noah's sacrafice

[stephofthenight]

ur thoughts on genisis...how did noah sacrafice the animals for god if he only had A male and A female of each and 7 pairs of each bird... i dont get it

[motherhubbard]

Well, they were on the boat for a long time, I can't remember off the top of my head, but over a year. I'm sure by the time the waters receded there were young animals for sacrifice.

[stephofthenight]

but didnt they have to be clean animaly and healthy breedable animals?

[bibliophile190]

but didnt they have to be clean animaly and healthy breedable animals?




Just because they were on a boat doesn't mean they weren't healthy.

[togre]

Steph,

Good questions. Some thoughts I had...

First, as for the animals having to be clean and healthy. If you are referring to the requirements for an animal sacrifice established by God on Mt Sinai, these events came first. Yet, it would be only natural for Noah when giving an offering from his heart to desire to give a good gift, not a diseased and sickly one. If the LORD was able to preserve the lives of Noah and the animals on the ark, he certainly had to power to keep them healthy and clean. OR we aren't told exactly when Noah built his altar and sacrificed. It is clearly shortly after they left the ark, but a week or two is sufficient for a animal to get its land legs and fatten up a bit.

Second, Noah was instructed to take a male a female of each animal sent him by the Lord and seven of the clean animals. What is a clean animal? It would seem to correspond with those animals the Lord declared on Sinai to ceremonially clean--suitable for his people to eat and to sacrifice. Since (as said before) the rules from Mt. Sinai weren't given yet, Noah/God's people either had sense of clean/unclean before God set it in stone or God indicated to Noah which these animals were (clean animals were birds of the air that didn't eat flesh, fish with scales and animal that had a cloven hoof and chewed their cud--sheep, goats, cattle, etc.) These animal (the type that would be used for a sacrifice) were brought on in larger number. Noah was instructed to bring either 7 or 14 of every kind of clean animal (There is a lack of agreement on whether this was 7 or 14. The Hebrew says "seven by seven" and there is disagreement on whether that means seven total or seven pairs). Either way this larger number would account for Noah's ability to sacrifice from these animals, and would allow him and his family to eat some them sooner and yet retain a breeding population.

[stephofthenight]

that makes since, thanks.
and seeven by seven i would think would be seven female and seven male...
and my bible says it was 3days afterwards, but who knows how long a day was then. i mean its like god created the earth in 7 days that could be 7 years for all we know....