There are some who misinterpret the mention of God in Genesis 6:3 as pertaining to the time it took Noah to build the Ark. The passage reads:
Genesis 6:3
These 120 years appear to be the maximum time given to us to build the Ark, as indicated by the revealing Scriptures. In Genesis 6:3-7, God declared that mankind, being mortal, would have their years “drop dead” at 120, when violence reached its peak. However, these years also serve as a countdown to the Flood.
In Genesis 24:9, the youngest son of Noah is mentioned. Noah was 500 years old when his first son, Japheth, who was the eldest, was born (Genesis 10:21). When the Flood occurred, Shem was 98 years old and Noah was 502, indicating that Shem was born when Noah was 502. Shem, Noah’s second son, became a father for the first time two years after the Flood, at the age of 100 (Genesis 11:10).
During this very moment, Noah, along with his spouse and his three sons and their spouses, would embark on the Ark when God eventually provided Noah with directives to construct the Ark. However, this did not occur at the commencement of the 120-year countdown. In Genesis 6:14-18, God informed Noah.
Shem, who was born before the Flood in the year 98, was deducing. However, Ham had not yet been born, so this is even more remarkable! If we assume that Ham could have been born around 96 years before the Flood, then we can conclude that Shem and Japheth were born around the same time.
I would feel most comfortable getting married between the ages of 20 and 40, giving myself a range of anywhere from 16 to 20 years to find a suitable wife. Although the Bible does not explicitly state the exact timing, it is reasonable to assume that some time has passed for the three sons to grow up.
So if we consider this rationally and create a table for it:
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The duration for Noah’s sons to marry could vary, making it potentially shorter than this. If we consider a reasonable upper limit for constructing the Ark, we would arrive at a tentative period of approximately 55 to 75 years.
Considering the text carefully, we can conclude that the construction of the Ark did not involve 120 years as mentioned in Genesis 6:3. Prior to loading the animals onto the Ark, Noah had time to gather and store food aboard it, as stated in Genesis 6:21 and Genesis 7:1-4.