God told Noah, “The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. . . . You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.”
In the ancient world the cubit was the most common unit of measure—the length of a man’s forearm from his elbow to the tip of his middle finger. Usually considered to be eighteen inches, the cubit was divided into six “palms,” each with four “fingers”—twenty-four fingers to a cubit.
At 18 inches per cubit, the ark would be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide (1½ times the length and half the width of a football field) and 45 feet high—one of the largest wooden boats ever built. You can be pretty sure the ark did not look like what most of us remember from a nursery picture or from a storybook—a cute boat with a deck full of animals. It was shaped like a long box, not like a seagoing vessel built for speed. In fact, some scholars think the word for “ark” may be related to the Egyptian word for “coffin.”
The word ark is itself confusing. The English Bible uses ark as a name for both Noah’s boat and for the holy box containing the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod, a jar of manna, and the Torah scroll written by Moses—the ark made famous by Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But Hebrew uses two very different words for these two objects—and uses tebah only for Noah’s ark and for the basket in which baby Moses was placed by his mother. We don’t know if tebah means a boat, something covered in pitch, a certain shape, something that preserves life—or something else.
According to the Bible, Noah’s ark had three decks with rooms (which would provide structural support), a door, and a window. There was probably not just one window, but a row of them just under the roof.
The ark was made of gopherwood—whatever that is. Translators had no idea what the Hebrew word gopher meant and so they merely transliterated it. When you say “gopher,” you’re saying a Hebrew word with an unknown meaning. The oldest Greek translation of Genesis calls gopherwood “squared timber.” The most popular Latin translation calls it “smoothed wood.” Some have thought it is cedar or cypress. But the bottom line is . . . we don’t know.
God said to cover the ark inside and outside with “pitch,” probably for waterproofing, although there is no agreement on whether the pitch was an oil-based substance (as it is thought of today) or a gum-based resin extracted from trees, or something else.
Although the Bible gave these specifications for the ark, it was Noah who had to design it—how to house the animals, where to build the living quarters for his family, what design elements would make the ark the most seaworthy. You can learn how Noah might have done this in Noah: The Real Story.
In the ancient world the cubit was the most common unit of measure—the length of a man’s forearm from his elbow to the tip of his middle finger. Usually considered to be eighteen inches, the cubit was divided into six “palms,” each with four “fingers”—twenty-four fingers to a cubit.
At 18 inches per cubit, the ark would be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide (1½ times the length and half the width of a football field) and 45 feet high—one of the largest wooden boats ever built. You can be pretty sure the ark did not look like what most of us remember from a nursery picture or from a storybook—a cute boat with a deck full of animals. It was shaped like a long box, not like a seagoing vessel built for speed. In fact, some scholars think the word for “ark” may be related to the Egyptian word for “coffin.”
The word ark is itself confusing. The English Bible uses ark as a name for both Noah’s boat and for the holy box containing the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod, a jar of manna, and the Torah scroll written by Moses—the ark made famous by Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But Hebrew uses two very different words for these two objects—and uses tebah only for Noah’s ark and for the basket in which baby Moses was placed by his mother. We don’t know if tebah means a boat, something covered in pitch, a certain shape, something that preserves life—or something else.
According to the Bible, Noah’s ark had three decks with rooms (which would provide structural support), a door, and a window. There was probably not just one window, but a row of them just under the roof.
The ark was made of gopherwood—whatever that is. Translators had no idea what the Hebrew word gopher meant and so they merely transliterated it. When you say “gopher,” you’re saying a Hebrew word with an unknown meaning. The oldest Greek translation of Genesis calls gopherwood “squared timber.” The most popular Latin translation calls it “smoothed wood.” Some have thought it is cedar or cypress. But the bottom line is . . . we don’t know.
God said to cover the ark inside and outside with “pitch,” probably for waterproofing, although there is no agreement on whether the pitch was an oil-based substance (as it is thought of today) or a gum-based resin extracted from trees, or something else.
Although the Bible gave these specifications for the ark, it was Noah who had to design it—how to house the animals, where to build the living quarters for his family, what design elements would make the ark the most seaworthy. You can learn how Noah might have done this in Noah: The Real Story.
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