On the Symbolism of Noah's Ark
And God said unto Noah: The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits, and the height of it 30 cubits.
A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it (Gen. 6:13-16)
The Ark is a type of Christ and of His Body, the Church. For it is He who has come to save us from the flood of death and sin and it is only by boarding the “Ark of Salvation”, viz. “the bark of Peter” (“Pastor et Nauta Ecclesiae”), that we can attain to the “other shore”. This truth has been taught to us by our Holy Fathers in the Faith, for example St. Augustine, who, in his treatise On the City of God (XV.26), gives the following interpretation:
God commanded him [Noah] to make an ark, in which he might be rescued from the destruction of the flood, along with his family, i.e., his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law, and along with the animals who, in obedience to God’s command, came to him into the ark: this is certainly a figure of the City of God sojourning in this world; that is to say, of the Church, which is rescued by the wood on which hung the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus. For even its very dimensions, in length, breadth, and height, represent the human body in which He came, as it had been foretold. For the length of the human body, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is six times its breadth from side to side, and ten times its depth or thickness, measuring from back to front: that is to say, if you measure a man as he lies on his back or on his face, he is six times as long from head to foot as he is broad from side to side, and ten times as long as he is high from the ground. And therefore the ark was made 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in height. And its having a door made in the side of it certainly signified the wound which was made when the side of the Crucified was pierced with the spear; for by this those who come to Him enter; for thence flowed the sacraments by which those who believe are initiated. And the fact that it was ordered to be made of squared timbers, signifies the immoveable steadiness of the life of the saints; for however you turn a cube, it still stands. And the other peculiarities of the ark’s construction are signs of features of the Church.
The word that the sacred author of Genesis uses for “Ark” is “teba”, meaning not “ship” or “boat” but rather “box”, “chest”, “basket”, etc. It is on such a “teba” that Moses should later be rescued from the river Nile, which St. Gregory sees as a type of our rebirth through Baptism, in which we are drawn from the samsaric waters, “the successive waves of the passions which plunge us under the waters and drown us” (De Vita, II.6), into the new life that is according to Christ. Thus also St. Cyprian in one of his Letters (LXXV):
The one ark of Noah was a type of the one Church. If, then, in that baptism of the world thus expiated and purified, he who was not in the ark of Noah could be saved by water, he who is not in the Church to which alone baptism is granted, can also now be quickened by baptism.
Not to mention St. Peter himself who, in his First Epistle (20-22), writes:
To those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also —not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him.
But the “teba”, the “chest” of the Ark, points us also to another “ark”, namely the Ark of the Covenant; and thus we see that Noah’s Ark is not only Mary as Mater Ecclesia, but also as Mater Dei and Foederis Arca, the Ark that “bears” the Shekinah, the Divine Presence, hence why some mystics like St. Hildegard and St. Bernard have even spoken of the Arca cordis, the “Ark of the heart” as the dwelling place of the Most High. This Arca Cordis is, as already Augustine remarked, also the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus itself (Centrum omnium cordium) in which we enter through the “door” of the holy wound, pierced by the lance of St. Longinus: “Intra tua vulnera absonda me!”
According to a tradition we find in St. Hippolytus, the Ark contained the bones of Adam, together with gold, frankincense and myrrh. Here we are given to understand that the “teba” of Noah is also the manger at Bethlehem and its three stories represent the three Magi, viz. the priestly (incense), prophetic (myrhh), and royal (gold) office that are now all united in Christ, who is the eternal High Priest and King over all of creation. And since the Magi are also the “firstfruits of the gentiles”, they further foreshadow all the nations gathered into the Ark of Salvation.
But the Ark is not only a symbol of the Church but also an image of the cosmos as such (which, too, is a “body of the Word”). The three stories of the Ark represent the “triple world” (tribhuvana), that is to say the gross, the subtle and the noetic realm; and it is quite interesting that St. Augustine should describe the measures of the Ark in terms of the human body, for thus we contemplate in the structure of the Ark not only the three-partite constitution of man (body, soul, spirit) but, in the “window” that is inserted at the very top (Gen. 6:16), we might even see an image of the brahma-randhra, the “orifice in the skull” which opens to the unmanifested, and which, in the “Great Man” of the macrocosm, is the janua coeli (or the “eye of the dome”) through which pierces the creative Ray of the Supernal Sun.
In the structure of the Ark we might furthermore discern an icon of the “great chain of being”, viz. the mineral, plant, and animal kingdom, with man (represented by Noah) standing “on deck”, i.e. on top of the pyramid, as the cosmic mediator and vice-regent of creation, steering the whole ship to its final end and destination (that is, union with God). Similarly, Origen tells us that the three stories of the Ark represent the three ontological levels of “heaven, earth, and under the earth” (Phil. 2:10), as well as the different “stations” on the ladder of divine ascent: purification, illumination, and unification (cf. In Gen. II).
