How long did it take Noah to build the ark lds

Some confuse God’s statement in Genesis 6:3 as describing the time it took Noah to build the Ark. It says:

Genesis 6:3
And the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

However, these 120 years are a countdown to the Flood.1 In other words, mankind’s violence had reached its peak and God declared that 120 years was the “drop dead” date for mankind who is a mortal being (Genesis 6:3–7). From a quick look, these 120 years would seem to be the absolute maximum for the time given to build the Ark, but the Scriptures reveal much more allowing us to be more accurate.

For example, Noah was 500 years old when Japheth, the first of his sons, was born (Genesis 5:32). Yet Noah’s second son, Shem, had his first son two years after the Flood, when he was 100 (Genesis 11:10).2 This means that Shem was 98 years old when the Flood came, and it also means that Shem was born when Noah was 502 years old. So for Noah to begin having children at 500 means that Japheth was indeed the older brother, as per Genesis 10:21, being born when Noah was 500. Ham is mentioned as the youngest of Noah (Genesis 9:24).

When God finally gave Noah instructions to build the Ark, it was not at the beginning of the 120 year countdown. God told Noah that he, his wife, and his three sons and their wives (Genesis 6:14–18)3 would go aboard the Ark at this same time.

Deducing that Shem was born 98 years before the Flood, it could be no more than this. But even more so, Ham hadn’t been born yet! If we were to assume the same time between Ham and Shem as between Japheth and Shem, then Ham could have been born around 96 years before the Flood.

Although the Bible is silent on the exact timing, it is reasonable to assume that some time elapsed for the three sons to grow up and find a wife. I would be most comfortable giving a range of anywhere from 20 to 40 years making Ham no less than 16 at his marriage.

So if we think about this logically and tabulate it:

We would end up with a tentative range of about 55 to 75 years for a reasonable maximum time to build the Ark. Of course, it could be less than this depending on the age that Noah’s sons took wives.

Consider that the Ark was completed prior to loading the animals that the Lord brought to Noah (Genesis 7:1–4) and that they had to take time to gather food and store it aboard the Ark (Genesis 6:21). So carefully considering the text, we can conclude that the construction of the Ark did not involve the 120 years mentioned in Genesis 6:3 but 75 years at the most.

By Rabbi Yonatan Neril

How long did Noah take to build the Ark mentioned in the Bible? And why do we care? The Bible doesn’t say exactly how long, and not much is known about the ship-building process when Noah was alive—especially a ship commissioned by God. Some believe it took just 40 days for Noah to build it, some say 120 days, and others believe he had as many as 300 years.

In this post, we’ll see what Scripture itself and Bible commentators say about how long Noah spent building the Ark, what else he did to protect the environment years before the flood came, and what lessons we can learn from this story with regard to our relationship today with the earth.

How many years did Noah take to build the Ark?

The Ark that Noah built is the first ship mentioned in the Bible. There are many interpretations of how long he worked on constructing it. Genesis chapter 6 verse 6 states: “Noah was six hundred years old when the Flood came, waters upon the earth.” So we see that the ages of people then was more than in our times, and that Noah was already quite old when the flood came. Noah died 350 years after the flood, at the age of 950

Jewish tradition says that a hundred and twenty years before the Flood, Noah specially planted the trees from which he would take the wood for the Ark—no old-growth logging here! Aware of the massive resources that his project would demand, Noah actively worked to be as self-sustaining as possible. The Bible mentions 120 years in the Noah story, in Genesis chapter 6 verse 3: The Lord said, “My spirit shall not strive with man forever, since he too is flesh, yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

Sefer Hayashar (written as early as the 9th century), states that it took just five years for Noah to build the ark. According to a 9th Jewish commentary from Italy, God used a “finger” in providing instructions for Noah to build the ark (Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer 23). This source states that it took 52 years for Noah to build the ark, with Divine guidance.

How was the ark supposed to be constructed?

God gave Noah clear instructions on building the ark. As Rabbi Yehuda Altein explains about the verses in Genesis, “It was to be crafted of gopher (likely cedar) wood and sealed from both within and without with pitch. It was to comprise three stories: the top for Noah and his family; the middle for the animals; and the bottom for refuse.

It was to measure 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in width, and 30 in height. The ark was illuminated by a tzohar, which was either a window through which light shone from the outside, or a radiant precious stone.” Construction of the ark was a precise process.

Why did Noah build the Ark with three levels?

The Talmud explains why Noah’s Ark had three levels: one for Noah and his family, one for the animals, and one for the waste—tons upon tons of animal droppings. Noah’s family spent a lot of their time shoveling manure. The amount may have come to 800 tons of manure during the year on the Ark, according to San Diego Zoo researchers.

