Talk:Gopher wood

Gopher Wood Test Result
Biologists know that gophers are found primarily in North America. The gopher tortoise species Gopherus polyphemus is its eldest endangered species living in a certain Southeastern U.S. range. Also living within this range is the resilient Southern live oak species Quercus virginiana being the stongest wood for building ships. Its naturally-curved massive branches were used exclusively in shipbuilding hulls and beams by the U.S. Navy. "Old Ironsides", the oldest commissioned ship still afloat in the world, is built from these Southeastern U.S. gopher's wood's forests. University of North Texas initial ark core sample test indicated the Bible's "gopher wood" (variant "gopherwood") being the same species in USS Constitution's frame. This endangered species was classified Quercus virginiana by Philip Miller, botanist. Biologists studied three of the four known Gopherus living species G. agassizii, G. berlandieri and G. flavomarginatus after the test. However, all three were found ranging in non-forested desert areas. Under study are ancient stone anchors similar to 5,000-year-old anchors found at Bimini and the Middle East. They are commonly found in U.S. Gulf Coast ancient hurricane flood zones as mapped by Cayce Enterprises, Inc.

Thank you. Garry Denke 17:00, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Gopher Wood
It is a species of tree that grows only in Blountstown Florida. Which would support the scientific idea of "Pangea". If not familiar with it, the land masses were once a part of a super land mass. Wrap your minds around that. I found this out while doing research for a book (not yet published).

D.I.Kennedy-Hillis
 * No it's not, you're talking about a tree called Torreya Taxifolia that some lunatic named Callaway (http://www.revelation2seven.org/WebPages/SideLinks/EdenInGeorgia.htm) thinks is the same thing as the original Gopher wood from the text in the bible. There's no relation between the two any more than there is between gopherwood and any random kind of wood. Also, don't talk about Pangea when we're only talking about a few millennia ago. Nothingist (talk) 09:56, 28 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I am curious as to the nature of this book you are publishing. Your mentioning of Pangaea in relation to Biblical mythology is somewhat unsettling. 99.66.154.81 (talk) 07:43, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

How do we know that?
Quoting the article: "Other suggestions include pine, cedar, fir, ebony, wicker, juniper, acacia, boxwood, slimed bulrushes and resinous wood, and even American trees such as Cladrastis kentukea (American yellowwood), although this type of gopherwood has no known relation to the material of Noah's Ark."

The bolded bit suggests that some of the other suggested woods have a known relation to the material of the Ark. ??? Wanderer57 (talk) 18:53, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I think this just means that it's improbable for tree from the American continent to be used since there was no way of obtaining it in a usable quantity back then?--Revth (talk) 03:13, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree with Wandered57. I've changed the article to reflect that. Nothingist (talk) 09:57, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

New theory: GOPHER is an Aramaic word for WATERPROOFING involving sulphur and bitumen.
The word GOPHER (Strong's 1613) has been a mystery for many years. There has never been a species of tree that matches to this designation, and since it appears only once in the entire scriptures, it has been very difficult to discern. I believe a credible answer is found in ARAMAIC. Jastrow's Dictionary*, page 263 shows the entry to mean "to make water-tight", "sulphur [or bitumen, pitch]".

The Hebrews were not shipbuilders. The famous shipbuilders were to the north, in Lebanon, closer to the center of the Aramaic world. I believe Yahweh was instructing Noah to build a boat with WATERPROOFED wood. Further evidence comes from a book on EMULSIONS** which explain that the word bitumen is what we call asphalt in the US. Combining bitumen and sulphur make it a longlasting waterproofing emulsion.

I know from working in the rubber chemical industry supporting the tire business that SULFUR was the key ingredient to make rubber sap solidify to the product we know as RUBBER. So, a WATERPROOFING product made of sulphur and bitumen seems like a very credible answer.


 * Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, Marcus Jastrow 1945, reprinted in 2005, Hendrickson Publishers.
 * Emulsions and emulsion stability, Johan Sjöblom, 2005 CRC Press. More information on emulsions can be found online by typing the combination SULFUR BITUMEN EMULSIONS.

I published this as part of my blog post at www.AncientRootsBible.com, ARTB Bible Blog 2.21.11, Solving the mystery of GOPHER wood. You can review other related blogs at the website.

1frances (talk) 16:09, 21 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Hello, you may perhaps not be familiar with out "No Original Research" policy, which basically states that wikipedia is not the place to pioneer new theories. Best to keep it on your blog for now. Cheers, Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 16:38, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I was taught a very similar thing in the mid 1980s in religious Jewish school, and so was everyone around me. Not new, nor original; the very existence of this article puzzles me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.91.245.156 (talk) 23:05, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

speculation?
Speculation about what trees might have existed or anything else for that matter is not appropriate. Nor is there a citation. I tagged with Cn, but it should probably be removed altogether. 72.234.110.47 (talk) 00:56, 1 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I just removed the list of trees, thinking that is must have been some crap that a recent editor added. But no: it has been part of this article since it was first created... in 2006! This kind of lazy, apathetic editing is why people don't trust Wikipedia. Jason A. Quest (talk) 01:46, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

Torreya taxifolia
I followed the link from here to T. taxifolia (the Torreya Tree an endangered species that lives only in one state park in north Florida), which I'm familiar with from growing up in Florida. A bit more research showed that a local preacher had the idea that the Torreya is the Biblical "gopherwood" and the Garden of Eden was nearby. This has resulted in many locals calling the tree a "gopherwood" tree.

I'm not sure if that belongs here, or in the T. taxifolia article, or both - but regardless, we should clarify why there is a link from this Biblical article to a tree in Florida. Because "gopherwood" is a local name for that tree in the region where the tree grows, that nickname for the tree is definitely notable.

I need to find some good references before making the changes here, so stay tuned.

Raddick (talk) 10:07, 11 December 2013 (UTC)

Kopher
Linquists and Biblical historians should neither be opining, nor writing articles on ship building. And translations are a very poor indication of original meaning. Since the only way to write this article is through speculation, at least give greater credence to the speculations of wooden boat builders. The suggestion in the last paragraph about Kopher meaning "pitch" seems the most likely to me. One of the best American boatbuilding woods is called "pitch pine". While that tree is not native to the middle east, it seems likely that there was some species over there at the time with similar properties. Boat builders of the time, being the practical types that they must be, would surely have referred to it as some sort of "pitch wood". Get a sylviculturist involved to figure this out and you'll probably have your answer. FatBear1 (talk) 19:29, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is written based on reliable published sources, not anyone's personal expertise. Jason A. Quest (talk) 01:49, 1 December 2022 (UTC)