Noah and the Animals—Part 2: How Did Noah Find the Animals?

This series of blog posts is addressing some of the many questions people have asked about the Ark animals before, during, and after the Flood.

Question: How could one man possibly find all of those animals?

Skeptics have often mocked the biblical account of the Ark by highlighting the seeming absurdity of having one man travel the world to find two representatives of every animal species. This paints a picture in the listener’s mind of a person traveling across oceans to islands and continents in order to capture millions of animals. In addition to tracking down all of these animals, Noah would still need to build the Ark.

All of this certainly appears as if it would be too difficult for one person to complete, so how was Noah able to perform these tasks? As is often the case, the skeptic has constructed a straw man argument in an effort to undermine the authenticity of the biblical account. For example, as we have explained many times before, Noah did not need to bring two of every species of animal on board the Ark—he needed to bring two of each kind of unclean land animal and seven or seven pairs of each clean animal. This means he probably needed to bring fewer than 5,000 animals.

Another problem with this skeptical claim is that it assumes that the pre-Flood land masses were virtually the same as our world today. However, there are good biblical reasons to think that prior to the Flood there was only one continent, so even if Noah had to track down all these animals, he would not need to travel overseas to find them. For example, the passage in Genesis 1:9–10 states that all the water was gathered together in one place, which seems to indicate that all the land was in one place. Also, the description of the pre-Flood world in Genesis 2:10–14 does not match any place on earth today.

The biggest problem with this skeptical claim is that Noah didn’t even need to travel the world and catch all the animals. God said in Genesis 6:20 that the animals and birds would come to Noah to be kept alive. Since God brought the animals to Noah, this entire skeptical claim is moot.

This is yet another example of why it is so important to look at what Scripture actually states about an issue rather than taking the skeptic’s word for it. Many of their objections are based on what they think the Bible states or what they’ve heard from someone else rather than taking the time to carefully read Scripture.

There are so many misconceptions about Noah, the Ark, and the Flood in our culture. Please consider supporting the evangelistic Ark Encounter, which will address these false ideas while explaining the true history of our world.