Noah's Ark?

We all know what Noah's Ark looked like, don't we?
It was a big wooden boat with a big house on top! .......Wasn't it?

We've all gotten so used to seeing images of Noah's Ark in children's Bibles, (with all the animals waving through the leaded glass windows to Noah, who is busy watering all the hanging baskets of flowers), that we seldom question if those images actually resembled the ark at all!

The nearest Ark I've seen, (to the Biblical description),appeared in John Cross's book, 'The Stranger on the road to Emmaus'. It was basically, a long black box floating on the water! I know it's not as pretty as the traditional version, but our job's not about illustrating fairy tales!

Remember that the Ark was probably black in color as it was coated in pitch! When you look at the actual dimensions, (I built a small scale model in wood), It's surprisingly long and slim! In-fact, in black, it almost looks futuristic! Remember also that the Ark was HUGE! To see some models of Noah's Ark, click here.

So if we know what the ark looked like, why do we keep going back to the fairy tale version? Well, tradition is hard to break! I think that's the problem. Tradition! (It's the fault of Bible artists, yet again!)
So, full marks to all the artists like Nestor Redondo and others, who spent the time to research the subject, and had the guts to draw what they saw!