Editing Noah's Ark (section)

==Religious views==
===Rabbinic Judaism===
{{Main|Noah in rabbinic literature}}
The [[Talmud]]ic [[Mishnah|tractates]] [[Sanhedrin (tractate)|Sanhedrin]], [[Avodah Zarah]], and [[Zevahim]] relate that, while Noah was building the Ark, he attempted to warn his neighbors of the coming deluge, but was ignored or mocked. God placed lions and other ferocious animals to protect Noah and his family from the wicked who tried to keep them from the Ark. According to one [[Midrash]], it was God, or the [[angel]]s, who gathered the animals and their food to the Ark. As no need existed to distinguish between clean and unclean animals before this time, the clean animals made themselves known by kneeling before Noah as they entered the Ark.{{Citation needed|date=June 2018}} A differing opinion is that the Ark itself distinguished clean animals from unclean, admitting seven pairs each of the former and one pair each of the latter.<ref name="Sefaria.org">{{Cite web|title=Sanhedrin 108b:7–16|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.108b.7|access-date=13 October 2021|website=www.sefaria.org}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=October 2021}}

According to Sanhedrin 108b, Noah was engaged both day and night in feeding and caring for the animals, and did not sleep for the entire year aboard the Ark.<ref>Avigdor Nebenzahl, ''Tiku Bachodesh Shofer: Thoughts for [[Rosh Hashanah]]'', Feldheim Publishers, 1997, p. 208.</ref> The animals were the best of their kind and behaved with utmost goodness. They did not procreate, so the number of creatures that disembarked was exactly equal to the number that embarked. The raven created problems, refusing to leave the Ark when Noah sent it forth, and accusing the patriarch of wishing to destroy its race, but as the commentators pointed out, God wished to save the raven, for its descendants were destined to feed the prophet [[Elijah]].<ref name="Sefaria.org" />{{Primary source inline|date=October 2021}}

According to one tradition, refuse was stored on the lowest of the Ark's three decks, humans and clean beasts on the second, and the unclean animals and birds on the top. A differing interpretation described the refuse as being stored on the topmost deck, from where it was shoveled into the sea through a trapdoor. Precious stones, as bright as the noon sun, provided light, and God ensured the food remained fresh.<ref name="JE Noah"/><ref name="Ark of Noah"/><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Hirsch |editor-first=E. G. |editor2-last=Muss-Arnolt |editor2-first=W. |editor3-last=Hirschfeld |editor3-first=H. |editor-link3=Hartwig Hirschfeld|editor-link1=Emil G. Hirsch |editor-link2=William Muss-Arnolt |title=Jewish Encyclopedia |year=1906 |publisher=JewishEncyclopedia.com |chapter=The Flood |chapter-url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=218&letter=F }}</ref>  In an unorthodox interpretation, the 12th-century Jewish commentator [[Abraham ibn Ezra]] interpreted the ark as a vessel that remained underwater for 40 days, after which it floated to the surface.<ref>[http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=9597&st=&pgnum=123 Ibn Ezra's Commentary to Genesis 7:16] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524092028/http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=9597&st=&pgnum=123 |date=24 May 2013 }}. HebrewBooks.org.</ref>

===Christianity===
[[File:Nuremberg chronicles f 11r 1.png|thumb|upright=1.4|An artist's depiction of the construction of the Ark, from the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'' (1493)]]
[[File:Woodcut of Noah's Ark from Anton Koberger's "German Bible".jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|A woodcut of Noah's Ark from [[Anton Koberger]]'s German Bible]]
The [[First Epistle of Peter]] (composed around the end of the first century AD<ref>''The Early Christian World,'' Volume 1, p.148, [[Philip Esler]]</ref>) compared Noah's salvation through water to Christian salvation through baptism.<ref>{{bibleverse|1Pt|3:20–21}}</ref> [[Hippolytus of Rome]] (died 235) sought to demonstrate that "the Ark was a symbol of the [[Christ]] who was expected", stating that the vessel had its door on the east side—the direction from which Christ would appear at the [[Second Coming]]—and that the bones of [[Adam]] were brought aboard, together with gold, [[frankincense]], and [[myrrh]] (the symbols of the [[Nativity of Christ]]). Hippolytus furthermore stated that the Ark floated to and fro in the four directions on the waters, making the sign of the cross, before eventually landing on Mount Kardu "in the east, in the land of the sons of Raban, and the Orientals call it Mount Godash; the [[Armenians]] call it Ararat".<ref name="Knight, K 2007">{{cite web |author = Hippolytus |translator= S. D. F. Salmond|title = Fragments from the Scriptural Commentaries of Hippolytus |url = http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0502.htm |publisher = New Advent |access-date = 27 June 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070417130437/http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0502.htm |archive-date = 17 April 2007 |url-status = live |df = dmy-all}}</ref> On a more practical plane, Hippolytus explained that the lowest of the three decks was for wild beasts, the middle for birds and domestic animals, and the top for humans. He says male animals were separated from females by sharp stakes to prevent breeding.<ref name="Knight, K 2007"/>

