Years ago, when I used to peruse the discussion boards on the web, I was involved in a discussion about the Genesis Flood. One of the board members, in an effort to show the lameness behind the idea of a universal flood, told me that one ancient account had the god destroy men because they were simply too noisy! He was referring to the Atrahasis Epic.[1] I agreed that such an idea is laughable, but a deeper understanding of what is behind the idea makes it reasonable! For example, consider what God told Cain, after he slew his brother: “…the voice of thy brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Another example might be, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so blatant that I must go down and see, if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. If not, I will know” (Genesis 18:20-21). This is how things were expressed in the east during ancient times (cp. Nehemiah 5:1-6), so Moses would have written in this manner. The noise represents the sins of violence that the Genesis record tells us filled the earth (Genesis 6:11).
Our next study begins with, “These are the generations of Noah…” Genesis 6:9, which should remind us of the records that were handed down to Moses, which he incorporated into one book (cp. Genesis 2:4; 5:1). We are also told in this record that Noah was a just man, and he walked with God. Only one other of the previous nine patriarchs is said to have walked with God, and that was Enoch (Genesis 5:22). Enoch prophesied and warned his generation of the coming judgment of God upon the wickedness of men (Jude 1:14-15). Many scholars today believe that the line extending from Adam/Seth is a righteous line, and Lamech was a prophet saying rest would come with Noah (Genesis 5:29), but Lamech was a complainer (Jude 1:16) who slandered God. If anyone would honestly consider his prophecy, it becomes clear that Lamech is a false prophet! He said Noah would bring rest from the “work and toil of our hands, because of the ground, which the LORD has cursed.” Yet, even today ‘thorns and thistles’ come up, and men partake of the fruit of their labor, produced from the sweat of their brow (Genesis 3:17-19). Thus, only Enoch and Noah were righteous among the ten antediluvian patriarchs, and Noah begat three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japeth (Genesis 6:10),
The Lord looked on, as the ways of men became more and more corrupt, until the whole earth was filled with their violence (Genesis 6:11-12). So, God told Noah that he decided he would judge the whole earth, because the end purpose of flesh was clear, in that violence filled their hearts continually. Therefore, he would destroy all mankind with every beast and bird that breathes (Genesis 6:13).
Nevertheless, he would save Noah and his family alive, but Noah was to build himself an ark (Genesis 6:14), and build it with storage rooms and make certain it won’t leak, because the judgment, which the Lord would bring upon the earth to destroy mankind, would involve flooding the whole earth with water (Genesis 6:17). Moreover, the Lord gave Noah specific instructions both in materials and dimensions, which included a window, a door and the ark having three stories (Genesis 6:15-16). If a cubit is about 18 inches, the ark would have been quite large, 450 feet long, by 75 feet wide and 45 feet high! (Genesis 6:15).
Many critics believe these dimensions prove that the vessel wasn’t seaworthy. Critics conclude that problems of stress upon such a large wooden vessel would cause it to break up in the open seas. Moreover, expansion of the wood, when wet, would cause it to crack, and/or break the seals between the wooden planks and cause too much leakage for the Ark to stay afloat. Therefore, the Genesis account cannot be true. It has been shown that the largest wooden vessels built in the 19th and 20th centuries were laden with leakage problems and were eventually either taken out of service or they were sunk in a storm.
A critic’s testimony has one great and obvious problem, however. They want to discredit what they criticize, and they don’t, as a rule, point out anything in their studies that would support the records they wish to discredit. For example, many of the great wooden ships of the 19th century weren’t built to be seaworthy. They were built for a single voyage, and at the end of that voyage, they were dismantled and the lumber was sold. In this way they were able to avoid the wood tax levied on the forestry industry! Additionally, independent studies have been made regarding the seaworthiness of Noah’s ark,[2] and these studies support the proposition that Noah’s ark was seaworthy, and the Genesis account is a reasonable record of the events it records.
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[1] The Atrahasis Epic is a literary work that comes out of Babylon cir. 1700 BC. It is believed to have been a record of an older account dating back to Sumerian times, cir. 3300 BC or even earlier.
[2] See a study done by Dr. Seon Won Hong (BS degree in naval architecture from Seoul National University and PhD degree in applied mechanics from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
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