seebs

Just an interesting trivia point someone spotted over on CF: The Bible refers to clean and unclean animals in discussing Noah's preparations for the Flood, presumably so Noah would have meat to eat - having more of the clean animals.

Only... Noah predates the concept of "clean" or "unclean" animals by hundreds of years.

This is a good demonstration, I think, that the story was written by Hebrews who were very much used to the notion of "clean" and "unclean" animals.

Not directly relevant to E/C, but a good point when debating the Flood.

apocalypsecow

[QUOTE=seebs]Just an interesting trivia point someone spotted over on CF: The Bible refers to clean and unclean animals in discussing Noah's preparations for the Flood, presumably so Noah would have meat to eat - having more of the clean animals.

Only... Noah predates the concept of "clean" or "unclean" animals by hundreds of years.[QUOTE]

How do you figure?

Because of the covenant with Abraham that occured (after?) the flood?

I'm a bit sketchy on my bible...

Sandslice

[QUOTE=apocalypsecow][QUOTE=seebs]Just an interesting trivia point someone spotted over on CF: The Bible refers to clean and unclean animals in discussing Noah's preparations for the Flood, presumably so Noah would have meat to eat - having more of the clean animals.

Only... Noah predates the concept of "clean" or "unclean" animals by hundreds of years.The definition of clean and unclean animals isn't featured before Leviticus 11.

apocalypsecow

Ahh, neat. I've never seen this brought up before.

EssEff

Good point! And of course it couldn't refer to actual dirt, as the animals were getting rained on for forty days.

And speaking of dirt... Were Noah & his family enough of a crew to keep the animals' waste cleaned out every day? I know people lived with their animals back then, but a floating zoo would be a logistical nightmare. Perhaps the fact that we have flies today is evidence that Noah's family didn't quite keep up with the mess.

GPLindsey

And speaking of dirt... Were Noah & his family enough of a crew to keep the animals' waste cleaned out every day? I know people lived with their animals back then, but a floating zoo would be a logistical nightmare. Perhaps the fact that we have flies today is evidence that Noah's family didn't quite keep up with the mess.

I read a creationist explanation on this. One theory was that it was done with a series of chutes and troughs, to funnel the rain water from outside the Ark underneath the cages or holding pens of the animals, washing the waste away. The problem is where the waste water went, of course. Assuming the laws of gravity remained in place, the waste water could only have been channeled to the bottom of the Ark, in which case it would have sank eventually. A hole in the bottom to let the water out would, of course, had just let the outside water in. Finally, channeling the water out the side of the Ark above the water line doesn't seem plausable, since that would have meant all the animal cages and pens would have been on that part of the Ark above the water line as well (causing the top-heavy Ark to flip over), or Noah built plumbing to pump the water out from lower levels. I'm starting to think the Ark story isn't true after all.

Charlie Marlow

That's why you need a second, bigger hole to drain the water from the first hole.

fallingblood

seebs- I'm really glad you brought that up, I didn't know about that before.

I think the whole Noah's flood story is actually just an exagerated story of a regional flood.

fallingblood

or taken from other stories like the Epic of Gilgamesh

anthrosciguy

Well, the man was ahead of his time... a visionary. You know, like Ted Holden or Ed Conrad. Visions galore.