The early [[Church Father]] and theologian [[Origen]] (''circa'' 182–251), in response to a critic who doubted that the Ark could contain all the animals in the world, argued that Moses, the traditional author of the book of Genesis, had been brought up in [[ancient Egypt|Egypt]] and would therefore have used the larger Egyptian cubit. 
[[File:Noah's Ark by T.Poulakis after engraving of J.Sadeler (17th c.).jpg|thumb|300px|''[[Noah's Ark (Poulakis)|Noah's Ark]]'' by [[Theodore Poulakis]], 1650-1692, depicting animals traveling to an ark.]] He also fixed the shape of the Ark as a truncated [[pyramid]], square at its base, and tapering to a square peak one cubit on a side; only in the 12th century did it come to be thought of as a rectangular box with a sloping roof.{{sfn|Cohn|1996|p=38}}
Early Christian artists depicted Noah standing in a small box on the waves, symbolizing God saving the Christian Church in its turbulent early years. [[Augustine of Hippo]] (354–430), in his work ''[[City of God (book)|City of God]]'', demonstrated that the dimensions of the Ark corresponded to the dimensions of the human body, which according to Christian doctrine is the body of Christ and in turn the body of the Church.<ref name="Schaff, P 1890">{{cite book |last=St. Augustin |editor-last=Schaff |editor-first=Philip |title=Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers |trans-title=St. Augustin's City of God and Christian Doctrine |series=1 |volume=2 |orig-year=c. 400 |year=1890 |publisher=The Christian Literature Publishing Company |chapter=Chapter 26:That the Ark Which Noah Was Ordered to Make Figures In Every Respect Christ and the Church |chapter-url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.iv.XV.26.html }}</ref> [[Jerome]] ({{Circa|347–420|lk=no}}) identified the raven, which was sent forth and did not return, as the "foul bird of wickedness" expelled by [[baptism]];<ref>{{cite book |last=Jerome |editor=Schaff, P |title=Niocene and Post-Niocene Fathers: The Principal Works of St. Jerome |series=2 |volume=6 |orig-year=c. 347–420 |year=1892 |publisher=The Christian Literature Publishing Company |chapter=Letter LXIX. To Oceanus. |chapter-url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.v.LXIX.html }}</ref> more enduringly, the dove and olive branch came to symbolize the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]] and the hope of [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]] and eventually, peace.<ref name="Cohn"/> The olive branch remains a secular and religious [[peace symbols|symbol of peace]] today.

===Gnosticism===
According to the ''[[Hypostasis of the Archons]]'', a 3rd-century [[Gnostic]] text, Noah is chosen to be spared by the evil [[Archon (Gnosticism)|Archons]] when they try to destroy the other inhabitants of the Earth with the great flood. He is told to create the ark then board it at a location called Mount Sir, but when [[Norea]] wants to board it as well, Noah attempts to not let her. So she decides to use her divine power to blow upon the ark and set it ablaze, therefore Noah is forced to rebuild it.<ref>{{cite book|author1=[[Marvin Meyer]]|author2=[[Willis Barnstone]]|title=The Gnostic Bible|publisher=[[Shambhala Publications|Shambhala]]|chapter=The Reality of the Rulers (The Hypostasis of the Archons)|url=http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/Hypostas-Barnstone.html|date=30 June 2009|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

