Noah's Ark: Difference between revisions

'''Noah's Ark''' ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: תיבת נח, ''Tevat Noach''; [[Arabic]]: سفينة نوح, ''Safina Nuh'') is the story of a large vessel featured in the [[mythology]] of [[Abrahamic religions]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Oden | first = Robert A. | authorlink = Robert A. Oden | coauthors = | title = The Bible Without Theology | publisher = University of Illinois Press | date = 2000 | location = | pages = 57 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 9780252068706}}</ref> [[Narrative]]s that include the Ark are found in the [[Hebrew Bible]] ([[Book of Genesis]] chapters 6 through 9) and the [[Qur'an]] ([[Sura]]s 11 and 71). The stories describe a large vessel built by Noah (or Nuh) at God's command, that saved Noah, his family, and a representation of the world's animals from a [[Deluge myth|great flood]].

 

 

Throughout history this narrative has been subject to extensive elaborations in [[Judaism]], [[Christianity]] and [[Islam]], ranging from hypothetical solutions to practical problems (e.g. waste disposal and the problem of lighting the interior), through to theological interpretations (e.g. the Ark as the precursor of the Church in offering salvation to mankind).<ref>{{cite book|author=Schaff, P|year=1890|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.iv.XV.26.html|title=St. Augustin's City of God and Christian Doctrine, Chapter 26.—That the Ark Which Noah Was Ordered to Make Figures In Every Respect Christ and the Church|publisher=The Christian Literature Publishing Company|accessdate=2007-06-27}}</ref> By the 19th century, the discoveries of geologists, archaeologists and biblical scholars had led most scientists<ref>Plimer, Ian (1994) "Telling Lies for God: reason versus creationism" (Random House)</ref><ref name="Browne"/><ref name="young">{{cite web | last = Young | first = Davis A. | authorlink = | title = History of the Collapse of "Flood Geology" and a Young Earth | work = | publisher = | year = 1995 | url = http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/p82.htm | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2008-11-01}}</ref> and many Christians<ref name="Huxley-1890">'Notwithstanding diligent search, I have been unable to discover that the universality of the Deluge has any defender left, at least among those who have so far mastered the rudiments of natural knowledge as to be able to appreciate the weight of evidence against it. For example, when I turned to the "Speaker's Bible," published under the sanction of high Anglican authority, I [218] found the following judicial and judicious deliverance, the skilful wording of which may adorn, but does not hide, the completeness of the surrender of the old teaching', Thomas Huxley, [http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/CE4/Lights.html 'The Lights of the Church and the Light of Science'], Collected Essays, volume 4, pages 217-218 (1890)</ref> to abandon a literal interpretation of the Ark story. Nevertheless, Biblical literalists continue to explore the region of the [[mountains of Ararat]], in northeastern Turkey, where the Bible says Noah's Ark came to rest.