Ark of bulrushes: Difference between revisions
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The ark of bulrushes (Template:Langx) 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>Template:Bibleverse</ref> (presumably the Nile) to protect him from the Egyptian mandate to drown every male Hebrew child,<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> and discovered there by Pharaoh's daughter.
Analysis
[edit]The ark is described as being daubed with asphalt and pitch, and the English word "ark" is a translation of the 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 word tbỉ, which refers to a "box" or "coffin".Template:Sfn Irving Finkel also notes similarities between the Biblical Hebrew term and the nearly identical Babylonian word for an oblong boat, ṭubbû.Template:Sfn
The "bulrushes" (Template:Langx gome) were likely to have been papyrus stalks daubed with bitumen and pitch.
A similar but earlier story is told of Sargon of Akkad.<ref>Template:Cite NIE</ref><ref> Stephanie Dalley, 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>