Details of Noah’s Ark

by enigma1863 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  peacefulpete

  Boogerman....The word used for the ark is an Egyptian loanword teebah. Its only other usage is the 'basket' of bulrushes that Moses was riding on the Nile waters. (in contrast to the word 'aron' used to describe the sacred ark/chest). The word choice seems deliberate literary means of equating the stories on a symbolic level. The motif of passing through waters is a recurring word picture depicting 'new beginnings' throughout the Bible, likely drawn from the creation stories description of splitting the waters.

  Readers of the Noah stories with some sailing experience, recognize the impossibility of a square sided box not being crushed or capsized and have assumed the writer must have envisioned a boat shape to withstand the incredible power of waves. If you have ever been in a boat on rough water the first thing you do is point the bow into the oncoming wave to not be flipped. The wave energy is dissipated by the shape of the hull whereby the boat gently lifts rather than tossed. Don't fault the artists who assume the boat shape, they are trying to rescue the story.
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  BoogerMan

  @ peacefulpete - "Readers of the Noah stories...have assumed the writer must have envisioned a boat shape..."

  Just stating the Bible facts - not on what erstwhile matelots thought the writer was saying.
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  TD

  Readers of the Noah stories with some sailing experience, recognize the impossibility of a square sided box not being crushed or capsized

  Yes. An arch is many times stronger than a flat plane and lofting a series of arches from a central spine is the most effective way to dissipate transient loads. The ancients may have discovered this by trial and error, but it is no less true because of that.
  
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  peacefulpete

  Booger...the word no more necessitates a strict box shape here than it does in the Moses story. Using a strictly etymologically presumed root word to dogmatically define the present word is not good linguistic practice. That said, I'm inclined to agree the author gave no thought to the seaworthiness of the vessel, and pictured a box to keep valuables in.
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  Phizzy

  " the author gave no thought to the seaworthiness of the vessel, and pictured a box to keep valuables in."

  The Author no doubt did not have the necessary knowledge about sea-worthiness, I read a long article by an Engineer who showed that regardless of the shape of the vessel, the mere size would put such stresses upon the support beams within, that the boat would have sunk within hours, even in a slight swell !

  Your second point is pertinent too, the Story is not unrelated to the Ark of the Covenant stories.

  Our old friend Leolaia also showed in one of her wonderful threads that the whole Noah Story is an Interpolation. So, even those who threw Genesis together were aware it was not in any way History, so we cannot expect the details to be accurate in any way.
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  blondie

  enigma, what is Noah's wife's name, or his daughter-in-laws? I asked that question a few times. I was met with blank faces.
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  enigma1863

  I gave the option to some JWs downtown that maybe there was a local flood, not global since Jesus described a mustard seed as the largest in the world. Maybe the world was just the known world since there are smaller seeds. The JW countered but why would god have them build an ark if it were just local. I said “faith, god wanted Noah to show he was faithful. Why would god tell Abraham to climb all the way up a mountain if he didn’t want him to sacrifice his son. Do you really think blowing horns and trumpets caused the walls of Jericho to fall?”

  I could have added the story of the sun standing still in the sky. To our perspective, the sun stood still, but actually it was God‘s doing since there are no records of the sun standing still in any other source.

  The JW brought up the claim that stories around the world mentioned a flood so there must’ve been a flood.