Noah’s ark rebuilt by Dutchman according to a report in BBC News Online, 28 March 2006. Johan Huibers from Schagen, 45km (30 miles) north of Amsterdam in The Netherlands is building a one fifth size scale model made from American cedar and Norwegian pine. He plans to stock it with farm animals such as “horses, lambs, chickens and rabbits – mostly baby animals to save space.” The project is estimated to cost almost a million euros and Huibers hopes he will recoup his investment by charging people to tour the exhibit. He also hopes it will renew some interest in Christianity in the Netherlands.
Huibers commented, “This will speak very much to children because it will give them something tangible to see that Noah’s Ark really existed.”
In their article the BBC report that, “According to Genesis, Noah took seven pairs of most domesticated animals, and one breeding pair of all other creatures” and “Noah’s wife, three sons and three daughters-in-law lived together on the boat for almost a year while the world was flooded.”
Editorial Comment: Huibers may have to use baby animals to save space because his model is smaller than the real ark, but it does remind us that taking young animals would have been appropriate for Noah as well. Young animals are smaller than adults and would have a longer reproductive life after the flood.
Many sceptics claim that Noah could not have fitted dinosaurs on the Ark because they are too big. However, young reptiles are very small in comparison to their adult size. The largest dinosaur egg so far found is smaller than the largest bird egg, indicating that dinosaurs started out life small enough not to be any bother for Noah. The most difficult animals would be the larger mammals because they are relatively large when they are born. It is interesting to see that the BBC almost got their Biblical facts right. Most people believe the flood only lasted forty days, whereas the Bible says it lasted for a year and ten days. (Ref. exhibitions, media)
Evidence News 12 April 2006