Rabbinic Judaism The
Talmudic
tractates Sanhedrin,
Avodah Zarah, and
Zevahim relate that, while Noah was building the Ark, he attempted to warn his neighbors of the coming deluge, but was ignored or mocked. God placed lions and other ferocious animals to protect Noah and his family from the wicked who tried to keep them from the Ark. According to one
Midrash, it was God, or the
angels, who gathered the animals and their food to the Ark. As no need existed to distinguish between clean and unclean animals before this time, the clean animals made themselves known by kneeling before Noah as they entered the Ark. A differing opinion is that the Ark itself distinguished clean animals from unclean, admitting seven pairs each of the former and one pair each of the latter. According to Sanhedrin 108b, Noah was engaged both day and night in feeding and caring for the animals, and did not sleep for the entire year aboard the Ark. The animals were the best of their kind and behaved with utmost goodness. They did not procreate, so the number of creatures that disembarked was exactly equal to the number that embarked. The raven created problems, refusing to leave the Ark when Noah sent it forth, and accusing the patriarch of wishing to destroy its race, but as the commentators pointed out, God wished to save the raven, for its descendants were destined to feed the prophet
Elijah. In an unorthodox interpretation, the 12th-century Jewish commentator
Abraham ibn Ezra interpreted the ark as a vessel that remained underwater for 40 days, after which it floated to the surface.
Christianity '' (1493) 's German Bible The
First Epistle of Peter (composed around the end of the first century AD) compared Noah's salvation through water to Christian salvation through baptism.
Hippolytus of Rome (died 235) sought to demonstrate that "the Ark was a symbol of the
Christ who was expected", stating that the vessel had its door on the east side—the direction from which Christ would appear at the
Second Coming—and that the bones of
Adam were brought aboard, together with gold,
frankincense, and
myrrh (the symbols of the
Nativity of Christ). Hippolytus furthermore stated that the Ark floated to and fro in the four directions on the waters, making the sign of the cross, before eventually landing on Mount Kardu "in the east, in the land of the sons of Raban, and the Orientals call it Mount Godash; the
Armenians call it Ararat". On a more practical plane, Hippolytus explained that the lowest of the three decks was for wild beasts, the middle for birds and domestic animals, and the top for humans. He says male animals were separated from females by sharp stakes to prevent breeding.
Jerome () identified the raven, which was sent forth and did not return, as the "foul bird of wickedness" expelled by
baptism; more enduringly, the dove and olive branch came to symbolize the
Holy Spirit and the hope of
salvation and eventually, peace.
Mandaeism In Book 18 of the
Right Ginza, a
Mandaean text, Noah and his family are saved from the Great Flood because they were able to build an ark or
kawila (or
kauila, a
Mandaic term; it is cognate with Syriac
kēʾwilā, which is attested in the
Peshitta New Testament, such as
Matthew 24:38 and
Luke 17:27).
Islam to write a continuation of
Rashid al-Din's famous history of the world,
Jami al-tawarikh. Like the
Il-Khanids, the
Timurids were concerned with legitimizing their right to rule, and Hafiz-i Abru's
A Collection of Histories covers a period that included the time of
Shah Rukh himself. In contrast to the Jewish tradition, which uses a term that can be translated as a "box" or "
chest" to describe the Ark, surah 29:15 of the Quran refers to it as a , an ordinary ship; surah 7:64 uses
fulk, and surah 54:13 describes the Ark as "a thing of boards and nails".
Abd Allah ibn Abbas, a contemporary of
Muhammad, wrote that Noah was in doubt as to what shape to make the Ark and that Allah revealed to him that it was to be shaped like a bird's belly and fashioned of
teak wood. The medieval scholar
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn Masudi (died 956) wrote that Allah commanded the Earth to absorb the water, and certain portions which were slow in obeying received
salt water in punishment and so became
dry and arid. The water which was not absorbed formed the seas, so that the waters of the flood still exist. Masudi says the ark began its voyage at
Kufa in central
Iraq and sailed to
Mecca, circling the
Kaaba before finally traveling to
Mount Judi, which surah 11:44 gives as its final resting place. This mountain is identified by tradition with a hill near the town of
Jazirat ibn Umar on the east bank of the
Tigris in the province of
Mosul in northern Iraq, and Masudi says that the spot could be seen in his time.
Baháʼí Faith The
Baháʼí Faith regards the Ark and the Flood as symbolic. In Baháʼí belief, only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the "ark" of his teachings, as others were spiritually dead. The Baháʼí scripture
Kitáb-i-Íqán endorses the Islamic belief that Noah had numerous companions on the ark, either 40 or 72, as well as his family, and that he taught for 950 (symbolic) years before the flood. The Baháʼí Faith was founded in 19th century Persia, and it recognizes divine messengers from both the Abrahamic and the Indian traditions.
Ancient accounts Multiple Jewish and Christian writers in the ancient world wrote about the ark. The first-century historian
Josephus reports that the Armenians believed that the remains of the Ark lay "in
Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans", in a location they called the Place of Descent (). He goes on to say that many other writers of "barbarian histories", including
Nicolaus of Damascus,
Berossus, and
Mnaseas mention the flood and the Ark in Armenia. In the fourth century,
Epiphanius of Salamis wrote about Noah's Ark in his
Panarion, saying "Thus even today the remains of Noah's ark are still shown in Cardyaei." Other translations render "Cardyaei" as "the country of the Kurds".
John Chrysostom mentioned Noah's Ark in one of his sermons in the fourth century, saying ""Do not the mountains of Armenia testify to it, where the Ark rested? And are not the remains of the Ark preserved there to this very day for our admonition? ==Historicity==