Arks and the Number 26

Arks are wooden boxes, built by man, ordained by God, measured in cubits, covered in a solidified liquid, and intimately bound up with the presence of YHWH.

Noah’s ark reflects the continued presence of YHWH with Noah and his people in the midst of a formless water-engulfed world, while Moses’s reflects the presence of YHWH amidst his people in a formless and hostile desert (Deut. 32).

Hence, just as YHWH’s number is 26 (gematrially), so the word ‘ark’ (תֵּבָה) occurs 26 times in Noah’s story, and so the Bible’s other word for an ‘ark’ (אָרוֹן) occurs 26 times in the book of Exodus.

Furthermore, the association between 26 and a hollow cuboid makes good sense, since a cuboid consists of 26 elements—12 edges, 8 corners, and 6 faces (an insight I owe to Beren Gunsolus).

For connections between YHWH and the number 26, see here.

For the references to the ‘ark’ in Genesis, see Gen. 6.14 x 2, 6.15, 6.16 x 2, 6.18, 6.19, 7.1, 7.7, 7.9, 7.13, 7.15, 7.17, 7.18, 7.23, 8.1, 8.4, 8.6, 8.9 x 2, 8.10, 8.13, 8.16, 8.19, 9.10, 9.18.

And for references to the ‘ark’ in Exodus, see Exod. 25.10, 25.14 x 2, 25.15, 25.16, 25.21 x 2, 25.22, 26.33, 26.34, 30.6, 30.26, 31.7, 35.12, 37.1, 37.5 x 2, 39.35, 40.3 x 2, 40.5, 40.20 x 3, 40.21 x 2.