Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground
Sacrificing one of only two surviving animals of a species would not cause extinction.
Biology
59
passages in this field
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The cited passage
Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.
What current science says
If only two of each animal survived a catastrophe, and then one was immediately killed, that species would go extinct. You need at least two to reproduce. Interestingly, one version of the story says seven of each 'clean' animal were saved, contradicting another version that says two — but even the seven-animal version has problems with genetic diversity.
What the text says
Genesis 8:20-21 says Noah took of every clean beast and offered them as burnt offerings - yet Genesis 7:8 indicates only pairs of each kind were brought aboard, so sacrificing them is treated as not driving the clean animals to extinction.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.