The New International Encyclopædia/Ark

ARK. In the English Version of the Bible the word is applied to three different objects: (1) To the craft which Noah built and in which he preserved himself, his family, and numerous animals alive during the flood. It is described in Gen. vi. It was of “gopher wood,” which is perhaps conifer cypress, of which the Phœnicians built ships, and the “pitch" used was asphalt. Its dimensions were, in English measure: Length, 525 feet; breadth, 87½ feet; height, 52½ feet. It was not built for speed, and merely floated about until the waters subsided. (2) To the basket of bulrushes (papyrus reed) daubed with slime, prepared by the mother of Moses, in which Moses floated on the Nile until Pharaoh's daughter rescued him (Exod. ii. 3 seq.). A similar story is told of Sargon I., a king in the Valley of the Euphrates about B.C. 3800. (3) To the Ark of the Covenant (q.v.).