It’s not Noah’s ‘boat’

Noah’s ark wasn’t a boat or a ship! It was a floating, box-shaped refuge from the flood (or a floating zoo barn if you prefer). The original word means a wooden ‘chest’ or ‘box’ (and then ‘Ark of the Covenant’ makes a bit more sense too).

Sadly, ‘ark’ is a Latin word that was copied over (by William Tyndale it seems—see below): see https://www.etymonline.com/word/ark. According to that (and to my own observations), in the 19th century ‘ark’ has come to mean ‘boat/barge’ in English but that’s NOT what the word means in the Bible, so I suspect most Christians are getting the wrong meanings out of their Bible.

Fascinating to learn how it’s related to the word ‘arcane’ (hidden away in a chest).

The Greek word means ‘a box/chest’: see https://BibleHub.com/greek/2787.htm

As do the two Hebrew words: see https://BibleHub.com/hebrew/8392.htm (but often translated ‘basket’ for Mosheh/Moses) and https://BibleHub.com/hebrew/727.htm.

Looking at https://Freely-Given.org/OBD/par/HEB/C11V7.htm#ClVg (Latin ‘arcam’) and working up the page, John Wycliffe wrongly translated it as ‘schip’ (wouldn’t work very well for ‘ship of the covenant’), but William Tyndale corrected it to ‘arcke’ (putting a Latin word into English) which became ‘arke’ in several translations then ‘ark’ in the KJB where it got stuck, even though it now gives the wrong picture formed in the minds of most modern Bible readers.

For me, ‘chest’ would be my preferred English translation, except the (wrong) word picture from ‘Noah’s chest’ forces me to mostly use ‘box’. And remember also, that should possibly be the same word in ‘The Box containing the Agreement’ (for ‘Ark of the Covenant’ as you know it). But then, even the word ‘chest’ (meaning ‘box’ with hinged lid) is less common in English now than it was in my grandparent’s era (when every sailor had one, and probably every young woman had a ‘glory box’).

This turns out to be an excellent example of how words change their meaning over the centuries (and even in our lifetimes, over the decades with words like ‘gay’ and ‘cool’ and ‘wicked’, etc.). But of course, you can probably imagine why any multi-million dollar Bible marketing business would be reluctant to remove a phrase as famous as ‘Noah’s ark’ from their publications.

I also sent this to Dr. Mark Ward who did a whole YouTube series on “False friends”: old words from the 1600s that now have a different meaning—well worth watching if you use the KJB (hopefully mostly fixed by the NKJV) plus many other excellent teaching videos: https://www.youtube.com/@markwardonwords. I haven’t noticed him do one on ‘ark’ yet (although he did reply positively about this article).

Robert Hunt, Freely-Given.org, July 2024, updated May 2026