Ark of bulrushes

The ark of bulrushes was a container which, according to the episode known as the finding of Moses in the biblical Book of Exodus, carried the infant Moses.

A painting by Konstantin Flavitsky of Pharaoh's daughter finding Moses, who is in a basket.

The ark, containing the three-month-old baby Moses, was placed in reeds by the river bank[1] (presumably the Nile) to protect him from the Egyptian mandate to drown every male Hebrew child,[2] and discovered there by Pharaoh's daughter.

Analysis

The ark is described as being daubed with asphalt and pitch, and the English word "ark" is a translation of the Hebrew תֵּבָה (tebah, modern teiva), a word similar to the Egyptian teb, meaning "a chest". It is also the same word used for Noah's Ark. The "bulrushes" (Hebrew: גֹּ֫מֶא‎ gome) were likely to have been papyrus stalks (Cyperus papyrus), daubed with bitumen and pitch (which probably refers to the sticky mud of the Nile).

A similar story is told of Sargon of Akkad.[3]

See also

References
  1. Exodus 2:2–3
  2. Exodus 1:22
  3. "Ark" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.