Let's turn to our most important primary source, the Bible (Old Testament), where the expression "every creature in pairs" is used for the first time (in another translation - "every one"). It is in the Old Testament that we can read the parable of the Flood that swept the whole earth (Genesis, chapter 7). Only Noah, the righteous man, and his family are saved. And, of course, animals and birds - a pair of each creature! Moreover, God notifies Noah in advance that a great disaster is coming, and prompts him with the idea - to create an ark ship to save all life on earth. Thus, the Lord again reveals his plan to a person who lives righteously and respects the laws of God. Everything was told to the smallest detail: down to the drawings of the ship, its length, width, height, capacity.
Mandate and punishment of the Almighty
Also, God gives the righteous a mandate: to take on board the ship pairs of “clean” and “unclean” animals in a ratio of seven to two - male and female, as well as seven pairs of birds of the sky“clean” and two each - “unclean”, in order to preserve the clan and tribe for the whole earth. After that, the Lord poured rain on the earth for forty days and nights in a row! It was a punishment to all mankind existing at that time for grave sins before God and before each other.
Pair of each creature
Noah did as he was told, collecting various kinds of animals and birds, taking them on board his ship, since the ark turned out to be quite roomy. After the flood, each couple was called to revive life in the manifestation in which we now observe it around. And so it happened afterwards. And "a pair of each creature" - the meaning of this expression - has remained unchanged to this day!
How many animals fit in the Ark?
Although many atheists insist that so many animals (two of each creature) could not physically fit into the Ark, there are certainly several answers to this question. First, it should not be discounted that a work like the Bible should not be taken literally. In many ways, this book is metaphorical in itself. And secondly, the no less famous Moses (in the same Old Testament) listed not so many genera of “clean” animals. In addition, the inhabitants of the ocean did not fall under these concepts, since they could well survive on their own in water conditions. Plants were also not taken into account. So to the question of how to fit a pair of each creature in the Ark, the Bible gives a positive, although not acceptable answer for everyone: you can!
And another, no less interesting question
Was there a general flood? In the Bible, the expression "the whole earth" is sometimes interpreted as "the whole known (to the Jews) world." Thus, in reporting on the famine in the time of Jacob, Moses claims that he ruled over the whole earth (but it is unlikely that he meant all five parts of the world)! The Jews often called the land the circle of those countries that they knew. The Flood occurs at the dawn of human history, when the places of human settlement were still small, not so extensive. And for the complete "flooding of the world" it was not necessary to flood those areas in which there was simply no man yet! Accordingly, Noah had to take into his Ark not all the diverse terrestrial fauna, but only those inhabitants who lived next to man, who “could be gathered in a week” (Genesis, 7).
So Deacon A. Kuraev, for example, in the book "School Theology" says that the miracle consists not so much in the vastness and comprehensiveness of the flood. The main thing is that the person was warned by the Lord, and as a result, not the most cunning, the most courageous, the strongest was saved, but the most righteous.
Joking and serious
And today the expression "every creature in pairs" defines the motley, mixed composition of a human group, society, crowd. This phraseological unit, of course, is directly related to the same Noah's Ark, where many incompatible, at first glance, animals were collected in one place. The expression is used to describe the heterogeneity of people who differ from each other in their views, tastes,contradictory and collected in one specific place. There are also in free speech all sorts of funny " alterations" and paraphrases of this phrase. For example, “each pair has a creature” or “each creature has a hara”. Which only confirms the universal popularity of this seemingly ancient expression, but the most carefully time-tested!
