RECREATING NOAH'S ARK

Johan Huibers of Holland with his Ark in the Background

Hello My Friend and Welcome.

It’s difficult to know how to categorize this post. One place to file it might be under: Men with too much time on their hands. Today we’ll be looking at two arks, one realistic, the other futuristic.

AND GOD SAID TO JOHAN HUIBERS, “MAKE THYSELF AN ARK…”

For an event that occurred nearly 6,000 years ago, Noah and his Ark remain an ever present reality. Reports of finding the remnants of the Ark on Mt. Arafat surface with surprising regularity. We reported on one such incident in an earlier post Noah’s Ark Found. One of the questions that always seems to come up is, “Could one man and his three sons actually build such a thing?”

Yohan Huibers has answered that question with a definitive, “Yes!” Like most big ideas, it began with a dream. In1992, Dutch native, Huibers had a dream that Holland would be flooded. The following day, he went to a local bookstore and bought a book about Noah's Ark. In no time at all he’d developed a burning ambition to build an ark of his own, but not as a means of survival. A devout Christian, Huibers is quick to point out that God placed the rainbow in the sky as a sign of his covenant with Noah to never again destroy the world with a flood.

The Size of Huiber's Ark is Clearly Seen when in Dry Dock

If he didn’t have survival in mind, why did he undertake a project of such Biblical proportions? Huibers hopes the project will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands, where, like all of Europe, church attendance has dramatically declined in the past 50 years. He also plans to take his show on the road, or more precisely on the water, and visit major cities in Belgium and Germany.

Huibers, a contractor by trade, worked from a design his wife, Biannca, drew. He admits she didn't really want him to do it, but knowing she couldn’t dissuade him, she said. “If you're going to do it, it should look like this.” He built his ark out of cedar and pine working mostly with his own hands. He used modern tools and, when he needed someone to hold the other end, got occasional help from his son Roy. It took him two years to complete the project.

BIG, BIGGER AND BIGEST

As you can tell from the photo at the top of the page, Huibers’ ark is big enough to house a giraffe. Using Biblical measurements, it is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide — two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house.

When he opened the ark for tours a common comment was, “I knew the story of Noah, but I had no idea the boat would have been so big.” In fact, Noah's Ark as described in the Bible was five times larger than Johan's replica. But even his scaled down model still has enough space near the keel for a 50-seat film theater, where kids can watch the segment of the Disney film Fantasia that tells the story of Noah.

For added realism, Huibers scattered life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals throughout the ark. He also plans to eventually add a petting zoo on the upper deck. In any project such as this, one must always weigh practicality against realism. Looking closely, you’ll notice that Huibers mounted his ark atop a barge rather than float it in the water. In doing so, he avoids the problems of rot and leaks that Noah undoubtedly had to deal with.

FROM REALISTIC TO FUTURISTIC
Rather than a traveling exhibit, this next ark exists only on paper…well, more correctly, only as pixels, bits and bytes. It is the brainchild of Russian architect, Alexander Remizov. Unlike Yohan Huibers, whose desire to build an ark was fueled by strong religious convictions, Remizov’s motives are purely secular.

Alexander Remizov's Futuristic Ark

He began with a belief not in God, but in modern technology’s ability to counteract the effects of nature. His response to the growing concern about potential natural disasters such as earthquakes, tidal waves, global warming, melting polar icecaps, and even old-fashioned floods, is to design a way around them. He’s a high-tech survivalist who plans to ride out the coming annihilation not in some dismal underground hideaway, but in a football-field-size floating biosphere

EVERYTHING FROM SOUPS TO NUTS

Mr. Remizov's architectural firm, Remistudio teamed with the International Union of Architects to create a modern version of Noah's Ark. His Ark Hotel will begin life as a land-based structure. However, when the bad times come and flood waters overtake it, the building will simply rise out of the ground and float away. It is designed to be self-sustaining. Collection devices will capture rainwater, solar panels will convert sunlight to energy and interior greenhouses will produce food. 

Remizov's Ark Becomes Sea-Borne in the Event of a Flood

Like most modern architecture, the appearance of the Ark Hotel is strange and vaguely futuristic. It looks like a high-tech Slinky pulled from the set of a Sci-Fi movie. The design utilizes hi-tech plastics and a combination of wind, solar and thermal energy. The design can be scaled from small to very, very large. In its initial state it would provide housing for between 5,000 and 10,000 people.

 

It is planned to be independent of any external support systems, such as hydro or electricity, allowing the structure to exist in any locale or climate. Remizov envisions these self-contained survival pods scattered about the earth. “The building would have an organized community with everything necessary for its prosperity and growth. I think that The Ark is a new prototype in the development of green architecture,” he said.

 Our post-Christian world seems to have forgotten that Utopia was a fictional concept.

Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES

Sroll of the Torah on the Bimah, Reading Stand, in a Synagogue

Hello My Friend and Welcome.

This the second post in our series on the Bible. If you missed the first post, you can read it here. 2011 marks the 400^th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible and this seemed to be an opportune time to do a series such as this.

