Genesis 8 · a question people ask
Where did the ship land?
The text says "on Ararat’s mountains", plural: the mountains of a land, not a single named peak. Elsewhere Ararat is a land ("the land of Ararat", 2 Kings 19:37). Brown-Driver-Briggs describes it as "a district in Eastern Armenia between the river Araxes & lakes Van & Oroomiah" (Urmia).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Mount Ararat
The tall volcanic peak in eastern Turkey now called Mount Ararat is the site most often searched. It lies within the region the text names.
Genesis 8:4
Somewhere else in the region
Because the text names the mountains of a region, others suggest different peaks within it, and some older traditions name other mountains. The text itself doesn't say which.
Genesis 8:4
The verses
“The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s mountains.”
“As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.”
““Set up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her! Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her! Cause the horses to come up as the swarming locusts!”