I presume Wayne is refering to Gen. 6:3 which states, "My spirit will not
contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be 120 years." (NIV)
There's good reason to believe this does NOT refer to the time it took to
build the ark. Consider the following:
In the midst of God's command to Noah to build the ark, He says in Gen. 6:18,
"But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark - you
and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you."
The straightforward interpretation is that Noah's three sons were grown and
married when God told him to build the ark.
Later we find in Gen 7:6 that, "Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters
came on the earth."
However, we have already been told in Gen 5:32 that, "After Noah was 500
years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth."
There was <<100 years from the time that Noah's three sons were married and
the flood came.
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I would also like to ask Glen a couple of questions about his new book. What
do you do with the water receding and drying after the flood?
Also, we later find that Ham (through Canaan) became the grandfather of the
Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, and Hivites (among others).
These Canaanites of course were the bad guys during much of Israel's early
history. Do you see these tribes having survived intact for millions of years?
Jim
Jim Blake
Department of Electrical Engineering
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843