Articles By Bob

I received this question recently on Facebook:

“How did Kangaroos end up on Noah’s Ark if Kangaroos are in Australia only?”

A couple of possibilities come to my mind when we contemplate the challenges associated with Noah and his plight:

1) The concept of the term, “world” has grown over the years. When Jesus commanded his disciples to carry the gospel to the entire world, (Matt 28) the “world” they knew of was the Grecian-Roman Empire and a few places beyond. The very idea that sailors could someday cross the Atlantic to discover a new continent like America would have been viewed by them similar to the way we might imagine an astronaut finding humanoid life on Mars and then wondering if we need to share the gospel with Martians. If such a space expedition ever took place, if we found ourselves populating our solar system and maybe even our galaxy long after that, the solar system or galaxy might be viewed as the “world” Jesus was going to someday return to.

Back to Noah: The “world” which flooded may have been limited to Noah’s world, that region known as Mesopotamia. If such were the case, only the animals in that particular world would have boarded the ark.

2) Another possibility: When reading the Genesis account, the flood is described as more than rain. We are told that the waters of the deep also burst forth. This could be referring to tidal waves caused by earthquakes or comets or some other cataclysm from long ago. Many geologists believe that our seven continents were once one continent. They also believe that in the Ice Age which followed, it would have been possible to cross from one continent to another. The amount of time needed for such a phenomenon to occur need not concern us, as I am convinced the Bible is not trying to tell its readers how old the Earth is.

One thing we know for sure: There definitely was an ancient flood. Many cultures beside the Hebrew culture report on it. The Epic Of Gilgamesh would be one such example.