Answer
In popular thinking, Noah took two of every kind of animal on board the ark. Artistic depictions usually portray a well-ordered menagerie lined up two by two, male and female, to enter the safety of the ark. According to the Bible, this idea is only partially true. Most animals were taken aboard the ark in pairs, but some animals had more representation. The difference had to do with the type of animal being rescued.
Genesis 6:19–20 gives God’s basic instructions to Noah concerning his cargo of animals: “You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.”
Later, in Genesis 7:2–3, God gives an additional command to Noah: “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, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.”
During the antediluvian era, the “clean” versus “unclean” designation of animals did not pertain to their suitability as a food source because, up to that point in history, no animals were to be eaten (see Genesis 9:3). Rather, the “clean” animals were those that were acceptable for sacrifice. The “unclean” animals were not to be sacrificed.
A possible reason why God instructed for seven pairs of the clean animals to be preserved is so some of them could be sacrificed after the flood without endangering the species. In fact, as soon as Noah and his family left the ark, Noah offered sacrifices to the Lord from among “the clean animals and clean birds” (Genesis 8:20).
And that brings us to the matter of the birds—or the “flying creatures,” as the Hebrew word signifies. Noah only sacrificed “clean birds,” according to Genesis 8:20, but at first glance, it seems he had brought seven pairs of every kind of bird, clean and unclean, onto the ark (Genesis 7:3). Probably, God’s instruction to bring “every kind of bird” was limited by the context to every kind of clean bird. The “unclean” birds were still only collected in single pairs.
