The Skeptics Annotated Bible (17 page)

(8.4)
“The ark rested in the seventh month … upon the mountains of Ararat.”
38 How long did the ark float?

5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

7 And
he sent forth a raven
, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

8 Also
he sent forth a dove
from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

(8.7,8)
“He sent forth a raven … He sent forth a dove.”
The flood story in Genesis is confusing to read. The clean animals go into the ark by twos (6.19-20, 7.8-9) and by sevens (7.2). The flood lasts for forty days (7.17) and for 150 days (7.24, 8.3). Noah sends out a raven (8.7) and a dove (8.8). Why doesn’t Genesis get its story straight? Because there were two separate accounts that were (somewhat clumsily) interwoven.

9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.

10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year,
in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth
: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.

(8.13)
“In the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth.”
39 When did the earth dry after the flood?

14 And
in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

(8.14)
“I
n the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.”
39 When did the earth dry after the flood?

15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,

16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:

19
Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl
, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds,
went forth out of the ark.

(8.19)
“Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl … went forth out of the ark.”
When the animals left the ark, what would they have eaten? There would not have been any plants after the ground had been submerged for nearly a year. What would the carnivores have eaten? Whatever prey they ate would have gone extinct. And how did the New World monkeys or the Australian marsupials find their way back after the flood subsided?

20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour;
and the LORD said in his heart,
I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth;
neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

(8.21a)
“And the Lord smelled a sweet savor.”
Noah kills the “clean beasts” and burns their dead bodies for God. According to 7.8-9 this would have caused the extinction of all “clean” animals since only two of each were taken onto the ark.
20 Does God desire animal sacrifices?

(8.21b)
“I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
God killed all living things (6.5) because humans are evil, and then promised not to do it again (8.21) because humans are evil. The mind of God is a frightening thing.
40 Will God curse the earth?