Let us turn to our most important primary source, the Bible (Old Testament), where for the first time the expression “every creature is paired” (in another translation, “any”) is used. It is in the Old Testament that we can read the parable of the Great Flood that engulfed the entire earth (Genesis 7 chapter). Only Noah is saved - the righteous, as well as his family. And, of course, animals and birds - each creature has a pair! Moreover, God informs Noah in advance that a great disaster is coming, and tells him the idea - to create an ark ship to save all life on earth. Thus, the Lord again reveals his plan to a man who lives righteously, who respects the laws of God. Everything was told to the smallest detail: down to the drawings of the ship, its length, width, height, capacity.
The order and punishment of the Most High
God also gives the righteous command: to take on board the ship pairs of “clean” and “unclean” animals in a ratio of seven to two - male and female, and also - seven pairs of birds of heaven “clean” and two - “unclean”, so that save the clan and tribe for the whole earth. After which the Lord poured rain on the earth for forty days and nights in a row! It was a punishment for all of humanity at that time for grave sins before God and before each other.
Each creature in pairs
Noah did as he was told, collecting different kinds of animals and birds, taking them on board his ship, the ark was rather spacious. After the flood, each couple was called to revive life in the manifestation in which we now observe it around. This happened later. And “each creature in pairs” - 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 (each creature in pairs) could not physically fit in the Ark, there are certainly several answers to this question. First, do not discount the fact that such a work as the Bible should not be taken literally. In many ways, this book is metaphorical in itself. And secondly, not less famous Moses (in the same Old Testament) were listed not so many genera of "pure" 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 the question of how to fit each creature in the Ark in pairs, the Bible gives a positive, although not all acceptable answer: it is possible!
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 world familiar to (the Jews)." Thus, reporting on the famine during the time of Jacob, Moses claims that he dominated the whole earth (but he hardly meant all five parts of the world)! Jews often called the land the circle of those countries that they knew. The flood occurs at the dawn of the history of mankind, when the places of resettlement of people were still small, not so vast. And for the complete "flooding of the world" it was not necessary to fill in those areas in which a person was simply not there! Accordingly, Noah did not need to take all the diverse earthly fauna in his Ark, but only those inhabitants who lived next to a person whom “could be gathered in a week” (Genesis 7).
So the deacon A. Kuraev, for example, in the book “School Theology” says that a miracle does not consist so much in the vastness and comprehensiveness of the flood. The main thing is that the man was warned by the Lord, and as a result not the most cunning, the most courageous, the strongest, but the most righteous were saved.
And as a joke, and seriously
And the expression “every creature in a pair” today defines the colorful, mixed composition of a human group, society, crowd. This phraseologism, of course, is directly related to the very Ark of Noah, where a lot of seemingly incompatible animals were collected in one place. The expression is used to describe the heterogeneity of persons who differ from each other in their views, tastes, contradictory and gathered in one particular place. There are also in free speech and all sorts of funny "alterations" and paraphrases of this phrase. For example, "in each pair of creatures" or "each creature in hara." Which only confirms the universal popularity of this ancient, it would seem, expression, but as carefully tested by time!