ARK OF GOPHER
"Make for yourself a TEBAT (ark) of
gopher wood.
Make qinnim (nests) in the ark, and cover it with kopher (covering) to the house and outside." - Genesis 6:14
The writer here borrowed the Egyptian
"t-b-t"
to describe Babylonian word "tubbu," a round rectangular reed boat (of probably Tob sailors) in ancient Hit, Iraq. It could be from Arabic term "tubbu" or "tub," which in Assyrian Eastern dialect " tupa" means "to fold:" it folded the long rounded boat - that is, forming a rectangular-oblong boat. Or it could be referring to the 14th century BCE men of Tob at southeastern Sea of Galilee in northeastern Jordan in the direction of Hit, Iraq. Tob was Hebrew of "tubbu" or Ugaritic "thābu" from Akkadian "jâbu" ('to be good'), which may mean 'desirable.' So, the boat is desirable. Ancient Germanic people might have retained such a boat with the name "tubbe."
And he also untranslated the 2nd millennium BCE word "gopher," related to Assyrian "gipāru" ("woven reed mat"), derived from 2500 BCE Sumerian terminology "gipar."
In Exodus 2:3 the Hebrew translation for "tebat 'āsê-gōpher" ("ark of gofer wood") is
"tebat gōme" ("papyrus ark, ark of bulrushes," "wicker basket"),
and it is clearly understood as such when Isaiah 18:2 describes "bikle gōme" ("papyrus vessels") for Egyptian ambassadors' sea-going vessels.
Another possibility is that
"asê-gopher"
is a Hebrized of Sumerian two words "esir" ('bitumen') and "gapir" ('reed mat'), which may mean 'bitumized reed-woven shelter.'
Why "goper" is called "wood"?
Because during the time of Noah (2029 BCE) and Moses (1309-1189 BCE), "reedwork" was designated as "wood."
Judaeans and Jews likely did not know this designation that's why in the 1st century they understood it as cypress or cedar wood.
That the said goper (reedwork) was belonged to woody materials is mentioned in the c. 2050 BCE "Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta."
" I shall say it again in his
gipar,
fruitful as flourishing mesh-tree, to my king, the lord of Kulaba.
"Messenger, speak to your king, the lord of Kulaba, and say to him: " Let him put in his hand and contemplate a sceptre that is not wood, nor
designated as wood
[ ... ] not ildag wood, not shim-gig wood, not khashur cypress, nor palm wood, not cedar wood, nor zabalum wood, not cypress wood, not hard wood, not popular as in a chariot, not
reedwork
in whimp handles..." - "Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta" line 215-218, 397-405
Here "gipar" is a marriage house of gods (priests); formerly it was made of "reeds," but later the term was also applied to any palace of gods (priests), particularly the brick-made temple as bricks appear like reed-woven mat bed. Three other words are possibly branched out from the term "gipar" or "tebat asê-gopher" :
"gaparit" ([pitch of] sulphur, Gen.19:24, Deut.29:23, Job 18:15, Isa. 30:33);
"gōme" (bulrushes, reeds, papyri, etc. Exo.2:3, Isa. 18:2);
and
"kufar" (made of palm-leaves, millow-branches, and so on, woven like a basket and coated with bitumen on the inside; Arabic "kufr," derived from Hebrew "gofer" and Arabic "quffa," from Akkadian "quppu" ['basket']), which was popularized by ancient Armenians and mentioned or depicted by Assyrian kings Assurnasirpal II (883-859), Sennacherib (705-681), and Gilgamesh Epic editor Assurbanipal (669- c.627). According to Herodotus (c.484 - c.425 BCE) it was used in Babylon. Historically, it was the ancient wine sellers of Ararat region who made the willow frames of kufars and might have transported the story of a huge ark of the Ararat river flood (cf. "The History of Herodotus,1" G. Rawlinson, 1885).
In Gilgamesh Epic, the boat of the flood hero must be covered over like Apsu boats. Apsu may also mean a fresh water marsh near the temple of Ea.
"Like the Apsu you shall roof it" - Atrahasis Epic 3.1.29, & Gilgamesh Epic 11.31
"I will go down [the river] to the apsû to live with Ea, my Lord." - Gilgamesh 11.42
The temple of Ea at Eridu is called apsu-house or " E-abzu" ("House of the deep water"), as the holy shrine "gipar" for Inanna at Uruk called "E-ana" ("House of Heaven").
Aratta did not have great holy palace for Inanna in 2100 BCE and Inanna, through her priest, is asking the ruler of Aratta to make great temple for her.
Holy gipar could be understood too as "abzu shrine."
