You Want a Boat? I Noah Guy  ## Metadata - Author: [[Data Over Dogma]] - Full Title: You Want a Boat? I Noah Guy - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/6578e8fd-5bc3-4a52-a4af-558cdb20209a ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Flood Story Shows Layered Sources** - Genesis 6–8 combines differing flood strands, producing repeated and conflicting details. - Those literary seams explain contradictions like different animal counts and timelines. Transcript: Dan McClellan Yeah, we're going to start in verse five. And I want to start by pointing out that in verses five through eight, we're going to be talking about the Lord and that's the small caps Lord. I have yet figured out how to pronounce it in a way that communicates that this is written in small caps. But it is. So this is a— You don't know how to say something in small caps? No, no, no, no, no, not yet. Dan Beecher I'm figuring it out because I don't— For those of you who read comic books, Thor, every time they represent Thor speaking, the typeface is different from everybody else's dialogue. Dan McClellan Oh, I didn't. And so, yeah, in like every Thor comic. If he turns up in a Captain America comic and it's Thor, the typeface for his dialogue bubbles will be different from everyone else's. You know why? It's because he's an Australian doing an English accent. Well, he's an Asgardian. He's a god. But you can't do that in the movie. So, you know, you could do a little auto-tuning and do something fun with that. Dan Beecher But anyway. Something echoey or something, but that'd be annoying. Yeah. So we have the Lord. Here's what you're going to do. You're going to say the Lord and just, just go up like that. Please don't do that. Okay. But what you're saying is that when it's the, when it's the, uh, small caps Lord, that's a rendering of... Dan McClellan That's a substitution for the Tetragrammaton, Yod-Heh Okay, so it's the name of that specific God. Yes. So the Lord saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of ([Time 0:08:37](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9dae9ac0-109d-4fb0-b349-51597190f7f8)) - **Gopher Job Connects To Gopher Wood** - Dan McClellan recalls his early job as a 'gopher' for his contractor dad. - The memory connects humorously to 'gopher wood' mentioned for the ark. Transcript: Dan McClellan But speaking of gopher would, my job title, one of my first jobs was my dad was a general contractor and I was his gopher. And are you familiar with that job? Yeah. Yes the gopher goes for stuff yeah go for this go i need you to go for this go for that yeah so i was his gopher um so that was my first job but anyway god tells noah uh you're gonna build this Ark about yay big about yay long um you know you got there's some timber over there um ([Time 0:14:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fb7e4c1f-274a-48a8-b785-f9392a16ed01)) - **Animal Counts Reveal Contradiction** - The two flood strands give conflicting animal instructions: two of each versus seven pairs of clean animals. - Those direct contradictions reveal the text's composite nature rather than a single unified account. Transcript: Dan Beecher Has ever been. Dan McClellan I don't know how powerful gopher wood is, because it doesn't exist anymore, but apparently it was a pretty impressive wood. Yeah, but then we're coming back to the story in verse 17, and I love how the NRSVUE starts this part off. God just says, here's how you're going to make the ark, and it says, for my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath Of life. So he's like, while you're doing that, I'm going to kill everybody. Your job, boat. My job, mass murder. Yes. But I will establish my covenant with you. Every living thing. Okay. And then verse 19, and of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female of the birds, according to their kinds and of the animals, according to their kinds of every creeping thing on the ground, according to its kind, two of every Kind shall into you to keep them alive. No distinction between clean and unclean. It's birds, creeping things, animals, two. Two. Of every single one. ([Time 0:15:43](https://share.snipd.com/snip/35b5a141-c754-4017-a2a0-3b3aa6cd6a04)) - **Timeline Conflicts Confirm Multiple Tales** - The narrative gives incompatible timelines: 40 days and 40 nights versus waters swelling 150 days. - Chronological mismatches further support the presence of multiple source traditions. Transcript: Dan McClellan 7, verse 12. Okay. The rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights. So that's it. And God says, I will send rain on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. So we've got a timeline. Yeah. Now let's screw that timeline all up by going to the end of chapter 7 to verse 24. And it says, and the waters swelled on the earth for 150 days, which is not 40 days and 40 nights. It's not 40 days and then starting the first day of 40 nights. Like that just that just adds up to 80. Dan Beecher That doesn't even get you to the 150. That's no. Dan McClellan And what if you're saying, but Dan, but Dan, it says the waters swelled. So the rain could have stopped, but the waters could have kept on swelling you know the rain stopped when the waters were still a semi but we need full encouragement that was probably Dan Beecher Pushing it but um maybe that was just the uh look if we if we go any further i'm gonna have to put a a language advisory our thing. Dan McClellan So let's back it off of that. Yeah, so I know what you're thinking. Dan, the fountains of the deep are still just pumping that fluid into the waters. But that doesn't work with what we read in chapter eight, verse two. