The Bible as Science: Measuring Noah's Ark

Noah’s Ark gets mocked as a children’s story, but the arguments used against it often collapse the moment you ask one simple question: “Based on what measurements?” We’re continuing our Bible and science series by taking on modern science versus Noah’s Ark and exposing how many “gotcha” objections are powered by confusion, not facts.

We tell two debates that reveal the pattern. First, an unbeliever tries to score an easy win and ends up mixing up Noah’s Ark with the Ark of the Covenant. Then we dig into the more serious charge that “two of every kind” could never fit, and we press the missing details critics rarely supply: how many kinds are we talking about, how many creatures are aquatic, how much space do insects require, and what constraints are actually being assumed. Along the way we address the timeline problem behind dinosaur-based ridicule and why it doesn’t work on its own terms.

The hinge point is the cubit. Genesis gives dimensions in cubits, yet a cubit is not a single modern unit, and that uncertainty matters. We argue you can’t say, “We don’t know how big the ark was,” and then claim certainty that it was too small. From there we offer a conservative estimate of the ark’s size and cargo capacity in modern terms, and we close by looking at ancient flood traditions and archaeology that echo the memory of a flood while the Bible record stays strikingly plain and practical.

If you care about biblical reliability, Christian apologetics, and clear thinking in the Bible versus science conversation, listen through to the end. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves a good debate, and leave a review with the strongest ark objection you want us to answer next.

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Transcript

Welcome And Gospel Purpose

0:07

Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W. Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delaney, Florida. Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. Now here's your host, Pastor James W. Knox. All right, a very pleasant good day to each and every one of you. Whether you like it or not, I'm Brother James. And this is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. You probably ought to like it. You probably ought to like the fact that I'm Brother James, because that means that you don't have to be. And then we either repent of those that are misused and allow the Lord to straighten them out, or we just go on and live in the flesh and make a mess out of things. But I'm who I am by the grace of God, and so are you. And this is the preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. We're awfully happy that you've tuned into the program today. Believe that you will be as well. Believe that God will use the program today to be a help and a blessing to you in your personal life. If you're not saved, that we might in some way, shape, or form show you some truth that will compel you to examine and to consider the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ and his offer of salvation as a free gift through his death, his burial, and his resurrection. And if you are saved and born again, we believe God will use the program to instruct you and encourage you in the things pertaining to the Christian life.

Why The Bible Holds Up To Science

1:38

We're continuing on in a series of broadcasts dealing with the Bible as science, in which we are showing you conclusively, beyond any shadow of doubt, that the Bible is the greatest book on science ever written, and that anyone who says that the uh the the basis, a safe basis for rejecting the Bible as being the word of God is by considering science, knows either nothing about science, nothing about the Bible, or both of the above. The Bible is the greatest book on science ever written, and not one fact of true science has ever contradicted one statement of any verse of Scripture anywhere in the Word of God. We have tackled on four radio broadcasts the arguments against Jonah and the whale, and shown beyond any shadow of a doubt that a man can be swallowed by a whale and live to tell the story.

