No actual numbers are known because they fell asleep during counting the sheep.

"A lot of ships and ferries nowadays don't allow animals to be taken on ships these days. I wonder what Noah would have thought about that?" I'm pretty sure after spending "30 days and 30 nights" scooping up lion and elephant shit, he'd probably thought it was a bloody good idea.

That amoeba joke is class

Rich: "Why would they say seven animals? Does that mean three pairs and one..." Stephen: "One to watch." Sandi: "Thanks for watching!" Me thinking: "Am I an animal?"

God: "Bring seven pairs of clean animals, and one of unclean." Noah: "Which animals are which?" God: "Wait a thousand years, and I'll tell Moses." Noah: "Do you not see the problem with this timeline?"

The answer is definitely 14 not 7. "Of every pure animal you shall take seven pairs, males and their mates, and of every animal that is not pure, two, a male and its mate"

I love Stephen calling Alan “dear”. It’s like he’s explaining something to his child who doesn’t want to learn.

This is one of the few questions on QI that I knew the answer to. I read part of Genesis about a year ago and was very surprised to find this passage. Clearly there was no room for the dinosaurs!

Bill was inspired in this clip! I don't know what inspired Alan to wear that shirt, though.

And when the waters had receded, Noah said to the animals "Go forth and multiply!" Two snakes came up to Noah and said: "But Noah, we can't, we're adders" So Noah took his axe and fell a tree and he built them a log table. 😂

A bit off topic, but related- Bill Bailey’s audio recording of The Mowgli Stories from The Jungle Book is brilliant.

The Bible says that "God told Noah to take on the Ark two of every kind of animal, and seven pairs of the clean animals and flying creatures". So there would have been 14 sheep in total, 7 rams and 7 ewes. *That is of course if it were true*

Bill baileys “amoeba” bit was classic (& so sharp)

I like how the thumbnail mentions sheep while showing a smiling Welshman

This ark was floating around for some considerable amount of time, therefore quantities of mint sauce would also have been required.

I think it was meant to be two males & two females but seven of each for clean animals and birds, so 14 sheep. I think ancient herdsmen would have known that only two or even seven wouldn’t be enough for a viable population. Of course, they were thinking there were only a couple hundred different animals in the world at the time, i imagine.

"You're quoting from a mythical being." 😂

Obviously, it means one ram and six ewes. Breeding males are usually kept in smaller numbers than females with livestock, except for monogamous species.

Bill Bailey is a fucking genius 🤣🤣🤣

"You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female." the added "a male and his female" kind of makes it sound likes hes talking about pairs, so 14 and 4 respectively. But I guess if the hebrew or greek originals said that we would know.

It's always funny seeing Rob Brydon before the hair plugs.

I honestly thought the answer was going to be 2 of every breed. As far as the 7 goes, maybe the first translation was by the Welsh and the 7th sheep was for the herder.

The look on their faces was telling.Confusion, perplexity, exasperation, indignation .

Seven was considered by the Hebrews to be a sacred number that’s why they said 7.

One has to admire Stephen Fry's kindness, an atheist defending the bible so as not to alienate those who believe.

I've been waiting ages for this. Oh, how I shouted at the TV all those years ago. Of cause, I didn't write in, that would be madness. Nope. It's seven 'pairs' of kosher animals. Those little elves 🤪 goofed. There... Phew! Done it. I can finally relax.

It obviously had to be more than two. How would they ever get to sleep? "One, two. No luck, try again. One, two. This is never gonna work ..."

14 sheep on Noah's ark - I know this 7 pairs of clean animals

There's a big part of the Noah's Ark story that always seems to be omitted, which is the epilogue with the epic voyage after the flood abated, where Noah discovered the Americas and Australia / New Zealand so he could drop off the animals on their native lands. Even that's giving the benefit of the doubt in omitting Antarctica (for penguins) and the Arctic ice flows (for polar bears) because they can swim, thought it's some journey from the drop off point, as well as a host of islands and chains with animal life.

".... one to watch" "Thanks for watching, do remember to subscribe."

But, after the flood: "Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it."

Who defines what is a clean beast and what is a unclean beast? And can those beasts appeal the result.

Those Unicorns .... Yes? The really *were* delicious weren't they.

Now I'm imagining Arceus with Noah's Arc

Bill Bailey is so quick!

