Bible Trivia - 6/10/2008

Question: What kind of wood was Noah's ark made of?

Answer: Gopher wood. (Genesis 6:14)

Comments: God's directions for building an ark were explicit. Among the details he specified was the type of wood used to construct the ark.

"Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch." (Genesis 6:14, NASB)

The exact type of wood used to construct the ark is unknown. The term "gopher" appears only in Genesis 6:14. The Greek Septuagint (LXX) renders this xylon tetragonon - "squared timber". The Latin Vulgate was translated "lignis levigatis" or "smoothed (possibly planed) wood".

English translations typically leave the word untranslated, transliterated from the Hebrew - "gopher wood." (ASV, ESV, KJV, NASB, NKJV, NLT, RSV). The Message reads "teakwood." The Amplified Bible leaves the reader with a choice: "gopher or cypress wood."

The NIV and NRSV also interpret the word as "cypress wood", though their is a Hebrew word for such wood (erez). This interpretation was first posed by Adam Clarke (1769-1832) citing the resemblance between Greek word for cypress, kuparisson and the Hebrew word gopher. Unfortunately, the languages are entirely unrelated. The cypress theory has been supported as it is large and strong.

The CEV tales the safest route as it reads simply "good lumber." That God would wish the ark to be constructed with good lumber would be hard to argue.