Modern Science Versus Noah’s Ark

2:26

We want to take up on the program today modern science versus Noah and the Ark. Modern science versus Noah and the Ark. We're not going to talk about the flood just yet, we'll get to that. We want to talk about Noah and the Ark. Perhaps we should call this study ignorance and the Ark. For like so many other so-called scientific objections to the truth of God's Word, the arguments that are directed against the record of the Ark spring out of ignorance. On this, as upon all other scriptural subjects, the person who challenges the inspiration and truth of the Bible succeeds magnificently in just one particular. That is, he advertises a boundless and abounding personal ignorance of the subject upon which he speaks. I have often observed that objections made to the biblical account of Noah's Ark are never made from the standpoint of knowledge, but from the viewpoint of misunderstanding. Many years ago, uh in a small town in America, a local infidel was boasting in one of the community centers there, that he was too educated to believe the Bible, and after thorough study, he had rejected it entirely. One day in an informal discussion, this wise unbeliever hung himself, as calves are said to do when they have plenty of rope. Turning to the teacher, who had for an hour confounded him in every point, the exasperated infidel asked, Do you believe the story of the Ark that Noah built? The teacher replied, I certainly do. A foxy gleam in the eye of the infidel. He said, Tell me, how long was the ark? Three hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high came the answer. It must have weighed several hundred pounds. The questioner slyly continued. Why certainly, replied the victim, it probably weighed several hundred tons. Then cried the infidel in unholy, gleeful triumph, if the Bible is true as you claim it is, how could those two priests in Exodus pick up the Ark and carry it across the Red Sea? That's true. That is a true story. That's a true story that actually took place in a debate. Now it's not too much to say that this is a typical attitude. The critic who wisely discourses on the scientific impossibility of the story of the Ark hardly knows that there was an Ark of the Covenant, as well as the Ark of the Deluge. No believer ever need fear what science may say about the Ark of Noah, for science has said all it can say here, and its statements substantiate the account of that Ark as the record is given in the book of Genesis. In certain learned circles, it is considered quite witty to poke fun at Mr. Noah's houseboat. Even the brilliant doctor Brisbane, writing in his column, newspaper syndicated column, used to write against the ark on every chance he got. Speaking of the giant reptiles called dinosaurs, which some believe roamed the earth ages ago, Brisbane said that they were ninety feet long and weighed a hundred tons, and he said that Noah must have been crowded in the Ark with two of these. Now his honesty of intent is evidenced when he later says they roamed the earth five hundred million years ago. This is typical of the scientific criticism of the Bible. First of all, as evolutionists, they point to a time five hundred million years ago and talk about dinosaurs that then became extinct. And then they go back to an ark that was built 5,000 years ago and say, we don't believe the story of the Ark, because how would you get the dinosaurs on there? Now either these people are are st if if they're that stupid, you need to take the driver's licenses away from them and keep a watch on them twenty-four hours a day if they're that stupid. If not, they just spout off at the mouth classic examples of why no Bible believer should ever be intimidated by the arguments of science. Now the story of the Ark has frequently been picked out as a weak point in the Bible's claim to full and absolute inspiration. However, the critics may as well give up hope. There are no weak points in the Bible. Every section of the scripture that is or has ever been under fire has emerged from the crucible secure for all time. Especially is this so when the point has been a scientific one.

The Logic Trap Behind Ark Objections

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Some time ago, a scientist who's a Christian was delivering a series of addresses in a small town in Texas and came into violent contact with a local infidel, an agnostic who had gained a good deal of pseudoscientific information. Vain speculation and impossible wild guesses all were accepted by him without effort. He was somewhat feared locally because of a superficial knowledge of scientific language. The Christian locked horns with him many times until finally he said, I don't want to talk to you anymore. You talk to me as though I were an ignorant fool. To which the Christian calmly replied, That's the finest case of self analysis I ever saw. Now the infidel was angry for a while, but then he came back to see the wearing and the wife or and to open the issue he challenged the truth and historicity of the account of the flood. He began by saying, Now take that ridiculous story of the ark. You certainly can't claim that story is scientifically possible. Certainly it is, replied the Christian. What's wrong with it scientifically? Just this, the man said. It was utterly impossible for Noah to get two animals of every kind into an ark the size of the one he built. The Christian responded. Let's examine your argument. How many different kinds of animals are there? The infidel looked for several seconds with a blank expression and then said, Well, I don't know how many kinds are there. Oh no, no, no, said the Christian. This is your argument. You go ahead and make it. After some attempt to evade, he said, Well, I don't know how many kinds of animals there are, but I'll soon find out, and he left. Later in the day he showed up and he said, I know how many kinds of animals there are. All right, how many kinds are there? He said, There are one million different kinds. Now, of course he was wrong. His figures were highly inaccurate. But since it was his argument and not that of the Christians, he was allowed to make it, so he contented himself, the Christian did, by reply, Well, what's the argument now? He answered, It was utterly impossible for Noah to get two million animals into an ark the size of the one he built. But said the Christian, he didn't have to. Out of all the living creatures known to the science of biology, sixty percent of them live in the water. And the flood wouldn't hurt them. Even at that, he answered, forty percent of two million animals is a whale of a lot. Ah, wait a minute. You're forgetting, said the Christian, that out of the forty percent that live on the dry land, seventy out of every one hundred are insects, which certainly don't take up much room. Now, upon this, the infidel got somewhat excited and raised his voice to shout, but you have to admit that two elephants will take up a lot of room. And the Christian calmly smiled and said, Yes, but think of all the insects the size of fleas, which could be parked on two elephants, all of them counting and yet not dis detracting from the available space. In exasperation, the infidel then said, Well, no matter how you try to whittle it down, even ten percent of two million animals could not possibly get into an ark the size of the one Noah built. All right, said the Christian. How big was the ark? The infidel began to stammer and to stutter. What do you mean? How how big was it? The Christian said exactly that, how big was the ark? And after a considerable embarrassed silence, the unbeliever was forced to admit that he did not know. He didn't know whether the ark was ten miles long by five miles wide or whether it was ten feet long by twenty feet wide. The Christian concluded this phase of the discussion by saying, Now, do you see why we talk to you the way you claim we do? What an intelligent argument is this. Here is a totally unknown number of animals, here is a boat of absolutely unknown size, and yet you claim it is scientifically impossible to get an unknown number of animals into a boat of an unknown size. That's some science, isn't it? By this time the man was furious. He walked out saying, I'll find out how big the ark was. The Christian called out after him, You should have found that out before you rejected the story. To which we say, Amen and amen. Well, the next day he showed up again. Alright. Now I know how big the ark was. Okay, how big was it? It was 300 cubits long and 50 cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Very good. Could that hold two of every kind of animal? said the Christian. No, sir, it could what? It could not do it. Why? said the Christian. How long or how much is a cubit? Again he blew his stack. This unbeliever, this know-it-all, this scientist rejecting the Bible on the basis of his scientific knowledge, now had to admit that he didn't know whether the cubit was ten feet or ten yards or ten inches or ten miles long. The Christian closed the argument by saying with all the kindness he could muster, If a child ten years of age manifested no more logic than you have shown in this argument, you would think he was lacking in intelligence. You have an arc, the size of which you don't know. You have a number of animals which number cannot at this time be determined, and yet you maintain that it's scientifically impossible to get two of an unknown number of creatures into a boat of undetermined capacity. That, my friends, is science in these last days. That, my friend, is the basis on which people reject the Word of God. Seems kind of silly, doesn't it? In fact, it seems more than silly, it seems utterly ridiculous, subject and worthy uh subject to and worthy of ridicule. Ridiculous. Now the argument wouldn't have sounded so silly unless you had some common sense. But if you've got any intelligence at all and didn't know the background, it'd still be sufficiently clear to your mind to start a train of logical thinking. When you point out to someone the depth of intelligence required to make a man reject the Bible on such flimsy grounds, you wonder. You wonder why anybody would follow a scientist instead of a Christian. Like most men who start to reason, when this infidel's eyes were open to the silliness of his position, he retracted his former statements upon making a study of the details that are given in the Bible record. Now many times I've witnessed the attempt of ignorance to assail the Word of God, and it's always easily frustrated.

