(Chapter 5 of 10) Now we can answer a number of the most puzzling questions associated with the ark story.
What did Noah’s family and animals eat?
Where they get water to drink?
Since the ark was sealed, how did Noah and his “passengers” get air to breath?
How did Noah clear the waste from all the animals?
Starting with the issue of food. Gen. 6:21, states, “And take unto thee of all food that is eaten, and gather it to you, and it shall be for you and for them for food.” The Hebrew word m’ochal means “of/from all the food.” Just as Noah did not take all the animals available, he did not take all the food types. He had to be selective.
The last part of Gen. 6:21 states that his effort “shall be for food...” The Torah should have said, “Noah gathered food.” In our opinion, the Torah is commanding Noah to take plants that he could grow for food.
Think about it. Noah did not know how many animals would be coming on board or how long his journey would last. So how could he possibly know how much food to take along?
The solution: Noah grew food for his family and the animals. In other words, the ark was more than a self-contained environment, it was a self-sustaining environment.
This isn’t mere conjecture. It’s the result of hints the Torah gives. For example, the Torah tells us that the ark came to rest high up on the mountains. At that altitude, nothing grew even in normal circumstances. Where was Noah going to find food to feed all the animals?
Being a talented husbandman and farmer, Noah could continue to grow food for as long as necessary in the ark, no matter whether the ark was in the water or on dry land.
The construction of the ark also hints that the ark incorporated its own greenhouse. For example, the ark was “pitched” inside and outside to prevent water from entering. This helped to create a full-fledged ecological system by preventing evaporation.
Another fact. The third floor of the ark occupied over 60,000 sq. ft. (627’ long x 104.5’ wide.) That’s a lot of room for eight people. Noah could have reserved space for living quarters, then used the rest to raise crops. In my opinion, he could have easily spread a layer of soil six inches deep over virtually the entire surface, except for living quarters and two work paths. (See diagram X).
In Chapter IV, we stated that the animals lived on the middle level. The logs between the middle and bottom floors were loosely joined. The gaps between the logs on the middle level permitted waste to fall to the bottom of the ark.
Naturally occurring gas would result and rise up through the gaps in the floor and nourish the soil.
Let’s reread Gen. 6:21, “And take unto thee of all food that is eaten, and gather it to you, and it shall be for you and for them for food.” Suddenly, the Torah is telling Noah to take growing things and plant them in the ark!
This also explains, Lemech’s mysterious prophecy in Gen. 5: 29). It states, “And he (Lemech) called his name Noah, saying that this name shall comfort us in our work and in the toil of our land, which come from the ground, which the L-rd has cursed....” Until now, we don’t find any particular need for this talent.
What’s more, the Torah certainly would not have mentioned Lemech’s prophecy unless it was important.
Using his skills as a farmer, Noah planted and grew his crops on the ark so they would mature and to start to reproduce in one week. Even if Noah was a master agronomist, how could plants have grown so quickly?
Gen. 1: 16, states, “And G-d made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.” At that time, day and night were more uniform. The light of day and the dark of night were similar, so the growing season was much faster.
Gen. 7:4 tells Noah that the Flood would start in “yet seven days.” This is followed by an account of the animals boarding the ark. At this point, everything had been prepared. The soil was in place and the first crop was ready for harvest. All Noah had to do was to cut the fresh grains and drop them into shafts that opened above the stalls on the second level. The animals simply would enter the ark seeking food and find the stalls where the shafts were located. In this way, we can understand how all the animals knew where to go without Noah’s assistance.
This procedure corresponds to a Jewish source which states that “there were vine twigs for elephants, bean plants for ravens and other birds, lupine seeds for goats, hay for cows, straw for the camels, oats for the horses, barley for the donkeys and grasses and grains of every sort.”
In addition to food, the plants served another function, as well. In 1771, Joseph Priestly discovered photosynthesis. This clergyman demonstrated that when plants were placed inside a glass jar filled with air made impure by the breathing of animals, the air became pure again. This led to the discovery that plants produced oxygen in the presence of light.
Similarly, to be self-sufficient, the ark’s ecological system needed air circulation, temperature control, and a source of energy. Since the ark’s covering was transparent, the light provided its energy just as the sun does for the earth. The roof acted as a cloud covering does for our atmosphere, diffusing the light and preventing the ark from becoming too hot or too cold.
In addition, the roots of the plants absorbed the carbon monoxide and waste gases given off by animals and man, and produced oxygen. The oxygen would be warmed by the light, rise to the top of the ark, cool and re-circulate downward through the feed shafts. Condensation would take place and provide a passive means of supplying water.
As mentioned earlier, the ark was sealed with pitch, within and without. The outside pitch protected the ark from the elements. The inside seal of pitch protected the wood from the high humidity and acidity of the waste matter.
