Categories
Ancient Documents
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Israel
Ancient Near East
Ancient Other
Ancient Persia
Ancient Rome
Archaeology
Bible Animals
Bible Books
Bible Cities
Bible History
Bible Names A-G
Bible Names H-M
Bible Names N-Z
Bible Searches
Biblical Archaeology
Childrens Resources
Church History
Evolution & Science
Illustrated History
Images & Art
Intertestamental
Jesus
Languages
Manners & Customs
Maps & Geography
Messianic Prophecies
Museums
Mythology & Beliefs
People - Ancient Egypt
People - Ancient Greece
People - Ancient Near East
People - Ancient Rome
Rabbinical Works
Sites - Egypt
Sites - Israel
Sites - Jerusalem
Societies & Studies
Study Tools
Timelines & Charts
Weapons & Warfare
World History
May 26 Scripture
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
ARK OF BULRUSHES ark, bool'-rush-iz (tebhah; Egyptian tebt; Septuagint thibis, "a chest," "a vessel to float"). 1. Definitions: The Hebrew word here translated "ark" is used in the Old Testament only of the ark of Noah (Gen 6:14 ff) and of the ark of bulrushes (Ex 2:3), and always in the secondary meaning, a vessel to float. The Septuagint translates it of Noah's ark by kibotos, "a casket," and of the ark of bulrushes by thibis, a little basket made of osiers or flags. For the Ark of the Covenant, the Hebrew employed a different word ('aron, "a chest"). Bulrushes (gome', "papyrus"): This species of reed was used by the Egyptians for many different vessels, some of which were intended to float or even to be used as a skiff. Slime (chemar, "bitumen"), pitch (zepheth, "pitch") was probably the sticky mud of the Nile with which to this day so many things in Egypt are plastered. In this case it was mixed with bitumen. Flags (cuph, "sedge") were reeds of every kind and tall grass growing in the shallow water at the edge of the river. 2. History: Thus the ark of bulrushes was a vessel made of papyrus stalks and rendered fit to float by being covered with a mixture of bitumen and mud. Into this floating vessel the mother of Moses placed the boy when he was three months old, and put the vessel in the water among the sedge along the banks of the Nile at the place where the ladies from the palace were likely to come to bathe. The act was a pathetic imitation of obedience to the king's command to throw boy babies into the river, a command which she had for three months braved and which now she so obeyed as probably to bring the cruelty of the king to the notice of the royal ladies in such way as to arouse a womanly sympathy, A similar story is related of Sargon I of Babylonia (Records of the Past, 1st series, V, 1-4; Rogers, Hist. Babylonian and Assyrian, I, 362). The one story in no wise discredits the other. That method of abandoning children, either willingly or by necessity, is as natural along the Nile and the Euphrates, where the river is the great artery of the land and where the floating basket had been used from time immemorial, as is the custom in our modern cities of placing abandoned infants in the streets or on door-steps where they are likely to be found, and such events probably occurred then as often as now. M. G. Kyle |
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Definition for 'ARK OF BULRUSHES'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". bible-history.com - ISBE; 1915.
Copyright Information
© International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Home
Bible History Online Home
Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
Online Bible (KJV)
Naves Topical Bible
Smith's Bible Dictionary
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
Hitchcock's Bible Dictionary