The Skeptics Annotated Bible (15 page)

2
Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens
, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

(7.2)
“Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens.”
How did Noah know which animals were “clean” and “unclean” to God? (It wasn’t defined until Leviticus was written.)
34 How many of each kind did Noah take into the ark?

3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and
every living substance that I have made will I destroy
from off the face of the earth.

(7.4)
“Every living substance that I have made will I destroy.”
God repeats his intention to kill “every living substance … from off the face of the earth.” But why does God kill all the innocent animals? What had they done to deserve his wrath? It seems God never gets his fill of tormenting animals.

5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.

6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.

8
Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls
, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,

9
There went in two and two
unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

(7.8-9)
“Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls … There went in two and two.”
34 How many of each kind did Noah take into the ark?

10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and
the windows of heaven were opened.

(7.11)
“The windows of heaven were opened.”
God opens the “windows of heaven.” He does this every time it rains.

12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

13
In the selfsame day entered Noah
, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

14 They,
and every beast
after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.

(7.13-14)
“In the selfsame day entered Noah … and every beast.”
With a million or so species (There are more than a million known today.), the animals must have boarded at a rate of at least 10 pairs/second.
36 When did Noah enter the ark?