THE HEBREW BIBLE OR THE OLD TESTAMENT?

Today we’re going to examine the development of the portion of the Bible you may have grown accustomed to calling the Old Testament. Keep in mind that calling it the Old Testament presumes there is a New Testament. The portion of the Bible consisting of the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles and Revelation contains distinctly Christian writings. To the Jews there is no New Covenant and, thus, no New Testament. Therefore, a more correct name for the earlier books of the Bible would be the Jewish, or Hebrew, Bible.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TANAKH

In its earliest form, the Hebrew Bible existed as an oral tradition passed on from one generation to another by the Priests and Scholars. In its written form, it is known as the Tanakh (Hebrew: תַּנַ"ךְ‎, pronounced as təˈnax). This name is used in Judaism for the entire canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three subdivisions: The Torah (Teaching, also known by its Greek name the Pentateuch, The Law, or the Five Books of Moses)…Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; The Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuv’im (Writings)—hence TNK or Tanakh. The name Miqra (מקרא), meaning that which is read, is an alternative Hebrew term for the Tanakh.

DEVELOPING THE CANON OF THE HEBREW BIBLE

Biblically speaking, a canon, from the Greek kanon meaning rule or measure, is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community. According to the Talmud much of the contents of the Tanakh was compiled by the Men of the Great Assembly in 450 BC. They examined the oral traditions as well as written copies of the various books and from them developed a definitive text.

Now they had the books, but a canon had yet to be decided upon. There is no scholarly consensus as to when the Jewish canon was finalized. A popular position is that the Torah was canonized circa 400 BC, the Prophets circa 200 BC, and the Writings circa 100 CE. Others argue that the Hasmonean dynasty (140-37 BC) fixed the Jewish canon. And still others claim it was established during the transition to Rabbinical Judaism which occurred after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Clearly it remained in a state of flux well into the First Century. This is clear from the twenty-four books mentioned in the Midrash whereas the Jewish historian Josephus, describes 22 sacred books when writing Against Apion.

The Entire Tanakh on Scrools

PUTTING IN AND TAKING OUT

Creating a canon involves making both negative and positive choices. It is necessary to not only decide what belongs, but also what doesn’t belong. For instance, there were Early Christian writings that were widely read and considered worthy for teaching and edification that did not make it into the New Testament. The same is true of the Hebrew Bible.

Included in the list of books discarded from the canon is the Book of Jasher, or the Book of the Just. It is mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18 and seems to have been a collection of poetry. The Book of the Wars of the Lord, referenced in Numbers 21:14, was also excluded.

The Book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the Seer (also called Story of the Prophet Iddo or The Annuals of the Prophet Iddo) is mentioned in 2 Chr 9:29, 12:15, 13:22. Iddo was a seer who lived during the reigns of Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijah. His deeds were recorded in this book, which has been completely lost to history, save for its title. However, it is interesting to note that Zechariah was the son of Iddo (Ezra 5:1, Zechariah 1:1). Additionally, The Manner of the Kingdom, mentioned in 1Samuel 10:25, The Acts of Solomon, The Annals of King David, The Book of Nathan the Prophet, also called The Acts of Nathan the Prophet, The Book of Gad the Seer, The Acts of Uziah, The Book of Enoch, The Sayings of the Seer and The Book of Jubilees are all books that didn’t make the cut. 

There are also significant differences in the arrangement and the way the books are counted.

The Jews count 24, Protestants 39, Catholics 46, and Orthodox Christians up to 53. Part of the reason for this is the way in which the books are subdivided. In the Hebrew Bible, The Twelve Minor Prophets are considered one book, while in Christian Bibles they count as twelve separate books. The arrangement of the books is also different. The later prophets come before the Writings in the Hebrew Bible, whereas all of the prophets come after the Wisdom Literature in a Christian Bible. The books are even categorized differently. In the Hebrew Bible 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther, Ruth and Lamentations are part of the Writings. In the Christian Bibles these books are placed with the Historical Books.

One way of looking at it is both the Christian Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible consist of four sections. In the Hebrew Bible it is: Torah, Nevi’im A, Nevi’im B, and Ketuv’im. For the Christian Old Testament it is: The Law, the Historical Books, the Wisdom Books, and the Prophets. Of those four, only the Law or Torah is the same in both Bibles.

The final list of the Hebrew Bible consists of the five books of the Torah, and in the Jewish format, the nineteen books of the Nevi’im, Former Prophets, consisting of Joshua, Judges, Samuel (I & II), Kings (I & II), and Nevi’im, Latter Prophets, consisting of the three Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi along with the eleven books of the Ketuv’im: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, The Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles (I & II). This makes a total of 24 Books in the Hebrew Bible.

An Essene Studying the Scriptures

After Christmas we’ll look at what the Dead Sea Scrolls can tell us about the development of the Hebrew Bible, among other topics relating to development and structure of the Bible as we know it. We’ll also spend time examining the process instituted by King James of England as well as other famous translations.

