Animals on the Ark?

August 17, 2008 11:07 AM

Can you point me to a list of animals that were on Noah's Ark?

My google skills have failed me. Could you help me find a list of animals that were on Noah's Ark? I'm less interested in those explorations of how Noah's Ark may or may not have been possible, and more interested in just a simple list of what animals the Bible says were on the ark.

posted by rachelpapers to religion & philosophy (12 comments total)

I don't think the Bible does list any animals, beyond a raven and a dove. It pretty much just says "all of them." You could perhaps look at paintings of the event to see what animals are typically represented.

Genesis 6:19–20:
‘And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.’

Genesis 7:2–3:
‘Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.’
posted by Solon and Thanks at 11:21 AM on August 17, 2008

It doesn't get any more specific than this, from the end of Genesis 6:

You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.

posted by Jeanne at 11:21 AM on August 17, 2008

I found this link that talks about the types of animals on the ark. I'm not sure you'll be able to find a precise list.
posted by alligatorman at 11:21 AM on August 17, 2008

Did you find this?

"How many and what type of animals would the ark have to carry? Many scoffers suggest that the ark would have been overloaded. They suggest that Noah would need to gather millions of different animals. Since there are millions of species of animals there would have been millions of animals on the ark! Is this true?

The word species and the biblical word "kind" are often used interchangeably. This is incorrect since they are not synonymous. The biblical word "kind" denotes an organism that reproduces others like itself. The species concept is much narrower than this; therefore many species can be included in a single biblical "kind." The word kind is probably closer to the modern taxonomic unit of genus, and in some cases the larger taxonomic unit, family.

The Canidae (canine) family includes about 14 genera of dog like animals. These include the coyote, dog, wolf, jackal, etc. The ark did not have to contain the hundreds of species of canines that make up this group. In reality, these were all represented by a few "kind." These "kind" would then produce all the animals that make up the Canidae family. For example all of the hundreds of varieties of domestic pigeons that have all been produced originated from one species, the wild rock pigeon (Columbia livia)."*

Not as specific as you're looking for, I suppose, but I can't imagine you're going to find A Definitive Answer out there.

* At the bottom of that page, we find: "It is obvious that when all the facts of the Genesis account of the flood are examined that there is no reason to doubt that the ark could easily have carried its intended cargo. The biblical account is not a revision of a Babylonia myth. All the scientific evidence shows that the ark could easily have contained all of the animals that were used to repopulate the earth after the flood." Obviously.
posted by rtha at 11:22 AM on August 17, 2008

Here's Genesis (it's the King James Version, and the ark stuff starts in chapter 6).
posted by box at 11:23 AM on August 17, 2008

There isn't a list exactly, but chapter 7 of Genesis in the online King James Version I found says:

[2] Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
[3] Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

Later, in verses 8 and 9:


[8] Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
[9] There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

And in verses 13-14:

[13] In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
[14] They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.

Genesis 8:6-8 is the only place where specific species are mentioned: the raven and the dove released by Noah to find dry land:

[6] And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
[7] And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
[8] Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground
posted by mdonley at 11:24 AM on August 17, 2008

Here's some (non-biblical) rabbinical tradition on Noah and the Ark - God caused all animals, including the sprits of those not yet created, to gather at the ark so that Noah didn't have to hunt them; lions guarded the entrance; and something called the "Reëm" and the giant King of Basham swam alongside because they were too large to fit.
posted by ormondsacker at 11:59 AM on August 17, 2008

I found this link that talks about the types of animals on the ark.
posted by dancestoblue at 1:28 PM on August 17, 2008

And it's still more Jewish folklore than the bible per se, but here's the full text of the relevant section of the Haggadah. (Scroll down to "The Inmates of the Ark".)

In googling around, it turns out one of the big debates in "creation science" circles is whether that "reëm" paddling along behind the ark was some kind of dinosaur (possibly a triceratops). Creationists have the funnest debates.
posted by ormondsacker at 3:55 PM on August 17, 2008

I wonder if the ark was like Dr. Who's telephone booth.
posted by plexi at 8:28 PM on August 17, 2008

[Dr. Who speculations removed - please quit screwing around, thank you]
posted by jessamyn at 6:44 AM on August 20, 2008

[Dr. Who speculations removed - please quit screwing around, thank you]

I missed Dr. Who-related Noah's ark speculation?

God DAMN it.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 11:19 AM on August 30, 2008