Genesis 6:19 KJV, "And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female."
First, lets look at how the word translated as "Flesh" is used and what it's meaning is throughout the bible.
From Strong's Concordance Hebrew Dictionary we find the following meaning.
01320 basar (baw-sawr'}
from 01319; TWOT - 291a; n m (AV = Authorized Version = KJV 1611)Number of times word is used in bible is 269, and word translated to, with the number of times it was translated as such.
AV - flesh 256, body 2, fatfleshed + 01277 2, leanfleshed + 01851 2, kin 2, leanfleshed + 07534 1, mankind + 0376 1, myself 1, nakedness 1, skin 1; 269
1) flesh
1a) of the body
1al) of humans 1c) male organ of generation (euphemism)
1a2) of animals
1b) the body itself
1d) kindred, blood-relations
1e) flesh as frail or erring (man against God)
1f) all living things
1g) animals
1h) mankind
We see from the definition of the Hebrew word translated as "flesh" that it can have several different but simular meanings. It can be used of humans (lh) and again a different flesh of animals (lg), or both together (1f). These three definitions are the ones that we will concern ourselves with in examining the flesh that was brought aboard the Ark. It's definition is primarily determined by the contents around the word. That is; whether the verses surrounding the word is speaking about man or animals.
It was claimed that the use of the words "all flesh" in Genesis 6:19 means that there were more humans taken on board the Ark than just Noah and his family. We are going to examin the Bible to see if this is true.
First: We must ask the Questions and find the answers to the following
questions;
What is God doing?
Why is God doing it?
Who is God saving?
Why is God saving them?
Answers:
What is God doing to man and the Earth? In Genesis 6:13, the first part, we
see that He, God, is going to put an end to "all flesh". We can see by the contents of the
last part of Genesis 6:12 that the "flesh" God is speaking of is "Human flesh."(lh) For
all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. It can not be animal flesh (lg)
because no animal flesh would be refered to as "his way." We see also in
Genesis 6:7, the same chapter, that God says "I will destroy man whom I have
created". We must also point out that when God created Adam and Eve that he gave
them freewill, while the animals have no freewill and therefore are not able to
corrupt and polute themselves, as they can only do what God has planed for them. It is
only Man and Angels who were given the freedom to turn away from God's plan if they
chose to do so. God continues to say here, that He will destroy them (humans) at the same
time that He will destroy the earth. And so when taken in the context of Gesesis 6:5-7,
11-13, together, (all in the same chapter) we can see that God has set out to destroy
primarily man from the face of the Earth.
Why is God going to destroy all human life on earth? Because Man has become Evil and corrupted from what God made him to be. This is shown in Genesis 6:5, 11-12. (See freewill above) These verses make it clear that that although God will also destroy the animals, the reason that God will destroy everything is because Man has turned away from the plan that God had for him.
Had God not found a rightious person on the earth, there would not now be any men, animals, etc, the Earth would be a bare wasteland with no life of any kind except perhaps fish.
Who is God Saving from this distruction? and Why is God saving him? Genesis 6:8-9 tells us that a man called Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation and therefore found grace in the sight of God. Because Noah worshipped God, God had mercy on Noah and would allow him to live, and for Noah's sake, also Noah's family and the animals that Noah would need to survive on the face of the Earth. Genesis 6:18 names the humans who will live and Genesis 7:1,7,13 confirms Genesis 6:18.
Genesis 6:18 KJV, "But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou , and they sons, and thy wife, and thy son' wives with thee.
Genesis 7:1 KJV, "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation."
Genesis 7:7 KJV, "And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood."
Genesis 7:13 KJV, "In the [very same] day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark."
Now that these questions are answered, we can see that God is granting mercy only on the righteios few and that no evil will be allowed aboard the ark because God is destroying every evil man, woman, and child on the earth. We can believe that there were many other rightious persons living at that time and they were also destroyed along with evil man. How do we explain the destruction of the few rightious along with the evil? God has shown us throughout the Bible that God has always seleted the few to pour out His favor upon and discarded the rest. But that for the moment is another study and will not be covered here.
That brings us back to the statement that we are studying for truth or false. It was claimed that the use of the words "all flesh" in Genesis 6:19 means that there were more humans taken on board the Ark than just Noah and his family.
From the answered questions above, and using the contents surrounding the words "all flesh" in Genesis 6:19, it can be seen that since God is wiping the evil man from the face of the earth that He would not allow even one evil man to ride to safety on the Ark and therefore to perpetuate the same evil after the flood that was there before the flood. To do so would be to make a farce and a cruel joke out of the flood, and would make God a lier for saying that he was going to destroy them all for their evil.
The result of the studying of the contents of this chapter and the verses surrounding the words "all flesh" in Genesis 6:13, has shown that the statement being studied is false. These verses shows by their wording that there were only eight humans on board the Ark, and each one is identified. Now that we have found the meaning of these verses, we can ask the question, are there any other scriptures that confirms our interpertation of this part of scripture.
We do find a scripture that does confirm that our interpertation of Genesis chapters 6 & 7 are correct in relation to the number of humans on board the Ark.
We can see in Genesis 8:17-19 the command of God to come out of the ark and then names what did come out of the ark. There are no extra evil persons listed here.
Genesis 8:17-KJV, "Bring forth with thee every living thing that [is] with thee, of all flesh, [both] of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth."
Genesis 8:18-KJV, "And Noah went forth, and his Sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:"
Genesis 8:19-KJV, "Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, [and] whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark."
Then in Genesis 9:18-19 we are given the names of every man that came out of the ark.
Genesis 9:18-KJV "And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham [is] the father of Canaan."
Genesis 9:l9-KJV "These [are] the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread."
This simple statement in the Bible clearly says that every man, woman, and child on the earth today is a decendent of one of Noah's three sons. This would not and could not be true if there was another pair of humans on board the Ark. Therefore, this simple statement in God's word, confirms our reading of the number of humans on board the Ark.
Rev. Jack Barr