This transcript was auto-generated. 

We considered Noah last time and noted that were were told he was blameless before God and how he stood in stark contrast to the people around him. Noah stands in contrast to the whole generation that surrounded him how are described as wicked and violent. In this next episode we will look at those contemporaries. Verses 11-13 tell us this.

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.
(Gen 6: 11-13)

Notice it says the earth was corrupt. The world that Noah lived in was a wicked, corrupt, and selfish world and because of that they were experiencing degeneration, violence and death. Originally God commission Adam to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with people. However, when you get to this point in the book of Genesis and these people have filled the earth with violence. They were not just isolated cases of violence they have filled the earth with violence. Does that sound familiar to our modern ears? 

The word violence not only indicates physical violence, the particular word used tells us they were also violating the rights of people. In short anarchy prevailed  Then God finally says, “I'm going to put a stop to this I'm going to wipe this out and I'm going to start all over”. We have in stark contrast a man named Noah who was a man that walked with the Lord a man of character he did what was right because it was right. When all around him you have corruption and violence. So, these opening verses of this passage show a juxtaposition, a stark contrast between two sets of people. Noah and his family, and the rest of the people in the world in which he lived. 

The second part of this passage is when things gets really interesting. Having said He is going to destroy the earth God then gives Noah a commission He commissions him to build a boat, an ark. This is such a fascinating story it become part of the worlds collective Phyce. 

So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.

(Gen 6: 14-16)

Versus 14 through 16 given a brief description of the Ark I'm not going to go into all the detail contained in the chapter. But the basic details are that he built this boat and it had 3 decks in it and that each one of those decks contained rooms. It also tells us it had an area to let light in [window] and one door. Then in verse 16 and then it says it was covered with pitch inside and outside thus making the boat water tight. Well just how big was this ark? This passage tells us and says it was 300 cubits long and 50 cubits high and 30 cubits high. A cubit is the way they measured things in the ancient world, and it went from the elbow to the top of your largest finger. It’s a very rough measurement because it was measured by the maker and people's measurement varies, but it was roughly considered to be 18- 24 inches. If we assume the shortest measure and use the 18-inch cubit then this vessel was at least 450 feet long and 75 feet wide. About 1 1/2 football pitches long what about 75 feet wide. It is also approximately 40 feet high which is equivalent to a 4 story building.

Then there is the question is what is the shape of this boat? Most scholars who have grappled with this conclude that it probably was like a modern ship it might have been more like a chest or a flat bottom boat. More like a huge barge. I can conclude by saying it has been demonstrated scientifically such a huge barge of such dimensions would be exceedingly stable if it was floated on rising waters. Somebody has figured out a vessel the size of the Ark would have a displacement of 20,000 tons, and a gross cargo capability of about 14,000 tons. Which mean its cargo capacity would have been equal to over 500 standard railway carriages. Imagine a train 500 cars long and that would have been the capacity of the Ark. Not the length, the capacity. I did some research when famers in the UK transfer livestock by train each railway car can carry 240 sheep. Thus, if the ark was just carrying sheep could have held approximately 125,000 sheep. In other words, there would have been room for many, many animals as well as for Noah

Now I don't expect you remember all those figures. I'm just trying to demonstrate that people who are curious about these things have tried to calculate it and those are the calculations. So although that is all interesting Genesis meant to be is not a scientific or a nautical manual. It is a book with stories with profound meaning and we will look at what this story means next time.