What A Cubit Means And Why It Matters

13:44

Now, we want to deal seriously with objections to the story of the Ark, as they have been presented by students and others, and we want to try and clear up several points. The first consideration in our study here is the question of the capacity of the ark. The exact size of this famous vessel may never be known. Scholarship, knowledge, and the science of archaeology have all contributed to their quota of information, but we still don't know very much about the exact capacity of this marvelous craft. The Bible text simply says, and this is how thou should make it, the length of the ark three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, the height of it thirty cubits. At first sight that seems enough and sufficiently specific, but how do we face the question how long or how much is a cubit? Now, up to the present time, this is a question that no scholar has been able to answer conclusively, although there are a number of opinions. The basis of measurement among the early Hebrews was a simple anatomical system. It seemed natural to base earliest measurements upon the parts of the body, and it's generally supposed that the cubit was the length of a man's forearm from the inside of the elbow to the tip of the longest finger. Now the only problem with this is that it would differ, of course, in various individuals, and confusion would result. This condition forced the adoption of a definite standard by the Jews and neighboring races, and in their later history Israel had a standardized cubit. Noah's Ark, however, was built many years before the Jewish race began, and the standards of later years do not help us very much here. There's also another possibility that we cannot ignore. The scripture speaks of the cubit of a man. Now does Moses mean that the cubit Noah used was the length of a man, or was it the length of a man's forearm? Or was there a cubit used that was measured perhaps by some other creature rather than man, maybe some beast of burden? The standard is variable. It may have been either one. If the length of the ark was three hundred times the length of a man's forearm, we have one problem based on a certain set of factors. If the cubit that is here intended is the entire height of a man, the cubit of a man, however, we have still another problem with a totally different and varying set of factors. If it was a man's height, how tall was the man? Now, it's a dangerous proceeding to make an argument from ignorance. How utterly senseless for the critics to say we do not know and cannot know the exact size of the ark, but we do know that there's no way it could hold two of every kind of animal then living. How can you say that? How can you say you know something absolutely on the basis of something you don't know? How can you make a definite statement based upon something that is not definite? This here again, we're trying to point out to you on these studies the faulty logic and reasoning of those who reject the Bible on the basis of science. A scientist will say, fact number one, we don't know exactly how big the ark was. Fact number two, we know of a certainty all the animals couldn't have fit on the ark. You cannot reconcile those two statements. You cannot side by side state we do not know. On the basis of not knowing, we can definitely state that's ridiculous. But that's all people need to reject the Bible this day and age. Any point of refuge in a time of storm, you know, anything to get out from under your obligation to submit yourself to the authority of God's word, but I'm telling you, it doesn't hold up logically in this life, and it certainly won't hold up in God's law court when you stand before him. Now the Ark was a ship of gigantic size. There's no question about that.