 

Until then, we wish you Peace and Blessings

 

THE BIBLE

The Family Bible with Its Record of Birhts, Deaths and Marriages

Hello My Friend and Welcome.

Did you learn this song in Sunday School or Vacation Bible School? "The B-I-B-L-E...It's the only book for me..." Go ahead, sing the rest. It'll feel good.

Today we’re going to talk about the Bible. A recent survey indicated that 93% of American households own a Bible. As a matter of fact, the average family has between three and four. The secularization of Europe is apparent when we compare that figure with numbers from the European nations. It drops to 85% percent in Poland, 75% in Italy, 74% percent in Germany, 67% in both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, 65 % in Russia, 61% in Spain and just 48% in France.

The complete Bible has been translated into 392 languages; the New Testament into 1,012 languages and an additional 883 languages have at least one book or parts from the Bible. That’s a total of 2,287 languages and dialects into which at least some portion of the Bible has been translated. As we all know, it continues to be a perennial bestseller.

BIBLICAL KNOWLEDGE SADLY LACKING

The George Barna Research Group has documented the level of Biblical knowledge in the United States. Only half of adults interviewed could name any of the four Gospels and just 37% of those interviewed could name all four. Less than half — 42% — of adults were able to name as many as five of the Ten Commandments correctly. Seven in ten (70%) were able to name the town where Jesus was born, but just 42% could identify him as the person who delivered the Sermon on the Mount. It’s hard not to laugh when told that 12% of adults believe Noah's wife was Joan of Arc. And nearly half believe that the Bible teaches that money is the root of all evil. How many times have you heard that misquoted?

THE KJV CELEBRATES ITS 400^TH BIRTHDAY

In 2011 the King James Version of the Bible — sometimes known as the Authorized Version —celebrates its 400^th birthday. With this in mind, it seemed like the appropriate time to take an in-depth look at the Bible. True, the King James Bible has little or nothing to do with the Life and Times of the Early Church. However, it has had an enormous impact on our society, language, and the way we as society view the word of God. And the development of the Bible as we know it today is quite an interesting story. So, we’ll be examining various aspects of the Bible in this series.

"How Sweet are your Words..." A Bible Cake

WORKING WITH ONLY THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Bible is not a single book, but a library of books. It was written over a 1500-year period in three languages by forty authors living in ten different countries. Its books contain history, poetry, prose, mystery and romance. It features a cast of nearly three thousand depicted in over 1500 different locations.

From our vantage point it’s easy to forget that Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Christians did not have a good chunk of the Scripture that we take for granted. When Peter, Paul and the rest went abroad preaching, they referenced the sacred writings of the Hebrew Bible…what many people call the Old Testament.

DEVELOPING A CANON OF SCRITPURE

The content of the Bible is defined by the Canon of Scripture. The word Canon is derived from the Greek meaning rule or order. It’s also interesting to realize that in the first centuries of the Church this canon, or standard, was somewhat fluid. The Hebrew Bible also went through a process of canonization and the Dead Sea Scrolls shed light on that process.

What constituted the deposit of sacred writings varied from time to time and place to place. Writings by some of the Early Church Fathers such as Ignatius, Polycarp and others were regularly read alongside the familiar letters of Paul, Peter, John, James and others.

It was only when heresies began to arise within the Church that they recognized the need for a hard and fast definition of what was, and was not, part of Scripture. Surprisingly, Marcion was the first person to make a list of the books he thought were depositories of truth. Now you’re probably saying to yourself, “Wait a minute. Wasn’t Marcion a heretic?” Yes, he was. He’s responsible for what has come to be known as the Gnostic heresy. He believed the God of the Old Testament was evil and so he rejected the entire Hebrew Bible. He accepted parts of Luke’s Gospel and ten of Paul’s epistles as true. In setting out his list of the books he thought were right and those he thought were wrong, he inadvertently performed a great service. He forced the Church Leaders to examine all the books in use to create their own list.

It Took 300 Years to Dvelop a Uniform Canon

CLAIMS AND COUNTER-CLAIMS

Around AD 180, the Church Father, Irenaeus, countered Marcion’s list with one of his own…which included the Hebrew Bible, by the way. Despite his work, the canon continued to vary for the next hundred or so years. Then, in AD 303, Roman Emperor Diocletian began the last Empire-wide persecution of Christians. His edict demanded that churches be burned along with all their sacred writings. A number of Christians died rather than relinquish their sacred writings.

Less than a generation later, Constantine ascended to the throne, legalized Christianity, and eventually made it the official religion of the Roman Empire. He then set about organizing and codifying to bring order to chaos. He also convened the Council of Nicaea which developed the Nicene Creed that is still in use today. Recognizing the need for, and benefit of, a unified cannon, Constantine charged Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, with the task of developing the first one.

We’ll examine the structure and development of the Bible and its various translations in the coming posts. I should mention that the Bible Series, like our serial posts on Foods of the First Century and Ancient Games will be taking a short hiatus in November-December as we turn our attention to Advent and Christmas. However, they’ll all be back in January.

Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings.