How long did Noah build the ark before his sons were born?<\/p>\n\t
In Genesis 5:32, we are told that Noah was 500 when his sons were born. In Genesis 6:3, God said He would destroy mankind in 120 years. Since this was in Noah’s records, Genesis 6:9 being the closing line of that record, it is assumed that Noah was the one who delivered that message. The later half of Genesis 6:9 begins the record of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Their birth is mentioned in Genesis 6:10 and the command to build the ark is recorded afterward. Noah was 600 when the flood began (Genesis 7:11) and 601 when the flood ended (Genesis 8:13).<\/p>\n
Therefore, the prophecy about when the world would end came 20 years before Noah’s sons were born. Japheth, the eldest was born when Noah was 500. Shem was 100 two years after the flood (Genesis 11:10), so he was born when Noah was either 502 or 503, depending on whether “after the flood” was after the beginning or after the end of the flood. Ham was the youngest and since the boys were born close to each other, he was likely born when Noah was between 504 and 506.<\/p>\n
The problem is assuming the prophecy for building the ark came at the same time as the prophecy for how long the world would last. We really don’t know how long it took to build the ark. But notice that a part of the command to build the ark was that Noah’s son’s wives would be included in the passenger list (Genesis 6:18). Therefore not only were the sons born, but they also were married. Therefore, we know that the prophecy for the countdown till the end of the world came well before the command to build the ark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: How long did Noah build the ark before his sons were born? Answer: In Genesis 5:32, we are told that Noah was 500 when his sons were born. In Genesis 6:3, God said He would destroy mankind in 120 years. Since this was in Noah’s records, Genesis 6:9 being the closing line of that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[189,279,905],"class_list":["post-31250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-genesis","tag-history","tag-noah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25452,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-earth-populated-by-noahs-sons-and-daughters-and-their-children-married-each-other\/","url_meta":{"origin":31250,"position":0},"title":"Was the earth populated by Noah’s sons and daughters and their children married each other?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! My question is: Was the earth populated by Noah's sons and daughters and their children married each other? Answer: Only eight people were saved during the Flood (II Peter 3:20). \"So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20128,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-know-that-ham-was-the-youngest-son\/","url_meta":{"origin":31250,"position":1},"title":"How do you know that Ham was the youngest son?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How do you know that Ham was the youngest son? Answer: \"So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him\" (Genesis 9:24). The word \"younger,\" or \"youngest,\" depending on your translation, comes from the Hebrew word qatan. It is an adjective which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36191,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-were-all-the-animals-feed-on-the-ark\/","url_meta":{"origin":31250,"position":2},"title":"How were all the animals feed on the ark?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I have a question about Noah's Ark that I recently stumbled upon. With all the animals that God brought to Noah for the Ark, how did the animal feces get thrown out? Did all eight people take care of all of that and take care of the animals\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85191,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/evil-continually-genesis-6\/","url_meta":{"origin":31250,"position":3},"title":"Evil Continually (Genesis 6)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Chuck Richardson via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 1, January 2015 Genesis chapter 6 opens with the revelation that man was desperately evil, and God responded with a complete destruction of all living persons and things, save Noah and his household. The reason: Noah found grace in the eyes of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24497,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-of-noahs-three-sons-did-the-gentiles-come-through\/","url_meta":{"origin":31250,"position":4},"title":"Which of Noah’s three sons did the Gentiles come through?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Which of Noah's three sons did the Gentiles come through? Answer: All three sons. \"Gentiles\" means \"nations\" and was used for anyone who wasn't an Israelite (a descendant of Jacob). Abraham descended from Shem, but through Ishmael came the Arabs, and the Edomites came through Esau. Abraham's nephew, Lot,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1916,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-jesus-referred-to-as-the-son-of-david-more-than-as-the-son-of-abraham-or-of-noah\/","url_meta":{"origin":31250,"position":5},"title":"Why is Jesus referred to as the son of David more than as the son of Abraham or of Noah?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why is Jesus referred to as the son of David more than as the son of Abraham or of Noah? Answer: Jesus was born into this world, which meant that he was a descendant of Noah, just as everyone else in the world since the flood has descended from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}