Genesis 7-10

Noah's Ark

I found it interesting that Noah was to take 7 of each of the clean animals. This presumes that the Leviticus dietary rules were in effect. But immediately afterwards, God gives Noah (and through him, all humanity) license to eat whatever he wants, with a few exceptions like nothing with blood in it. So, then we have a retraction of the Leviticus dietary laws.

A potential alternative explanation was that God wanted to have clean animals to eat on the ark out of concern for the communicable diseases. Here, God is temporarily instituting the dietary rules of clean and unclean meats.

I think this explanation has merit given as I imagine being in a closed area for over a year with that many animals would be filled with diseases.

As for the rainbow, the French word for the rainbow and ark are very similar (arc-en-ciel and arche). So it occurred to me that God's promise with the rainbow was similar to putting an upside ark in in the sky.

Geologically, Noah's Ark is difficult to harmonize. Ice core data from Antarctica shows a relatively continuous climate pattern going back 500,000 with no major interruption which would expect from a global flood. That said, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. If the inundation of the world required major divine intervention there is nothing to say that major intervention was not involved in the water's removal or geological effect. In other words, if the water came out of nowhere, then it could just have happened that geologically, the planet was not affected.

Short answer - I don't know.

Focusing on that would be to throw the baby out with the floodwaters. The beauty of the story is God giving humanity a second chance. It shows God's wrath against sin, as well as mercy and grace.

I found it interesting that the curse Noah puts on Ham passes through Canaan, although Ham had other sons.

Finally, the genealogical record shows Noah's descendants establishing the major cities of Mesopotamia - Ur, Babylon, Nineveh, and Sidon stood out to me. I noticed there were no cities established prior to this, as presumably they would have been wiped out by the flood.