===Mandaeism===
In Book 18 of the [[Right Ginza]], a [[Mandaean text]], Noah and his family are saved from the Great Flood because they were able to build an ark or ''kawila'' (or ''kauila'', a [[Mandaic language|Mandaic]] term; it is cognate with Syriac ''kēʾwilā'', which is attested in the [[Peshitta]] New Testament, such as [[Matthew 24]]:38 and [[Luke 17]]:27).<ref name="Häberl 2022">{{cite book | last=Häberl | first=Charles | url=https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781800856271 | title=The Book of Kings and the Explanations of This World: A Universal History from the Late Sasanian Empire | location=Liverpool | publisher=Liverpool University Press | date=2022 | isbn=978-1-80085-627-1 | page=215| doi=10.3828/9781800856271 | doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 }}</ref>

===Islam===
{{Main|Noah in Islam}}
[[File:16 2-8-2005-Noahs-ark-Hafis-Abru-2.jpg|thumb|Persian Miniature from Hafiz-i Abru's Majma al-tawarikh. ''Noah's Ark'' Iran (Afghanistan), Herat; Timur's son Shah Rukh (1405–1447) ordered the historian [[Hafiz-i Abru]] to write a continuation of [[Rashid-al-Din Hamadani|Rashid al-Din's]] famous history of the world, [[Jami al-tawarikh]]. Like the [[Il-Khanids]], the [[Timurids]] were concerned with legitimizing their right to rule, and Hafiz-i Abru's ''A Collection of Histories'' covers a period that included the time of [[Shahrukh Mirza|Shah Rukh]] himself.]]
[[File:Noah's ark and the deluge.JPG|thumb|Noah's Ark and the deluge from Zubdat-al Tawarikh]]
In contrast to the Jewish tradition, which uses a term that can be translated as a "box" or "[[chest (furniture)|chest]]" to describe the Ark, surah 29:15 of the Quran refers to it as a {{lang|ar-Latn|safina}}, an ordinary ship; surah 7:64 uses ''fulk,''<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Christys |first1=Ann |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1053611250 |title=Die Interaktion von Herrschern und Eliten in imperialen Ordnungen des Mittelalters |date=2018 |others=Wolfram Drews |isbn=978-3-11-057267-4    |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] GmbH |location=Berlin |pages=114–124 |chapter=Educating the Christian Elite in Umayyad Córdoba |oclc=1053611250}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Freidenreich |first=David M. |date=2003 |title=The Use of Islamic Sources in Saadiah Gaon's Tafsīr of the Torah |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/390127 |journal=Jewish Quarterly Review |volume=93 |issue=3 |pages=353–395 |doi=10.1353/jqr.2003.0009 |s2cid=170764204 |issn=1553-0604}}</ref> and surah 54:13 describes the Ark as "a thing of boards and nails". [[Abd Allah ibn Abbas]], a contemporary of [[Muhammad]], wrote that Noah was in doubt as to what shape to make the Ark and that Allah revealed to him that it was to be shaped like a bird's belly and fashioned of [[teak]] wood.<ref>{{cite book|last=Baring-Gould|first=Sabine|title=Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets and Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources|publisher=James B. Millar and Co., New York|year=1884|chapter=Noah|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05BuCM6U4DgC&q=eutychius+noah&pg=PA113|page=113}}</ref>

The medieval scholar [[Al-Masudi|Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn Masudi]] (died 956) wrote that Allah commanded the Earth to absorb the water, and certain portions which were slow in obeying received [[seawater|salt water]] in punishment and so became [[desert|dry and arid]]. The water which was not absorbed formed the seas, so that the waters of the flood still exist. Masudi says the ark began its voyage at [[Kufa]] in central [[Iraq]] and sailed to [[Mecca]], circling the [[Kaaba]] before finally traveling to [[Mount Judi]], which surah 11:44 gives as its final resting place. This mountain is identified by tradition with a hill near the town of [[Jazirat ibn Umar]] on the east bank of the [[Tigris]] in the province of [[Mosul]] in northern Iraq, and Masudi says that the spot could be seen in his time.<ref name="JE Noah">{{cite book|editor-last=McCurdy|editor-first=J. F.|editor-link=J. Frederic McCurdy|editor2-last=Bacher|editor2-first=W.|editor3-last=Seligsohn|editor3-first=M.|display-editors=3 |editor4-last=Hirsch|editor4-first=E. G.|title=Jewish Encyclopedia|year=1906|publisher=JewishEncyclopedia.com|chapter=Noah|chapter-url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=318&letter=N&search=noah}}</ref><ref name="Ark of Noah">{{cite book|editor-last=McCurdy|editor-first=J. F.|editor2-last=Jastrow|editor2-first=M. W.|editor3-last=Ginzberg|editor3-first=L.|display-editors=3 |editor4-last=McDonald|editor4-first=D.B.|editor-link2=Marcus Jastrow|title=Jewish Encyclopedia|year=1906|publisher=JewishEncyclopedia.com|chapter=Ark of Noah|chapter-url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1780&letter=A}}</ref>{{bsn|date=April 2023}}