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed. The rain from the heavens was restrained. So this is the fountains of the deep and the rains from, so we got from the bottom up and from the top down, stops. At the same time. Waters gradually receded from the earth. So once the rain stopped, the waters start to recede. At the end of 150 days, the waters had abated. So it's another contradiction. ([Time 0:23:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/10b87af6-0717-4445-ad90-0268698c623f)) - **Ararat Is Mountains, Not One Peak** - Hebrew uses a plural for Ararat, meaning 'mountains of Ararat' not a single peak. - Modern claims of a discovered ark on Mount Ararat rely on later naming and are unreliable. Transcript: Dan Beecher To rest where? Dan? On the mountains of Ararat, which which in in our last recording, you you were clear to point out that this isn't a mountain but it is multiple ones. Dan McClellan Yes yes the Hebrew is quite clearly masculine plural construct. Hare. Ararat which would just be the mountains of Ararat. So it's not identifying a specific mountain it's it's identifying mountains within a region or a mountain range or something like that. And the, the mountain that is named Ararat that we have now, if you look it up, uh, that name only goes back a few hundred years. We have absolutely no clue where the mountains of Ararat were located, according to the author of this text. Dan Beecher So take that. If anyone ever tells you that Noah's Ark is actually has been discovered at the top of a mountain in Turkey that is called Ararat, you can laugh in their face because that's just silly And stupid and no, it hasn't shut up. ([Time 0:26:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8c5796e0-6ef1-4fa2-ae4b-2c9479830015)) - **Literal Flood Reading Is Problematic** - Literal readings of the ark and flood strain against physical and logistical realities. - A non-literal or metaphorical approach avoids the implausibilities the hosts highlight. Transcript: Dan Beecher Both of the different sources, it doesn't make sense. It's a story that is physically impossible and doesn't make any sense. Dan McClellan Yes. If you're going to be literal about it. Dan Beecher If you want to just be metaphorical or if you want to see it in some sort of non-literal way, great. Knock yourself out. Yeah. ([Time 0:39:13](https://share.snipd.com/snip/422bce74-7c43-43c5-a881-b015c26a8c15)) - **Life Is More Than Possessions** - Luke 12 reframes wealth: life isn't measured by possessions and hoarding is foolish. - The parable concludes that being 'rich toward God' matters more than accumulating goods. Transcript: Dan McClellan And we're going to start in verse 13. We're going to... A bit. We're going to read down, I think, verse 34. But it starts off with somebody coming up and asking him a question. So someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, and now I'm thinking of George Michael's, but tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me. But he said to him, friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you? And the question is really about, in this time period, the oldest son got the lion's share, if not the entire inheritance, because if you divide it up, then one man's property, within A few generations, it's now divided up into 20 different pieces, and everybody's going their separate ways. So the idea is we want to keep it together. And so one person inherits it. Dan Beecher And if you happen to be born second tough titty i guess just one of them well that's it that's it okay i i'm used to hearing plural but uh fair enough okay so so uh but the uh a younger person Dan McClellan Could uh call on Potter Familius, the oldest, to give them their share of an inheritance, and they just leave. Dan Beecher Just break me off one piece of that Kit Kat bar, and I will go off and make my own way. Dan McClellan Yeah, the story of the prodigal son, I think, is appealing to a very similar idea, only there the son is asking for his peace before the father kicks the bucket. But anyway, but Jesus is like, not my job. But he says to him, take care, be on your guard against all kind of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Then he told them a parable. The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, what should I do? For I have no place to store my crops. And he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, you fool. This very night, your life is being demanded of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? ([Time 0:41:55](https://share.snipd.com/snip/be79bb98-d549-43ee-89a0-865ded0c46f1)) - **Ravens And Lilies Illustrate Divine Provision** - Jesus uses ravens and lilies to argue God provides for creatures and people. - The rhetorical point is to discourage anxious accumulation and obsessive worry about needs. Transcript: Dan McClellan