A Great Myth?
The ark was simply too big for a mere mortal like Noah to build—so said the bbc in its March 21 program “Noah’s Ark.” Given the technology available at the time, building an ark about two-thirds the size of Titanic would have been impossible, the program asserted.
“It’s time to forget the original story and start again,” said the show’s host, Jeremy Bowen. “The traditional notion of the Noah story does not pass any sort of rational or historical test. Maybe it was not meant to; maybe it was made up.”
Bowen interviewed a number of scientists and historians who categorize both Noah and the ark as myth and who reject the idea that a worldwide flood engulfed the Earth. According to Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, “They conclude that the Noah story was invented by Jewish scribes who embellished the story of Gilgamesh to evoke an all-powerful and vengeful God” (March 7).
Evidently, the Apostle Peter also got swept up in evoking these “stories” to depict a vengeful God. He not only referred to the worldwide destruction brought about by the Flood in 2 Peter 2, but also the region-wide destruction God caused by raining fire from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah. Peter used these examples to underscore the point of his message—that universal sin brings about universal destruction.
Jesus too was apparently not exempt from embellishing the yarn. He said in Matthew 24:37-39, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Christ not only confirmed the events of Noah’s day, He said the same worldwide destruction would come about in our day—only this time in the form of nuclear world war! (see verses 21-22).
In Hebrews 11, the Apostle Paul wrote, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith” (v. 7). God gave Noah absolutely no physical evidence to suggest that a flood would come. And yet he built the ark—believing and acting on what God said would happen.
If all of this is nothing more than a fabricated story, then it also casts doubt on statements made by Peter, Paul and Jesus. More important still, it makes God out to be a liar.
