And God remembered Noah.

Genesis chapter 8 verse 1.

Hey listeners, this is Nick from Book of Mormon Central.

And today's podcast addresses the question.

Why is the story of Noah and the Ark so repetitive?

When reading the story of Noah and the Ark, many readers have noticed that several of

its key details get repeated.

For example, God observes the rampant wickedness and corruption in the world and thus

resolves to destroy mankind,

twice. God commands Noah to gather animals and go into the ark, twice. Noah and his family enter the

ark, twice. And the animals going into the ark is also repeated. Periods of 7, 40, and 150 days are also

variously repeated. As the story winds down, the recession of the waters is mentioned

multiple times, and the sending out of birds to survey the dry ground is also mentioned multiple

times. These examples of repetition throughout

this story are among the reasons some scholars have suggested that it was originally based on

two different sources, which were woven together by a later editor. In pulling these sources

apart, these scholars believe they have discovered the remains of two

slightly different versions of the same story. Other scholars argue that most of this repetition

functions as part of the overall coherence and artistry of the narrative whole. Specifically,

a number of different scholars have noticed that the narrative as a whole follows an extended

caeastic pattern, which turns at the crucial moment when God remembered Noah. The most widely

recognized of these is Gordon J. Wenham, who proposed a 31-point chasm stretching from

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