And this [is the fashion] which thou shalt make it [of]: The length of the ark [shall be] three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
15. The dimensions of the ark, as here given, are somewhat smaller than in the Assyrian account. Assuming that a cubit measured 1 feet, the ark was 450 ft. long, 75 ft. broad, and 45 ft. high. It will be noticed that the breadth is exactly one-sixth, and the height exactly one-tenth, of the length. In the Assyrian account we miss these proportions. The length is not given, but the height and breadth are the same, viz. 120 cubits, or 180 ft., broad and high. Berossus, the Greek writer of Babylonian traditions, records that the ship of the Flood was 5 stadia (about of a mile) long, and 2 stadia (about mile) broad.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 15. Thou shalt make – the length of the ark-three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits] Allowing the cubit, which is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, to be eighteen inches, the ark must have been four hundred and fifty feet in length, seventy-five in breadth, and forty-five in height. But that the ancient cubit was more than eighteen inches has been demonstrated by Mr. Greaves, who travelled in Greece, Palestine, and Egypt, in order to be able to ascertain the weights, moneys, and measures of antiquity. He measured the pyramids in Egypt, and comparing the accounts which Herodotus, Strabo, and others, give of their size, he found the length of a cubit to be twenty-one inches and eight hundred and eighty-eight decimal parts out of a thousand, or nearly twenty-two inches. Hence the cube of a cubit is evidently ten thousand four hundred and eighty-six inches. And from this it will appear that the three hundred cubits of the ark’s length make five hundred and forty-seven feet; the fifty for its breadth, ninety-one feet two inches; and the thirty for its height, fifty-four feet eight inches. When these dimensions are examined, the ark will be found to be a vessel whose capacity was more than sufficient to contain all persons and animals said to have been in it, with sufficient food for each for more than twelve months. This vessel Dr. Arbuthnot computes to have been eighty-one thousand and sixty-two tons in burden.
As many have supposed the capacity of the ark to have been much too small for the things which were contained in it, it will be necessary to examine this subject thoroughly, that every difficulty may be removed. The things contained in the ark, besides the eight persons of Noah’s family, were one pair of all unclean animals, and seven pairs of all clean animals. with provisions for all sufficient for twelve months.
At the first view the number of animals may appear so immense that no space but the forest could be thought sufficient to contain them. If, however, we come to a calculation, the number of the different genera or kinds of animals will be found much less than is generally imagined. It is a question whether in this account any but the different genera of animals necessary to be brought into the ark should be included Naturalists have divided the whole system of zoology into CLASSES and ORDERS, containing genera and species. There are six classes thus denominated:
1. Mammalia;
2. Aves;
3. Amphibia;
4. Pisces;
5. Insectae; and
6. Vermes.
With the three last of these, viz., fishes, insects, and worms, the question can have little to do.
The first CLASS, Mammalia, or animals with teats, contains seven orders, and only forty-three genera if we except the seventh order, cete, i.e. all the whale kind, which certainly need not come into this account. The different species in this class amount, the cete excluded, to five hundred and forty-three.
The second CLASS, Aves, birds, contains six orders, and only seventy-four genera, if we exclude the third order, anseres, or web-footed fowls, all of which could very well live in the water. The different species in this class, the anseres excepted, amount to two thousand three hundred and seventy-two.
The third CLASS, Amphibia, contains only two orders, reptiles and serpents; these comprehend ten genera, and three hundred and sixty-six species, but of the reptiles many could live in the water, such as the tortoise, frog, c. Of the former there are thirty-three species, of the latter seventeen, which excluded reduce the number to three hundred and sixteen. The whole of these would occupy but little room in the ark, for a small portion of earth, c., in the hold would be sufficient for their accommodation.
Bishop Wilkins, who has written largely and with his usual accuracy on this subject, supposes that quadrupeds do not amount to one hundred different kinds, nor birds which could not live in the water to two hundred. Of quadrupeds he shows that only seventy-two species needed a place in the ark, and the birds he divides into nine classes, including in the whole one hundred and ninety-five kinds, from which all the web-footed should be deducted, as these could live in the water.
He computes all the carnivorous animals equivalent, as to the bulk of their bodies and food, to twenty-seven wolves and all the rest to one hundred and eighty oxen. For the former he allows one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five sheep for their annual consumption and for the latter, one hundred and nine thousand five hundred cubits of hay: these animals and their food will be easily contained In the two first stories, and much room to spare; as to the third story, no person can doubt its being sufficient for the fowls, with Noah and his family.
