Editing Ark of bulrushes

{{Short description|Container of the infant Moses}}
[[File:Flavicky nahozhd Moiseya.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A painting by [[Konstantin Flavitsky]] of [[Pharaoh's daughter (Exodus)|Pharaoh's daughter]] finding Moses, who is in a basket.]]

The '''ark of bulrushes''' ({{Langx|he|תבת גמא|têḇaṯ gōme}}) was a container which, according to the episode known as the [[finding of Moses]] in the biblical [[Book of Exodus]], carried the infant Moses.

The ark, containing the three-month-old baby Moses, was placed in reeds by the river bank<ref>{{bibleverse|Exodus|2:2–3|HE}}</ref> (presumably the [[Nile]]) to protect him from the Egyptian mandate to drown every male [[Hebrews|Hebrew child]],<ref>{{bibleverse|Exodus|1:22|HE}}</ref> 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 language|Hebrew]] תֵּבָה (''tevah'', modern ''teiva''), the same word used for [[Noah's Ark]]. According to [[Jeffrey H. Tigay]], the word ''tevah'' is probably derived from the [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] word ''tbỉ'', which refers to a "box" or "coffin".{{sfn|Tigay|2023|p=312}} [[Irving Finkel]] also notes similarities between the Biblical Hebrew term and the nearly identical Babylonian word for an oblong boat, ''ṭubbû''.{{sfn|Finkel|2014|loc=chpt.14}}

The "[[bulrush]]es" ({{Langx|he|גֹּ֫מֶא}} ''gome'') were likely to have been [[Cyperus papyrus|papyrus]] stalks daubed with [[bitumen]] and [[pitch (resin)|pitch]].

A similar but earlier story is told of [[Sargon of Akkad]].<ref>{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Ark|short=x}}</ref><ref>
Stephanie Dalley, [http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000616.php Sargon of Agade in literature]:
"The episode in the Akkadian Legend of Sargon’s Birth, in which Sargon as an infant was concealed and abandoned in a boat, resembles the story of the baby Moses in Exodus 2. The Sumerian story was popular in the early second millennium, and the Akkadian legend may originally have introduced it. Cuneiform scribes were trained with such works for many centuries. They enjoyed new popularity in the late eighth century when Sargon II of Assyria sought to associate himself with his famous namesake."</ref><ref>Dalley, Stephanie. “The Influence of Mesopotamia upon Israel and the Bible.” In: S. Dalley (ed.). The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998, 57-83.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Reed boat]]
* [[Coracle#Indian_coracle|Coracles in India]]
* [[Kuphar|Iraqi quffa/kuphar]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{citation |last=Finkel |first=Irving L. |author-link= Irving Finkel|title=The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood |year=2014 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lScWAwAAQBAJ&q=tablet&pg=PT274|isbn=9781444757071 }}
*{{citation |title=Linguistic and Philological Studies of the Hebrew Bible and its Manuscripts |last=Tigay |first=Jeffrey H. |pages=307–320 |publisher=BRILL |year=2023 |editor-last=Beiler |editor-first=Vincent D. |editor-last2=Rubin |editor-first2=Aaron D. |chapter=Two Notes on the Rescue of Moses in Exodus and in the Dura-Europos Synagogue Mural |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cgMVEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA307 |isbn=978-90-04-54484-0}}

{{Book of Exodus navbox}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ark Of Bulrushes}}
[[Category:Reed boats]]
[[Category:Moses]]
[[Category:Book of Exodus]]
[[Category:Hebrew Bible objects]]
[[Category:Egypt in the Hebrew Bible]]
[[Category:Sargon of Akkad]]


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