Bible Trivia - What is “gopher” wood?
I have a biblical trivia question for you. Genesis 6:14 says that Noah built the ark out of “gopher” wood. The King James Version of the Bible and the modern English Standard Version clearly state that. A few modern translations say something like “arcadia” wood, but that is a guess on the translator’s part. Most translations say gopher wood. My question of you – what is gopher wood?
The answer is that we have no idea. We have no idea what gopher wood is or what type of wood Noah used. The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language. The Hebrew word for the wood to build the ark is pronounced the same as our English wood “gopher”. We have no idea how to translate that word. So most translations simply say that Noah built the ark out of “gopher” wood.
