Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Genesis 6:14

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Undoubtedly the ark is a symbol of the city of God on its pilgrimage in history. It is a figure of the church that was saved by the wood on which there hung the "Mediator between God and men, himself man, Jesus Christ." Even the very measurements of length, height and breadth of the ark are meant to point to the reality of the human body into which he came as it was foretold that he would come. …

City of God 15.26 ↗

Jerome

Make for yourself an ark of square wooden planks. For the square planks, we read it is coated with pitch in Hebrew.

Hebrew Questions on Genesis ↗

Bede

And you shall cover it inside and outside with bitumen, and you shall make it thus. Bitumen is the hottest and most violent adhesive, whose power is such that the woods which have been coated with it can neither be eaten by worms, nor can they be dissolved by the heat of the sun, or the blows of the winds, or the flooding of the waters; whence what else is mystically understood by bitumen than the constancy of faith? …

Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) ↗