“And of every living
creature of all flesh, thou shalt bring two of a sort into the ark, that they
may live with thee: of the male sex, and the female. Of fowls according to their kind, and of beasts in their kind,
and of every thing that creepeth on the earth according to its kind; two of
every sort shall go in with thee, that they may live. “ Genesis 6:19-20.
According to calculations,
on this day Noah was commanded by God to fill the ark with living creatures,
male and female, which kept him very busy for the next seven days.
[Unfortunately, when it came to dinosaurs, he picked up two males
(rather rough work lifting their tails to see which was what) and so died out
the species. Would that he had
done the same with rattlesnakes.]
John Wilkins, a 17th
century Church of England bishop, expended a good deal of thought upon the size of the ark, as
well as its occupants, and proposed that of the non-human denizens, the
quadrupeds did not amount to one hundred different kinds, of which only seventy-two
species needed housing in the ark; of the birds, he calculated that, leaving
aside ducks and other such web-footed critters who could live on water, less
than one hundred and ninety five needed to be aboard.
[Note to bishop: ducks may be comfortable in water, but they don’t live
there 24/7/365. And it would be a
year before even the top of a tree was visible.]
Wilkins then went on to
determine that 1,825 sheep would be sufficient to feed the carnivores for a
year (or roughly five sheep per day) and 109,500 cubits of hay for the
omnivores, all of which could be comfortably accommodated on the bottom two
decks of the ocean liner, with the birds living above them in one part of Deck
3, and the Noah family living in another part of the same deck. There was also ample room for their
baggage, and seeds and farming tools they would need to start life afresh.
Of course the best thing
about the story (besides the Rainbow and the Covenant) was that eventually
toymakers invented the toy Noah’s ark, like the one pictured here. Those who could not afford to buy the
sets were encouraged to paste prints of animals (keeping in mind their relative
sizes so as not to confuse little minds) to heavy card or thin blocks of
wood. For Christians of a
puritanical bent, who frowned on all worldly thoughts, actions, and amusements
(especially on the Lord’s Day), the biblical ark was an acceptable pastime for
quiet Sunday play, in some instances becoming a toy totally reserved for Sunday
alone. As a wholesome activity,
however, this did not go unchallenged; there were those adults (who have a
tendency to over-think things) who deplored the idea that children might actually
grow up believing that animals from all over the world – bears, kangaroos, alligators,
moose, penguins and buffalo among them – were marched into the ark along with
the usual cows and sheep.
Thankfully, they’ve always been
in the minority; children have continued to march the odd assortments across
the table and over the carpet for over two hundred years, and Noah’s Arks are
still available today.