Truly, the Ark is a spiritual theology, for just like Noah is standing steadily atop the waters, and, as “Universal Man”, gathers the whole of creation under him, so too we have to lift up the “dove” of our spirit towards God (Gen. 8:8), vanquishing the chaos below, and realize what it means to be man by our conformity with Christ. And as Christ-Ulysses was bound to the mast of the Cross to guide us safely to our native country, the celestial Ithaca, so we too have to be crucified with Him to conquer all the siren-songs of this world, not succumbing to the “lower waters”.
Sail past the song: it works death. Bound to the wood of the Cross, thou shalt be free from destruction: the Word of God will be thy pilot, and the Holy Spirit will bring thee to anchor in the haven of heaven (St. Clement, Exhortation, XII).
Finally, in the three-story Ark, we are already given, in a mysterious manner, a prefiguration of the Temple and the Tabernacle, which too were divided into three parts (and it is quite interesting to remark in this context that Bl. Anne Emmerich tells us that the “upper room” in which Our Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist was shaped like an “elongated rectangle” divided into three sections, which bears a striking resemblance with precisely the Temple or, for that matter, with the Ark of Noah with its measurements of 300 x 50 cubits).
Now it is said that Noah gathered all the animals onto the Ark in pairs (Gen. 7:2) and here we are given a symbol of the coincidentia oppositorum, the “resolution of opposites”, in which the totality of the cosmic periphery is “re-absorbed” into the primal Centre. In this restoration of primordial harmony we are not only reminded of the lost Eden but also of the life to come, where “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together” (Is. 11:6). The image of the Ark which takes in all life and then releases it again unto a “new heaven and a new earth” is thus also that the opening and closing Lotus, not only macrocosmically, as the unfolding and infolding of universal manifestation (diastolé kai systolé), but also microcosmically as the “flowering” of spiritual realization, the “blossoming of the heart”.
This symbolism has of course been largely discussed by Guénon in his article on The Mysteries of the Letter Nûn (cf. Symbols of Sacred Science, §25), where he describes the Ark in terms of the “World Egg” which contains the primordial seeds of all things; and what is especially interesting in this context is that “teba” does not only mean “box”, “chest” etc., but can also be rendered as “word”1, meaning precisely that the Ark is nothing less than the Divine Logos containing all the logoi of beings (as well as the “seeds” of all Traditions).
If the Ark appears here as a “sphere”, the Orphic World Egg entwined by the sea-serpent (the Vedic Ananta-Shesha), according to the alternative interpretation given above (the Ark as an image of cosmos) it could just as well be represented as a pyramid comprising the whole “chain of being”. And indeed, there are numerous traditions, both Christian and Jewish (for example in Origen and Maimonides) that know of a pyramid-shaped Ark and even the text itself tells us that the Ark was “gathered” (ne’esefet) together at the top2.
We might be even more precise here and say that the Ark presents not simply a pyramid but a truncated pyramid (the top being not constituted by a pointed capstone but by the flat surface of the 1x1 cubit window). This image does not only present an icon of the hierachy of being, but also serves as the basis for a rather elaborate symbolism concerning the “middoth” (measurements) of the Ark itself.
According to Moses, the flood-rain began “in the 2nd month, on the 17th day of the month” (Gen. 7:11) and then lasts for 40 days until the 28th of the 3rd month.3 This is followed by a period in which “the flood prevailed upon the earth for 150 days” (Gen. 7:24), i.e. from the 28th of the 3rd month until the 1st of the 9th month. Next we hear that “in the 7th month [i.e. the 7th after the beginning of the flood, hence the 9th month according to the calendar] on the 17th day of the month” the Ark came to rest on Mt. Ararat (Gen. 8:4) after which “the waters decreased continually until the tenth month [of the flood]”, i.e. the 11th month according to the calendar, when, on the 1st day, the peaks of the mountains began to appear again (Gen. 8:5).
40 days of rain from the 17th of the 2nd month until the 28th of the 3rd
150 days in which the flood prevails; from the 28th of the 3rd until the 1st of the 9th month
16 days in which the water starts to fall, until the Ark rests on Mt. Ararat in the 17th of the 9th month
The water decreases continually from the 17th of the 9th to the 1. of the 11th month, until the mountain peaks become visible again
Since, as Scripture tells us (Gen. 7:20), at its highest point the flood measured 15 cubits above the peaks of the mountains, we can infer that the water fell in these 60 days (from the 1st of the 9th month until the 1st of the 11th month) for 15 cubits (i.e. 1 cubit per 4 days). Considering that after only 16 days the Ark touched on Mt. Ararat we can further calculate that it rested 11 cubits in the water (and, conversely, that 19 cubits protruded out of the water, since it stood 30 cubits tall in toto).
