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Summary
- Genesis gives no total for the animals on Noah’s ark. It asks for two of every sort, male and female (Genesis 6:19–20), and for the clean beasts and the birds “by sevens” (Genesis 7:2–3).
- The Catholic New American Bible notes explain the difference between two of every kind and seven of the clean animals as two older sources woven into one story; readers also differ on whether “by sevens” means seven pairs or seven animals.
- Genesis counts each “after his kind,” the Hebrew min, which the Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon glosses “kind, species”; creationist ministries hold that a kind was wider than a species, and the Ark Encounter puts it probably near the family level.
- Whitcomb and Morris (1961) put the total at no more than 35,000 vertebrates, John Woodmorappe at about 16,000 counting one pair per genus, the Ark Encounter at 6,744 from 1,398 kinds, and Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe at 1,000 to 2,000 pairs; BioLogos and the New American Bible notes give no count.
- The ark held creatures with “the breath of life” from the dry land, so fish and sea creatures stayed out, and the Ark Encounter says insects probably did too.
- Answers in Genesis puts about 85 dinosaur kinds, at most 170 dinosaurs, on the ark, probably young ones; Reasons to Believe and BioLogos place none there.
- Genesis says only that Noah gathered “all food that is eaten”; Augustine, Jewish tradition and modern ministries each suggested how the animals were fed.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- King James Version, quoted throughout: Genesis 1:24; 6:19–21; 7:2–3; 7:14–16; 7:22; 8:1; 8:17–20; 9:10; Leviticus 11:3; Job 39:10, BibleGateway.
- Genesis 6 and 7 with notes, New American Bible, Revised Edition, chapter 6 and chapter 7, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
- Genesis 7:2–3, English Standard Version, BibleGateway.
- “Min” (Strong’s Hebrew 4327), Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Bible Hub.
- Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 7:2, Bible Hub.
- Augustine, City of God 15.27 and 16.7, tr. Marcus Dods, New Advent: Book 15, Book 16; Eugène Portalié, “St. Augustine of Hippo”, Catholic Encyclopedia (1907).
- Brian Thomas, “Students Surprised to Find Noah’s Ark Feasible”, Institute for Creation Research, 11 April 2014, on John Woodmorappe’s Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study; publication details, his genus-level kind and his count from Glenn Morton’s review of the book (1996).
- John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1961), chapter 3, “The Capacity of the Ark”.
- Henry M. Morris, note on Genesis 7:15, Defender’s Study Bible, Institute for Creation Research.
- Ark Encounter, “How Many Animals Were on Noah’s Ark?” and “How Did Noah Fit All the Animals on the Ark?”
- Troy Lacey, “Dinosaurs on the Ark: How It Was Possible”, Answers in Genesis, 28 April 2021.
- Hugh Ross, “Which Animals Rode on the Ark?”, Reasons to Believe, 2016, updated 2026; Reasons to Believe, “The Flood of Noah: What Does Science Say?”
- BioLogos, “How Should We Interpret the Genesis Flood Account?”
- Genesis Rabbah 31:13, Sefaria; Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 108b and Zevachim 113b, William Davidson Edition, Sefaria.
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