Answer: A sheepload.

anyone else thought this was going to be a trick question as the name of a male sheep is a ram and as such there would be one sheep and one ram?

"Transcript of the part I found most funny"

If I remember correctly, the Jewish explnation for why he needed 7 of each kosher animal is so he will be able to sacrifice some to God. Kind of bummer, to be saved while the whole world drowns, only to be sacrificed a little bit later. And your lucky friends get to repopulate the earth!

As to why they spoke like that, they probably didn't. Even in it's day the King James translation's style was archaic, presumably to give the text a more formal voice. Read the Hebrew and it's just not like that for the most part.

Well in the original Sumerian legend Noah is derived from it was just the hero, his family and some food.

I always assumed the extras were there to be eaten during the journey.

I'd be more worried about the woodpeckers !

I like that in the end, Sandi thanks the animal that watches the three couples doing it

Not only did they get the number wrong here (the text actually says seven pairs), but "two" would have actually been a more correct answer. In the chapter before it, it says in verse 19: "Of all that lives, of all flesh, you shall take two of each into the ark to keep alive with you; they shall be male and female." So the correct answer is: Depends on which chapter you read!

I wonder if the ark was built from 2 by 2?

Wrong. It was seven pairs of ritually clean animals (aka 14 individual animals) and two pairs of ritually unclean animals (aka 4 animals). There was no '2 only' of any animal. People confuse the 'went in two by two' with their only being two.

Rob Brydon was on the thumbnail...Bill Bailey was on the money! Anyone who hasn't seen the sitcom he did 'Black Books' need to treat themselves to a watch. Everyone needs a Little Book Of Calm.

That’s selective quoting. The problem is that the story of Noah’s ark is, quite literally, two different renditions of the tale that have been shuffled together. One verse would be written by the J author, another verse by the P author, and the Redactor seems to have tried to have preserved both. Sometimes, the author of the text changes in the middle of the verse. That’s why there are so many time shifts and contradictory passages. Did the flood last for 40 days and 40 nights (Gen 7:12) or was it for 150 days (Gen 7:24)? Notice that after the animals go into the ark, they are in there for 7 days before the flood starts (Gen 7:7 and Gen 7:10). But then we back up and are told that on the “selfsame day” that Noah and family went into the ark, the flood started (Gen 7:13). And the flood lasts for 150 days again (Gen 8:3) and the ark lands on Ararat. But then we’re told the flood lasted for 40 days (Gen 8:6) but there was no sign of the water abating. And then a raven is sent and goes out until the waters are dried up (Gen 8:7), but it’s actually a dove who comes back because there was nowhere to land and is sent again after 7 days and comes back with an olive twig so they wait another 7 days and send it out again and it never comes back (Gen 8:8). The story of Noah as told in the Bible is the literal shuffling of two tellings of the same tale. Thus, the claim that they went in by sevens is contradicted by a later verse. The verse regarding “by seven,” Genesis 7:2-3, is by the J author. But then we have Genesis 7:15, by the P author: And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And, of course, if there were 7 sheep on the ark, there would be 2 as you can’t have 7 without also having 2.

I knew there were exceptions to the 2 rule but for some reason I assumed it was 5.

Stephen is wrong. There are two accounts of what Noah was commanded to do, just like there are two creation stories. Chapter 6:19-21 says 2 of each living thing, and Chapter 7:2-3 says 7 pairs of kosher animals and 1 pair of unkosher animals.

Alan isnt even correct about the song, it starts 2 by 2 and raises 1 per verse. maybe his nephew should have sang the full song.

This reminded me of Eddie Izzard's take on Noah's Ark: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bdqTnb2dldzPaY0.html

So we are just assuming there is no discrepancy between the instruction and the follow-through?

Actually, 1) This is KJV, a particularly old translation. That's why they talk like that. 2) Some more modern translations say "seven pairs" rather than "seven". 3) The quote is Genesis 7:2, but the earlier Genesis 6:19 reads "And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female."

Unfortunately, there's more than 1 species of sheep, not just the domesticated kind

The clean animal count was higher because Noah and his family needed something to eat.

Wrong answer. It is seven pairs, not seven, so 14 sheep.

FFS Bill Bailey.........what a genius 🤣😂

7 pairs, to sacrifice as offerings

When you read the text and still get it wrong take in seven animals a 'male and its mate' would indicate 14 not seven which is an odd number!

