Noah’s Ark

biblical story

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Last updated

July 1, 2026

Quick Summary

The biblical story of Noah's Ark, found in the Old Testament book of Genesis, tells of Noah, a righteous man chosen by God to save humanity and animal life from a great Flood meant to cleanse a wicked world.1

God instructed Noah to build an ark and take pairs of every animal species aboard to preserve them. After the floodwaters receded, Noah and his family, the sole survivors, repopulated the Earth. God then made a covenant with Noah, promising never again to destroy all life with a flood, symbolized by the rainbow. The story shares similarities with older Babylonian flood myths, such as the tale of Utnapishtim in the Gilgamesh epic, but the biblical narrative emphasizes God's unique, benevolent, and monotheistic perspective.12

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Mount Ararat
…with the mountain on which Noah’s Ark came to rest at the end of the Flood. The name Ararat, as it appears in the Bible, is the Hebrew equivalent of Urardhu, or Urartu, the Assyro-Babylonian name of a kingdom that flourished between the Aras and the Upper Tigris rivers from…
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…with the mountain on which Noah’s Ark came to rest at the end of the Flood. The name Ararat, as it appears in the Bible, is the Hebrew equivalent of Urardhu, or Urartu, the Assyro-Babylonian name of a kingdom that flourished between the Aras and the Upper Tigris rivers from…
Read More

Noah
…was instructed to build an ark, and in accordance with God’s instructions he took into the ark male and female specimens of all the world’s species of animals, from which the stocks might be replenished. Consequently, according to this narrative, the entire surviving human race descended from Noah’s three sons.…
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…was instructed to build an ark, and in accordance with God’s instructions he took into the ark male and female specimens of all the world’s species of animals, from which the stocks might be replenished. Consequently, according to this narrative, the entire surviving human race descended from Noah’s three sons.…
Read More

flood myth
Biblical flood myth
…was instructed to build an ark, and in accordance with God’s instructions he took into the ark male and female specimens of all the world’s species of animals, from which the stocks might be replenished. Consequently, according to this narrative, the entire surviving human race descended from Noah’s three sons…
Read More
…was instructed to build an ark, and in accordance with God’s instructions he took into the ark male and female specimens of all the world’s species of animals, from which the stocks might be replenished. Consequently, according to this narrative, the entire surviving human race descended from Noah’s three sons…
Read More