Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
he begat three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. In consequence of the grievous and hopeless
wickedness of the world at this time, God resolved to destroy it. Of Noah’s life during this age of
almost universal apostasy we are told but little. It is merely said that he was a righteous man and
perfect in his generations (i.e. among his contemporaries), and that he, like Enoch, walked with
God. St. Peter calls him “a preacher of righteousness.” (2 Peter 2:5) Besides this we are merely
told that he had three: sons each of whom had married a wife; that he built the ark in accordance
with divine direction; end that he was 600 years old when the flood came. (Genesis 6:7) The ark
.—The precise meaning of the Hebrew word (tebah) is uncertain. The word occurs only in Genesis
and in (Exodus 2:3) In all probability it is to the old Egyptian that we are to look for its original
form. Bunsen, in his vocabulary gives tba, “a chest,” tpt, “a boat,” and in the Coptic version of
(Exodus 2:3,5) thebi is the rendering of tebah . This “chest” or “boat” was to be made of gopher
(i.e. cypress) wood, a kind of timber which both for its lightness and its durability was employed
by the Phoenicians for building their vessels. The planks of the ark, after being put together were
to be protected by a coating of pitch, or rather bitumen, both inside and outside, to make it
water-tight, and perhaps also as a protection against the attacks of marine animals. The ark was to
consist of a number of “nests” or small compartments, with a view, no doubt, to the convenient
distribution of the different animals and their food. These were to be arranged in three tiers, one
above another; “with lower, second and third (stories) shalt thou make it.” Means were also to be
provided for letting light into the ark. There was to be a door this was to be placed in the side of
the ark. Of the shape of the ark nothing is said, but its dimensions are given. It was to be 300 cubits
in length, 50 in breadth and 30 in height. Taking 21 inches for the cubit, the ark would be 525 feet
in length, 87 feet 6 inches in breadth and 52 feet 6 inches in height. This is very considerably larger
than the largest British man-of-war, but not as large as some modern ships. It should be remembered
that this huge structure was only intended to float on the water, and was not in the proper sense of
the word a ship. It had neither mast, sail nor rudder it was in fact nothing but an enormous floating
house, or rather oblong box. The inmates of the ark were Noah and his wife and his three sons with
their wives. Noah was directed to take also animals of all kinds into the ark with him, that they
might be preserved alive. (The method of speaking of the animals that were taken into the ark
“clean” and “unclean,” implies that only those which were useful to man were preserved, and that
no wild animals were taken into the ark; so that there is no difficulty from the great number of
different species of animal life existing in the word.—ED.) The flood .—The ark was finished, and
all its living freight was gathered into it as a place of safety. Jehovah shut him in, says the chronicler,
speaking of Noah; and then there ensued a solemn pause of seven days before the threatened
destruction was let loose. At last the before the threatened destruction was flood came; the waters
were upon the earth. A very simple but very powerful and impressive description is given of the
appalling catastrophe. The waters of the flood increased for a period of 190 days (40+150,
comparing) (Genesis 7:12) and Genesis7:24 And then “God remembered Noah” and made a wind
to pass over the earth, so that the waters were assuaged. The ark rested on the seventeenth day of
the seventh month on the mountains of Ararat. After this the waters gradually decreased till the
first day of the tenth month, when the tops of the mountains were seen but Noah and his family did
not disembark till they had been in the ark a year and a month and twenty days. Whether the flood
was universal or partial has given rise to much controversy; but there can be no doubt that it was
universal, so far as man was concerned: we mean that it extended to all the then known world . The
literal truth of the narrative obliges us to believe that the whole human race, except eight persons,
504
William Smith