Here is a question to ask at the next family dinner. How many of each animal did Noah bring onto the ark?
Everyone will say two. The song says two. The nursery mural says two. Every toy ark ever sold has the animals marching up the ramp in pairs. It is one of the first Bible facts anybody learns, and it is in the Bible.
And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
Genesis 6:19
So far, the story everyone knows. Now turn the page.
Then chapter seven
God speaks to Noah again, and the numbers change.
Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth.
Genesis 7:2-3
Seven pairs of every clean animal. One pair of the unclean. Seven pairs of the birds. Not a correction, not an explanation. Just a second set of instructions, a page after the first.
"Clean" means the kinds of animals used for food and for sacrifice. And the extras get used. The first thing Noah does on dry land is build an altar.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Genesis 8:20
If he had only brought two of each, that sacrifice would have ended a species. With seven pairs, the math works.
Boarding the ark, twice
Keep reading chapter seven slowly and you will notice something else. Noah's family and the animals go aboard.
Of clean animals and of animals that are not clean and of birds and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.
Genesis 7:8-9
Then a few verses later, they go aboard again, in a second telling with its own wording.
They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in.
Genesis 7:15-16
Two boarding scenes. Two animal counts. And if you keep looking, two lengths for the flood: forty days of rain in one place, a hundred and fifty days of water in another. Even the name for God alternates in blocks, "God" in some stretches and "the Lord" in others.
What scholars make of it
Readers have noticed these pairs for as long as the book has been read. The explanation most scholars hold today is that the flood story is two older tellings woven into one.
Sort the doubled verses by which name they use for God and they separate into two nearly complete flood stories. One tells of the Lord, seven pairs of clean animals, and forty days of rain. The other tells of God, two of every kind, a hundred and fifty days, and precise dates and measurements. Whoever gave Genesis its final shape had both tellings and kept both, braided together rather than choosing one.
Nothing about this is hidden. You can see the seams yourself, a page apart, in any Bible. That is what makes the flood story such a useful place to start: it shows you how the book was put together without anyone having to tell you.
What the text keeps
Twos in chapter six. Sevens in chapter seven. Both instructions, both boarding scenes, both day counts, preserved side by side. The story does not resolve them, and this article will not either. It keeps them both, and so should you when somebody at dinner says two.
For further exploration
Three things to read with the text open:
- Read Genesis 6:19-20, then Genesis 7:2-3. Count the animals in each. Then read Genesis 8:20 and ask which count that sacrifice needs.
- Read Genesis 7:6-16 straight through. Mark every time the family boards the ark. Notice how the wording changes between the two.
- Underline the name for God through chapters six to nine, "God" in one color and "the Lord" in another. See what pattern appears.
Sources
- Genesis 6:19-20; 7:2-3; 7:8-9; 7:15-16; 8:20 (NRSVue)
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible, notes on Genesis 6 to 9
- Michael D. Coogan and Cynthia R. Chapman, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, on the flood narrative's sources
- John Barton, A History of the Bible, on how the Pentateuch was assembled