There are actually two stories of Noah's Ark in Genesis 6-8, written by two different, anonymous authors (now known as the Priestly Source and the Yahwist) and cleverly interleaved so that the result appears to be just one, rather complicated story. Being two different stories, we have Noah and his family spend two different periods on the Ark, depending on which account you follow.
According to the Priestly Source, they entered the Ark on the
six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of
the month (Genesis 7:11). In the six hundredth and first year, in the first
month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth;
And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the
earth dried. And God spoke to Noah (Genesis 8:13a.14–15). Noah and
his family spent one year and ten days in the Ark before the Lord asked them to
come out.
According to the Yahwist, the flood was forty days upon
the earth (Genesis 7:17). And it came to pass at the end of forty days,
that Noah opened the window of the Ark which he had made (Genesis 8:6). He
stayed yet other seven days and again he sent forth the dove; and he
stayed yet another seven days; and sent forth the dove (Genesis 8:10, 12). Noah
and his family spent fifty four days in the Ark before he could leave and build
an altar to God.
The Flood verses attributed to
the Priestly author are: Genesis 6:9-22, 7:6, 7:8-9, 7:11, 7:13-16a, 7:18-21,
7:24, 8:1-2a, 8:3b-5, 8:7, 8:13a, 8:14-19, 9:1-17.
The verses attributed to the
Yahwist are: Genesis 6:5-8, 7:1-5, 7:7, 7:10, 7:12, 7:16b-17, 7:22-23, 8:2b-3a,
8:6, 8:8-12, 8:13b, 8:20-22.
The Redactor who edited the final
version of Genesis no doubt felt that he would face opposition if he
removed either one of the stories, so skilfully interleaved them so that the
proponents of either story would find familiar text, yet the existence of two
stories is not apparent.
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