Recently someone asked me “what is the Hebrew word for Noah’s Ark in the Old Testament?” This simple question led me to the most interesting discovery.

The immediate answer is tevah (pronounced tay-vah) in Hebrew.  Genesis 6.13-14 says “And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.  Make yourself an ark (tevah) of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark (tevah), and cover it inside and outside with pitch. (NKJV)”

So I ventured, as I normally do, to look at other times this Hebrew word is used in scripture. Is this the same word as for the Ark of the Covenant? No. Is this a word for boat or vessel? No.  Is this word used anywhere else in scripture? Yes!

Only one other story uses tevah and it is found in the story of baby Moses. Exodus 2.3 ” But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark (tevah) of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. (NKJV)” Most translations will translate the word “basket” with footnotes to “chest or ark” at the bottom of the page.

So at this point, we ask ourselves, what was the writer thinking when he recorded this story? What did he want us to recall or know when reading about baby Moses? More plainly stated: why this word in these stories?!

For a side note: Traditionally, Moses recorded the first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) called the Pentateuch or Torah and are believed to be given to Moses by God. Scholars believe, however, that these books are a composition made over the years. This is not a teaching about authorship, so that is all I will say about that. What is significant for our purposes is to note that the same person who recorded the story of Noah either also recorded the story of Moses OR was familiar with the story of Noah when the story of Moses was written.  So….back to the train of thought …

Tevah comes from an Egyptian word that means box or chest. This same word is used for coffin (recall the pharaohs that were buried with lots of treasure).

There are some obvious similarities in the stories of Noah and baby Moses:

• water – the threat to their lives
• ark (tevah) – the box they were placed in
• pitch – used to seal/protect from the water, the work of each builder to ensure the box would survive!
• impending doom – from the water
• salvation – they were both saved from the instrument of their death (the water)
• deliverance – both men were deliverers! Noah was the instrument of deliverance for mankind and animals, and as an adult, Moses brings the Israelites out of Egypt (and ultimately THROUGH the same water he should have died in! Come on, that’s good stuff!).

These boxes were built by human hands with FAITH that a divine hand would guide them to safety.

Hebrews 11.7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

1 Peter 3.18-22 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.  There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.

These stories represent early pictures of salvation. Today, we practice baptism as a symbol of our salvation, that we ourselves are drawn out of the water and saved by the same divine hand.

I can’t help but picture us today, building our boxes and laying on the pitch (real thick!) but at some point we have to settle in and trust the hand of God to guide us and trust Him to bring about, not only his salvation in us, but deliverance for others through us.