We know that Noah and his family, along with the animals, were in the ark for over a year, but how long did the ark itself actually float on the water?
Genesis 7.11 says that the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the rain began to descend, “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month…”
However, it would take some time before the earth started to flood enough to reach the ark and then for the water to be deep enough to lift the ark, and so Genesis 7.17 says,
“Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth” (Genesis 7.17).
That sounds like it was forty days before the ark began to float.
At a certain point, the Lord made the waters start to recede, and finally the Bible says,
“Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8.4).
So then, from the beginning of the Flood in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month to the time the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, we have five months, but the ark did not begin to float until after forty days, which would mean the ark floated 110 days, or just over three and a half months.
What do you think?
Sevens in the Bible 
That information “floated my boat” in about 40 seconds.
Thank you for the very interesting article, Don.
I like your choice of words, since it took 40 days to float Noah’s boat!
This was a very clever analysis and mathematically everything adds up (pun intended). However, I don’t see the need to subtract 40 from the 150 days because in Gen. 7:24 it says, “the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.” This implies that the earth was covered in water for 150 days, thus the ark must have been afloat for such time.
I think you have a point.
I think you are delusional to even think this absurd story could possibly be true.
But believing:
1. That something came from nothing;
2. That order came from chaos;
3. That life came from non-life;
4. That one form of life evolved into the multiplicity of life forms on the Earth today
is not delusional!
🙂
Okay, thanks Peter, for visiting. I hope you have a wonderful day and a great life, and that you enjoy every moment of it.
You say it is delusional to believe that everything came from nothing but that is exactly what you believe. You believe God created everything from nothing. Now who is delusional?
BIG AL,
God is something. Therefore, I do not believe something came from nothing.
However, to take the view that God does not exist, means that something (the universe), brought itself into existence from nothing.
To believe the flood is delusional. Period. I am sorry that upsets you. Tell me how did the south American three toed sloth get to the middle east and then back? How did the kangaroos, and kolas get to the middle east and back? Now do that for tens of thousands of animals. Just explain that, without using magic. How did the Ark stay afloat for at least 150 days at an altitude of 30,000 feet? Without magic explain.
Now about your 4 “points”
1. I hate to be that guy, but no one believes that something came from nothing. EXCEPT those who believe in a God. Where did God come from? O he has always been is that what you are going to say….yea, exactly how does that work? AND if he has always been, did he not poof everything that was nothing into existence??? LOL, he certainly did, its right there in your book, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,” so what was there before that?? Yea NOTHING. So God created something from nothing, didnt he? So if a God can be created from nothing, and that God can create everything from nothing, then if it happened once, it can happen again.
2. Order from chaos, WOW, talk about a subject matter that will take more than a few lines to address, let me just ask you this question. What happens when you take a gallon jug of water, fill it with some dirt, small stones, and a few green leafs, and you shake the shit out of it, and then you let it rest, what happens? You introduced chaos, but what happens once it is allowed to settle? This topic would be an entire answer on its own, lets just go with my example.
3. Like everything else science has solved it will eventually put together how life began. It already has made significant progress in this area as it is. But IF this was 1000 years ago you would have written that lighting and thunder is not god bowling, or any one of a thousand things that science has proven to be true that was once thought to be “of god”. We dont know exactly at this point, but we know a lot more now then we did just 100 years ago.
4. Your last one is interesting because in order for the ark story to have chance at being true you would need it to carry the least amount of animals as possible, and then have the animals that were there develop into the plethora of animals that are around now. Lets assume they took 14 red foxes, in order to account for the all the types of wolves and all the types of dogs there are. That one “kind” of K9 would have to account for all the bull dogs, poodles, pugs, terriers, retrievers, and other 356 kinds of dogs, and also account for the artic wolf, eastern, western, Eurasian, Mexican, Indian and 23 other types of wolves. See you either need to account for each type individually or you need to accept evolution you can not have both.
The Ark was not at an altitude of 30,000 during the Flood, it was at sea level.
1. In Newsweek, June 13, 1988, page 62: “The most startling part of inflation is the notion, as Guth puts it, ‘that the universe is a free lunch’—something comes from nothing. Experiments shows that , in a vacuum, pairs of particles can pop into existence for one brief shining moment, only to quickly vanish. This dance between being and nothingness is a quantum fluctuation. ‘Even when you have nothing, there’s something going on,’ says Fermilab’s Edward Kolb. Even when you have nothing, there’s something going on.”
2. The green leaves, the water, as they stand now have the ingredients for life. However, place all sterile in a hermetically sealed environment and see what happens.
3. Life always comes from life.
4. The dog kind is sufficient to provide the variety we see today.
It is true the ark has already been found resting on a mountain! They have established the truth in this story it has been ripped apart and still stands strong! Read the ‘answers’ book you will soon change your mind.
