How many people were on Noah's ark?

The three sons of Noah, all married men, did not carry one infant into the ark. Eight adult persons passed through the flood. What a touch this is, bespeaking God’s thoughtful contriving, His arranging and planning tenderness! And occurring as it does in such an unexpected place, it may well come as a comfort to many who are tried in circumstances.

Let us turn first of all to Genesis 7:1 And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." This passage is exceedingly important, because it is so worded that no doubt whatever can be entertained as to its express significance. The ground on which the Lord commands Noah to enter with his house into the ark is, "For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." And if it should be objected, that probably all the members of the household were also "righteous" before God, the after-history of one of the number — Ham (Gen. 9:22-25) — forbids the thought. The force of the statement therefore cannot in any way be diminished, that the family of Noah was delivered from the judgment of the flood because of the faith of its head. True that it was not salvation; but it was typically so (1 Peter 3:20-21); and surely it was no small blessing to be carried in the ark through that mighty flood which in judgment overwhelmed and desolated the whole earth. "Every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained [alive], and they that were with him in the ark." (Gen. 7:23.) Thus the whole household was brought, in the grace of God, out from under the judgment, and placed upon the new earth, because of the faith of Noah. Not only so, but the circle of God's grace was still enlarged; for we find that the sons' wives were also included in the merciful purposes of God; thus making up the eight persons of which the apostle Peter speaks as having been "saved by water." (1 Peter 3:20.)

Verse 13 makes it plain that Noah and his family entered the ark on the very day that the storm broke. Noah had been a preacher of righteousness, just as Enoch had been a prophet of the Advent. He is the first preacher of whom we have any record, and his theme was that which stands in the very forefront of the Gospel that is preached today, as Romans 1:17 declares. Only today, it is God's righteousness revealed in Christ and established in His death and resurrection, which is presented as the basis of blessing for men. Noah had to preach God's righteousness as outraged by man's violence and corruption, and demanding judgment. Still to the very last day the door of the ark stood open, and nothing would have prevented a repentant man from entering, had such an one been found.

The last day came however, and each of the four men and four women took the last decisive step which ensured their preservation from destruction. The decisive step for each was when they planted one foot on the ark, and removed the other from the earth that was under judgment. It was impossible to have one foot in and one foot out. It was either both feet in, or both feet out. Which thing is a useful parable for Gospel preachers today. Their action endorsed God's judgment against the world, and expressed their faith in the Divinely appointed way of salvation. Once inside the ark, "the Lord shut him in." When the Lord shuts, no man can open — not even Noah himself had he wished to do so. The shut door secured salvation for the eight souls, and ensured destruction for the world of the ungodly.

Son of Lamech, the descendant of Seth, and father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah is introduced as a just man, perfect in his generations, and as one who walked with God. To him God revealed that because the earth was full of violence, He would destroy all flesh with the earth. God bade Noah make the ark, and He would establish His covenant with him, and would preserve alive in the ark Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives. The N.T. reveals the fact that Noah had faith, and that in godly fear he prepared the ark, in obedience to God's warning, for the saving of his house, thereby condemning the world and becoming heir of the righteousness which is by faith. God's salvation was seen by faith in the midst of coming judgement. Heb. 11:7.

"All in whose nostrils is the breath of life" included man and beast; all go together in that kind of language. Then at the right time God takes Noah with his family, and all enter the ark, "and Jehovah shut him in."

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, and the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were broken up all the fountains of the great deep, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. On the same day went Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, sons of Noah, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind — every bird of every wing. And they went unto Noah into the ark, two [and] two of all flesh wherein was the breath of life. And they that came came male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; and Jehovah shut him in (lit. after him)" (vers. 11-16).

As we have seen the double form of prophecy, more distant and more immediate, and yet both unmistakably of God only, so we have in the great event which befell the ungodly world of that day a stupendous miracle of destruction from His hand which swept away the entire generation of unbelievers, with subordinate creation, from the face of the earth, when man's corruption and violence in the face of testimony from God became insupportable. So tremendous an event is recorded with the utmost precision and solemnity. We are told of it to the year, month, and day, when the judgment was executed. From below as from above, the brief but clear account tells us of what was never before man's creation and has never been since; and we may add on God's assurance, what will never be again, but a still more solemn and significant and all-pervading dissolution of the world. It was no mere question of the clouds or of the sea, as ordinarily. The inspired narrator speaks of quite different and altogether unexampled sources. All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the heavens, as the phrase is, were opened. Neither the one nor the other was according to the course of nature God established before or since. This is exactly what makes a miracle evident and impressive; for all admit the regular action of the physical principles by which God orders the universe. But only scepticism is unwilling to own His title, especially in a morally ruined system, to interfere whether in judgment of evil, or in the testimony and triumph of grace: both alike worthy of His goodness and due to His character, fraught too with the richest blessing to His creatures, and subserving His glory.

"And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was on the earth. And Noah went in and his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because (from the face) of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that [are] not clean, and of birds, and everything that creeps on the ground, went in two [and] two to Noah into the ark, male and female, as God commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth" (vers. 1-10).

There was just one man that found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In this connection nothing is said of his wife nor of his three sons and their wives. Noah was a man of faith. Shem may have been the same. Ham, we know was not, and of the others we have no information, but as Hebrews 11 says, "Noah … moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house." Faith on his part accepted the Divine warning, which moved him to fear. Fear moved him to act.

Some of every sort are borne with Noah from the place of death into the ark of salvation. The "eight souls," as Peter speaks, but with them, remnants of the beasts of the earth, small and great, winged fowl and creeping things all are housed and redeemed together with Noah.

"And God spoke to Noah, saying, Go forth out of the ark, thou and thy wife, and thy sons and thy sons' wives with thee: all the animals that are with thee of all flesh, among bird and among cattle and among every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, bring forth with thee, that they may swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives, with him: all the animals, all the creeping things, and all the birds — every thing that moves upon the earth after their families, went forth out of the ark" (Gen. 8:15-19).