7 pairs is 14.

Actually Noah and the ark appears in both the Torah and Quran so Stephen Fry needed a klaxon then.

The answer is 14 not 7 and not 2.

All of them.

This might just be my favourite QI clip!

*NONE* !!!! They were all INSIDE !!! 😛

Three pair, one spare.

It never occurred to me before, but seems the basic purpose of the Ark was... Well, let's just say they should have named it the Love Boat.

The numbers in this chapter are of different measurements. Seven is famously a timescale number. Moses (author of Pentateuch) understood that it would take months, maybe even years to collect a pair of every living species and reminded Noah of the work ethic - including Sabbath observation - that God had imposed on humanity after expulsion from the garden of Eden: it’s only confusing because this work ethic isn’t explicit until Exodus. And they were to be grouped week by week according to species which means you wouldn’t collect a pair of lions and a pair of antelopes in the same week. However if you continue reading the chapter in question, you will see that what I have said is correct One might also like to ponder the influence of this chapter on the theories of evolutionary biologists, suggesting as it does that all species came into existence at the same time and all simultaneously began a new existence after the flood waters subsided

2:50 - Rick is not much of a farmer. “3 pair” is not how they would do it. Just the one bull/ram or possibly a spare.

Fourteen. Seven pairs of the clean animals, and two pairs of the unclean animals.

What does Bill say at 1:29?

I actually knew this, learned it in 1st or 2nd grade in Hebrew school

The real question is what did they feed to the lions, tigers, wolves etc

I just felt sorry for Noah. There are more than 10,000 species of spiders. Just imagine rounding them up.

I thought 7 clean and 2 unclean was common knowledge.

0:29 Two Sheep? Not Two Moons.

Yes Alan! Love your work mate. :)

There are more than 1000 species of sheep. 7000 males and 7000 females. Must of been a bloody big ark just for the sheep alone. But then there is no ship capable of floating that would of managed all of the beatles either. Or worms.

The Noah Story existed even before the bible. The animal numbers were different though.

seven pairs, not seven total.

My recolection was that it was 7/2 pairs, not indeviduals.

I noah guy who stated this

Apparently the bible was written in a language which characters were derived from plasma in a magnetic field with different sound waves creating the shape like cymatics. This means they had technology far more advanced than ours

Two by two, hands of blue.

See here I was thinking I was smart. I thought the answer was 1 because there would be two of each a male and a female, and a male is called a ram not a sheep.

Just had a thought , how did they carry enough food for all these animals, and wouldn't it go off after a while ?

What about the penguins !

I believe this is not quite right because the Noahs ark story was two stories smashed together one from Judea and one from israel and one of them had two of every animal and the other had seven of the clean and two of the not clean.

If Steven did an audio book of the bible then more might read it :)

And Noah said: "God, how should I know which animal is clean? You waited till Exodus to give us those laws."

They took "clean" animals like sheep in larger numbers because those were the animals they could consume.

If humans can go on ships then animals can. It's not a case of "humans and animals". There's no distinction. Humans are animals. Humans are nature. Having human-level intelligence doesn't somehow stop you being an animal. That makes no sense whatsoever. It's specifically because you're an animal that you can have human-level intelligence. It is a trait of animals because an animal has it: humans. Everything humans do is by definition animalistic, because humans are animals. And being an animal isn't an insult. It's awesome, and it's what lets you be you. "Animal abuse" and "animal rights" include humans. Humans aren’t oh so special that they get their own distinction, whilst every other animal gets lumped in together. Humans are animals, and other animals should be treated with the same kindness, respect, and love that humans should be.

I thought they could only count to three back then,... one, two, three,... many.

Well I mean, technically you only need one male and then six female animals.

4 ,the unicorns ate 2 of them. 😆

So is it 7 pairs or 2 pairs such that there were supposedly either 14 or 4 of every animal?

I pray and give thanks to the bible every day! No bible... no 'Raiders Of The lost ark'.

Actually, in Genesis 6:19 & 6:20, it says two couples of each species, and in Genesis 7:2 & 7:3, seven couples (ie 14) for clean species and two couples for impure species. There are two conflicting flooding stories stitched together, just as there are two diverging versions of Creation and of the ten commandments. The old Testament is a patchwork of stories from all around the ancient Egyptian, Syrian and Mesopotamian world.