Noah Sacrifices the Animals He Has Just Saved

Genesis 8 > Exodus

WARNING: Mass animal barbeque

CONTEXT: ~ 2350 BCE (Traditional date based on Old Testament timeline)

The first sacrifices in the Hebrew Bible are not the spontaneous acts at makeshift altars set up by the itinerant patriarchs nor is it the offerings described in painful detail beginning in Exodus and continuing in Leviticus and Numbers. In fact, the earliest animal cook out occurs in Genesis 8, just after Noah lands the big Ark boat after 370 days floating above the mountains of Turkey and Armenia.¹

Shockingly, the very first thing he does is have a big ole sacrifice to thank El for helping save the animals he is about to roast. That’s what it says; the text is not ambiguous.

“And Noah builded an altar² unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done.” – Gen. 8:20-21 [KJV]

The sacrifice of “every” animal and bird carries with it all kinds of uncomfortable implications, not the least of which is: Why did Noah save the poor beasts if he was just going to kill and grill them? The confusion between the “two by two” and “seven by seven” versions (see below) becomes much more important in this context, as does God’s clear indication that an important part of the mission is to save the animals. If Noah brought along only pairs, then the sacrifice of every clean animal or even one of each pair would finish the job the Flood started. Then there would only be fish and whales remaining.

It also brings up an awkward question: where do the “clean animals” of the modern era come from? Literalists have answers for all these questions, but they are rhetorically unsound.³ One theory is that the animals all got pregnant on the Ark and had baby animals. What a mess! This reasoning falls apart to some degree when you consider specific details. For example, giraffes have a gestation period of fifteen months, which means Noah roasted pregnant giraffes on the grill. The fact that we have giraffes in the modern world is another biblical miracle.

Two Pair or Seven Pair?

Another surprising contradiction immediately precedes this animal genocide. Although the fairy tale version of “Noah’s Ark” tells us that he boarded species from all around the planet in mated pairs (two by two), the actual scriptural account is a little trickier:

In Genesis 6:19 Noah is commanded to bring aboard the male and female of all living creatures for the purpose of keeping them alive. God expands this command: Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground.

“And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.” – Gen. 6:19 [ASV]

But in the very next chapter, having explicitly and clearly told Noah to bring aboard two of every species, God tells Noah to take with him seven pairs of every clean animal, seven pairs of every bird and two of every unclean animal.

“Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven, the male and his female; and of the beasts that are not clean two, the male and his female:  of the birds also of the heavens, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.” – Gen. 7:2 [ASV]

You have undoubtedly noted that El/God has just contradicted his own instructions regarding the quantities of animals, birds etc. to be taken aboard the Ark, so let’s take a “It’s not you…it’s the Bible” break. First it was one pair each of every sort (two of all living creatures), but now it’s seven pairs each. And that is exactly what it says in any mainstream version of the Bible.Again, literalist Bible scholars (those who believe every word in the Bible is true as dictated by God and written down by Moses) have generated an enormous amount of pretzel logic explaining why the passage that says to take seven pairs of each animal does not contradict the passage that says to take one pair of “all living things.” But it does indeed contradict it.  

Usually this sort of discussion will be found in the foot notes, but Fun Bible Stories wants you to understand that this is a common occurrence in the Bible. Check your own Bible from Genesis 6:20 to 7:3 to form your own opinion. See? It’s not you.

Bible apologists claim this discrepancy is not a contradiction, but rather an additional safety measure put in place by the Lord at the last minute. But the much simpler explanation is given by the “document hypothesis,” two centuries of scriptural research that has yielded a surprising consensus about the origins of biblical scripture.⁴ While the details and minutia will always be in dispute, the overwhelming scholarly opinion is that the Torah is rooted in at least four sources (PJE and D). Biblical texts are composite works with origins in different historical periods. The basic sources for the Torah were written in different eras and reflect varying and sometimes competing agendas.

In this particular early Genesis narrative conflict, the final written copy is a composite of J strands and P strands, which were eventually edited as a continued story. The flood narrative is a composite tale with two discernible threads that are found throughout the Pentateuch (the five Books of Moses). On a much more complex scale, the threads reflect two competing names of God: El and YHWH. This is a much longer story.

 

 

“And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.”

– Genesis 8:20-21 [KJV]

 

NOTES:

1. Over the years there have been multiple findings of Noah’s Ark in this region, although it seems the evidence is only credible to Creationists. There are also those who claim the boat is buried underneath the Great Pyramid. Which of these opinions is the wackiest? Not for me to say.
2. In Exodus, the description of the main sacrificial altar in the wasteland resembles a backyard barbecue grill complete with utensils.
3. By rhetorically unsound, I mean: foolish.
4. Also known as “source criticism.”