Ark

[Jim_Baur]

If we stay only with the literal, not allegorical, moral or anagogical interpretation, how many animals were on the ark?

In other words, is there a list of clean and unclean animals?

How many animals are on the clean list?

How many animals are on the unclean list?

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[seagal]

I went looking for the story of Noah just out of curiosity after reading your post and was surprised to learn that God instructed him to take 7 pairs of each clean animal and 1 pair of each unclean animal. I remembered it as one pair of each animal. Anyway, I got to digging further for a list of clean and unclean animals and found a definition for each in Leviticus 11:1-30.

Basically, a clean animal has cloven hooves and is a ruminant. Having one attribute or the other is not clean (i.e. camel, pig, rabbit). It has to be both (i.e. cow, sheep). If it is an underwater animal, it has to have fins and scales to be clean, anything else is unclean (i.e. shellfish, octopus). Some birds are listed specifically as being unclean, they seem to be scavenger or meat-eaters. I presume all other birds are clean. Of insects, all those with wings and four feet are unclean. The only clean ones mentioned are locusts. If you want a complete and exact list, I suppose you’d have to get a biology book.

 

[dancus]

Seagal:

Careful don’t confuse dietary laws with the Ark. A Camel doesn’t even have to be on any list. The majority of Jews were nomadic, it would never enter their mind to eat a Camel. It was a valuable piece of property, they had special rugs just for the Camel to sleep. If the tribe was starving they would eyeball each other before that animal.
Dan