If you have followed the news from Turkey you would think that the world is about to be overturned by the discovery of the millennium. Sometimes however it is worth knowing a little about what is said in the Talmud. – chabad.org
The answer appears to be similar to the answers to the questions:
- What happened to the stones missing from Stonehenge?
- What happened to the rest of Richmond Castle?
- What happened to Cæsars’ marble from the Palatinate?
- What happened to the covering of the Great Pyramid?
To many the answers are obvious, but no-one seems to want to accept the same answer to the question
- What happened to Noah’s ark?
Five thousand years is a long time. Richmond Castle had had less than one thousand. The Palatinate has had less than two thousand years. Their former glories can be imagined, but they are no longer there to see. In the days of the disappearance of their glory there was no National Trust or English Heritage to protect and preserve the stones, much less the wood of the ark.
The Talmud records for us that there was theft of the material of the ark two and a half thousand years ago; how much was left in those days? Such thefts having been taking place since the flood had ebbed away, though Coco supposes that it was only the rich and powerful who would be the perpetrators, beams of fifty cubits being held, he supposes, to have quite high a high commercial value, hence it was only by filial relationship and high political profile that Haman could obtain one. There was not one in the nearby woodyard that had fallen off the back of a lorry.
Even if anything of the ark is left, which is found in the right location and can be positively identified with the ark – an insurmountable challenge Coco considers – it would not make one iota or even a lemma of difference to the faith of the believer, nor would it change the mind of the unbeliever who considers that all things have continued as they are from the beginning scoffing at the idea of judgement and of a world-wide flood1, which point to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to judge the world.
We do not need the discovery of an ark to follow Jesus2. We have four3 witnesses who agree to his life and work – the law required two or three. He calls us to believe in him. 4
- Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they wilfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Peter 3 ↩︎ - Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ Luke 16:19ff (here 29ff) ↩︎
- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are eye-witness or records of eye-witness accounts of the life of the Lord Jesus. They agree in their testimony to Jesus’s life and works. ↩︎
- At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11. ↩︎
The Chabad article reports as follows:
We read in the Bible how, at the end of the Great Flood, the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (which some identify as the Armenian Highlands). Since the Torah doesn’t ascribe any intrinsic holiness to Noah’s Ark, it is not at all surprising that once Noah left it, there isn’t any real discussion about what happened to it. Yet, throughout the ages, the location of Noah’s Ark has been a subject of fascination, with some even claiming to have found it.
While the Ark may not have survived until the present day, the Talmud and Midrash assert that it was still in existence thousands of years after the Great Flood.
Sennacherib’s Deity
In the Book of II Kings we read that Sennacherib, King of Assyria, dwelt in Nineveh after his armies were destroyed in the siege of Jerusalem: “He was prostrating himself in the temple of Nisroch, his god, and Adramelech and Sharezer, his sons, slew him with a sword, and they fled to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon reigned in his stead (2 Kings 19:37).”
Expounding upon this, the Talmud explains that “Nisroch” is linked to the word neser, “beam,” and refers to a beam from Noah’s Ark (Talmud, Sanhedrin 96a). When Sennacherib found a beam from the Ark, he proclaimed, “This must be the great god that saved Noah from the Flood!” He then addressed the beam-deity and pledged, “If I go to war and am victorious, I will offer my two sons as a sacrifice before you!” His sons overheard this and decided to kill him.
Interestingly, Josephus, in his work Antiquities of the Jews, claimed to have known the whereabouts of Noah’s Ark and quoted earlier historians (including the 3rd century BCE Berosus the Chaldean) as saying that people would take parts of the Ark to use as amulets to ward off evil (Antiquities of the Jews 1.3.6).
Haman’s Gallows
A little less than 200 years after Sennacherib, during the story of Purim, Haman built a gallows “50 cubits high” (approximately 75 feet) with the intention of hanging Mordechai upon it (Esther 5:14). One tradition in the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni, Esther, 1056) tells us that one of Haman’s children was the governor of the province where Noah’s Ark was located, and he provided Haman with a beam from the Ark, which was 50 cubits wide (Genesis 6:15).
Why Did the Ark Survive?
David sings in Psalms that G‑d makes “a memorial for His wonders” (Psalms 111:4) so that people remember His miracles and sing His praise. The commentaries explain that this is why remnants of the Ark were preserved.
It was divinely orchestrated that Haman use wood from the Ark to build the gallows that he himself would ultimately be hung on. For the same wood that was used to save the remnants of humanity was once again used to save the Jewish people (Manot HaLevi on Esther 5:14)
It is interesting to note the link that Chabad makes between the wood of the ark which saved Noah’s family and the wood of Haman’s gallows which hanged him.
Coco understands the word of Esther than in her work the hidden hand of God is revealed preserving the people from whom would arise the saviour of all men, the one would would crush the head of the serpent.
There is also in Esther a curious messianic prophesy. It is not precise, unlike Isaiah’s description, for crucifixion was still unknown in Esther’s day. Haman died in the place of the Jewish people whom he had thought to destroy. He died as a substitute for the people. He died on a gallows built from the wood of a tree.
The Lord Jesus Christ died on the wood of a tree, but by then a cross, as a substitute for his people.
Both Haman and Jesus became a curse, for cursed is everyone who dies on a tree (Galatians 3:13), but the difference was that Haman died for his own sin in place of a people the people of God. Jesus died a righteous and innocent man in place of his own people, the people of God for their sins.