could collect rainwater.
Waste collection
How did Noah and his family clean up waste for thousands of animals every day? This work could be optimized in different ways. Perhaps the Ark had sloping floors and/or cages with holes in the floor: manure would fall there, and there was plenty of water all around! Or perhaps the manure was composted by worms and thus became a source of food themselves; After all, good bedding can not be changed for a year. Absorbent materials (such as sawdust, shavings and especially peat) reduced the moisture content and therefore unpleasant odors.
Hibernation
Even with normal cycles sleep and wakefulness, the Ark fully satisfied the needs of animals for food and movement. But these needs could be significantly reduced during hibernation. The Bible does not mention hibernation anywhere, but it does not exclude it either. Some creationists suggest that God created, or enhanced, the hibernation instinct specifically for the passengers of the Ark, but we, of course, cannot categorically say this.
Skeptics believe that the fact that there is food on the Ark excludes the possibility of hibernation; but that's not true. After all, hibernation in animals does not last all winter, and from time to time they still need food.
Conclusion
We have shown that the Bible is a reliable source of information about Noah's Ark. Many Christians think that the Bible can only be trusted in matters of faith and morals, not science. But let us remember how Jesus Himself said to Nicodemus (Gospel of John 3:12):
If I told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
If the Bible were wrong about things within human experience—geography, history, science—why should we trust it about such matters as the nature of God or life after death? This is why Christians must be prepared “Give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and reverence.”(1 Pet. 3:15) when atheists tell them that the Bible contradicts “scientific facts.”
Unbelievers, seeing that the Bible can be trusted in matters that can be verified, should understand that they are taking a great risk by refusing to believe in its warnings about the coming judgment.
Sergei Golovin. The Flood: myth, legend or reality?