How long was Noah on the ark?

Answer

The Bible does not specify the exact duration of Noah and his family’s stay on the ark. Nevertheless, the Genesis text offers adequate details to make a reasonable estimation of this period. Based on the available information, it is likely that Noah spent around one complete calendar year on the ark. The calculation amounts to approximately 370 days.

An approximate timeframe can be deduced by comparing Noah’s age upon entering the ark with his age upon exiting: he was 600 years old upon entering and 601 years old upon leaving. Furthermore, Moses provides specific time references for various events related to the flood:

Genesis 7:6 states that Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters began. This detail is corroborated in Genesis 7:11–13, which offers further elaboration:

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.”