"Let Aratta build a temple brought down from sky - your place of worship, the Shrine Eana; let Aratta skilfully fashion the interior of the
holy gipar,
your abode; may I the radiant youth, may I be embraced there by you. Let Aratta bring down for me the mountain stones from their mountain, build the great shrine for me, make the great abode, the
abode of the gods,
famous for me, make my decree prosper in Kulaba, make the abzu grow for me like a
holy mountain,
make Eridug gleam for me like mountain range, cause the
abzu shrine
to shine forth for me like the silver in the life. When in the
abzu
I utter praise, when I bring the decree from Eridug, when, in lordship, I am adorned with the crown like a purified shrine, when I place on my head the holy crown in Unug Kulaba, then may the ... of the great shrine [bring you into the gipar, and may the great shrine] of the
gipar
bring me into the great shrine." - Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, line 25-32
In this passage "Aratta" is understood as a "holy mountain" of abzu, suggesting that the term is derived from the ancestor of Sanskrit language. In Genesis 8:4 such word is untranslated as "Ararat" - an evidence that the source of Moses (Torah) was from 2000 or 1300 BCE.
Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta line 25-32 describes that Aratta (Urartu) has "gipar" made not of bricks and not as a holy place for Inana (moon god).
During the time of Moses (1309-1189 BCE), holy gipar E-ana could be understood as "abzu shrine," as the former is for the high moon, the latter is for the lowest water.
Abzu is very common in Ararat region because of the mouth of rivers in divers places. The term "abzu" is derived from Sumerian ZU.AB, which means "ab" ('water') + "zu" ('deep'), and in Genesis 7:11 it is mentioned as "fountains of the great deep." It is "apsû" in Akkadian language.
Utnapishtim could be using a double meaning for the term "absu": house of Ea near the water, and gipar, a reed house that may mean also a reed boat.
The house of Utnapishtim was a reed house, as that was the common type of house during his time, particularly for goddess (priestess) and god (priest).
Such a house is also mentioned in this passage:
"His slave Enkidu ... replied to (deity) Gilgamesh "...so lacking in understanding! [ ... ] A captured high priestess returned to the gipar ! A captured gudug priest restored to his wig of hair!" - Gilgamesh and Humbaba (version B), lines 148-154
There was a famine of grain in Aratta in around 2050 BCE before the abundant water (probably from melted ice and much evaporation) flooded the mountains of Ararat. The lord of Aratta did not surrounder to the lordship of the king of Uruk, unless grain would be brought to Aratta. During this time was written the legendary story Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, the account that says moon god Inanna, possibly through her priest, asked the lord of Aratta to send metals and precious stones (likely from Metsamor and Musasir) to build the apzu of Enki (Ea) at Eridu as she is not pleased to Aratta and made her allegiance to Unug (Uruk).
Ea (Ya), the God who made man out of earth's substances & life of god, intervened in Utnapishtim's dream and whispered an instruction that he should build a huge boat out of his reed house whatever the cost to save his life and of his beloved.
The Bible and Gilgamesh Epic use the same terminology for the covering material of the boat.
The Bible mentions :
"... wa-kapharta (and cover)
'otah (it)
mi-bayit (to the house)
u-mihus (and outside)
ba-koper (with pitch). " - Genesis 6:14
Kāphar is possibly Hebrized of Akkadian "kapāru" (to smear on).
The untranslated "koper" (pitch, tar) here is mentioned "kupru" in the epic, and in
Assyrian language it means "bitumen."
"Three sars (3,600 units) of raw
kupru (bitumen)
I poured into the bitumen kiln" - Utnapishtim, Gilgamesh Epic 11.65
It is also reported that the builders were reedworkers.
" Just as dawn began to glow
the people assembled around me.
The carpenter carried his hatchet,
the
reedworker
carried his flattening stone, . . . . . .
The child carried the pitch,
the weak brought whatever else was needed.
On the 5th day I had laid out her exterior.
It was a field in area,
its walls were each 10 times 12 cubits in height,
the sides of its top were of equal length, 120 cubits each [the boat was cubic].
Then I designed its interior structure as follows:
I provided it with six decks,
thus dividing it into seven levels.
The inside of it I divided into
9 compartments.
I drove plugs to keep out water in its middle part.
I saw to the punting poles and laid in what was necessary." - Gilgamesh Epic, 11.48,54,58
What shape did the Noah's ark may have had?
Here is how boats during the time of Noah (2029 BCE) look like. The bundles of reeds are arranged crosswise to the length of the boat. This very same arrangement could be discerned from the fossilized shape of the 515-foot ark-shaped mound in Akyayla site in the "mountains of Ararat."
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