How Many Animals on the Ark?

Were the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch) written only by Moses, or were they edited together from various written and oral sources over centuries? This question has been debated for many years, and may never be truly settled. Some believe Moses wrote Genesis through Deuteronomy, as dictated to him by God. Others find evidence that there were in fact several religious traditions, histories, and stories that were preserved and finally combined into the versions we have today. One place where this is evident is the story of the flood of Noah. Quick questions: how many animals of each kind were on the Ark? Was it two of each kind? Or was it fourteen of each clean animal, two of each unclean animal, and fourteen of each type of bird? And, how long did Noah stay inside the Ark? Was it for two months, or ten months? In fact, all the answers are right.

It seems that two older flood story sources were edited together to make the one we now have. One older source had some details which conflicted with the other source, such as how many animals there were, but the editor chose to preserve it all rather than discard anything. It turns out we can mostly tell which verses came from which source by looking at which name for God they use. One source uses “YHWH”, and the other uses “Elohim”. These are known to scholars as the “J” source, for “Jahwist” (from around 900 BCE) and the “P” source, for “Priestly” (from around 700 BCE). There are also several other sources that scholars identify, all edited together to make the final Pentateuch (around 400-500 BCE). If the “J” and “P” versions of the flood story are separated out from one another, what do they look like by themselves?

1) The “YHWH” version (J): YHWH sees that humanity continually thinks about evil, and is saddened. YHWH decides to wipe out all living things, sorry that he made them. But YHWH tells Noah, a righteous man, to take his household into an ark. Noah is to bring seven pairs of clean animals and birds, and one pair of unclean animals. YHWH warns that starting in seven days, it will rain for forty days. During the rain, there is a flood, and everything on dry land perishes, leaving only those on the ark. After forty days, the rain stops, and the water begins to subside. Noah sends a dove out to look for dry land, once every seven days, until it returns with an olive branch on the second try. Noah finds one week later that the ground is dry (a total of about two months on the ark). He builds an altar to YHWH and sacrifices some of the clean birds and animals as burnt offerings. YHWH is pleased and privately decides never again to destroy all living things because of humankind’s evil. THE END

2) The “Elohim” version (P): Noah is a perfect, righteous, 600 year old man who walks with Elohim. He has three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Elohim sees that the earth has become corrupt and full of violence, and decides to wipe out all flesh with a flood. Elohim gives Noah detailed instructions to build an ark, including type of wood, coating, length, width, height, and number of decks. Elohim makes a covenant with Noah, and tells him and his household to enter the ark. They are to bring one pair of every living thing, including birds and cattle, plus enough food for the people and the animals. Fountains beneath the earth and windows in the heavens open, and water floods the earth. After forty days, the water level rises above the mountain tops. All people and animals die, except those on the ark. After one hundred fifty more days (a total of about seven months), Elohim sends a wind to make the water start to recede, and the underground fountains and windows of the heavens close up. The ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The water continues to recede, and after a total of ten months on the ark, Noah sends out a raven, which flies around until it finds dry land. Elohim tells Noah to leave the ark with his family and the animals. The animals swarm out to begin multiplying. Elohim tells Noah’s sons and their wives to be fruitful and multiply, and tells them that they can eat the flesh of any animal, but not the blood. Elohim warns them that the penalty for killing a human will be death. Then Elohim makes a covenant with the humans, their descendants, and all the animals, in which Elohim promises never again to destroy all life with a flood. The rainbow will be the sign of this everlasting covenant. THE END

You can see that the first, older version is simpler, and that the second version is much more detailed. The second version is concerned with characteristically Priestly matters such as dietary laws, covenants, and murder laws. The second version does not mention any sacrifice of clean animals because in Noah’s time there were no official Priests to make such a sacrifice.

There are other stories in the Bible which seem to be two versions edited together. For example, Genesis contains two different creation stories, one presented after the other. Genesis 1:1 to 2:4 contains the first story, and Genesis 2:4 to 2:25 contains the second. Like the Noah stories, the two versions differ in their details and seem to come from different older sources. Another example of different accounts of the same story is the history presented in the books of Kings, on the one hand, and in the books of Chronicles, on the other hand. Yet another example is the set of four Gospels, which tell the same story of Jesus but which differ in many details.

Do all of these contradictions “weaken” the Bible? Do they make the Bible less true somehow? I believe that the evidence for editing and various sources is too strong to ignore, but instead of being disturbed by it, we should appreciate it. Yes, the Bible was the product of many writers, and was edited together from sometimes conflicting older sources. But put yourself in the position of those long-ago people who edited together the older sources. They had in front of them stories which were already very old, and very holy. They contained the word of God, and even back then it would have been impossible to decide which of several versions was “correct”, which to exclude, which to keep. It was far better to preserve all the holy accounts, blending them together as well as possible, as in the Noah flood story, or presenting them side by side, as in the creation story. The ancient editors did us a great service by preserving the religious material the way they did, warts and all, leaving for us a rich and diverse legacy of divinely inspired books. People put the Bible in its present form, but within it is still the eternal Word of God.