And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
//Whatever happened to Noah's gopher-wood Ark? Expeditions to Ararat have
tried to find it, but so far, nothing very convincing has been
discovered.
Today's
verse tells how the ark ran aground, presumably on Mount Ararat, the
tallest mountain in Turkey. It was another three months before the "tops
of the mountains" were seen. This would refer to the remaining,
lower-elevation mountains in the range, right? But no green vegetation
could be seen yet.
Another
forty days' wait and Noah starts sending birds out to scout the land.
In time, a dove returns with an olive branch in its mouth, evidence that
the waters had receded down to the green stuff, so Noah knows it's time
to exit the ark. But whatever happened to the ark?
Maybe the answer is in plain sight.
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. --Genesis 8:20
One
estimate of the number of clean animals would be 192 species, plus
about a comparable number of now-extinct species. Many of them quite
bulky. Atop the glacier-capped mountain of Ararat, way above the tree
line, where did Noah get the wood for all these burnt offerings? Would
gopher wood work?
A possible answer, indeed. Another might be found in the term "mountains", plural. There is no absolute indication that the ark was on Mount Ararat, just on that mountain range somewhere and searchers could be off by hundreds of miles.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you say "glacier covered" though? While the mountain may be covered in thick ice today it might not have been so at the time of Noah. If it were so for Noah, and he landed far above the tree line, it would have been a major problem to get him, his family and cargo down the glacier alive and uninjured.
How to get down the mountain? Maybe they didn't sacrifice the mountain goats.
ReplyDeleteOr turned the ark into a giant sled. It would take a big one to slide an elephant down a glacier without falling into a crevasse.
ReplyDelete