The cubit
Genesis 6:15 gives the size of the ark in cubits: “The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.”
A cubit is the length of a forearm, from the elbow to the fingertip, and Genesis does not tell us which cubit it has in mind. Britannica gives the cubit as “generally taken as equal to 18 inches (457 mm)”, and adds that “In some ancient cultures it was as long as 21 inches (531 mm).” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia puts the royal cubit of Assyria and Babylonia at “about 20.6 inches”, and a royal cubit rod from the tomb of Kha, now in the Museo Egizio in Turin, measures 52.4 cm, which is about 20.6 inches. The Ark Encounter used a cubit of 20.4 inches.
Cubit length
With an 18-inch cubit the ark is 450 ft long, and with a 20.6-inch cubit it is 515 ft. Whichever you choose, it is six times as long as it is broad and ten times as long as it is high.
What is exact and what is drawn
- From Scripture
- The three numbers of Genesis 6:15 come straight from Scripture. Verse 16 adds a window, a door “in the side thereof” and “lower, second, and third stories”, and verse 14 says the ark is made of “gopher wood” and pitched “within and without with pitch”.
- From the record
- Every length, breadth and height in the view is taken from a source, and the sources are listed below. We work out the feet, the metres and every comparison from those numbers, at the cubit you choose.
- Drawn
- Genesis gives no shape for the hull, and Answers in Genesis agrees that “the Bible does not say the Ark must be a rectangular box,” so the box you see is our drawing. So are its planks, its walls and floors, the bands of heavier timber at its decks, its low roof and short eaves, the three stories of equal height, and the door, which we set on the second story 30 cubits from one end. The football field is built to the NFL rulebook. The other five comparisons are generated models scaled to their recorded lengths, and we have not checked their shapes and details against plans. Everything stands on one level ground, and the ships stand on their keels out of the water so that you can see their whole hulls.
- Our reading
- The translations read the window in different ways. The King James Version has “A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above”, while the English Standard Version has “Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above”. We drew it the way the note in the New American Bible reads it, as “an open space on all sides near the top of the ark to admit light and air.”
- Unknown
- We do not know which cubit Genesis means, what shape the hull had, how high the stories were or what gopher wood was. Whether the Durupınar formation holds anything made by people is still being tested. Its core samples went to Ankara in 2026, and the soil and carbon tests are not finished.
Moving around
Step through the stops with Previous and Next under the view. You can drag the view to turn it, and it goes back to its place when you move to the next stop.
1zu 8 go to a stop; [ und ] step back and forward
eswitch the cubit between 18 and 20.6 inches
spaceplay through the stops, or pause
Nlabels on or off; H hides everything but the view
+− closer or farther; arrow keys turn the view
Quellen
- Genesis 6:14–16, King James Version, from BibleGateway. Public domain. Genesis 6:16, English Standard Version (BibleGateway). © Crossway; short quotation. Genesis 6 with notes, New American Bible, Revised Edition (USCCB). © CCD; short quotation.
- The cubit: “cubit”, Encyclopaedia Britannica; H. Porter, “Cubit”, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Museo Egizio, Turin, royal cubit rod S.8647; Ark Encounter, „Wie lang ist eine Elle?“.
- The ark’s shape: Tim Lovett, „Thinking Outside the Box“, Answers in Genesis.
- Football field: NFL Rulebook, Rule 1.
- Ark Encounter: Ark Encounter blog, 25. Juli 2024.
- Durupınar formation: Lorence G. Collins, “A supposed cast of Noah’s ark in eastern Turkey” (2011), with David Fasold’s field sketch (“Total 538′”) and the 515 ft of Fasold’s 1988 book; Newsweek, 24. September 2026, for the 515 ft the 2026 team gives; Newsweek, 28 September 2026, and NTV, 27 September 2026, on the core samples.
- RMS Titanic: Encyclopedia Titanica; British Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry report, 1912.
- USS Gerald R. Ford: US Navy fact file, archiviert am 24. Dezember 2021.
- Icon of the Seas: Meyer Turku, „Icon of the Seas ausgedockt“: 365 m long.
- Models: the Ark Encounter, the Durupınar formation, Titanic, the Gerald R. Ford und Icon of the Seas were generated with Meshy and fitted to the recorded sizes; the ark and the football field are built from their numbers. Drawn with three.js (MIT licence).