Did Noah literally hear God's voice when he was told to build the Ark and have two of every kind of animal transported on it during the flood?

Answer 1

Noah could not have literally heard God's voice if the biblical Flood did not really happen. So the first thing is to establish whether there ever was a biblical Flood. The story of Noah is so similar to the story of the story of Enlil, from the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, that it seems more probable that the biblical Flood had its origins in the earlier Sumerian myth. Moreover, scientists say they can find no evidence of a biblical flood event. It did not happen.

If we accept that Noah's Flood really did happen, what does the Bible tell us about whether Noah literally heard the voice of God? In Genesis 6:19-20, Noah is told to take two of every animal onto the Ark, while in Genesis 7:1 he is told to take two of every unclean animal, but seven of every clean animal. This clear contradiction does not reflect a record of God speaking to Noah in person; it reflects two similar versions of an ancient folk-story woven together to the point that can seem to be just the one account, but for the internal contradictions. There were two authors for these accounts, now known as the Priestly Source and the Yahwist, but they were clearly not reporting the literal words of God:

The verses attributed to the Priestly author are: Genesis 6:9-22, 7:6, 7:8-9, 7:11, 7:13-16a, 7:18-21, 7:24, 8:1-2a, 8:3b-5, 8:7, 8:13a, 8:14-19, 9:1-17. The verses attributed to the Yahwist are: Genesis 6:5-8, 7:1-5, 7:7, 7:10, 7:12, 7:16b-17, 7:22-23, 8:2b-3a, 8:6, 8:8-12, 8:13b, 8:20-22.