A Practical Size And Cargo Capacity

18:00

To be conservative, let's take as a potential cubit the measurement advocated by the famous scientist and archaeologist William Matthew Petrie. He, being one of the foremost Egyptologists who ever lived, is entitled to speak with some authority. He says the oldest standard cubit was twenty-two and one half inches. Twenty-two and one half inches. Now, according to this basis, the Ark was a tremendous and commodious boat. Five hundred and sixty-two feet and six inches long, ninety-three feet and six inches wide, fifty-six feet and three inches high. Built with a flat bottom, square on both ends, straight up the sides. There was no waste of space in bow or stern. And it had a tremendous carrying capacity of a little over 2,958,000 cubic feet. Let me say that again. 2,958,000 cubic feet. This is a tremendous cargo capacity. To put it in modern terms, it would take a train of almost 1,000 freight cars to carry this enormous load or to provide this amount of cubic space. That these dimensions and this size are not out of reason, we see from two separate lines of evidence.

Ancient Flood Traditions And Archaeology

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First, the ancient legendary stories of the Ark make it much larger than this. It is inevitable that archaeology should uncover traditional accounts of the deluge and the ark from the monuments and tablets of lost civilizations. For these ancient civilizations were founded, of course, by descendants of Noah. When people have a common origin, it is always shown in their common traditions. And as Noah and his sons were the only men saved alive from or through the flood, they must have peopled the entire earth with their progeny. Indeed, there could have been no other way. That these common legends all point to a common origin, none can gainsay. Some of them are weird and distorted by tradition, but they all testify to two truths. First, there was a flood. Second, there was an ark. The many Babylonian accounts of the Ark differ in detail. One account found on ancient clay tablets described the Ark as six stories high, with a mast on top, it had a rudder to steer with, and the whole was crowned by a superstructure or dwelling. In addition to the presence of the builder and his wife, there was also a pilot who sailed with them. The structure was perfectly cubical, being one hundred and forty cubits each way. It was constructed in six stories, each having nine compartments. The clay tablets containing this account of the ark were dug up by George Smith in 1870 and were dated from the year 3,000 BC. They are undoubtedly genuine. The Greek historian, Barosis, also gives an exaggerated account of the Ark. He describes it as 3,000 feet long, 12,000 feet wide. Doesn't give the height. The most fantastic account of the Ark is the description of Origen, the old Bible perverter, corrupter that uh uh dismantled and attacked and uh altered the early manuscripts in the early days of the New Testament Church that made their way down through time and eventually surfaced in the perversions of the New International Version and New American Standard Version. Origen had an extended controversy with a contemporary, whom he tried to silence by claiming that the ark was twenty-five miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide. The man probably never even seen a boat in his life to even think something like that could float. He certainly couldn't get those dimensions by looking at the Bible, and why any of you would want to read in a New International Version or a New American Standard Version, knowing that it came from manuscripts doctored by a man with no more sense than that is a mystery to me. Many other tales and accounts could be introduced if we had unlimited time, but these must suffice. We give you a lot of these stories, I mean maybe a dozen of them, in some detail, in our series of tapes tape recordings called the Doomsday Files, and that's listed in our catalog. When you write for the catalog, you'll be able to see it there, and order those tapes if you're interested. Now, how simple and worthy of credence the language of the Bible seems to the reasoning modern mind. As we wade through all this ancient tradition and dealing with the same subjects and facts, how our faith in the Bible grows as we see the difference between an account which is dictated by God and a story that man writes to suit his fancy. There's no wild fairy tale type embellishments given to the Bible story, just the plain simple facts of how God called a man, why God called that man, what God told the man to do, the specific directions regarding the ark that God told the man to build, and then the way in which the man went about his business and his duty before God.

Trusting Scripture And Closing Resources

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My friends, you'll never go wrong. You'll never go wrong following the word of God. It's the safe rule, it's the light to our feet, it's the lamp for our path. The word of the Lord is right. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. And you'll be glad, you'll be more than glad, you'll be eternally blessed if you put your faith and trust in the Word of God and not in the mad ravings of science, falsely so-called. Thanks for tuning in today. Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast. For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W. Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptist Land, or our website, Bible Baptistteland.com. Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.