386 days a year

There are a number of interesting questions related to the story of the Great Deluge. Digging into them can be very revealing. For example, for how long did the waters flood the earth? And for how long did Noah and his family stay in the ark?
Answering the first question is not too difficult. Read up Genesis 7-8 and simply add up the days.
And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights (Genesis 7:12).
And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days (Genesis 7:24).
and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated (Genesis 8:3);
Adding them up will give a simple answer, 340 days.
But the problem is ...
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened (Genesis 7:11).
In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry (Genesis 8:13).
The Israelites followed a lunar calendar. There are 29/30 days a lunar month. Therefore, 46 days into the 600^th year of Noah's life, the flood began (Genesis 7:11). The flood lasted 340 days, a total of 386 days from the first day of the 600^th year of Noah's life. Now according to Genesis 8:13, on the first day of the 601^st year of Noah's life, the ground was dry. Therefore, there were 386 days in the 600^th year of Noah's life. Not only did legendary biblical figures live longer, a greater number of years, but their year was also longer, a greater number of days! This will disprove some theorists who hypothesize that the 'year' in Genesis 5 was shorter. Interested readers may visit the following link to Judaism 101 to know more about it.
Briefly, twelve lunar months are 11 days shorter than a solar year and thirteen 19 days too long. Therefore, the beginning of a year would drift 11 days earlier. Like the Chinese, a leap month would be added before the last lunar month to compensate for this drift at intervals. Therefore, there are roughly 356 days in an ordinary year and 386 days in a Jewish leap year.
Noah stayed another 57 days before he came out from the ark (Genesis 8:14-18). Therefore, Noah and his family stayed in the ark for 397 days.
And every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth, went forth by families out of the ark.
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar (Genesis 8:19-20).
Within these 397 days, the animals reproduced. One pair, male and female, became one family (Genesis 8:19) so that Noah might sacrifice the clean animal and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. Otherwise, only unclean animals would remain on earth! Asking interesting questions throws light on our understanding of the Bible.

Dear Lord, I thank You for remembering Noah and all the animals with him in the ark. Remember us and keep us safe in the Church You establish. Amen.