Since we are digging up this rubbish, we might note that the Bible says that they were not all in pairs. The "clean" animals were in sevens and the "unclean" ones in pairs.
@fresco,
Wrong-o (as usual) philosophy-breath. In the King James version:
Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
"The male and the female"--that's a pair, get it?
@Setanta,
Hmm...I got it from Stephen Fry on the BBC !
Then Mr. Fry don't know sh*t from Shinola.
New International Version:
Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate
New Living Translation:
Take with you seven pairs--male and female--of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice, and take one pair of each of the others.
English Standard Version:
Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate
There are many other versions which will confirm this. This is Genesis, Chapter Seven, Verse Two. It is a well -known passage to anyone who has read and understood their bible, including those of us who don't this old load of horse poop.
As Noah´s wife said:" You men are hopelessly impractical!
A pair of each is not enough. For each pair of cats I need several mice - for each pair of lion I need also somethings to eat. That is how one has to think.
For every pair I need food whatever it is another animal or grass or insects.
The whole work will rest on me anyway. The lazy daughters-in-law will just hang around and enjoy this trip as if it was a pleasure trip.
So now figure out how many animals are needed, so not one single pair is starving to death."
