Re: Gophers -- longish but more botanically inclined

I found these interesting excerpts regarding "gopher
wood".  Bottom line:  no ANIMALS called "gophers" are
involved...

>From a Bible study site:

"From Gopher, from the Hebrew word pronounced go-fer,
was a type of wood that Noah used to build the ark
(although the name is the same in English, gopher wood
is not at all related to the burrowing rodent).
Mentioned only once in Bible History, it is often
regarded as the cypress tree, which was widely
available in Noah's place and time (see Biblical
Forests), although others translate it as pine or
cedar. The root of the Hebrew word is a verb meaning
to build, or to house, which would imply how the wood
was used, not necessarily the species of tree, which
is perhaps the reason that the (Greek) Septuagint
translates gopher as "squared beams," and the (Latin)
Vulgate as "planed wood.""

>From the "Unmuseum":

On close inspection the "wood" seemed to lack growth
rings, but some biblical experts point out that the
"gopher wood" referred to in the bible has no good
translation and gopher wood might be bundles of reed
coated with some sticky substance, like pitch, that
would hold them together. Fasold believes the ark may
have been an overly-large proto-Sumerian-type craft of
bundled reeds. 

>From the Genesis files:

"The Ark was made of a material that the Bible
identifies as "gopher wood". The actual Hebrew word is
"Gopher", the exact meaning of this material is still
unknown. It has been presumed by some to be Cypress
wood, Cedar, Teak, or Mahogany, but these are only
assumptions. What ever the actual material was, still
remains a mystery, although it was probably some type
of wood. There are serious problems with building a
solid wooden ship longer than 300 feet. This is due to
the structural stress caused by the effects of wave
action upon wooden vessels. Therefore, gopher could
have been a material which was far stronger than
conventional wood. It is interesting that no ship of
the size of Noah’s ark was built until the late 19th
century when iron was used for construction material.
It is possible that other materials could have been
used in its construction. Perhaps metal was used as a
frame (which is not mentioned in the Bible). Another
possibility is the design could be other than the
rectangular shape given in scripture. 

The outside and inside were coated with pitch. The
Hebrew word is "kopher" and again, this word is
obscure so we don’t know what the composition of the
pitch was. Pitch was probably used to make the ark
water tight and to protect the exterior from the
effects of the outside environment."

A long but nicely botanical explanation of "gopher"
wood:

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/gopherwood.html

Joe
--- Anthony Lyman-Dixon
<lyman@lyman-dixon.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> OK then, so what's this gopher wood (Genesis 6:14)
> which Noah made the
> ark out of? Presumably he wasn't all that familiar
> with small N American
> rodents. And if he did have them on board, given
> their propensity for
> burrowing and eating everything, would they not have
> burrowed out
> through the side and sunk the lot?
> 
> Anthony
> 


=====
Joe Seals
Santa Maria, California --
where the weather is always perfect
and my garden always has something blooming
and birds galore

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