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● Gen 8:3b-4 . . At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters diminished, so that
in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the
mountains of Ararat.
The Hebrew word for "Ararat" is from 'Ararat (ar-aw-rat') which appears three more
times in the Bible: one at 2Kgs 19:36-37, one at Isa 37:36-38, and one at Jer 51:27.
Ararat in the Bible always refers to a political area-- a country --never a specific
geological feature by the same name.
The Hebrew word for "mountains" in Gen 8:4 is haareey which is the plural of har (har).
It doesn't always mean a prominent land mass like Kilimanjaro; especially when it's
plural. Har can also mean a range of hills or highlands; like the region of Israel where
Miriam's cousin Elizabeth lived.
"At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where
she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth." (Luke 1:39-40)
In California, where I lived as a kid, the local elevation 35 miles east of San Diego, in
the town of Alpine, was about 2,000 feet above sea level. There were plenty of
meadows with pasture and good soil. In fact much of it was very good ranchland and
quite a few people in that area raised horses and cows. We ourselves kept about five
hundred chickens, and a few goats and calves. We lived in the mountains of San Diego;
but we didn't live up on top of one of its peaks like Viejas, Lyon's, or Cuyamaca.
It makes better sense to beach the ark on the soil of one of Armenia's elevated plains
rather than up on one of its ancient volcanoes seeing as how Noah took up agriculture
after the Flood. Plus, had he been forced to abandoned the ark atop a mountain, Noah
would've lost ready access to an abundant supply of hewn wood that he could
appropriate for other purposes. Noah's sons reproduced so we can be fairly certain that
Noah's posterity-- which eventually numbered quite a few people --would want lumber
from the ark for their needs too.
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