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The Ark of Noah

Before we accept these objections let us examine the account and see what we find in the Word of God. God speaks to a man named Noah and says the end is very near, judgment comes soon. He instructs Noah to build an ark and describes that ark in verse 15. "The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits." To determine if the ark was adequate to preserve life upon the earth, we first of all need to determine how big the ark was. In order to do that we need to know what a cubit is. A cubit is basically the measurement from the elbow down to the fingertips. If you happen to have a very long arm, you have long cubits. If you have short arms, you have short cubits. I am sure you can see they had some difficulty in determining size and so it became necessary to standardize the measurements. The ancient Hebrew people had two measurements for a cubit; a shorter cubit of 17.5 inches and a longer cubit of 22.5 inches. For ease in our discussion we will round it off to 18 inches. Therefore the description of the ark in Genesis 6:15 tells us that the length of the ark was approximately 450 feet long, the width approximately 75 feet wide, and the height approximately 45 feet high. It resembled a giant railroad boxcar or a giant rectangular, box-like river barge, constructed to float free upon the water. It was not necessary for Noah to take a course in navigation to learn how to sail this boat. He did not have to learn how to maneuver it through rivers, etc., because the purpose of the ark was simply to float free upon the water. Built in this manner it had great stability, it could even tilt 45 degrees on its side without overturning. Now while a tilt like that may not have been comfortable for the people inside, it assured a successful voyage through the greatest storm in history.

We are told that the waters of the flood were very great upon the earth: "Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered." (Genesis 7:20) That means the waters covered the mountains that were present before the flood by 22 1/2 feet. If it be assumed the ark was loaded until it was half-submerged, its draft would be 22 1/2 feet. Therefore the ark could float free over all the earth without lodging upon anything. So God in His planning prepared all the things necessary for this voyage of Noah. The ark would displace about 24,000 tons and thus be a good-sized ship, even by modern standards. Still, we are left with the question, was it possible to put all the animals necessary to preserve life upon the earth inside the ark?