Noah's Ark: that Literal Boat Won't Float
Author Joseph Campbell writes about the perpetuation of the flood myth throughout ancient times in his book "The Hero With A Thousand Faces". Clay tablets dating from the third millennium BCE in Sumeria, give account of a great flood. The hero in the Sumerian account of the flood is named Ziusudra. In the second millennium BCE, there is a Babylonian flood written in the legends of Gilgamish with a hero named Utnapishtim. These two flood stories strikingly resemble the Genesis account of Noah's flood.
Babylonian legend contains much more detail than Sumeria. In all accounts, the heroes are given a divine warning of an impending flood by a God who is displeased with mankind. The God wants to start over by wiping most of mankind from the face of the earth. The divine plan was to save all living creatures by having a chosen hero build a vessel that would contain all air breathing life forms--both male and female plus enough food and fresh water to sustain life during the voyage back to dry land once the waters subsided.
In all three accounts the vessel rests safely in mountainous areas where sacrifices were made to the respective gods. The historical records from the Babylonian flood story were found in excavations at Megiddo at the fourteenth century BCE level. This means the flood legend was already in existence in the middle east long before there was a kingdom for the Israelites or even a Bible.
Native American cultures commonly used figurative stories to convey lessons to the listener. Many believe the Noah's Ark story to be literally impossible. The number of species of beetle alone would fill up more than one vessel the size of Noah's Ark. Add to that all of the land animals from every corner of the earth, plus the foods needed to sustain their specific dietary needs--then divide that by one family responsible for handling such an enormous task in just one lifetime. The story does seem to stretch beyond the parameters of reality; yet questioning the literal Ark story is considered dangerous if not blasphemous by many religious leaders. The natural conclusion being that if the Ark story is just a myth, then perhaps many or all stories in the Bible are also myths or mystical stories. The whole religious machine might crumble; so we hang onto the literal meaning even if it robs us of the spiritual context in the story.
To me the story of Noah's Ark represents a wonderful mystical lesson. Everything dual is being brought into one mind, which is represented by the Ark. All human mind, rabbit mind, dog mind, parrot mind and on and on really belong to a greater mind--or what is termed "infinite mind". The ark as a symbol of unity or oneness, and all things are safe within it. When you bring yourself and all living things back into remembrance of the one life from which you came, then all duality ceases. Two by two they enter the one vessel. The flood represents the stream of unconscious thought that swallows up our ability to recognize this one source of all life. In my understanding, Noah's Ark is not about an angry God who wanted to start over with mankind but a metaphor about returning to oneness of being.
Sources:
Louis W. Cable - The Myth of the Great Flood
Joseph Campbell - The Hero With A Thousand Faces
Published by Magena Fawn
Magena lives on a knob in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She is an inspirational writer, storyteller and dreamer who likes to read between the lines and color outside of them. View profile
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17 Comments
Post a CommentNeat article but I believe Noah's Ark to be a true God inspired event! :)
Magena, I agree with you. I have always believed that the Bible and other such books are not to be taken literally but are to be used to glean satoris and change of heart and mind. It is not about what you do. It is about what you feel, because that is what governs what you do.
By the way, as an animal lover I can't help pointing out that God saved more animals than men and he did not have Noah bring the animals along so that he could eat them. I mention this partly tongue-in-cheek, but it is something to think about. Thanks for this thought-provoking article. I'll Tweet it.
Gets the mind to going doesn't it! Great article, no matter what you believe!
Jonathan, I agree with some of your points, however...
#1. Insects are, in fact, animals; they are not mammalian or reptilian, but that does not exclude them from Noah's ark.
#2. Well said!
#3. Another good point indeed! (which I left out, though not overlooked)
#4. I must disagree with you here. From the time sin entered the earth in the Garden of Eden, it is conceivable that animals turned carnivorous. If you have specific references for your claim, please enlighten me; I have not read anything of this argument in Genesis.
(continued...) Of course, I am a complete literalist, please don't take me for a troll; this is just a Biblical apologist's counterargument to your article! :-)
I just stumbled across this article today, almost a year since it was published. There are a few errors in the logic of this.
#1: You wrote: "The number of species of beetle alone would fill up more than
one vessel the size of Noah's Ark." -Well, in reply to that; Noah was NOT commanded to bring insects along. It said animals ONLY.
#2: You then continued, "Add to that all of the land animals from every corner of the earth..." -Yet, God told Noah to bring two of each "TYPE" of animal, NOT every single version of cat and every single version of dog etc.
#3: Noah didn't need to bring adult animals, he could easily have just brough infant ones. That would be stupid to try to bring such huge animals.
#4: According to the Bible, animals weren't eating other animals "yet". At this point, all animals and humans were eating only vegetation. So he would have change what type of food to bring and how much as well.
I am amazed at how many people read the story of Noah and seem to
While I can agree that the other flood stories resemble the Biblical account of the flood, part of your premise for disbelieving Noah's flood is flawed, namely the "beetle argument." It IS rather inconceivable that every species of beetle, ant, etc. could make it onto one single ark. The point is not that Noah took all the different variations of beetles, but that he took ONE form of beetle, male and female, and ONE form of ant, male and female, etc. Just as humans diverged after the flood (Caucasian, Negroid, Mongoloid) other species were able to diversify as they spread over the earth and settled into different niches - we call this microevolution (note: *not* Darwinian macroevolution). To continue the analogy, Noah did not bring a myriad different species of dogs on the ark - he would have brought one male and one female dog, who diversified, over the millennia, into the many, many species of canines we see today. This line of reasoning makes the Noahic flood much more plausible. Of
What a great take.
You always write such fascinating articles!!
Insightful, intelligent, compassionate, thought-provoking. I'll take your intuitive interpretation over literal readings any day! :)