Whether Noah and his family systematically removed manure from the Ark (and dumped it in the water), or stored some or all in a designated waste area, Noah toiled to maintain the cleanliness of the Ark. Noah’s lesson teaches us today that the benefits of a clean, healthy living space—clean of both natural and industrially created waste—are worth the effort for humans and animals to coexist on earth.

A even larger key lesson we can learn from Noah is critically seeing the world as a “closed,” integrated system. Noah, his wife, Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their wives maintained a sort of proto-Biodome inside the Ark, struggling to preserve a functional level of ecological balance in a very challenging situation.

Noah’s Ark as a green building 

The Ark was a “green” project in Biblical times, created by Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their wives. According to Jewish tradition, the ship had a window for natural lighting from the sun, a whole floor dedicated to composting animal waste, and wood from forests Noah planted for this purpose. Studying the design of the first Divine-commanded building could help inform our modern green building standards.

Today, about one-third of US building projects are considered “green,” saving an average of 15 percent on water and electricity costs compared to conventional buildings. Natural lighting, solar power, and water recycling (such as diverting “gray” sink waste to water external gardens) are just some of the many architectural and design features that ensure buildings will consume less of nature’s resources.

Within such an architectural and engineering system, every action has a significant impact and ramifications, and individual elements can be designed and aligned to strengthen and reinforce other elements in reducing environmental impacts.

Why Was an Ark Needed?

The biblical story of Noah tells us that God judged the people of the earth with a Flood, killing everyone and everything not on board the Ark. Only eight people survived: Noah, his wife, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The flood was caused when “the Lord saw that man’s wickedness had increased to such an extent that it filled the earth.” God decided to send a great judgment against the people by destroying all life on Earth.

According to the Bible, God gave humans 120 years before unleashing the most serious environmental catastrophe in human history, as punishment for the misbehavior and excesses of humankind. God chose Noah as a messenger, instructing him to build the Ark as a sign to the people that the flood would come unless they changed their actions. Noah said to the people, “Return from your evil ways and deeds.” They did not change in those 120 years.

The judgment was sealed because of the sin of lawlessness, robbery, or wrongdoing (chamas). The rabbis of the Talmud teach that “a person would put out a market stall full of beans, and each person would come and take less than a penny’s worth so that they could not be prosecuted by the law.” (Midrash Genesis Rabbah 31:5)

God said, “You are not playing by the book, so I too will not play by the book.” God responded by bringing a single drop of rain and then another. Just as the people took one bean and then another, without looking at the consequences of their combined actions, so God punished them drop by drop. After 120 years, the Flood came.

Floods in Our Times and the Relevance of Noah

In 1896, Swedish Nobel chemist Svante Arrhenius was recognized for his theory of climate change. Nearly a century later, in 1988, the UN created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “to provide the governments of the world with a clear scientific view of what is happening to the world’s climate.”

The world has largely ignored the panel’s warnings. Even concerned nations struggle to significantly change the actions of their governments and populations. As Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch teaches, “chamas” which led to the Biblical flood and which threatens us today “is a wrong that is too petty to be caught by human justice, but if committed continuously can gradually ruin your fellow person.” We can see parallels in our modern times. with both individuals and corporations developing more and more land that was once protective wetland, or pumping more and more carbon from fossil fuel use into the atmosphere.

It has now been 120 years since Arrhenius’ climate change theory, and massive floods repeatedly threaten even the most developed countries. We cannot forget that in Noah’s time, God gave the people 120 years of warning…

The Great Human-Caused Extinction Event, and Noah

Floods today cause devastating harm in many ways. They temporarily or permanently displace people whose homes are destroyed; they cause many deaths; they wreck agricultural crops and erode huge areas of topsoil; they cripple transportation systems; and they spread disease and toxic pollutants.

Floods’ emotional impact can be devastating too, as people lose their entire sense of safety and security where they live and in many cases can never return to where they and generations of their family have lived.

Devastating flood events are now arriving sooner, more frequently, and more intensely each season than predicted. We are ill-prepared. With eight billion people sharing our planet, the greatest risk comes—as it did in Noah’s time—from seemingly inconsequential actions of individuals combining in their impact. This age is even called the Anthropocene, including the human-caused sixth great extinction event on earth. For the first time, humans can now destroy or radically alter virtually all life on earth, a power so great in Noah’s time, it could once only be ascribed to God.

Though we will never know how long Noah took to literally build the Ark, we are in control of a much weightier question: how long will humanity take to live sustainably? Dr. Bill McKibben says that with climate change, if we win too slowly, we lose. In other words, we need to prioritize sustainability as our top priority, making changes starting NOW so the next generations can inherit a livable planet. Noah devoted his life to the same deeply hopeful goal, and so should we.

* Featured image source

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