In terms of nutrients for the soil, the main gas released from animal waste is ammonia. These fumes would follow the lines of the least resistance through gas vents (shafts similar to the feed shafts) to the opening of the upper deck into the soil. As some point, the ammonia gas (NH) from the animal waste would unite with the air (N), water (H0) and lime (CaO) to produce nitrogen phosphorus and other minerals. The roots and moist earth would absorb these gases and compounds through natural soil chemistry.
The theory sounds plausible, but can it stand up under closer examination?
To find out, we’ll figure the amount of space needed to support the nutritional requirements of all the animals and people on the ark. We will also determine the combined weight of the animals and man and food and compare that to the payload figure that we calculated earlier. Ready?
Science has shown that grains, fruits, vegetables and grasses could be grown in six inches of soil. According to weight calculation for “strong soil”, such soil would average 127 lbs./ cubic foot. The ark’s dimensions (627 x 104.5) provide 65,521.5 sq. ft. of area. Deducting the aisles and the thickness of the lumber, we estimate about 30,000 cubic feet of soil. Multiply this by 127 lbs. per cubic foot, and we arrive at 3.810 million pounds of soil.
Duke’s Physiology Book reports that the average dairy cow weighs 1,000 pounds and eats 20 pounds of dry hay, plus additional hay and grain each day when supplying milk. Logically, we can assume that the animals in the ark were young and unbred. Therefore, the animals did not require extra nourishment.
Nevertheless, allowing for larger and greedier species, we could safely say that the food eaten would equal 5% of their own weight. In other words, a 1,000 lb. animal would eat approximately 50 pounds of food daily.
On this basis, if the average animal weighs 800 lbs., and consumes 40 lbs. per day, then the count of 18,000 animals would consume 720,000 pounds of food daily. The waste would average about 10% of the daily food eaten, about 72,000 pounds of waste per day. Over the 207-day journey, 14.904M pounds of waste was produced.
To be thorough, we should include the food and waste of the eight people on board. If we accept their average individual weight as 200 pounds, we start with 1600 pounds total weight. If they eat 5% of their weight daily, they consume about 80 pounds of food. Eight pounds (10%) per day will end up as waste.
Multiply that by 207 days and you get 1,656 pounds of waste. The total weight of the humans on board is an additional 3,816 pounds.
We now have accounted for the following weight:
- Gross weight of the ark (12 cubits deep) 102,541,871 lbs.
- Empty weight of the ark 31,697, 484 lbs.
- Actual payload capacity 70,844,387 lbs.
That total weight of 18,000 animals, the soil, the food, animal waste, and human weight and waste amounts to 38,157,816 lbs. If we subtract this from the gross capacity of 70,844 million pounds, we find that the ark had an additional payload capacity of 31,686,571 lbs.
We can see that only half the available payload is used for 18,000 animals. If we double the count to 36,000 animals, we come up with the following figures.
- Animals (36,000) = 28,800,000 lbs.
- Food = 10,080,000 lbs.
- Waste = 29,808,000 lbs.
- Soil (as before) = 3,810,000 lbs.
- Maximum payload = 72,498,000 lbs.
36,000 animals would generate 29,808,000 pounds of waste. Assuming the weight of the waste corresponds to that of the rich soil weight, then 29,808,000 divided by 127 lbs. = 234,708 cubic feet of waste materials.
In other words, the lowest level of the ark must have at least 234,708 cubic feet of space available to hold the waste. The space in the lowest level was 627 ft. x 104.5 ft. x 20.9 ft. = 1,579,399 cubic feet of space. This proves there was ample room for the ark to hold between 18,800 and 36,000 animals.
To double-check our calculations, let’s look at the relative draft of the ark. Calculating the weight of the ark and its payload of 18,000 animals, we find that the ark would sit 12 cubits in the water.
If we doubled the payload to 36,000 animals, the draft would amount to 15.25 cubits. Since this is only 50% of the closed structure (free board) of thirty cubits, the ark is still stable.
The Torah (Gen. 7:20) tells us that water rose to 15 cubits above the mountains. Even with 36,000 animals on board, this does not present a problem, since the ark would likely have come to rest at a point lower than the peak of the highest mountain.
Summarizing, Noah and his sons achieved one of the most incredible engineering feats in history. They constructed a stable, sea-worthy vessel capable of holding and sustaining over 18,000 animals for twelve months or more!
Joe Silver, the author of this manuscript, was an engineer, an inventor, a philosopher, and a mystic. By day, he worked for the Goodyear Co. in their airships’ division. At night and during the weekends, he pursued his own ideas, building a car with three wheels, among other inventions.
However, Joe’s most focused pursuit was spirituality. Long before it became popular, he rediscovered his Jewish roots and identity. To Joe, Jewish tradition served as a guiding force in his life.
Yet, strange as it may seem, Joe Silver had additional guiding force, a “magid” or spiritual teacher. The rabbi appeared in Joe’s dreams two or three times a week. He always looked down at a book, never at Joe. And he taught him in English. The subject apparently was Noah and the ark. In a tape made during 1985, Joe Silver explained his relationship to the magid and how it took him to Israel, where he learned the magid’s identity.
