Gopher wood


, said to be constructed from gopher wood
Gopher wood or gopherwood is a term used once in the Bible for the substance from which Noah's ark was built. Genesis 6:14 states that Noah was to build the Ark of gofer, more commonly transliterated as gopher wood, a word not otherwise known in the Bible or in Hebrew. Although some English Bibles attempt a translation, older English translations, including the King James Version, leave it untranslated. The word is unrelated to the name of the North American animal, the gopher.

Identity

The Greek Septuagint translated the phrase mentioning gopher wood as ἐκ ξύλων τετραγώνων, "out of squared timber". Similarly, the Latin Vulgate rendered it as de lignis levigatis, "out of smoothed wood".
The Jewish Encyclopedia believes it was most likely a translation of the Babylonian gushure iṣ erini, cedar beams, or the Assyrian giparu, reeds. The Aramaic Targum Onkelos, considered by many Jews to be an authoritative translation of the Hebrew scripture renders this word as qadros, cedar. The Syriac Peshitta translates this word as arqa, box.
Many modern English translations tend to favor cypress. This was espoused by Adam Clarke, a Methodist theologian famous for his commentary on the Bible: Clarke cited the resemblance between Greek word for cypress, kuparisson and the Hebrew word gophar. Likewise the Nova Vulgata has it as de lignis cupressinis, in contrast to the "ligna levigata" of the Clementine Vulgate.
Other suggestions include pine, cedar, fir, teak, sandalwood, ebony, wicker, juniper, acacia, boxwood, slimed bulrushes, and resinous wood.
Others, noting the physical similarity between the Hebrew letters g and k, suggest that the word may actually be kopher, the Hebrew word meaning "pitch"; thus kopher wood would be "pitched wood". Recent suggestions have included a lamination process, or a now-lost type of tree, but there is no consensus.

Footnotes and references