Noah’s Ark
I woke up this morning and checked two weather apps on my phone, sadly confirming my suspicions that there would be more rain this week.
I thought about what it must have been like to be on Noah’s Ark when it rained for 40 days and nights, a divine punishment (or at least a warning) to early humanity to mend their evil ways. Noah had warned people about the impending floods, calling on them to find safety in the ark. Many humans were said to have disregarded Noah’s call.
Noah was more successful when it came to filling the Ark with pairs of animals to ensure that they would be saved too, and would reproduce.
I was able to download two art miniatures depicting Noah’s Ark, dating back to the 15th century, from Mughal India, a period when Muslims ruled the huge subcontinent over Muslims, Hindus, and several other religious groups. The tiny paintings had humans and animals packed in a multistoried Ark.
In the version found in the Talmud, which is the most detailed when it comes to the Ark about construction of spaces and planned logistics, we can allow our imagination to fly about what may have transpired during the 40 days of rain, with another 150 days after the rain stopped, waiting for the waters to recede. Readers with children will empathize with the ordeal, as I did, with my younger kids whining, “I’m bored” as the rains went on and on.
I could also imagine what it was like with all the animals on the Ark when it came to their feeding and their toilet needs; thankfully, I only have four dogs and a fluctuating number of cats, as several strays sought shelter and food in my home during the rain.
Back to Noah. The story of the Ark appears in the Christian Bible, the Muslims’ Quran, and the Jewish Talmud, a reminder that adherents of the three faiths are “people of the book,” a term coined by Muslims (Arabic Ahl al-Kitab), to refer to a shared religious heritage.
The story of Noah’s Ark and the great deluge (delubyo in Filipino, a term borrowed from Spanish) is actually more than a colorful story often used in children’s books, with the three Abrahamic religions using the flood to discuss human wickedness, divine displeasure, punishment, and forgiveness.
There were differences in the biblical, Quranic, and Talmudic accounts when it comes to the sins of humanity that brought about the deluge. The biblical accounts are generalized in the references to humanity’s wickedness. The Quran emphasizes the sin of idolatry, and the Talmud emphasizes theft as the most grievous.
Appropriately, the Inquirer’s front-page headline on Monday was: “P1T FOR FLOOD CONTROL LIKELY LOST TO GRAFT–PING,” a reference to Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson’s claim that half of the P2 trillion allocated to flood control since 2011 “may have ended up in some people’s pockets.” He anticipates President Marcos will include floods in his State of the Nation Address (Sona), even as the senator will probe into the reports of graft in flood control in future hearings around the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
I chose to write about Noah’s Ark because my press deadline comes before the President’s Sona, perhaps elaborating on a declaration he made last week, amid our delubyo, about the need for a “semipermanent disaster response” to weather problems, which he also linked to climate change.
Now to answer the big question: Did our planet ever have a great flood with 40 days and nights of rain?
The answer is no, at least in terms of archaeological evidence for the flood and Noah’s Ark.
The Ark is the easiest to disprove. If indeed there had been one, there would be remnants of a boat-like vessel with lots of animal remains, but no such archaeological site has been found.
Why then does the presence of Noah’s Ark and the great flood exist in the sacred texts of the world’s three largest faiths?
The answer is linked to the matter of the Abrahamic books and faiths. More than half of the world’s total population belongs to the three Abrahamic religions. That, plus strong rain and storms found throughout the world, makes it appealing to have a cataclysmic flood story.
These religious stories still have their value as ways to frame and think about many contemporary issues, from moral and ethical issues to the more mundane ones around human relationships with nature and nonhuman animals.
