Babylonian tale of round ark draws ire from some Christian circles

by Guest Sat Feb 01, 2014 12:46 pm

A recently deciphered 4,000-year-old clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia is putting a new spin on the biblical tale of the flood and Noah's Ark — and that's causing consternation among some Christian fundamentalists.
The Book of Genesis includes detailed specifications for the giant boat on which all kinds of animals were placed, two by two, to shelter from 40 days and 40 nights of rain. The wooden ark was to measure about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 30 feet high (300 by 50 by 30 cubits, or 137 by 23 by 13 meters).
All well and good: But the specifications listed on the Babylonian "Ark Tablet," which is now on display at the British Museum, are totally different. The Babylonian boat was supposed to be made of braided rope, stiffened by wooden spars and sealed with bitumen. And it was supposed to have a round base, measuring 230 feet wide (70 meters wide).
"It was really a heart-stopping moment — the discovery that the boat was to be a round boat," Irving Finkel, a curator at the museum, told The Associated Press. "That was a real surprise."
A circular ark is in keeping with the look of a coracle, a type of river taxi that was widely used during ancient times in the region now known as Iraq. But the layout doesn't mesh with Genesis, which is taken as the word-for-word literal truth in fundamentalist Christian circles.
Which came first?
Finkel said the account of the flood and the ark was probably passed along to the Jews during their Babylonian exile in the 6th century B.C. and served as the basis for the Genesis story. Biblical Archaeology Review's Noah Wiener said the cuneiform tablet was created "a full millennium before the Genesis narrative was written down."

But Ken Ham, who foundedAnswers in Genesis-U.S. and is trying to raise $73 million to build a full-scale replica of Noah's Ark in Kentucky, says it must have been the other way around: The true account must have come first in Genesis, and was corrupted by the time the Babylonians set down their details on the Ark Tablet.
"Because the Bible is God’s inspired Word, it gives us the true account," Ham wrote. "The other flood legends are man’s changed versions of the event called Noah’s Flood, which occurred close to 4,400 years ago!"

Fans of Ham's Facebook page took up the argument and rejected Finkel's claims. "This is just another clever attempt from Satan to try to disprove or distort the existence of the ark," one said. Another wrote, "A round ark would have sunk."

Would it? We may find out: The Telegraph reports that Britain's Channel 4 has begun filming a documentary about an effort to reconstruct the circular ark. The project is a spin-off of Finkel's newly published book, "The Ark Before Noah."

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/babylonian-tale-round-ark-draws-wrath-some-christian-circles-2D12035655

by Guest Sat Feb 01, 2014 12:59 pm

Sorry I should have added, what makes me chuckle is when something is found that contradicts religions, not that people will challenge this if they are religious but some of the answers they give as to why it would be wrong.

I have seen the argument so many times of, "this is the work of Satan"

Odd one that because if the world was not created with all its life forms in 7 days which has been proven by science to be false, why then say to make matters worse this is the work of Satan That then states using their logic on their faith, that Satan created the world and he did so through billions of years and that the God of the Bible has lied to the Israelites

Even funnier here, the claim is Satan trying to discount the existence of the ark, which is odd as this new evidence is of an ark from a similar older account of the flood, but with different dimensions

by Vintage Sat Feb 01, 2014 1:58 pm

I don't know why people get so wound up about whether the fairly irrelevant parts of religion are right or wrong, most of it is based on stories about real happenings that have been used and corrupted and mixed up in a kind of ancient Chinese whispers to illustrate points. The true meaning of any religion seems to be the same - how to treat each other and the world we live on, all the rest is window dressing. There are flood stories all over the world and all are very similar so its obviously based on real events, nort the entire world being flooded of course but each society's particular world, and not all at the same time, there's nothing really new in the story of this planet just a lot of repeats of events.

by Guest Sat Feb 01, 2014 3:47 pm

sounds like good fun, the idea of a round see going vessel does not make much sense though..

by Vintage Sat Feb 01, 2014 3:52 pm

That must have been a hell of a journey, I doubt anti travel sickness pills would have helped. All that tossing, dipping and spinning ugh.

by Guest Sat Feb 01, 2014 3:55 pm

Vintage wrote:That must have been a hell of a journey, I doubt anti travel sickness pills would have helped. All that tossing, dipping and spinning ugh.

it does sound like a bad trip, pardon the pun. :D

by Guest Sat Feb 01, 2014 4:00 pm

Round, square or boat shape doesn`t matter
The whole story of Noah and the ark is just so much bullshit anyway

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Babylonian tale of round ark draws ire from some Christian circles

Babylonian tale of round ark draws ire from some Christian circles

Re: Babylonian tale of round ark draws ire from some Christian circles

Re: Babylonian tale of round ark draws ire from some Christian circles

Re: Babylonian tale of round ark draws ire from some Christian circles

Re: Babylonian tale of round ark draws ire from some Christian circles

Re: Babylonian tale of round ark draws ire from some Christian circles

Re: Babylonian tale of round ark draws ire from some Christian circles

Re: Babylonian tale of round ark draws ire from some Christian circles