Did All the Animals Board the Ark?

Noah's Ark is a painting by Cajetan Roos (1690 – 1770)

This discussion is taken from chapter 11 of my forthcoming book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men.

Genesis 7:2 states, “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.” The Hebrew says, לְךָ֛ (lə·ḵā) You תִּֽקַּח־ (tiq·qaḥ-) take שִׁבְעָ֥ה (šiḇ·‘āh) seven ׀ (mik·kōl) whole, all, any, every הַטְּהוֹרָ֗ה (haṭ·ṭə·hō·w·rāh) clean, pure הַבְּהֵמָ֣ה (hab·bə·hê·māh) animal…¹ Thus: “You take seven every clean animal…” The words “Of” and “to thee” are not given in the Hebrew, but were added by the King James translators. The Vulgate begins, “From all living clean take seven…”² So, “From” is added in the Vulgate, and the King James translation is closer to the original Hebrew than is the Vulgate translation. None-the-less, even with “Of” and “From” removed, it still seems apparent that the words “take” and “every” remains; and the verse states that God instructed Noah to “take every animal”.

Moses chapter 8 gives us no specific information here because it ends before any discussion of the ark or the animals takes place. I will discuss what Moses 8 covers and does not cover in another discussion. So, for now, let’s talk beetles.

In 1959, Evelyn Hutchinson stated, “There are at the present time supposed to be (Muller and Campbell, 1954; Hyman, 1955) about one million described species of animals. Of these about three-quarters are insects, of which a quite disproportionately large number are members of a single order, the Coleoptera.” She then cited in a footnote to this statement, “There is a story, possibly apocryphal, of the distinguished British biologist, J. B. S. Haldane, who found himself in the company of a group of theologians. On being asked what one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation, Haldane is said to have answered, “An inordinate fondness for beetles.”³ 

Coleoptera (beetles) are insects with their front wings hardened into elytra (“wing-cases”) which distinguishes them as a unique group among insects. With some 400,000 described species, Coleoptera is, by far, the largest of all animal orders, accounting for nearly 40% of all described arthropods and 25% of all known animal species.⁴ New species of Coleoptera are being discovered all the time. I remember being told, as a biology student, that if you want to discover new species of insects, especially beetles, all you need to do is go to South America and shake one of the really big trees down there—enough unknown species of insects will fall out to keep you busy classifying new species for several years. It is estimated that there may be somewhere between 0.9 and 2.1 million total species of beetles on earth.⁵ 

Diptera (true flies, with hind wings compressed into balancers, or halteres) is another major order of insects, with about 150,000 described species and perhaps more than a quarter of a million total species. Hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, ants, and bees), another mega-diverse insect order, includes more than 153,000 described and possibly up to a million undescribed species.⁶

In Genesis 6:19-20, God is said to have told Noah, “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.”

The Septuagint version of Genesis 6:20, translated to English, states, “Of all winged birds after their kind, and of all cattle after their kind, and of all reptiles creeping upon the earth after their kind, pairs of all shall come in to thee, male and female to be fed with thee”. Notice that here, only “winged birds”, “cattle”, and “reptiles” were to be taken onto the ark, with all the myriad other animals, apparently, left behind.

The Latin Vulgate for Genesis 6:20 states, “De volucribus iuxta genus suum et de iumentis in genere suo et ex omni reptili terrae secundum genus suum bina de omnibus ingredientur tecum ut possint vivere”. The direct English translation is: “Of the birds according to their kind, and of the cattle according to their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in with you, that they may live.”

Therefore, it appears that every version of Genesis 6:20, starting with the Greek Septuagint, includes the word “kind” in verse 20. However, according to Bible Hub, the original Hebrew says: שְׁנַ֧יִם (šə·na·yim) two מִכֹּ֛ל (mik·kōl) every וּמִן־ (ū·min-) part of, from, out of מֵהָע֣וֹף (mê·hā·‘ō·wp̄) flying creatures הַבְּהֵמָה֙ (hab·bə·hê·māh) animal or any large quadruped מִכֹּ֛ל (mik·kōl) the whole, all, any, every רֶ֥מֶשׂ (re·meś) reptile, any other rapidly moving animal…In other words, Genesis 6:20 says: “Two from every flying creatures, large quadrupeds, [and] every reptile (any other rapidly moving animal)…” The Hebrew word: סוּג sug, which means “sort,” “kind,” or “type”, is not included in that verse.

I make a point of the word “kind” not being among God’s apparently original words in Genesis 6:20 because Ken Ham, who seems to be the self-appointed spokesman for young-earth creationists, made a big point of discussing what “kind” actually means. So, not only did the philosophies of men put the term “kind” in the “scriptures” (it is not there in the Hebrew text), but the philosophy of a man explains what it means there.

In 2022, in his article, How Many Animals Were on Noah’s Ark?, posted on the Answers in Genesis website, Ken Ham stated, “What does kind mean? You might think it’s the same as species (e.g., tigers, lions, cougars, and bobcats), but it’s not. “Kind” is at about the level of “family” in our modern classification system (e.g., the family Felidae, which includes all the aforementioned cats and then some).”⁷ This is the same Ken Ham who insists, “…the Bible doesn’t just ‘contain’ the Word of God. It actually IS the Word of God. It is God-breathed.”⁸ Which version of the scriptures IS the Word of God?

Answers in Genesis apparently commonly refers to the English Standard Version (ESV), the King James Version (KJV), and the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) of the Bible. I have already cited the KJV for Genesis 6:20. The ESV states, “Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive.” The LSB states, “Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.”

