Monday, January 3, 2011

Noah on the Ark

Quite some time ago, I bought a CD by Stewart Copeland, best known as the drummer for The Police and also for his soundtrack work on 80's films such as "Wall Street" and "Rumble Fish." The CD was titled "Noah's Ark," and featured James Earl Jones reading the account of Noah with Copeland's music in the background. Suffice it to say, I'm quite familiar with the story of Noah.

Even still, I still never fully appreciate the amount of TIME that Noah and his family actually spent on the ark. The following table attempts to put it in some perspective.

Event Length Passage Date
Rain 40 days/nights 7.12 17th day of the second month
Water covered the earth 150 days 7.24 17th day of the seventh month
Mountaintops visible
8.5 1st day of the tenth month
Raven 40 days 8.6
Dove
8.8
Dove with olive branch 7 days 8.10
Dove doesn't return 7 days 8.12
Water dried
8.13 1st day of first month of NOAH'S 601st year
Earth completely dry
8.14 27th day of the second month













I won't speak for anyone else, but it routinely enters my mind that Noah and his family entered the ark, rode out 40 days of rain, waited for the Earth to dry and waltzed right on down to Mt. Ararat. Well, not quite--they were on the ark for over a YEAR in the grandest zoo that was ever established.

I was all set to do a discourse on the Hebrew calendar and what the various dates correspond to until I came to a verse that stopped me short, which was 8:13. That verse makes clear (to me, at least) that all the dates in this story are relative to NOAH'S age--8:13 states that the water dried on the first day of the first month of Noah's 601st year, which implies that the flood started on the 17th day of the second month of Noah's 600th year, and NOT necessarily the 17th day of the second month of the traditional Hebrew calendar (which would be Iyar--told you I did my research). It was such a good idea--oh well, I'll have PLENTY of time to discuss the Hebrew calendar when we get to Leviticus.

Last, we all love rainbows, and I took this picture in August 2009--it's ten pictures stitched into a panorama. The promise remains...
Scott
From Bible in a Year

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