There follows another period of 40 days (Gen. 8:6) until, at the 1st day of the 1st month (of the new year), the earth becomes visible again (Gen. 8:14), which means that in this second period of 60 days (40+20) the water fell again for 15 cubits, ergo that the height of the flood was 30 cubits in total (15 cubits from the earth to the mountain tops and 15 cubits above the mountain tops).
40 days in the ark, from the 1st of the 11th month to the 10th of the 12th month
The earth becomes visible on the 1st day of the 1st month (i.e. 20 days later).
Now, considering, as we’ve seen, that the Ark was immersed 11 cubits in the waters, the distance from the ground of the earth to the upmost tip of the Ark measured 49 cubits (30+30-11).4
Thus we see that the whole story of the flood is measured by the 49 and that it is precisely the missing peak of the pyramid that represents the “50th cubit”, viz. the (unmanifested) “keystone” (lapis in caput anguli) that holds the entire cosmic edifice together, and which is also Christ as the invisible “Head of the Church” (lapis in caput ecclesiae) who gathers all the members of His Mystical Body into unity (cf. Guénon, Op.cit. §45).5 And, since the Ark is (as we’ve seen) also the Temple, it is none other than Christ, the “lapis lapsus ex coelis” and “the stone that the builders rejected”, who brings the Temple of the Old Covenant to its final “completion”, according to the verse: “And He shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it’” (Zach. 4:7-8).
Now, as Guénon has rightly observed, the whole story of the flood is essentially one of transitioning, of a passage from one cycle to another, of a “new birth”; that is to say, it tells us about the mystery of the number 50 (viz. of the letter Nun). And here we finally see that the Ark is not only a “sphere” and a “pyramid” but also a “cube”, namely that of the Heavenly Jerusalem which shall descend upon the lower waters of this world once the Head is rejoined with the Body and the “50” is fully completed in the “Great Yobel”.6 Here the “mast of the Cross” is changed into the Tree of Life at the centre (Rev. 22:2) and the flood waters below7 are fully dryed up and “crystallized” into the actuality of the World to Come. And so we see the deep intuition of many of the Fathers like St. Hippolytus, who says that the door of the Ark (Gen. 6:13) opened towards the East from which the Son of Man will be revealed like lightning, shattering this our darkness (Matt. 24:27); maranatha! maranatha!
Further, if we take the measurements of the ark (30-300-50) and “translate” them into hebrew letters (lamed-shin-nun) they spell “lashon” (speech, word, language), indicating once more that the Ark is “measured by the Word”. Another thing which has sometimes been pointed is that the word “Ark” (“Arche” in French and German) bears a striking phonetic resemblance to the Greek Arché (Principle), which is at least symbolically interesting. The English “Ark” (or the Latin “Arca”) on the other hand immediately reminds one of the “celestial arch” (arc-en-ciel) that is the rainbow, which is ofc. intimately connected to the Biblical story. The arch with its two pillars marks precisely the “bridge” between beginning and end, the passage from the 6th to the 8th day, which is at the heart of the flood story. In this context we might also point to the ship that is mentioned in Acts (28:11) which had “the twin gods Castor and Pollux as its figureheads”. For in the astrological symbolism, the two Dioscures who (like the “two Saint Johns” or the two heads of Janus) “look towards the solstices”, represent these two extremeties of beginning and end, night and day, past and future, etc.
This is at least explicitly stated in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the LXX.
The Bible counts in lunar month of 29,5 days.
Another significant symbolism that is inferable from the measurements given above is that at the precise moment when “God remembered Noah” (Gen. 8:1) and the Ark touched on Mt. Ararat, once more regaining stable ground, the water stood 26 cubits high (15 from the earth to the mountain top, and the 11 cubits of the ship’s draft), which is of course the number of the Nomen Dei YHVH (10+5+6+5 = 26).
“Hic est lapis qui reprobatus est a vobis aedificantibus qui factus est in caput anguli” (Acts 4:11; cf. also 2. Pet. 2:4-7).
Here we come ofc. full circle, for the “City of God” that is the Heavenly Jerusalem is also the “City of the Heart”: Arca Cordis (cf. Guénon, Op.cit. §76).
The Biblical word for “flood” (marbul) is etymologically related to “Babel” (from balal, to confuse, mix, etc.); whereas the flood is dispersion, centrifugality, chaos (a “mixture” of the upper and lower waters), the Word (teba) gathers all things together back to their Principle.
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