All of the various versions of the Bible employed by Answers in Genesis include the word “kind” in Genesis 6:20. Unless God spoke English originally and the Hebrew is a later adaptation, I don’t see the word “סוּג sug”, “kind”, in God’s original word.

Then there is another linguistic issue here. Mike Heiser asked the question, “What does the word ‘all’ mean”? He then answers his own question: “The word ‘all’ (kōl) means nothing in and of itself, for it produces the question: ‘all’ of what? If I say, ‘that vacuum sucked up all the dirt,’ do I mean that there isn’t a single speck of dirt (every molecule of dust, e.g.) left anywhere? Of course not. In Gen 41:57 we read: “All (כֹל; kōl) the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain.” Are we to conclude that every last human being on the globe came to Egypt? Of course not. That would be ridiculous. We know this not only because it’s ridiculous, but because we know from the biblical story that Jacob and his sons and their families had not gone down to Egypt at the time of the “statement.”⁹

Also, apparently, according to the Hebrew version of Genesis 6:20, only birds, large quadrupeds, and reptiles were allowed onto the ark. That apparently meant that all the small mammals, amphibians, and fish were left to fend for themselves; along with all the arthropods (insects, spiders, crustaceans), mollusks (snails, octopuses, clams), annelids (segmented worms), echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins), cnidarians (jellyfish, corals), poriferans (sponges), platyhelminthes (flatworms), and nematodes (roundworms). The invertebrates alone account for around 95-98% of all animal species. Then there were also the urochordata (tunicates or sea squirts), cephalochordata (lancelets), myxini (hagfish), petromyzontida (lampreys), and chondrichthyes (sharks, rays, chimaeras). Therefore, the total percent of all the animal species, or even families (“kinds”), actually allowed onto the ark was around 1%.

Remember the earthworms that crawl up onto the sidewalks during a rain storm and then, cruel world, desiccate there after the rain? They crawl up onto the sidewalk to keep from drowning when the soil in which they live becomes saturated with water. They, along with marrieds of spiders and insects would have died out in the flood.

The animals represented in the ark (birds, large quadrupeds, and reptiles) should now be the predominant species on the earth, but they are not. Today, more than 90% of all living animals are invertebrates, and, apparently, none of them were taken onto the ark. Maybe they were stowaways; maybe the ark was infested with cockroaches, ants, spiders, and termites. Were there really 350,000 species of beetles stowed away on the ark? Most people think of all “bugs” as being the same “kind,” but various beetles are more dissimilar than cows compared to dogs.

One may say that all the water-dwelling animals could fend for themselves very easily in a water world. However, such a naïve proposition doesn’t work for most aquatic animals—most having a very narrow tolerance for water quality and temperature. If the entire world were covered with water in the form of rain, then all the fresh water and saline water would become mixed as brackish water—which the vast majority of aquatic animals cannot tolerate.

On the other hand, did Noah have to take albatrosses on board the ark? An albatross can stay at sea for several years, before returning to land to mate. 

What about the beautiful monarch butterflies, which must have milkweed to reproduce—several times per year; what happened to those poor butterflies if all the milkweed was flooded? Milkweeds produce a milky, toxic sap to repel herbivores. Monarch caterpillars take in those toxins, and incorporate them into their own bodies so as to become unpalatable to predators. As a result, monarch larvae can only feed on milkweed. And a year-long flood wouldn’t work out all that well for them because they have up to four generations each summer, each generation migrating a little farther north than the last. The last generation of each year migrates back south.¹⁰ 

Here's another problem. Let’s talk about all the animals that did make it onto the ark. Genesis 6:21 says, “And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.” So, apparently the herbivores were taken care of, but what about all the carnivores? It turns out that about 63% of all animals are carnivores. What were they supposed to eat during the voyage? Were they going to go hungry for a year? If so, then why couldn’t the herbivores go hungry as well—and why not Adam and his family?

I am not throwing out all these questions and challenges to disparage Noah and the Flood. As I have stated in previous discussions, I believe that there was a disastrous flood, which profoundly affected Noah and his family—and changed the course of history for his descendants, possibly moving the scene of that history from one continent to another. However, if that story is correct, then all the points raised in this and other points I have made are irrelevant. They are only relevant if we insist that Noah’s story is one of a world-wide flood, which, in my opinion, was not part of the original story but was added on by the philosophies of men.

Trent Dee Stephens, PhD

trentdeestephens.com

stephenstrent7@gmail.com

References

1.     Bible Hub Genesis 7:2

2.     vulgate.org/ot/genesis_7.htm

3.     Hutchinson, G. Evelyn, Homage to Santa Rosalia or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Animals?, The American Naturalist, 93 (870): 145–159, 1959

4.     Stork, Nigel E., How Many Species of Insects and Other Terrestrial Arthropods Are There on Earth? Annual Review of Entomology, 63:31–45, 2018

5.     Ibid

6.     Peters, Ralph S., et al., Evolutionary History of the Hymenoptera, Current Biology 27:1013-1018, 2017

7.     answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2022/09/08/how-many-animals-were-noahs-ark/?

8.     answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2023/05/10/does-the-bible-just-contain-the-word-of-god/?

9.     Michael S. Heiser website, drmsh.com/argue-biblical-text-local-regional-flood-instead-global-flood, 2018

10.  Monarch Butterfly Biology, USDA Forest Service; fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/pollinators/Monarch_Butterfly/biology/index.shtml#:~:text=During%20the%20summer%20breeding%20season,to%20Mexico%20where%20they%20overwinter