Theark of bulrushes (Hebrew:תבת גמא,romanized: têḇaṯ gōme) was a container which, according to the episode known as thefinding of Moses in the biblicalBook of Exodus, carried the infant Moses.
The ark, containing the three-month-old baby Moses, was placed in reeds by the river bank[1] (presumably theNile) to protect him from the Egyptian mandate to drown every maleHebrew child,[2] and discovered there by Pharaoh's daughter.
The ark is described as being daubed with asphalt and pitch, and the English word "ark" is a translation of theHebrew תֵּבָה (tevah, modernteiva), the same word used forNoah's Ark. According toJeffrey H. Tigay, the wordtevah is probably derived from theEgyptian wordtbỉ, which refers to a "box" or "coffin".[3]Irving Finkel also notes similarities between the Biblical Hebrew term and the nearly identical Babylonian word for an oblong boat,ṭubbû.[4]
^Stephanie Dalley,Sargon of Agade in literature:"The episode in the Akkadian Legend of Sargon’s Birth, in which Sargon as an infant was concealed and abandoned in a boat, resembles the story of the baby Moses in Exodus 2. The Sumerian story was popular in the early second millennium, and the Akkadian legend may originally have introduced it. Cuneiform scribes were trained with such works for many centuries. They enjoyed new popularity in the late eighth century when Sargon II of Assyria sought to associate himself with his famous namesake."
^Dalley, Stephanie. “The Influence of Mesopotamia upon Israel and the Bible.” In: S. Dalley (ed.). The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998, 57-83.
