What wood does Genesis say Noah’s Ark was built from?

Genesis says Noah’s Ark was built from gopher wood.

The phrase appears in Genesis 6:14, where Noah is instructed to make the ark from “gopher wood” and cover it inside and outside with pitch. Most English translations retain “gopher wood” rather than identifying a modern tree species. The term is unusual, and its precise botanical meaning remains uncertain.

Because the word occurs only in this passage, translators and scholars have proposed different explanations. Some connect it with a type of timber, while others have suggested that it could describe a construction method or be an ancient scribal form. Common guesses such as cypress or cedar are interpretations, not a universally established identification.

The passage’s pitch instruction is clearer: the ark was to be waterproofed. In biblical translations, pitch may be rendered with words related to bitumen or a coating material. Popular retellings sometimes confidently name a modern wood species, but Genesis itself does not provide that certainty. “Gopher wood” is therefore the safest canonical answer to the question of the ark’s material.