Men in the Bible: Noah, A Man of Experiments

by | Jul 8, 2025 | Archives, Men

Noah A Man of Experiments

Men in the Bible: Noah, A Man of Experiments So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he…

Men in the Bible: Noah, A Man of Experiments

So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore. – Genesis 8:6-12

Continuing our spotlight on the lessons to be learned from Noah, another highlight that distinguished him was his inclination to scientific procedures, otherwise known as experiments.

As we can see from the passage above, after the flood that overwhelmed the known earth in Noah’s days had receded, he wanted to find out if it was okay for him and his family, as well as the other creatures in the ark with them, to come out. Obviously, when he opened the window of the ark, he could see patches of dry ground outside. But he was intelligent enough to know that sight can be deceptive, and the dry earth he could see outside did not mean that it was hard enough to sustain the weight of humans and animals. Therefore, to confirm the status of things, he decided to test the ground and conduct an experiment. He sent out a raven to check out the situation of things outside.

However, the raven he sent never returned back to him. Now, for someone who needed the raven’s feedback to know whether he and his family should come out, Noah demonstrated intelligence by not misinterpreting the non-return of the raven as an indication that outside was now conducive for them to step out. Recall that they had all been in the ark for months, and they all must be feeling restless being holed in there and would be eager to come out into the daylight and enjoy the fresh air.

But Noah did not allow their pressing need for sunlight, fresh air or a change of scenery to pressure him into making a wrong call by misinterpreting the disappearance of the raven as a ‘yes, come out’ sign. How often do we wantonly interpret trends and maneuver data to suit our own purposes only to have them blown in our faces?

Another lesson we can learn from Noah in this scenario is that, even though his first experiment with the raven failed, he did not become discouraged on account of it. Rather, he used the raven’s incident as feedback to make two intelligent calls. Firstly, he concluded that a raven was not the best candidate for such an assignment. And, although he still had other ravens with him in the ark, he did not send another one out again to find out the state of things outside. On the contrary, he sent a dove instead.

Secondly, the fact that he opted for a dove, a species of bird with an opposite temperament to a raven, revealed Noah’s scientific mindset. This procedural change turned out to be successful, as the dove returned to the ark, unlike the raven. Then, seven some days later, Noah sent out the dove again to check out the earth’s surface, and he repeated this process at intervals until the dove itself did not return any more. Considering the period he lived in, how scientific can one get than that?

Selah!

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