how Long Did it Take Noah to Build the Ark?
When I was younger, our children’s pastor would read me Bible stories. Noah’s story of building the ark was one of the most interesting to us. I remember thinking how one guy could construct a vessel capable of transporting a pair of each animal species on the globe. I also questioned him, “How long did it take Noah to build the ark?” With years of experience in comprehensive theological studies, I now understand this topic better.
According to Genesis, it is unclear how long Noah took to build the ark. However, the floods are reported to begin 120 years after God gave Noah the command to build the ark. However, given that all of Noah’s offspring had spouses, building the ark took around 55 to 75 years.
Join me as we examine the facts and data surrounding the biblical events that occurred from Noah’s time to the present, including the origins of the floods. This article will also explain how long did it take Noah took to build the ark.
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How long did it take Noah to build the Ark?
Our first indication comes from Genesis 6:3, where God says, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be one hundred and twenty years.” Although the exact moment God delivered these words is unknown, the time between this remark and the Flood would be no more than 120 years.
Some think that 120 was the limit of human life after the Flood. However, many people in the first generations after the Flood lived past this age. Even in modern times, some people have lived to be beyond 120 years old.
Others have stated that the Ark’s construction took 120 years. However, Genesis 6:19 states that God commanded Noah to build the Ark even though he already had a wife, three sons, and three daughters-in-law. However, since Japheth was born when Noah was 500 years old (Genesis 5:32) and 600 when the Flood occurred (Genesis 7:6), our timeframe must be far less than 120 years.
Japheth, Shem, and Ham were all old enough to have wives when Noah received the words in Genesis 6:19. Even if Japheth married as early as 20 years old and his brother followed suit within five years, the time from the start of the Ark’s construction and the Flood could not have exceeded 75 years.
Noah most likely built the Ark in 50-75 years, if not less, based on the ages of his three sons and the ages at which they married (between 20 and 45). While this implies that Noah, his sons, and daughters-in-law all had offspring considerably later than in current times, this timeframe is most consistent with the biblical data. In reality, the Bible depicts humans bearing children at considerably later ages in the generations preceding the Flood, implying that something substantial occurred during this catastrophe, resulting in shorter human life spans.
Genesis 11:10 states, “Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.” This shows that Shem was approximately 98 years old at the time of the Flood, two years younger than Japhet. Shem was Noah’s second son, following Japhet, the oldest, and Ham, the youngest.
The note in Genesis 5:27 is very interesting. Methuselah lived 969 years, the longest documented age in the Bible. When the years of his life are added up to the timing of the Flood, he dies in the same year. Some believe Methuselah died in the Flood. While this event may have occurred, it is not mentioned in the Bible.
We don’t know when the Ark was built exactly. However, based on scriptural evidence, a timeframe of 50-75 years is more likely.
Does the Bible mention how long Noah took to build the ark?
The tale of the ark is clearly chronicled in Genesis, but there is no mention of how long Noah spent building it. According to Genesis, God was enraged by how humanity acted and their ways and desired to eliminate them. According to the Bible, God gave humans one hundred and twenty years before destroying them all. According to Genesis 6:3, “My spirit shall not abide in man forever because he is flesh; his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
However, Noah did not start building the ark right away. According to biblical texts, Noah was six hundred years old when the floods occurred, which implies he was four hundred and eighty years old when God said that the world would end.
The Bible also states that Noah had his firstborn child, Japheth, at the age of five hundred, implying that twenty years had already passed. Noah had his second child at five hundred and two years, which we know since the Bible states that Shem had his first child two years after the flood at one hundred years. This means he was ninety-eight years old when the floods occurred.
The Bible does not say how old Ham, Noah’s last kid, was. But if we suppose he was born a year or two after Shem, we may give him time to mature and marry before construction of the ark began, because according to the Bible, God instructed Noah to build the ark after all of his sons had spouses. Genesis 6:18 states that you will enter the ark with your wife, sons, and their wives.
Given all of these facts and figures, it is likely that the ark was built over seventy to fifty years, while the Bible provides no solid proof on how long it took to build.
Is there any historical evidence indicating how long Noah took to build the ark?
There is no historical record of how long Noah needed to build the ark. The account of Noah’s ark appears in both the Bible and the Quran. The only evidence of such a vessel’s construction is found in religious literature.
Many explorers and archeologists have looked for the ark in many parts of the world, notably Mount Ararat, where it is thought to have rested after the flood waters receded.
Since it also does not reveal any signs of a global flood. Scientists believe it’s impossible. Furthermore, given the Bible’s specifications, the ark cannot accommodate a pair of every animal species on the planet.
There have been voyages and explorations all over the world to locate the ark’s final resting place. However, none have provided concrete proof that the ark ever existed. As a result, no historical evidence has been discovered on how long it took to build the ark.
Did Noah build the ark alone?
According to the book of Genesis, God instructed Noah to build the ark himself. We can infer he received aid from his sons, who were capable members of society by the time the work began. According to Genesis 6:14, “Make yourself an ark of cypress wood, make quarters in it, and line it with pith on the inside and outside.”
It is unclear whether Noah received assistance from other people where he lived. They didn’t believe what Noah was saying at the time. Many derided Noah and his sons, calling them insane for building a boat so far away from any body of water. However, the Bible does not provide historical documentation of the full construction process. However, it is logical to infer that Noah’s sons would assist their father with the construction process.
Conclusion
According to research, there is no proof that Noah built and completed the ark in a certain time frame. Even extra-Biblical references, such as the book of Jubilees and the historian Josephus, were silent on the matter. Even with all of the variables considered, 120 years to build the ship appears to be an excessively long time. In the end, it makes little difference how long it took to build the ark. What is crucial is that we learn the spiritual lesson that comes from it.