How many people were in Noah’s Ark?

Noah’s Ark is the vessel built and used by Noah in Genesis flood according to holy books. God decided to destroy the world because humanity was going evil than ever. He gave duty to Patriarch Noah to build a vessel. He took people and animals into his vessel. According to dimensions on different sources, dimensions of ark were approximately 50 wide, 300 cubits long and 30 high. It has also an entrance on side and a roof. Today it’s possible to see story of Noah and Noah’s ark in many holy books. How many people were in Noah’s Ark?


In Genesis 7:13 of Bible, it wrote “In the selfsame 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.”. According to this, it’s hard to understand the total number of people in Noah’s ark but it was close to 10.
Also Noah tried to warn people about flood and opened the door of ark for any people. According to some religious resources, there were 8 people in the Noah’s Ark and all other people died.
According to “Rabbinic Judaism”, Noah tried to warn his neighbors first but they ignored him and also mocked his family. After Noah built the ark, his neighbors tried to stop him and his family to enter the ark and God sent lions to protect them from other people.

According to Christianity, Noah’s Ark was “the Christ who was expected” Also many Christian resources believe that there were two doors of Noah’s Ark and one of the door is only used for Jesus’ second coming. Also Noah’s Ark moved in four different directions and it was the sign of the cross.
Islamic view on Noah’s Ark is the contrast of Jewish tradition. Jewish religious sources use “box” term for Noah’s vessel but Quran use safina which is a type of ordinary ship. According to Islamic resources, Noah started to use the ark with “In the Name of Allah!” words.

Also the place Noah’s Ark started its journey and where it stopped is a mystery. In Islamic resources, Kufa of Iraq was the starting point of Noah’s Ark. It went through the Mecca. Mount Judi is the last place Noah’s Ark stopped.
According to all religious resources, God gave all detailed information to Noah for building an ark. It was built from gopher wood. There were three decks of ship. In one deck, there were animals, in one deck there were only people and in one deck there were only birds.
There are also many similarities of the Noah’s Ark in the Ancient Greek Mythology and other old stories. Greek mythology, Noah’s story is very close to Deucalion’s story. Deucalion was the son of Pronoia and Prometheus. He was a wine seller and warned for the coming flood. He built an ark and take his staff and many creatures into it.
Also it’s possible to see stories like Noah’s Ark in old cultures. First known flood myth is in the Mesopotamian Epic of Atrahasis. Some historians believe that the flood story is firstly written by early Hebrews lived in Mesopotamia.
In 2000’s, an important underwater explorer, Robert Ballard said in an interview that he has strong evidenced to proof Noah’s Ark. He was the man firstly discovered Titanic. According to him, Mediterranean Sea opened a huge canal in the land of today’s İstanbul and water flowed on land 200 times larger than Niagara Falls. Also some historians believed that evident is occurred in the end of Ice Age.