Claim CH505.2:

In 1883, a Turkish commission surveying Ararat for possible avalanche conditions found part of the ark protruding twenty or thirty feet from the foot of a glacier, according to the British newspaper Prophetic Messenger.

Source:

LaHaye, Tim and John Morris, 1976. The Ark on Ararat, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc. and Creation Life Publishers, pp. 56-58.

Response:

  1. The story has several inconsistencies (Bailey 1989, 85):
    • The report mentions the expedition going through a dense forest and wading waist-deep through a stream, contrary to many other detailed descriptions of the mountain.
    • The visitors recognized the wood as gopherwood, despite the fact that the wood was ancient and apparently painted, and despite the fact that nobody knows what gopherwood is.
    • The original news release cited by the Prophetic Messenger has never been found.
    The story is probably fictional.

References:

  1. Bailey, Lloyd, 1989. Noah: The Person and the Story in History and Tradition. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
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created 2003-5-7