The Design Of The Ark

Genesis 6:9-18

“These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Genesis 6:9-10)

God created man in his own image and spent time with him. Cain rebelled against God and separated himself from him, leading his followers into bondage to Satan. Seth led his descendants to draw close to God but as time passed more and more of Seth’s family followed Cain’s leadership until finally only Noah’s family was still doing things the way God planned. Noah, like Adam and Enoch, walked with God, and kept his life right.

“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” (Genesis 6:11-12)

God created the world and everything in it for his pleasure according to Revelation 4:11. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Thanks to Satanic influence and Man’s sin, the entire world had been messed up or corrupted. Wars, crimes and murder filled the earth and every thing that could be was deliberately done contrary to the way God had intended. It was no longer satisfactory to God.

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.(Genesis 6:5-7)

Humans were the ones causing the problems, and it had become so bad God regretted creating them. He decided to redo the part that was causing the trouble. He decided to keep the parts that were not causing the trouble, and destroy those which were messed up. When building something, if I can’t get a part to function as I want it to, I have the right to destroy it and make a new one, and God has the same right with the things he has made.

“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.” (Genesis 6:13-16)

This appears to have been the first large boat ever built, as the world appears to have consisted of just one continent prior to the flood, obviating the need for sea going vessels. With no idea what would be needed man would have needed a great deal of experimentation to designed such a boat.

No larger boat had ever been built until the early nineteen hundreds, when the Queen Elizabeth was first launched. A standard cubit is roughly eighteen inches long making the Ark about four hundred fifty feet long, about the length of one and a half football fields, or four and a half basketball courts. It was about seventy five feet wide or about half as wide as a foot ball field. In addition it was as about as tall as a three story building and had three floors, giving about two and a half acres of floor space with very high ceilings. It is estimated to hold the equivalent of more than five hundred railroad boxcars. The relationship of length, width and height comes very close to what modern science shows as the ideal design for oceangoing vessels to best handle storms at sea.

An opening of about eighteen inches high was to be left around the top of the boat to provide free air movement, which probably indicates the top floor was the one used for the animals. Since the Hebrew word translated ark simply means a box, it is probable that the ark was simply a huge box or barge, rather than the boat shape most modern drawings portray. With no means of propulsion, streamlining was not relevant.

"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee." (Genesis 6:17-18)

The Ark was a huge undertaking for one man, and tradition tells us it took Noah a hundred twenty years. The scripture makes no such claim, and in fact indicates otherwise. Since Shem turned a hundred two years after the flood according to Genesis 11:10, Genesis 7:11 tells us the flood came when Noah was six hundred, and Genesis 5:32 indicates that Noah’s oldest was born when he was five hundred, it would seem unlikely God would have told Noah to take his sons and their wives onto the Ark before they were even born.

It is very possible Noah enlisted other workers, making it likely that far less time was required than tradition would have us believe. Knowing that smelting of iron and brass and domestication of animals had been developed, good tools were available, and beasts of burden could have been used to transport the materials, greatly reducing the time required for construction, perhaps even down to as little as a couple of years. Since the scripture gives no timetable, the only thing that can be said with certainty is that Noah built it. Everything else is pure speculation.