Gopher wood

Gopher wood or gopherwood is a term used once in the Bible, for the substance whose identity is unknown from which Noah's ark was built.

Question over identity

Gen 6:14 states that Noah built the Ark of גפר ("gofer", more commonly "gopher") wood, a word not otherwise known in the Bible or in Hebrew. The "Jewish Encyclopedia" believes it was most likely a translation of the Babylonian "gushure i÷ erini" (cedar-beams), or the Assyrian "giparu" (reed). [cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=365&letter=G&search=gopher%20wood|title=The Jewish Encyclopedia: Goper-Wood|publisher=The Jewish Encyclopedia|author=Hirsch, EG & Hyvernat, H|date=2002|accessdate=2007-06-27] The Greek Septuagint (3rd–1st centuries BC) translated it as "xylon tetragonon", "squared timber". [cite book|first=Sir Lancelot C.L.|last=Brenton|title=The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English (reprint)|year=1986|origyear=1851|location=Peabody|publisher=Hendrickson Publishers|id=ISBN 0-913573-44-2] Similarly, the Latin Vulgate (5th century AD) rendered it as "lignis levigatis", "smoothed (possibly planed) wood".

Older English translations, including the King James Version (17th century), simply leave it untranslated. Many modern translations tend to favour cypress (although the word for "cypress" in Biblical Hebrew is "erez"), following 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", although Greek and Hebrew are not related languages and the linguistic resemblance is superficial. Other suggestions include pine, cedar, fir, ebony, wicker, juniper, acacia, boxwood, slimed bulrushes and resinous wood, and even American trees such as "Cladrastis kentuckea", or American yellowwood, although this type of gopherwood has no known relation to the material of Noah's Ark. 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 (to strengthen the Ark), or a now-lost type of tree, but there is no consensus. [cite web|author=Taylor, Paul|url=http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/gopherwood.html|title=What is “Gopher Wood”?|date=2001|publisher=Eden Communications|accessdate=2007-06-25]

Fictional references

*In the "Pendragon Cycle" by Stephen R. Lawhead, gopherwood, along with orichalcum and samite, other little known ancient materials, is mentioned frequently in the first volume, much of which takes place in Atlantis.
*The American movie "Evan Almighty" makes a wordplay on the term, turning it into a lumber company called, "Go-4-Wood".

External links

* [http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/gopherwood.html What is "Gopher Wood?"]
* [http://www.giveshare.org/BibleStudy/241.gopherwood-ark.html Gopherwood and Construction of the Ark]
* [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gopherwood The Free Dictionary - Gopherwood] (giving a definition of "cladrastis kentuckea")
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=365&letter=G Jewish Encyclopedia] (explaining that gopher may be reeds)

References