Noah's Ark

[10ClarionSt]

In the late 50's or early 60's I remember seeing a headline in a Sunday paper with a photograph saying that a CIA spy plane had photographed Noah's Ark in the mountains in Turkey. I think it was in The People. Does anyone else remember this, and WAS it Noah's Ark?

[RevShirls]

The photograph was in an American publication called "Life magazine" in 1960. You can see the original photograph on this website (as well as more recent photos):

http://www.pinkoski.com/noah.html

Since then I think that they have proved that there are no man-made elements in this structure and it seems to be a natural geological formation. There are a lot of people who claim that they have discovered the ark in various places but none so far confirmed. There are lots of websites about this - which you can find with a quick google search using the words Noah's Ark and Turkey.

[bobclean]

Hi, there is no such thing as Noah's Ark. It is a myth, therefore it cannot be found, because it never existed.

[RevShirls]

I tend to agree with you, bobclean. In the Old Testament there are many myths and allegories. Many Near Eastern Documents do refer to a massive flood (or floods) and have similar types of stories. This is common in folk-lore. I think that a lot of this folk-lore was used by people to try and explain some of the questions that many people ask nowadays (where do we come from? how did human life originate?) Nowadays we look to science (and rightly so) to explain such things, but then it was to folk knowledge and oral tradition (the science of the day, I suppose). The Bible isn't really a book about science or even history. For information on that we should go to the appropriate books and research. The Bible is more a book about theology - about the developing views that people had about God. It's no coincidence that more primitive people in the Old Testament who were warfaring people often described God in warrior terms whereas in the New Testament, God is described more in civilised and loving terms - thus reflecting a change in people as well as a change in their understanding of God.

[Octavius]

The US Government took some photos of Mount Ararat in 1949 to report an anomoly in the mountainside.  Details are about a 3rd of the way down the page but it is pretty incongruous.  If the Ark did exist, it is very unlikley that it (or any remains of it)would be found.

http://arksearch.com/nausgov.htm

[smudge]

So people have their wooden windows replaced because the wood rots & yet we are led to believe that Noah's Ark managed to survive - I dont' think so!

[jno]

RevShirls, I believe current thinking is that the flood happened when after the end of the ice age - this would be about 6,000 years ago - seawater levels rose and  broke through into the Black Sea, which was until then a much smaller freshwater lake. Levels there would have risen very swiftly and divers have found remains of boats on what would once have been the old shoreline. Folk memories of such an unusual event would have persisted a long time, and made it into early written 'histories' in this region - it's in the Gilgamesh epic from Sumer as well as the Bible.

Noah and the ark sound like inventions, though. Rather odd ones, I've always thought, because it sounds as if the human race is being created a second time - any idea what the theological thinking on this is?

[Octavius]

There actually was an archaeologically confirmed flood about 2900 BC on which the ark stories were based, but it was a local river flood, not a global deluge.

The original ark stories were about a small commercial river barge that was hauling a few hundred cattle, sheep, and goats, but there were no kangaroos, lions, apes, elephants, or giraffes on that cattle barge.

[Octavius]

Starting in Genesis 6:6, the Bible records that God was concerned about the level of violence and other evil behavior among humans. He "was sorry that He had made man on the earth..."  It says that God decided to destroy almost the entire human race, in the first, largest and most thorough act of genocide in history. Only Noah, his three sons and their four wives were to be saved in an ark of their own construction. The rest of the human race, the land animals and birds were said to have drowned in a world-wide flood.

It is a story of a hero as RevShirls says above probably through generational exaggeration.  Similar stories are found in Babylonian writings The Epic of Galgamesh but a different hero's name is used to do the same thing (build an ark): Ut-Napishtim

[rinkytink]

 

Not so unusual really....The Sunday Sport once found (and photographed) a double decker bus on the moon I do believe !!

[thejoefro]

I watched a show on the history channel. They found some wood and said that this type of wood no longer exists on earth. How do you explain that?

Email me at [email address removed as per site policy]

[Octavius]

I saw a show once and they found some dinosaur bones.  And, I'm not sure, but I don't believe they exist any more either.  Spooky.