ARK (OF NOAH). - A large floating wooden receptacle, which Noah before the flood (v.) built by God's command, as a refuge for himself, his family and all the animal species (Gen. 6:13-22).
The Hebrew téblah (which also occurs in Ex. 2:3, 5: "little box" or "basket" in which Moses was saved) is translated in the ancient versions also as "ship, bier, kneading trough." The Latin arca corresponds to "chest, place or instrument destined to guard something"; cf. Cicero, Pro Milone, 22: a secret and dark place furnished with oak planks to confine criminals or slaves; Vitruvius, 5, 12: a framework of planks, like a vast bottomless crate, for casting the quays of harbors.
According to the order he had received, Noah made it of resinous wood (Gen. 6:14 Hebr.), perhaps of cypress, used for receptacles destined for damp contacts (ships, coffins), and he smeared it with bitumen. The dimensions (Gen. 6:15) of 300 cubits in length by 50 in width by 30 in height, if this is the lesser Babylonian cubit (of 0.45 m.), are equivalent to approximately 135 x 22.5 x 13.5 m. (the Vatican Basilica measures 187 x 25 x 45 m.).
Because of its overall crate-like form the ark was suited to floating rather than to navigating, and it had a capacity greater than that of a ship of similar measurements, in view of the purpose it was to serve.
It had elements not customary in a ship: a door in the side (Gen. 6:16 b; for its use cf. Gen. 6:18; 7:1, 7; 8:18), which God closed before sending the waters (Gen. 7:16), the roof or cover (cf. Gen. 8:13) to protect from the water. A third peculiarity was the ṣōhar (Vulgate and other ancient versions "window"), an opening at the top of the sides, for the lighting and ventilation of the interior, one cubit high, and "made completely" (Gen. 6:16), that is, carried all the way around, naturally with interruption of the supporting beams of the roof. That the ark then had a window - with a closing device - appears from Gen. 8:6, where hallōn is used. But since it results (Gen. 8:6-11) that Noah could not see the external conditions except by removing the cover (Gen. 8:13), ṣōhar has been explained in other ways (a skylight on the roof, or the roof itself, or the keel), with correction of the obscure and doubtful phrase of Gen. 6:16 a. Perhaps the process of composition of the text relating to the flood can better explain this and other antilogies.
The interior was divided into three decks, each about 5 m. high, so that it could also accommodate large animals (that they entered "all" must be understood according to the solution adopted for the problem concerning the extension of the flood). The fortunes of the ark then follow the unfolding of the flood.
In the Babylonian narrative (v. GILGAMESH), alongside some similarities regarding the ark - built by divine order, to given measurements, coming to rest afterward on a mountain - important points of divergence are discerned: in Babylonia the ark is conceived as a ship, with a pilot, it receives many people, it is much larger.
Hebr. 11:7 ("Fide Noe... metuens aptavit arcam in salutem domus suae, per quam damnavit mundum") illustrates the ark as a refuge of salvation for believers and a sign of perdition for the "world." This spiritual sense, noted by 1 Pt. 3:20, was developed by the Fathers, who illustrated the "miserable wood" (Wis. 10:4), which became an object of blessing since in it was saved "the hope of the world" (Wis. 14:6-7), as a symbol of the Church (hence of the Madonna and of 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. Iocinianum, 2, 22).