ARK (OF NOAH). – A large floating wooden receptacle that Noah built before the Flood (v.) by God’s command, as a refuge for himself, his family, and all animal species (Gen 6:13–22).
The Hebrew *têbhâh* (which also occurs in Ex 2:3, 5: “box” or “basket” in which Moses was saved) is rendered in ancient versions also as “ship, coffin, trough.” The Latin *arca* corresponds to “chest, place or instrument destined to preserve something”; cf. Cicero, *Pro Milone*, 2: a secret and dark place fitted with oak planks to shut up criminals or slaves; Vitruvius, 5.12: a framework of boards, like a vast box without a bottom, for casting harbor foundations.
According to the order he received, Noah made it of resinous wood (Gen 6:14 Heb.), perhaps of cypress, used for receptacles exposed to moisture (ships, coffins), and he caulked it with bitumen. The dimensions (Gen 6:15) of 300 cubits in length by 50 in width by 30 in height, if the smaller Babylonian cubit (0.45 m) is meant, amount to approximately 135 × 22.5 × 13.5 m (the Vatican Basilica measures 187 × 25 × 45 m).
Given its overall box-like shape, the Ark was more suited to float than to sail, and it had a capacity greater than that of a ship of similar dimensions, in view of the purpose for which it was intended.
It had features not permitted to a ship: a side door (Gen 6:16b; for its use cf. Gen 6:18; 7:1, 7; 8:18), which God shut before sending the waters (Gen 7:16), and a roof or cover (cf. Gen 8:13) to protect from the water. A third peculiarity was the *sôhar* (Vulgate and other ancient versions “window”), an opening along the sides for lighting and ventilating the interior, one cubit high and “made entirely” (Gen 6:16), i.e., carried all around, naturally with interruptions for the roof supports. That the Ark had a window—with a closing device—appears from Gen 8:6, where *hallon* is used. But since it results (Gen 8:6–11) that Noah could not see external conditions except by removing the cover (Gen 8:13), *sôhar* has been explained in other ways (a dormer on the roof, or the roof itself, or the keel), with emendation of the obscure and doubtful phrase in Gen 6:16a. Perhaps the process of composition of the Flood narrative may better explain this and other textual anomalies.
The interior was divided into three decks, each about 5 m high, so that it could accommodate even large animals (the statement that “all” entered must be understood in light of the solution adopted for the problem of the Flood’s extent). The subsequent vicissitudes of the Ark follow the unfolding of the Flood.
In the Babylonian narrative (v. GILGAMESH), alongside some similarities regarding the Ark—built by divine command, to given measurements, and later resting on a mountain—important points of divergence are evident: in Babylon the Ark is conceived as a ship, with a pilot, carrying many people, and much larger.
Heb 11:7 (“By faith Noah… fearing, prepared an ark for the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world”) presents the Ark as a refuge of salvation for believers and a sign of perdition for the “world.” This spiritual sense, noted in 1 Pt 3:20, was developed by the Fathers, who extolled the “wretched wood” (Wis 10:4), become an object of blessing since it preserved “the hope of the world” (Wis 14:6–7), as a symbol of the Church (and of the Virgin Mary and Christ Himself), outside of which there is no salvation (cf. Ambrose, *De Noe et arca*, 6–9: PL 14, 368–74; Augustine, *Contra Faustum M.*, 12.39; Jerome, *Adv. Iovinianum*, 2.22).