Q&A: Penguins in the Biblical Period
Penguins in the Biblical Period
Question
It’s interesting to know how Noah managed to get to Antarctica, collect a pair of penguins, and bring them onto the ark, all from his home in the Middle East.
How did he get there? How did he gather the penguins?
Or maybe there simply weren’t any penguins at that time? It’s apparent that the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) was written by a person who lived in the Middle East, and therefore it mentions only animals that could be found in the Middle East…
Answer
Did you consider that maybe Noah also lived in the Middle East, and therefore the animals he gathered were from the Middle East? Beyond that, I’m not sure this is a factual description.
Discussion on Answer
Assumption 3 is not necessarily correct. Consequently, neither is 2. And that is even assuming this is indeed a historical description. In addition, as is well known, there is also evolution, so animals are formed and develop.
That doesn’t make sense. In Genesis it explicitly says that all the birds were in the ark, and a penguin is obviously a bird. It also says that the rain was over the whole earth; there was not a single place that was not covered by water. Did the penguins dive underwater for dozens to hundreds of days (as the Hebrew Bible says about the length of the Flood)?
It may be referring to all the birds from that region. And likewise, there was no place in that region that was not covered. There are claims that the Flood was not worldwide, and I don’t think that is necessarily contradicted by the biblical text. All this is assuming the story really happened and is not an educational myth.
You can’t assume it is an educational myth, because that would mean it is impossible to distinguish within the Hebrew Bible what is myth and what is not, what is true and what is not.
It doesn’t say so at the beginning of the story, so either you accept the Hebrew Bible 100% or you don’t.
By the way, it’s interesting that the animals that were on the ark were the very same animals from the area where the story took place — the Middle East. That shows that the story was written by a person who lived in the Middle East, and not by God.
Well, there’s not much I can do with declarations. In my view that’s complete nonsense. Nothing needs to be stated, because it really doesn’t matter whether it happened or not. The main thing is the message it comes to convey.
And at the end of your comment you return to a claim I already answered.
I think I’m done.
If so, then where did the penguins come from if they weren’t on the ark?
My basic assumptions are:
1. The creation of the world was a one-time event (assuming there was a creation of the world).
2. All the animals that exist today had to have been on the ark, otherwise they would not exist today. Of course, one pair of each species of animal.
3. The Flood covered the entire earth.