Biblical Myths Ep. 2: Two by Two

Ask any child, and most adults, how many animals Noah took on the Ark and they'll answer "Two of each kind!"

WRONG

Mostly wrong anyway.  While Genesis 6:19 states "And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you", reading on into chapter 7 you'll find verse 2 which says:

"Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth" (ESV, emphasis added by me).

How did this misconception that there were only two of each animal come about?  For one I think that the phrase "two by two" contributed to this erroneous belief.  Noah took the animals in pairs, male and female, as God commanded; so while he took them "two by two" there were just more pairs of certain types of animals.

The second, and probably more obvious, reason is that a lot of people simply don't read the Bible enough to catch this for themselves.  Now I'm not getting on a soap box and I'm not trying to condemn anyone reading this, but I don't know very many people who can say with any confidence that they read their Bible as much as they should.  I know I don't.  And when we Christians do read the Bible it tends to be from the New Testament.  The gross neglect of the Old Testament in the modern Christian church is part of what has prompted my wife and I to focus more of our energy into studying it.

If you were wondering why Noah was commanded to collect seven pairs of the clean animals and not of the unclean animals, I believe it's because the clean animals were "used" more, both for food and for sacrifice.  After all, what was the first thing Noah did when he got off of the Ark (besides presumably kiss the ground)?  He built an altar to the Lord and made a sacrifice of every sort of clean animal and every type of bird.

Good thing we're not commanded to sacrifice some of the passengers after every boat trip or plane ride we make.

Questions? Comments?