Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground
Every animal species on Earth can fit inside a single wooden ship.
Zoology
38
passages in this field
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The cited passage
What current science says
There are over 2 million known animal species, with millions more undiscovered. Even counting only vertebrates (over 75,000 species), fitting two of each plus food, water, and waste management would require vastly more space than any wooden ship could provide. Many animals are huge, need specific temperatures or habitats, and would eat each other. On top of that, a wooden vessel packed this full would be far too heavy to stay afloat.
What the text says
Whether by twos or by sevens, Noah takes male and female representatives from each species of "every thing that creepeth upon the earth."
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.