Little rant uh therefore i tell you do not worry about your life what you will eat or about your body what you will wear for life is more than food in the body more than clothing consider The ravens they know neither sow nor reap they have neither storehouse nor barn and yet god feeds them of how much more valuable are you than the birds and which of you by worrying can add Dan Beecher A single hour to your span of life if then which funny because I first read this in the KJV because I was on a weird thing. And it does not say who can add a single hour to your span of life. It says something about adding a cubit to your height, which I think that's crazy. Those are very different. I mean, the point is the same. You can't add to things that are unaddable to of your life but like that's nuts that there's that there's such a wild difference between those two uh versions well it looks like the um Dan McClellan The nrsv has a note there saying or add a qubit to your stature yeah which which sounds kind of arbitrary why are you changing that i don't think that is there a textual reason for this um A cubit to his height a cubit can measure length or time what although day has been suggested uh the term is ambiguous in the same way as uh p he's most scholars take the term helikia to describe Age or length of life here although a few refer to uh refer to it to bodily stature okay well uh there you go so helikia yeah So Helikia. So it's to his Helikion, who can add one cubit or hour? And so it really comes down to, does it mean add an hour to his life or a cubit to his height? Yeah. So interesting. I love that. A cubit. Yeah. One cubit of time. Dan Beecher You can't add a cubit of time to your thing. Yeah. Which means that the ark was a hundred and something hours long. Dan McClellan Hours high, tall. No, it's got to be your bull. Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin yet i tell you even solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these but if god so clothes the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown Into the oven how much more will he clothe you you of little faith can i ask you a question yes you may. Did they eat lilies? Dan Beecher Is that what I'm reading? No. It says, if God so close the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven. And I'm assuming that grass of the field, it's still talking about the lilies somehow. They're seeing that as a grass. Dan McClellan It's a very confusing thing i don't know what he's talking the idea is that it it gets dried up and it might be used as fuel kindling or something like that but no they're they're not eating Grass they're not baking grass they're baking grass you can't the grass bakes the grass is what bakes anyway um and they might get baked on grass. Yeah, that happened. We know that has happened. Uh-huh. We know that that has happened. And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying, for it is the nations of the world that seek all these things, and your Father knows that you Need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you all the kingdom. ([Time 0:46:19](https://share.snipd.com/snip/14b7a571-a84a-41e2-be18-16a0b416ccd3)) - **Sell Possessions And Give To The Poor** - Sell possessions and give alms as Luke 12 directs for followers' conduct. - Make 'unfailing treasure in heaven' by helping the poor rather than hoarding wealth. Transcript: Dan McClellan Rich young ruler where he comes to Jesus and says, Oh, I've kept all the commandments from my youth. What lack I yet? And Jesus says, Sell everything that you have and give the money to the poor. And people are like, That's not generalizable. That's just Jesus talking to one dude. It was a figure of speech, you guys. Calm down. But then we get to Luke 12, 33 he's he's told this parable he's explained what's going on do not be afraid little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom sell Your possessions and give alms make purses for yourselves that do not wear out an unfailing treasure in heaven where no thief comes near and So here we have Jesus quite explicitly telling His followers, not just one rich dude, but his followers, sell your possessions. Right. And give alms. In other words, give the money to the poor. And we get one more example of this when we get to the book of Acts, which is written by the same author as this story. Right. Where they say that all of them, all of the followers of Jesus sold all that they had. ([Time 0:52:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ae979036-8b0b-457f-96b0-0b557e4d9e63)) - **Luke-Acts Counters Prosperity Theology** - Luke-Acts criticizes prosperity theology by urging communal giving and almsgiving. - The early Lukan community's sharing counters modern 'rich-as-blessed' readings. Transcript: Dan McClellan Yes. It is your epistle of straw that you are just going to toss away. Dan Beecher And can I just say, giving alms does not mean giving to a millionaire pastor. That's not what that means. It doesn't mean give money so that your guy can have another jet. Creflo Dollar needs to fly. He can't fly commercial. That's not what we're talking about here. Oh, gosh. So, yeah. ([Time 0:53:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/db4833c5-713a-491d-b298-e313ed6f3f64))