Is this story meant to be taken literally? Or is it some sort of metaphor. Because surely it would be impossible to be true.
You've all given excellent answers to my questions thus far. But I have a few about Noah's Ark, any takers?
I used to be a Naval architect. A designer of ships. I did a working drawing of the arc from the Bible.
I took a list of animals…there are not that many. All dogs come from the wolf. Cats are cats…etc.
I’m sure Noah was smarter than me. Here is what I would have done. All the animals would have to be young, that way they are small. They would all fit easy Their food would take more room than the animals.
They would be easy to control because they had no fear of man. It was not untill after the flood was over, God gave man all the animals to eat. The waters has swept all vegetation away…there was no other food.
As to the construction;
Most think it was made of wood. The calculations I did show the arc would not have withstood a pounding of such a flood. It would have broken up. Many things have been found that reveal people of pre-flood time had many of the materials we have today. They were very advanced…they also had steel of high quality. Wooden beams held together with steel gussets, and bolts, would be very strong.
It just had to hold together, and float.
It also had windows on the top structure to release the stink. I’ll bet they lived on the open deck after the water calmed down.