Let’s begin by clarifying a few things. God gave Noah the dimensions of the ark; however, the cute drawings of a little bathtub boat with animals crowded all over the deck are just not an accurate depiction. The dimensions given in the scriptures reflect a cargo ship with a perfect balance, strength and stability. If it were taller or wider, it would break apart, unable to survive the turbulent waters caused by the flood.
So, how big was this ark?
This is what God told Noah:
This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. Genesis 6:15-16 ESV
Cubits? How long is a cubit? Though the original cubit length is uncertain, it was most likely one of the royal cubits (about 50.3–52.3 cm). The Hebrew long cubit was 51.8 cm.
The length of the ark at 300 cubits came to 155.4 metres. A standard football field is 105 m long, which means the ark was one and a half times the size of a football field. Doesn’t seem like the commonly depicted little boat now.
The width of the ark was 50 cubits, which was 25.9 metres wide. This is more than the length of two large shipping containers. And the height of 30 cubits or 15.5 m is roughly the height of three giraffes stacked atop each other.
Suddenly, the ark isn’t so small anymore. It’s more than half the length of the Titanic.
But is this ark big enough to hold millions of animals?
Well, it didn’t have to hold millions of animals! God instructed Noah which animals were to be put on the ark:
And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Genesis 6:19-20 ESV
Yes, today there are millions of species of animals alive in the world. However, God didn’t tell Noah he would be taking a pair of every species with him, but a pair of every kind of animal. Did you know there are about nine species of wild goats and over 300 breeds of the domestic goat? Do you know how many Noah had on the Ark? Probably a pair of goats. There are 36 species of canines (family Canidae). This family includes dogs, wolves, foxes, jackals, and other dog-like mammals. Do you know what Noah had on the ark? If he took animals according to their kinds, he likely took only one pair of the canine family. Also, don’t forget that marine life wasn’t included, right? The researchers at The Ark Encounter said the following:
Recent studies estimate the total number of living and extinct kinds of land animals and flying creatures to be 1,398. With our “worst-case” scenario approach to calculating the number of animals on the Ark, this would mean that Noah cared for 6,744 animals. [1]
And, this number includes dinosaurs! We all know that some dinosaurs grew to be massive, but Noah would most likely have taken dinosaurs when they were juveniles or young adults in the 70 to 100 kg weight range [2], purposefully preceding their growth spurt [3] which would occur after they exited the ark.
Come now, some of the animals were huge. How did they fit?
Noah didn’t need to take fully grown animals. He might have taken young animals because the entire purpose of taking a male and female was to enable reproduction after the flood, and the young adults had longer reproductive lives than the older animals. Also, the smaller and younger they are, the less space they occupy, the less food they consume, the less waste they produce, and the less weight they exert on the ark!
Additionally, the ark was over 15 metres high, which is the height of a 5-story building. One of the three levels in the ark could have been higher than the rest – not all three needed to have 5-metre ceilings.
So… let’s bring it to a close
The ark is as big as a modern day cargo ship, with fewer animals than what is commonly assumed, so Noah was able to take all kinds of animals and the food they would require, as well as his family and what they needed, to fit into a ship with a capacity of more than 62,000 cubic metres.
References:
[1] https://arkencounter.com/animals/how-they-fit/
[2] Clearey, T.L. and Tomkins, J.P., Determining average dinosaur size using the most recent comprehensive body mass data set, Answers Research Journal 8:85–93, 18 Feb 2015.
[3] Erickson, GM, KC Rogers, and SA Yerby. 2001. Dinosaurian growth patterns and rapid avian growth rates. Nature 412:429-432.