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Easton's Bible Dictionary
[FROM ARK]
Noah's ark, a building of gopher-wood, and covered with pitch, 300 cubits long,
50 cubits broad, and 30 cubits high ( Genesis
6:14 - 16
); an oblong floating house of three stories, with a door in the side and a window
in the roof. It was 100 years in building ( Genesis
5:32 ; 7:6
). It was intended to preserve certain persons and animals from the deluge which
God was about to bring over the earth. It contained eight persons ( Genesis
7:13 ; 2
Peter 2:5 ), and of all "clean" animals seven pairs, and of "unclean" one
pair, and of birds seven pairs of each sort ( Genesis
7:2 , 7:3
). It was in the form of an oblong square, with flat bottom and sloping roof.
Traditions of the Deluge, by which the race of man was swept from the earth, and
of the ark of Noah have been found existing among all nations.
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
(no entry)
Smith's Bible Dictionary
[FROM NOAH]
The ark. --
The precise meaning of the Hebrew word (tebah) is uncertain. The word occurs only
in Genesis and in ( Exodus
2:3 ). In all probability it is to the old Egyptian that we are to look for
its original form. Bunsen, in his vocabulary gives tba , "a chest," tpt , "a boat,"
and in the Coptic version of ( Exodus
2:3 , 2:5
) thebi is the rendering of tebah .
This "chest" or "boat" was to be made of gopher (i.e. cypress) wood, a kind of
timber which both for its lightness and its durability was employed by the Phoenicians
for building their vessels. The planks of the ark, after being put together were
to be protected by a coating of pitch, or rather bitumen, both inside and outside,
to make it water-tight, and perhaps also as a protection against the attacks of
marine animals. The ark was to consist of a number of "nests" or small compartments,
with a view, no doubt, to the convenient distribution of the different animals
and their food. These were to be arranged in three tiers, one above another; "with
lower, second and third (stories) shalt thou make it." Means were also to be provided
for letting light into the ark. There was to be a door this was to be placed in
the side of the ark. Of the shape of the ark nothing is said, but its dimensions
are given. It was to be 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth and 30 in height.
Taking 21 inches for the cubit, the ark would be 525 feet in length, 87 feet 6
inches in breadth and 52 feet 6 inches in height. This is very considerably larger
than the largest British man-of-war, but not as large as some modern ships. It
should be remembered that this huge structure was only intended to float on the
water, and was not in the proper sense of the word a ship. It had neither mast,
sail nor rudder it was in fact nothing but an enormous floating house, or rather
oblong box.
The inmates of the ark were Noah and his wife and his three sons with their wives.
Noah was directed to take also animals of all kinds into the ark with him, that
they might be preserved alive. (The method of speaking of the animals that were
taken into the ark "clean" and "unclean," implies that only those which were useful
to man were preserved, and that no wild animals were taken into the ark; so that
there is no difficulty from the great number of different species of animal life
existing in the word. --ED.)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
ark, no'-a:
A structure built by Noah at the command of God to preserve from the Flood a remnant
of the human race and of the animals associated with man. It was constructed of
"gopher wood" (Genesis
6:14)--very likely the cypress used extensively by the Phoenicians for ship-building.
It was divided into rooms or nests, and was three stories high, pitched within
and without with bitumen or "asphalt," of which there are extensive deposits at
Hit, in the Euphrates valley, a little above Babylon. It was 300 cubits long,
50 cubits broad, 30 cubits high, which according to Petrie's estimate of a cubit
as 22.5 inches would make it to be 562 1/2 ft. long, 93 2/3 ft. wide, 56 1/4 ft.
deep, which are natural proportions of a ship of that size. The dimensions of
the "Great Eastern," built in 1858, were 692 ft. long, 83 ft. broad, 58 ft. deep;
those of the "Celtic" built in 1901 are 700 ft. long, 75 ft. wide, 49 1/3 ft.
deep. It is extremely improbable that such reasonable dimensions should have been
assigned to the Ark except they were based on fact. Unrestrained tradition would
have been sure to distort the proportions, as is shown by what actually occurred
in other accounts of the Ark. The cuneiform tablets represent it as six stories
high, with the length, width, and depth, each as 140 cubits (262 ft.), and having
a mast on top of all, and a pilot to guide the impossible craft (see Deluge Tablet,
ll.22, 23, 38-41). Berosus, the Greek historian, represents it to have been five
stadia (3,000 ft.) long and two stadia (1,200 ft.) broad, while Origen, in order
to confound Celsus (Against Celsus 4.41) gave the figures an interpretation which
made the Ark 25 miles long and 3/4 of a mile wide.
It is needless to speculate upon the capacity of the Ark for holding absolutely
all the species of animals found in the world, together with the food necessary
for them, since we are only required to provide for such animals as were native
to the area to which the remnants of the human race living at that time were limited,
and which (see DELUGE OF NOAH) may not have been large. But calculations show
that the structure described contained a space of about 3,500,000 cubic feet,
and that after storing food enough to support several thousand pairs of animals,
of the average size, on an ocean voyage of a year, there would remain more than
50 cubic feet of space for each pair.
No mention is made in the Bible of a pilot for the Ark, but it seems to have been
left to float as a derelict upon the waters. For that purpose its form and dimensions
were perfect, as was long ago demonstrated by the celebrated navigator, Sir Walter
Raleigh, who notes it had "a flat bottom, and was not raised in form of a ship,
with a sharpness forward, to cut the waves for the better speed"--a construction
which secured the maximum of storage capacity and made a vessel which would ride
steadily upon the water. Numerous vessels after the pattern of the Ark, but of
smaller dimensions, have been made in Holland and Denmark and proved admirably
adapted for freightage where speed was not of the first importance. They would
hold one-third more lading than other vessels, and would require no more hands
to work them. The gradual rise and subsidence of the water, each continuing for
six months, and their movement inland, render the survival of such a structure
by no means unreasonable. According to Genesis
6:3 ; 1
Peter 3:20 ; 2
Peter 2:5, warning of the Flood was given 120 years beforehand, and during
that time Noah, while preparing the Ark, became a preacher of righteousness. For
evidence that there was a gradual destruction of the race previous to the Flood,
see DELUGE OF NOAH.
George Frederick Wright
Tags:
animal pairs, bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, define, deluge, flood, noah's ark, dimensions of noah's ark, people on noah's ark, size of noah's ark
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