Scripture · Genesis 7:11-12
Genesis 7:15 · The animals enter the ark
Noah’s Ark
They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life.
A procession of animals winds toward the open door of a huge wooden ark. Edward Hicks painted Noah’s Ark in 1846, filling the foreground with creatures that pause beside one another beneath a stormy sky. The painting belongs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
What does Noah’s Ark show?
The animals form a long curve from the foreground to the ramp. A lion looks out toward us, horses stand at the right, and striped zebras mark the left edge. Above the ark, small birds gather under the dark clouds.
The museum traces the design to an 1844 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier. Hicks added animals resembling those in his Peaceable Kingdom pictures. Their calm company makes the approaching flood a scene of shared refuge: predators and prey move toward the same door.
What does Genesis 7:15 mean?
Genesis 7:15 says that the creatures came to Noah and entered the ark in pairs. The emphasis falls on living beings gathered into safety; the next verse states that they entered as God had commanded, and that the LORD shut Noah in.
The phrase about the breath of life places the animals within the story of creation as well as the story of the flood. What enters the ark is breathing life that will be carried through the waters.
The verse’s simple movement toward the ark becomes a long, visible procession in Hicks’s painting, with many kinds of life sharing one refuge.
Sources
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Noah’s Ark. Artwork record and the painting’s connection with Currier and Hicks’s Peaceable Kingdom pictures.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, artwork guide. Museum teaching sheet with medium, dimensions, and visual details.
Berean Standard Bible. Scripture wording checked against the Berean Standard Bible.
Also from Genesis:Elohim Creating AdamThe Creation of Adam