ARK, NOAH'S (i41:1; Sept. icepcor6s; Vulg. area).
The Hebrew word used to designate Noah's Ark appears to be foreign, since it has no native ety mology. (Comp. Gesen. Thes. s. v.) Probably it is Hebraicized from the Egyptian TAB or TBA, a `chest or sarcophagus' (Bunsen, Egypt's Place, i. 482), pre served in the Coptic GILL area, arca sepulcralis; for in the LXX., where the Hebrew text has it of the ark in which Moses was exposecl it is represented by OLfrri (var. 04)37)) (Exod. ii. 3, 5), which does not seem to be a Greek word, and is ex plained by the Greek lexicographers and scholiasts (ap. Schleusner, Lex. in LXX. s. v.) in a manner that makes it almost certain that they considered it Egyptian, or at least not Greek. The primary mean ing seems to be a chest ; for not only has the Egyptian word that signification, but also the terms used by the LXX., and in the case of Noah's Ark, by Josephus, who employs XdppaE, a `coffer' or `chest,' do not justify the idea of a ship. The Ark of the Covenant is, however, called by a different name, ijit-z, which is elsewhere used in a general sense for a chest and the like, so that since it is applied only to Noah's Ark, and that in which Moses was exposed, seems to be restricted in Hebrew to receptacles which floated. Berosus, however, uses for the Ark of Xisuthrus the words mcd4os, vas, and isVior (Cory's Ancient Fragments, 2 ed. pp. 26-29).
The exact form and dimensions of Noah's ark cannot be determined, but it is not difficult to ar rive at general conclusions which must be near the truth. From the narrative in Genesis we learn that it was made of ' gopher' wood, was pitched within and without, and was three hundred cubits in length, fifty cubits in breadth, and thirty cubits in height. It was lighted, though not necessarily from the roof, for rain would have been thus ad mitted : it had a door at the side : and consisted of three storeys, divided into cells. The most difficult matter in the description is what refers to the man ner in which the Ark was lighted. The words "Iri r6yor) nbmq nne43:41 nan5 item may be most probably rendered, Light shalt thou make for the Ark, and by a cubit shalt thou make [or finish it from above' (Gen. vi. i6). It has
been supposed that one window only was made to the Ark ; but when, in a later passage, the win dow' is mentioned, a definite term (t &J) is em ployed (viii. 6), whence it would seem probable that the word 'light' is used for several windows. But, on the other hand, the manner in which the window is mentioned in the latter place, Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made ;' and the circumstance that at a later time he re moved the covering of the ark, and looked,' seem to imply but one window. The second passage may, however, only mean that he pushed aside a piece of matting or a shutter. The difficulty of there being but a single window led the Rabbins to imagine that the Ark was lighted by a miraculous stone, but it may have been so constructed as to admit light between the planks or beams of its sides. The second clause of the passage as to the lighting of the Ark can scarcely be held to refer to the window or windows, for this would require a strained construction, but probably relates to the general dimensions of the Ark itself, meaning that the prescribed number of cubits was not to be de viated from, or that there were to be no fractions, or that it was to have the angles of its roof cut off by a sloping piece of a cubit's breadth. Although we snow nothing as to the precise form of the Ark, it is most probable that it was similar to that of the rafts still used on the Euphrates and Tigris, which are rectangular, and have in the midst a flat-roofed cabin resembling a house. If so, the measures would probably be those of the square structure and not of the raft. If, as we shall next shew, there is reason to suppose that the Deluge was partial, and in consequence espe cially overspread the tract through which flow the Euphrates and Tigris, we may look for the form of the Ark in that of the rafts which have been used in their navigation for many centuries before• the present age.