Editing Noah's Ark (section)

===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.