If it were every species, then the boat couldn’t possibly hold all the animals.
So what did God really say?
< STRONG God said to bring in every kind of animal (Gen 6:20). (Biblical)
Every kind does not mean every species of animal on the Earth.Most versions of the Bible say "every kind of animal." Roughly, that's not too many.
There are a couple of animals that are large (about 7) like an elephant, giraffe, hippo, and ram. But the rest are small in size. In addition, Noah stored 7 (pairs?) of every sacrificial animal. That's not much; sacrificial animals included goats, rams, sheep, and some birds. That's about it.
We are basically talking about 100(?) animals trying to fit in a 1400-car-capacity boat. No problem.
>> WEAK But there are millions of kinds of animals.
For example, the tigers and lions are different kinds of animals. They can't mate with each other, so they are separate species.
< Not really. They have many similarities.
Lions, cats, leopards, tigers... they all belong to one kind.
< STRONG "Kind" most closely refers to the modern taxonomic unit of "genus" or "family," not "species."
The word species and the Biblical word "kind" are often used interchangeably. This is incorrect since they are not synonymous. The Biblical word kind denotes an organism that reproduces others like itself. The species concept is much narrower than this; therefore many species can be included in a single Biblical "kind." The word kind is probably closer to the modern taxonomic unit of genus, and in some cases the larger taxonomic unit, family.
The Canidae (canine) family includes about 14 genera of dog like animals. These include the coyote, dog, wolf, jackal, etc. The ark did not have to contain the hundreds of species of canines that make up this group. In reality, these were all represented by a few "kind." These "kind" would then produce all the animals that make up the Canidae family. For example all of the hundreds of varieties of domestic pigeons that have all been produced originated from one species, the wild rock pigeon (Columbia livia).
- http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/was-noah-ark-big-enough-to-hold-all-animals.html
[emphasis added]
(from another argument)
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