The cartoonification of Noah’s Ark

Creation Ministries International ^ | Oct. 2016 | Phil Robinson

[fishtank]

The cartoonification of Noah’s Ark

How such ‘delightful depictions’ downplay the Deluge—and Christianity

by Phil Robinson

A cartoon is a drawing in an unrealistic style, usually for satire, caricature or humour, and/or to appeal to children. ‘Cartoonification’ (aka ‘cartoonization’) is a recent colloquialism for the process of making something that’s real look ‘cartoonish’. I.e. drawing it in a (usually ridiculously) oversimplified, child-friendly or ‘delightful’ manner.

Unfortunately, this has happened with Noah’s Ark, marker of one of the key events in biblical history. Most depictions of it have become thoroughly cartoonized!

With the Bible so clear on the size, purpose and shape of Noah’s Ark, its pervasive cartoonification is nothing short of amazing!

Today’s common version of the Ark portrays it as a ridiculously-shaped small houseboat. It is mostly only able to carry a handful of the more well-known animals, with giraffes’ heads poking out of windows, and elephants’ trunks hanging down the side. This rather pathetic-looking, definitely non-ocean-going boat is featured on children’s books, celebration cards, novelty ornaments, and more. It has been made into children’s toys and, most disappointingly, put onto Sunday school walls.

The real Noah’s Ark

The Bible in Genesis Chapter 6 very clearly sets out the dimensions, purpose and shape of Noah’s Ark.

... Even using the smaller common cubit of c. 46 cm (18 in),1 Noah’s Ark would have been a massive vessel: L × W × H 137 × 23 × 13.7 metres (450 × 75 × 45 ft), more than adequate for its task.2

[editor-surveyor]

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The “ice age” was the direct result of the super-heated water of the genesis flood.
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[Just mythoughts]

Jeremiah 4 describes the sottish people.. You do know what sottish means? Right? .then Jeremiah says nothing survived.. I think the lesson begins around verse 18. I am on my iPad and it is not cooperating for cut and paste or linking.

[editor-surveyor]

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The soul manufacturing takes place here on Earth, when the sperm of the father meets the ovum of the mother.

[editor-surveyor]

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Your opinion.
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[Shanghai Dan]

Eggs - for 378+ days? Infantile animals - like cows - that need milk from an adult to survive?

[Shanghai Dan]

So which Genesis timeline is correct - Chapter 1 or Chapter 2? The timelines are different if you do a strict, literal read. Or do we need to interpret the versions to reconcile them, thus opening up the potential to interpret other parts?

Me, I think the Bible as a whole is much like Jesus' parables - it's a book for teaching and learning about how to relate to God and man (the Greatest commandment and golden rule). And that's why you can have two different creation timelines, because they each represent different truths of the same parable, the same underlying truth: God made everything. HOW He made it is immaterial, we can learn that from the laws of nature he set up; WHY He made it is the point of the Bible.

I think a teaching/learning approach is much more suitable for the Bible than a literal, historical record. It's not a literal "word of God" type thing - that's much more Islamist in its approach to a religious text.

[Shanghai Dan]

Rhinos - white and black - have diversified (evolved?) so much so that they cannot really interbreed outside a lab: dense article on the subject. That's a lot of evolution in 3000 years - about 150 generations! All the way from different species to different genera (Ceratotherium simum for the White rhino and Diceros bicornis for the black rhino).

[fishtank]

I don’t know what foolish has to do with the idea of preexisting souls.....???

https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=sottish&qs_version=KJV

Jeremiah 4:22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. KJV

Jeremiah 4:22New American Standard Bible (NASB)

22 “For My people are foolish,
They know Me not;
They are stupid children
And have no understanding.
They are shrewd to do evil,
But to do good they do not know.” NASB

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Good grief!

Not even scriptural....

[editor-surveyor]

Yes.

[Just mythoughts]

What 'my people is foolish, and sottish about, Jeremiah 4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was 'without form, and void'; (refers to Genesis 1:2 same specific words) and the heavens, and they had no light.

24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hill moved lightly.

25 I beheld, and, lo, there was NO man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

26 I beheld, and , lo, the fruitful play was a wilderness, and all the (what?) cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, an by His fierce anger.

27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

(Future) 28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will NOT repent, neither will I turn back from it.

