In the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, what material was the ark made from?

In the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, the ark was made from gopher wood.

Genesis 6:14 instructs Noah to make the vessel from “gopher wood” and to cover it inside and outside with pitch. The Hebrew term is unusual: the Bible does not identify a modern tree species with certainty, so “gopher wood” is a traditional transliteration rather than a securely identified botanical name.

Because the word appears only in this passage, translators and scholars have proposed possibilities including cypress or another resinous timber. None of those proposals is universally established, which is why many English Bibles retain the wording “gopher wood.”

The pitch served as waterproofing, while the ark’s large size and multiple decks are described separately in the same chapter. The material name is therefore distinct from both the vessel’s waterproof coating and its architectural design.