One sheep each day he judges will be sufficient for six wolves; and a square cubit of hay, which contains forty-one pounds, as ordinarily pressed in our ricks, will he amply sufficient for one ox in the day. When the quantum of room which these animals and their provender required for one year, is compared with the capacity of the ark, we shall be led to conclude, with the learned bishop, “that of the two it is more difficult to assign a number and bulk of necessary things to answer to the capacity of the ark, than to find sufficient room for the several species of animals and their food already known to have been there.” This he attributes to the imperfection of our lists of animals, especially those of the unknown parts of the earth; and adds, “that the most expert mathematicians at this day,” and he was one of the first in Europe, “could not assign the proportion of a vessel better accommodated to the purpose than is here done;” and concludes thus: “The capacity of the ark, which has been made an objection against Scripture, ought to be esteemed a confirmation of its Divine authority; since, in those ruder ages men, being less versed in arts and philosophy, were more obnoxious to vulgar prejudices than now, so that had it been a human invention it would have been contrived, according to those wild apprehensions which arise from a confused and general view of things, as much too big as it has been represented too little.” See Bishop Wilkins’s Essay towards a Philosophical Character and Language.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This is the fashion, or, this is the measure, or the manner according to
which thou shalt make it; and it was a just and regular proportion, the length being six times more than the breadth, and ten times more than the height. There is no need to understand this of geometrical cubits, which are said to have contained nine ordinary cubits; nor of sacred cubits, which were a hands breadth longer than the ordinary, Eze 43:13; nor to suppose the stature of men at that time to have been generally larger, and consequently their cubit much longer. For the ordinary cubit consisting of a common foot and a half, is sufficient for the containing of all the kinds of living creatures and their provisions, which was to be put into the ark, as hath been at large demonstrated by learned men. Nor is there any considerable difficulty in the point, but what is made by the ignorance of infidels, and aggravated by their malice against the Holy Scriptures; especially if these things be considered:
1. That the differing kinds of beasts and birds, which unlearned men fancy to be innumerable, are observed by the learned, who have particularly searched into them, and written of them, to be little above three hundred, whereof the far greatest part are but small; and many of these which now are thought to differ in kind, in their first original were but of one sort, though now they be so greatly altered in their shape and qualifies, which might easily arise from the diversity of their climate and food, and other circumstances, and from the promiscuous conjunctions of those lawless creatures.
2. That the brute creatures, when they were enclosed in the ark, where they were idle, and constantly under a kind of horror and amazement, would be contented with far less provisions, and those of another sort than they were accustomed to, and such as might lie in less room, as hay, and the fruits of the earth. God also, who altered their natures, and made the savage creatures mild and gentle, might by the same powerful providence moderate their appetites, or, if he pleased, have increased their provision whilst they did eat it, as afterwards Christ did by the loaves. So vain and idle are the cavils of wanton wits concerning the incapacity of the ark for the food of so many beasts.
3. That supposing the ravenous creatures did feed upon flesh, here is also space enough and to spare for a sufficient number of sheep, for their food for a whole year, as upon computation will easily appear; there being not two thousand sheep necessary for them, and the ark containing no less than four hundred and fifty thousand cubits in it. But of this matter more may be seen in my Latin Synopsis.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. And this is thefashionAccording to the description, the ark was not a ship,but an immense house in form and structure like the houses in theEast, designed not to sail, but only to float. Assuming the cubit tobe 21.888 inches, the ark would be five hundred forty-seven feetlong, ninety-one feet two inches wide, and forty-seven feet twoinches high.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And this [is the fashion] which thou shall make it of,…. The form and size of it, its length, breadth, and height, as follows:
the length of the ark [shall be] three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits; which some interpret of geometrical cubits, each of which contained six ordinary cubits; others of sacred cubits, which were larger by an hand’s breadth than the common cubit; but the general opinion of learned men now is, that they were common cubits of eighteen inches long; and by the geometrical calculations made by them it is found, that the ark of such dimensions was abundantly sufficient to contain Noah, and his family, and the various creatures, and all necessary provisions for them q. But if the Jewish and Egyptian cubit, the cubit of the Scriptures, as Dr. Cumberland r has shown it to be, consisted of twenty one inches and upwards, the ark according to them must be very near twice as great, and so more convenient for all the ends to which it was designed; for, as he observes, the cube of such a cubit is very near double to the cube of eighteen inches, and therefore so must the capacity be.
(Noah’s Ark was the largest sea-going vessel ever built, until, the late nineteenth century when giant metal ships were first constructed. The Ark was approximately 450 feet by seventy five feet; but as late as 1858
“the largest vessel of her type in the world was the P&O liner, “Himalaya”, 240 feet by thirty five feet…”
In that year, Isambard K. Brunel produced the “Great Eastern”, 692 feet by 83 feet by 30 feet of approximately 19000 tons … five times the tonnage of any ship then afloat. So vast was Brunel’s leap that even forty years later in an age of fierce competition the largest liners being built were still smaller than the “Great Eastern” … s. Editor.)
q Vid. Buteonem de Area Noe, Hostum in fabricam Areae Noc, & Poli Synopsin. Scheuchzer, ut supra, (Physic. Sacr. vol. 1.) pp. 37, 38. r Of Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 2. p. 56, 57. s The World that Perished, John C. Witcomb, published by Baker Book House, 1988, p. 22.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(15) Cubits.The cubit is the length of the arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. As, further, it was regarded as one-fourth of a mans height, we may safely compute it at eighteen inches, except where the sacred or longer cubit is expressly mentioned. Thus the ark was 450 feet long, 75 broad, and 45 in depth. The Great Eastern is much larger, being: 680 feet in length. However simple her construction, there would be great difficulty in building so large a vessel, from the danger of her breaking her back, especially in the tempestuous weather which followed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Three hundred cubits The cubit being at first a natural measure, like the foot and the hand, denoted the distance from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, and varied from 18 to 21 . 888 inches . It was generally reckoned (Ges . , Jahn . , Smith’s Dict . ) at 21 inches, or 1 . 75 feet . This would make the ark 525 feet long, 87 . 5 feet wide, and 52 . 5 feet high . Experiments made in Holland and Denmark show that vessels built on this model are admirably adapted to freightage, though, of course, unfit for rapid progress through the water.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
cubit. The latest approximation gives Gen 17:5 inches. But this is the “profane” cubit. The sacred cubit was probably about 25 inches.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
cubits: Gen 7:20, Deu 3:11
Reciprocal: Gen 6:19 – General