[[File:Thomas Cole - Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge - Smithsonian.jpg|thumb|''The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge'' (1829), a painting by the American painter [[Thomas Cole]]]]

===Baháʼí Faith===
The [[Baháʼí Faith]] regards the Ark and the Flood as symbolic.<ref>From a letter written on behalf of [[Shoghi Effendi]], 28 October 1949: ''Baháʼí News'', No. 228, February 1950, p. 4. Republished in {{harvnb|Compilation|1983|p=508}}</ref> In Baháʼí belief, only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the "ark" of his teachings, as others were spiritually dead.<ref name=BahaiArk>{{cite web|first= Brent|last= Poirier|title= The Kitab-i-Iqan: The key to unsealing the mysteries of the Holy Bible|url= http://bahai-library.com/poirier_iqan_unsealing_bible|access-date= 25 June 2007|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110707205604/http://bahai-library.com/poirier_iqan_unsealing_bible|archive-date= 7 July 2011|url-status= live|df= dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last= Shoghi Effendi|author-link= Shoghi Effendi|year= 1971|title= Messages to the Baháʼí World, 1950–1957|publisher= Baháʼí Publishing Trust|location= Wilmette, Illinois, USA|isbn= 978-0-87743-036-0|url= http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/se/MBW/|page= 104|access-date= 10 August 2008|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081023220446/http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/se/MBW/|archive-date= 23 October 2008|url-status= live}}</ref> The Baháʼí scripture ''[[Kitáb-i-Íqán]]'' endorses the Islamic belief that Noah had numerous companions on the ark, either 40 or 72, as well as his family, and that he taught for 950 (symbolic) years before the flood.<ref>From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, 25 November 1950. Published in {{harvnb|Compilation|1983|p=494}}</ref> The Baháʼí Faith was founded in 19th century Persia, and it recognizes divine messengers from both the Abrahamic and the Indian traditions.

===Ancient accounts===

Multiple Jewish and Christian writers in the ancient world wrote about the ark.  The first-century historian [[Josephus]] reports that the Armenians believed that the remains of the Ark lay "in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans", in a location they called the Place of Descent ({{langx|grc|αποβατηριον}}). He goes on to say that many other writers of "barbarian histories", including [[Nicolaus of Damascus]], [[Berossus]], and [[Mnaseas]] mention the flood and the Ark.<ref>{{cite wikisource |last1=Josephus |first1=Flavius |author-[[Josephus]] |wslink=The Antiquities of the Jews/Book I#Chapter 3|title=The Antiquities of the Jews, Book I |orig-year=94 AD |chapter=3|quote=Now all the writers of barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this ark; among whom is Berosus the Chaldean. For when he is describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus: "It is said there is still some part of this ark in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets for the averting of mischiefs." Hieronymus the Egyptian also, who wrote the Phoenician Antiquities, and Mnaseas, and a great many more, make mention of the same. Nay, Nicolaus of Damascus, in his ninety-sixth book, hath a particular relation about them; where he speaks thus: "There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote.}}</ref>

In the fourth century, [[Epiphanius of Salamis]] wrote about Noah's Ark in his ''[[Panarion]]'', saying "Thus even today the remains of Noah's ark are still shown in Cardyaei."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Frank |title=The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis |date=2009 |isbn=978-90-04-17017-9 |page=48|publisher=BRILL }}</ref>  Other translations render "Cardyaei" as "the country of the Kurds".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Montgomery |first1=John Warwick |title=The Quest For Noahs Ark |date=1974 |isbn=0-87123-477-7 |page=77|publisher=Bethany Fellowship }}</ref>

[[John Chrysostom]] mentioned Noah's Ark in one of his sermons in the fourth century, saying ""Do not the mountains of Armenia testify to it, where the Ark rested? And are not the remains of the Ark preserved there to this very day for our admonition?<ref>{{cite book |last1=Montgomery |first1=John Warwick |title=The Quest For Noahs Ark |date=1974 |isbn=0-87123-477-7 |page=78 |publisher=Bethany Fellowship }}</ref>