It is a joy in my life to believe every word of The Bible. I don’t care if you call me delusional or what, I dearly love believing God’s precious Word.
Thank you for your comment and support, Treata.
The absurd notion that there is no God and that life is just an accident, that there is no order to the universe, is like saying Webster’s dictionary is a result of an explosion in an ink factory.
We can take all the great minds on this planet and they cannot create one living cell, God does not have that problem because he is God . . .the creator. You don’t have to understand God to know he is there. You don’t have to understand gravity to know that if you jump off a cliff you’re not going to go up…
Thank you, Rick, for your valuable insight!
The notion that “god” created everything is bogus. How do you know that? You’re just a human, who only lived for decades, and who will probably not make it past a century. What I find revolting is how Christians insist (as they always have) that their beliefs are the absolute truth. There are theories that say that the universe started from a big bang or that our universe came from another universe, but the truth of the matter is: I DON’T KNOW, AND NEITHER DO YOU. YOU WEREN’T THERE, AND NEITHER WAS I. Just because I don’t believe in “god” doesn’t mean that I believe that the Earth came from nothing. It just means that I don’t know what that something was. It is not yet possible (if it ever will be) to travel back in time to find out what was going on. Even so, if the universe was so chaotic in its conception, even with the most protective gear and the ability to travel back to the “present,” it may not even be worth doing it because I’m quite sure that any human wouldn’t last a split second to capture the events with a camera because they would probably be vaporized by all the energy and debris.
Confaderation,
You acknowledge that you do not know how the universe began, but you do claim to know that God did not do it. Is it possible that the thing you do not know is that the God of the Bible did indeed create the heavens and the Earth?
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
What is or are the extraordinary claims and what would constitute extraordinary evidence for you?
If God does not make sense to you, it won’t take time you won’t any sense to the world.
If the only thing someone could doubt is biblical facts, its then obvious that you have to doubt your entire life because you are also a biblical fact.
Noah’a ark came from bible evidence and that someone like you was created also came from bible evidence. I think where you put the ark issue is just where you will keep yourself.
If God never had anything true about the ark, you are telling the world that you are a walking lie yourself. Nothing here is an accident. If you think there is no God, its likely a generation will someday and say, ‘there was no you’.
If my beliefs in God should prove to be wrong and a waste of time, which I don’t think is even remotely possible, what have I got to lose? But if your non-belief in God proves to be wrong – what have you got to lose. Let’s see – your soul, eternal happiness, never seeing departed loved ones that also “believed” – in short – EVERYTHING. Using that kind of planning – I wouldn’t head to a casino or buy any lottery tickets with that kind of thinking. I don’t do either anyway – but that’s also just by my choice. Christmas must also be a wonderful time for a non-believer. How many presents do you give? And, if you do – why? How many “presents” do you refuse to receive? And either way – way?
Belief in God is more important than most people think.
It may have only rained 40 days and 40 nights, but Scripture tells us they remained on board the Ark for over a year! It says Noah was 600 years old when they boarded the Ark, one week before the rains began on the 17th day of the 2nd month (Genesis 7:10-12). And then Moses tells us Noah was 601 when they disembarked a full year latter on the 27th day of the 1st month after the waters were fully died up (Genesis 8:14-16).
Just think that all the non believers, believed in God, served him faithfully ,and went to church to worship on Sunday, and when they died there was no God, and no afterlife. So basically it just puts you back to what you don’t believe now right. Just think that there was a living God, and there was a promise to live in God’s kingdom forever after death, and your name being forgiven was written in the book of life. Why would anyone choose to be wrong about this. I choose to believe in the Lord God Almighty.
A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects.
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: “I don’t believe that God exists.”
“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.
“Well, you only have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things.”
The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.
The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”
“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber….”I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!” “No!” the customer exclaimed…..”Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”
With a flash of realization, the Barber answered: “Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me.”
“Exactly!”- affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”
“Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” Psalms 14:1
Extracted from: “13 Reasons Why – evidences that God really does exist” by Pastor Bruce Edwards
(https://www.breakthroughforyou.com/13-reasons-why-evidences-that-god-really-does-exist/)
And so we see, as Paul Simon wrote in the lyrics of Simon & Garfunkel’s popular 70’s song, “The Boxer”–“Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”. Many people disregard what God has revealed about Himself everywhere in the universe and therefore risk receiving His wrath in judgment after they die. In the Bible, God warns people who disregard His existence and refuse to acknowledge Him:
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)
People need to examine their hearts and repent from their refusal to acknowledge God as Creator of the Universe, and turn to be forgiven by the salvation offered through God’s son Jesus Christ:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Receive Jesus today as your Lord and Savior, and rest assured that he will grant you eternal life with God the Father in Heaven.