29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen: they shall go into thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.

30 And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thous retest thy face with painting, in vain shall thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that ringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, 'Woe is me noe! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

[Just mythoughts]

The soul manufacturing takes place here on Earth, when the sperm of the father meets the ovum of the mother.

When Adam was formed, he was NOT living until the 'breath of life' which means soul was breathed into his nostrils... Moses wrote nothing about the creation/formation of the soul/spirit intellect, and yet God had already picked out the soul/spirit intellect He was going to place in the newly formed flesh body called the Adam. Genesis 2:7

Solomon penned in Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it.

John 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He That came down from heaven, even the Son of man Which is in heaven.

Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Romans 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him That calleth;)

12 It was said unto her, (Rebecca) "The elder shall serve the younger."

13 As it is written, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

God created nothing that He hated, even the devil was created in love, until he rebelled, and has already been judged to death.

Each 'soul/spirit has a history, and those that did not follow the first rebel are the 'elect'...in what Peter calls the 'world that was'. The purpose of this flesh journey is to make a choice with out that history available in the flesh memory bank... Ecclesiastes 1:11 There is NO remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

[eddie willers]

“Noah...how long can you tread water?”

[Ezekiel]

He was a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” We are told that he mourned, cried, became exasperated, and often got angry. But never that he smiled or laughed. Were those terms not in existence in the biblical languages of the 1st Century?

Maybe the writers didn't bother mentioning his general demeanor. Somehow he managed to attract thousands of average people, like a magnet.

Maybe he handed out Noah's Ark coloring books to the kids.

[circlecity]

There’s nothing to suggest it is a parable. It’s in a narrative section and book. The text never mentions anything about a parable. I guess you could take any passage of scripture and allegorize it away anyway you want to avoid the obvious factual content being disclosed. But it’s not a legitimate method of exegesis.

[Shanghai Dan]

OK, so which Creation story has the factual order of Creation?

[editor-surveyor]

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Thank you for your opinion, but that is all that it is.
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[circlecity]

I have no idea what “factual order” means. The creation story is found in Genesis 1 & 2 which relates it from two different points of view.

[Shanghai Dan]

In the two stories, the order of creation is different. You can see them here. Genesis 1 has man created after everything else and creates man and woman at the same time. In Genesis 2 man comes before the plants and animals, and then woman is created last.

Which timeline is correct? Because they both cannot be correct since the orders are different. Or are they interpretations of what happened, meaning they are allegorical in nature - like a parable - meant to explain a greater truth?

[circlecity]

I see no conflict in the timelines at all. They are the same story in two different perspectives. Gen. 1.27 is not commenting on when man and woman were created in relation to each other or which was first. Gen 1.27 is telling when "man" collectively (as men and woman) was created in relation to the sixth day and it was after the animals. Gen 1 is the story of God's entire creation and its focus as such is on what he created from a macro perspective, how he created it (out of nothing, with a breath) and what order he created everything. And that it was good. It is a macro perspective and man and women are treated collectively. Genesis 2 is told from a human perspective or at least with man as the focus of the story. The only order mentioned of 'creation", as such, is that he watered the plants before he grew them, waiting for man to be around to cultivate them. Once it was time for man, he watered the plants, grew them and made animals and man to cultivate and harvest them. The perspective here is a micro perspective, from inside the creation. Also, Gen. 1 tells us several times that God made plants and animals "in their kind". This suggests that the "kinds" grew and diversified as time went on. Thus, we see in Gen. 2, with its focus on man, that God made additional "kinds" sprout, every "pleasant" and "good" kind.

In Gen 2 we also get a more detailed account of the creation of man, showing the order of creation of the two sexes and God gives a good suggestion as to why he chose this order of events in the telling of the naming of the animals by Adam. He wanted Adam to see there was not a "helper fit for him." Thus, increasing Adam's joy and love all the more at the creation of Eve. He knew they were literally "made for each other." The two chapters are easily reconcilable. One can (and many do) try to argue the "multi-text" theory on the basis of, among other things, the two creation narratives and but even they agree on the literal nature of the text and don't try to force a figurative interpretation when nothing from the text, the context or the genre suggest an interpretive approach. The text is clearly narrative - just like the rest of Genesis.