The story of Noah's Ark is one of the most well-known tales in the Old Testament. The story is found in the Book of Genesis, chapters 6 through 9. It is the story of Noah as he receives a command from God to build a mighty boat, an Ark, to save both the animals of the Earth as well as Noah's family.
Genesis 6: God tells Noah that due to the wicked nature of mankind, He plans to send a flood to destroy the earth. God then tells Noah that he will be spared, but he must construct an Ark.
Genesis 7: Covers the plans for the Ark, its construction, and the gathering of the animals. This chapter also tells of the beginning of the flood that would cover the entire earth.
Genesis 8: Tells of the conclusion of the flood as the flood water receded and the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. During this chapter, Noah releases the birds as a test to see if the flood waters have receded.
Genesis 9: God makes a covenant with Noah and all of his descendants, never to again destroy the world with a flood. God gives them a rainbow as a sign of this covenant.
God tells Noah to build the Ark from Gopher wood and to construct it 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide by 30 cubits tall. These instructions immediately bring up questions. The first is, what is Gopher wood? The fact is, we aren't sure what this refers to. It could be a tree we know well today, but it is simply now called by a different name. The tree from which Gopher wood came may now be extinct. Whatever the case, we must presume Gopher wood was in plentiful supply and was known to Naoh. The second question is, what is a cubit?
A Cubit is an ancient unit of measure, but not a precise measurement. A cubit was the distance between a man's elbow and the tip of his middle finger. This can vary with the length of a cubit being set at somewhere between 17.5 inches to over 21 inches. A common cubit is between 17.5 and 18 inches. A Royal Cubit is between 20.4 inches and 21.6 inches. While we do not know what length Noah used in his calculations, we will use a length of 18 inches for the remainder of this post.
Using a measurement of 18 inches for a Cubit, we can calculate the size of the Ark in feet. The Ark would have measured 450 feet in length by 75 feet wide by 45 feet tall. With these measurements, the Ark would have had a storage capacity of 1,518,750 cubic feet.
In comparison, a standard 60-foot railroad boxcar will have a capacity of approximately 7,000 cubic feet. This translates into the Ark having the storage capacity of approximately 217 sixty-foot boxcars.
The Bible does not specify the amount of raw material (wood) Noah would have had to process to build the Ark. However, varying estimates have been made. When a life-size replica of Noah's Ark was built, it required approximately 14,000 Swedish pine trees. Another estimate suggested that the Ark would have required up to 30,000 cypress trees for its construction. Since we are uncertain about the source of Gopher Wood, we cannot be certain how many trees would have been required; however, we can be sure that it was a vast amount.
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Here is another source of information concerning Noah's Ark - "Inside Noah's Ark"
It reveals important details about the viability of the Ark to function in and survive the forces of a global flood. Learn how ancient knowledge of bamboo pipes, cisterns, cage design, animal-powered machines, food storage, lighting, ventilation, and water systems reveals the ship was not just seaworthy, but also an actual working vessel.
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With the size of the Ark and the amount of raw materials needed in the construction, how long did it take Noah and his sons to build the Ark? In Genesis 5:32, Noah is 500 years old and has three sons. In Genesis 7:6, when the flood comes, we see Noah is 600 years old. This gives a possible time frame of 100 years, but in Chapter 5 Noah has just had his sons. These sons , Shem, Ham and Japheth would need time to grow up and marry. We know this because the Bible tells us Noah went on the Ark with his sons, and their wives. If we allow for 20 to 30 years for the sons to mature and marry, this leaves a window of 70 to 80 years to build the Ark.
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