How Tall Is 300 Cubits

For many Bible readers, the story of Noah'southward ark never gets old. They are in awe when they read near the magnitude of the floodwaters, thankful when imagining how God saved the animals, and hopeful when he chose Noah to build the ark and showtime a new world with his family. A common question people ask about the flood story is how big the ark was.

The ark God told Noah to build was 300 cubits long, which is 450 feet long or 137.6 meters. Information technology was 50 cubits broad, which is 75 anxiety or 22.86 meters. And the ark was 30 cubits high, which is 45 feet or 13.71 meters. Most scholars believe the ark had a flat lesser and was rectangular in shape, like a barge.

Where and how does the Bible mention how long, broad, and high the ark was? Could the ark bladder? Why don't scholars agree nearly the nature of its window or roof? Proceed reading to learn the answers to these questions and others.

How long, wide, and tall was Noah's ark?

Later God declared his intention to destroy the world, he commanded Noah to build an ark made of gopher wood, divide the inside of information technology, and pitch it inside and out (Gen. 6:14).

Next, God told Noah how large the ark needed to be. Though some readers may desire more details about the ark than the overflowing story provides, equally the description falls short of being an actual pattern, the specifics information technology offers are remarkable.

What is a cubit? The measurement that the Hebrews used to describe the size of the ark is a cubit. A cubit is a measurement derived from the length of the elbow to the tip of the finger. Some scholars use fifty centimeters every bit an equivalent to one cubit, yet the Bible doesn't confirm this assumption. [1] Instead, 18 inches (45.72 centimeters) is a general guideline from which people can make conversions. [ii]

How do cubits translate to feet? As stated above, most people use xviii inches as the length of a cubit. Ane way to simplify the conversion is to divide the cubits in half and then multiply that number iii times. For example, ten cubits divided in one-half is 5, and multiplied by three is 15. Then ten cubits equal 15 feet (four.57 meters).

What was the length of the ark?

God said the ark would be 300 cubits long. 300 divided in half is 150 and multiplied three times is 450. Then the ark was 300 cubits or 450 feet long (137.6 meters).

What was the width of the ark?

God said the ark would be 50 cubits wide. 50 divided in half is 25 and multiplied three times is 75. So fifty cubits equal 75 feet (22.86 meters).

What was the peak of the ark?

God said the ark would exist 30 cubits high. 30 divided in half is fifteen and multiplied three times is 45. So 30 cubits equal 45 anxiety (13.71 meters).

The size of the ark in English Bible translations

Almost popular English translations describe the ark's measurements in cubits to precisely rendering the Hebrew term. However, the NLT converts cubits into anxiety for its readers.

Translation	Genesis six:15
ESV	This is how you are to make information technology: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.
KJV	And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall exist three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the pinnacle of it thirty cubits.
NASB	This is how you shall brand it: the length of the ark iii hundred cubits, its breadth l cubits, and its height xxx cubits.
NIV	This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 3 hundred cubits long, l cubits wide and xxx cubits loftier.
NLT	Make the gunkhole 450 anxiety long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet loftier.

The Christian Standard Bible (CSB) besides converts cubits for its readers: "This is how you are to make information technology: The ark will exist 450 feet long, 75 anxiety wide, and 45 feet loftier."

The Amplified Version (AV) adds feet at the end of the poesy: "This is the way you are to make it: the length of the ark shall exist iii hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its peak thirty cubits (450' 10 75' x 45')."

The Contemporary English language Version (CEV) converts cubits into meters: "Make it 133 meters long, 22 meters wide, and 13 meters loftier."

Genesis flood — Could the ark invert? See below

Could the ark float?

Given the measurements that Genesis provides, most scholars recollect the ark would not only have floated simply would have been very hard to capsize.

Genesis scholar Henry Morris writes, "Information technology can be shown hydrodynamically that a gigantic box of such dimension would be exceedingly stable, virtually incommunicable to capsize. Even in a ocean of gigantic waves, the ark could be tilted through any angle upward to only brusque of 90 degrees and would immediately thereafter right itself once more."

He concludes, "Furthermore, it would tend to marshal itself parallel with the management of major wave accelerate and thus be subject to minimum pitching most of the fourth dimension." [3]

Another Genesis scholar Victor Hamilton writes, "The point to exist observed here is that the dimensions of Noah's vessel are completely logical, and what one would expect to notice in a seagoing vessel… the size of Noah's ark perchance suggests that it was big plenty and strong plenty to weather the Flood, and that information technology contained enough space to adjust all the animals." [four]

An artist's rendering that includes a window and a roof on Noah'due south ark

Was a roof or window a cubit in a higher place the ark?

Genesis scholars disagree about what was on height of the ark, equally some retrieve it was a roof and others a window. This is the merely identify in the Old Testament this item Hebrew word (tsohar) is used. Major English language translations don't agree on how to return the word.

Translation	Genesis six:sixteen
ESV	Make a roof for the ark, and finish information technology to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Get in with lower, 2nd, and third decks.
KJV	A window shalt chiliad make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou stop it in a higher place; and the door of the ark shalt thou fix in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou go far.
NASB	Y'all shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you lot shall make information technology with lower, second, and 3rd decks.
NIV	Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and brand lower, middle and upper decks.
NLT	Exit an xviii-inch opening beneath the roof all the way effectually the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, centre, and upper.

The description of the window or roof beingness i cubit "above" (ESV) or "from the elevation" (NASB) of the ark is challenging to sympathize. I Genesis scholar calls the clarification, "The about obscure remark in the overflowing story." [5]

Older commentators tend to think it'south a window. New commentators tend to recall it's a roof. Those who think it'southward a window acquaintance it with the 1 Noah opened to release the birds later on in the story (Gen. viii:6). However, that verse uses a unlike Hebrew word for window (challon) and the one used in 6:16.

Those who argue that it's a roof advise that the cubit "in a higher place" may refer to the length of its overhang.

References:
[one] Genesis 1-eleven:26 by Kenneth Mathews. p. 364.
[2] Genesis 1-15 past Gordon Wenham. p. 173.
[iii] The Genesis Record past Henry Morris. p. 180.
[4] The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1-17 by Victor Hamilton. p. 282.
[5] Wenham. p. 173.