How many of each animal was to be taken aboard Noah's Ark?The number of each kind of animal, which we'll assume means animals that interbreed naturally, was an important factor in determining how large the ark had to be.
♦ Two of every kind of bird: "Of fowls... two of every sort." (Gen 6:19-20)
♦ Seven of every kind of bird: "Of fowls also of the air by sevens." (Gen 7:3)
◙ Noah must have taken seven of every clean animal because after disembarking, "Noah builded an altar.. and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings." (Gen 8:20) If taken literally, that's a lot of animals to sacrifice!
How high did the waters rise?
The floodwater depth determined whether every type of life could be killed.
♦ Somewhere between 21 and 23 feet: "Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered."
♦ Somewhere between 22,000 and 29,029 feet: "Every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground." Since Tardigrades live everywhere on earth, the water would have raised 29,029 feet to cover Mount Everest to kill all life. If bacteria are not considered "living substance," The flood would need to be 22,000 feet to kill the spider Euophrys omnisuperstes.
◙ Earth doesn't have enough water in all the ice, snow, lakes, rivers, and atmosphere to raise the ocean levels even 300 feet. So, the 15 cubit water rise described in the Bible must be correct.
How long did the flood last?
The duration of the flood determined how deadly the flood was and how much food and feed would need to be loaded on the ark.
♦ 40 days: "The flood was forty days on the earth." (Gen 7:17)
♦ 150 days: "The waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days." (Gen 7:24)
♦ 375 days: Noah boarded the ark "in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month." (Genesis 7:11-13) Then, "in the six hundredth and first year...in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month" the earth was dry and Noah unloaded the ark. (Genesis 8:13-19) That's a total of one year and ten days or 375 days.
◙ Maybe cherry-picked references to day numbers need to be tallied just right: 40 days of rain after Noah boarded (Gen 7:4) plus 40 days of flood until the ark floated (Gen 7:17) plus 150 days of prevalent water (Gen 7:24) plus 150 days of receding water (Gen 8:3) = 380 days. That overshoots the 375 day calculation by 5. Hmm!
What was the order of events?
1. Noah's family and all the animals board the ark. (Gen 7:7-9)
2. Seven days later, the rain began and continued for 40 more days. (Gen 7:10-12)
3. Noah's family and all the animals board the ark. (Gen 7:13-16)
◙ Wait. Noah could not have boarded the ark after 40 days of rain.
4. It rained for 40 days and the waters floated the ark, "Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered." (Gen 7:17-20)
5. "Every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground." (Gen 7:23)
6. "The waters prevailed upon the earth 150 days." (Gen 7:24 & Gen 8:3)
7. "The waters were abated" and the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. (Gen 8:3)
8. "at the end of forty days, that Noah
opened the window... and... sent forth a raven... Also he sent forth a dove...
But the dove found no rest. (Gen 8:6-9)◙ Hold on. If the ark had found a resting place, why not the birds?
9. On the first day of the first month, the earth was dry. (Gen 8:18)
10. On the 22nd day of the second month, the earth was dried. (Gen 8:14)
◙ Stop. Why are there two dry-earth days almost two months apart?
11. Noah's family disembarks and unloads the animals from the ark. (Gen 8:18-19)
How should these discrepancies within the text be explained? Some scholars suggest that the flood story of Noah has pieces of one or more other flood stories that were inserted. Perhaps the Babylonian captivity of the Hebrews exposed them to the Gilgamesh flood epic or other flood survival stories that were part of the culture on the flood plains of what is now the Shatt al-Arab river.