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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