they contained a window opened by Noah, but previously they said that God had commanded Noah to make a door or an opening in the side of the ark; for Theodotion and Symmachus rendered it “door,” but Aquila rendered it “opening.” It is written concerning the food that God also commanded to bring it in and Noah did bring it in. But the passage of the dung of the animals has been well passed over in silence, with Noah being able to consider what follows concerning these things and we to conjecture what has been omitted. Some have raised the difficulty, whether an ark of such a size could hold even the smallest fraction of all the animals on earth. And especially Apelles, the acquaintance of Marcion and who became the father of a heresy different from his, wishing to reject 28 the writings of Moses as not holy, having raised this difficulty, adds this: The story, then, is false; the scripture, then, is not from God; not understanding what sort of three hundred cubits and what sort of fifty and of what size thirty the scripture named in the construction of the ark. But we have learned from a certain eminent person among the Hebrews, that the 300 cubits were named as the so-called “power” among geometers of the square of three hundred, so that the cubits of the length in the bottom plane are 90,000; and likewise of the breadth two thousand five hundred and of the height nine hundred. For it would be altogether most strange for the one “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” who were especially most skilled in geometry, and brought up in the house of a king, not to have understood that the more commonly understood 300 of the length and 50 of the breadth and 30 of the height would not have held even four elephants, perhaps, and their food for a year, <since God had commanded 29 “two by two” of the unclean animals to enter into the ark>. But if it is necessary, in order to understand more clearly the phrase: “gathering it together you shall make the ark and to a cubit you shall finish it above,” to set forth the quasi-architectural account concerning the ark, come, let us set it forth as it has occurred to us and we have learned it. Conceive for me that the length of the ark at the very bottom is of three hundred cubits of the aforementioned kind according to the so-called “power,” and the breadth fifty, then for each cubit it is gathered in by 10 cubits in length, and one and two-thirds in breadth; so that the thirtieth cubit of the height becomes ten in length, and one and two-thirds in breadth; then after this the gathering in is completed to a cubit. But if to anyone the cubit being the thirty-first of the height seems a forced interpretation, let him pay attention to the text which says: “and 30 cubits its height; gathering it together you shall make the ark, and to a cubit you shall finish it <above>.“ For I think that after “and 30 cubits the height,” the thirty-first cubit is indicated through the phrase “and to a cubit you shall finish it above.” And it was made this way so that the rush of the waters would have a way to slip off and the waves would not dash against it as if against a rock having height on all sides. And that the door should be made in the side was suitably commanded; for if it had been made in the roof it would have filled the ark from the rains, 30 but being placed in the sides it provided safety to those inside, with the ark being carried on the water, and the window being higher than it.

θυρίδα περιεῖχον ἀνοιγομένην ὑπὸ τοῦ Νῶε, πρότερον δὲ θύραν ἢ ἄνοιγμα ἔλεγον προστεταχέναι τὸν Θεὸν τῷ Νῶε ποιῆσαι ἐκ πλαγίων τῆς κιβωτοῦ· «Θύραν» μὲν γὰρ ὁ Θεοδωτίων καὶ Σύμμαχος, «ἄνοιγμα» δὲ ὁ Ἀκύλας ἐποίησε. Γέγραπται δὲ περὶ τῶν τροφῶν ὅτι καὶ προσέταξεν ὁ θεὸς εἰσαγαγεῖν καὶ εἰσάγαγε Νῶε. Ἡ δὲ τῶν σκυβάλων τῶν ζῴων πάροδος καλῶς παρασεσιώπηται καὶ τοῦ Νῶε δυναμένου τὸ ἀκόλουθον περὶ τούτων σκοπῆσαι καὶ ἡμῶν τὸ παραλελειμμένον στοχάσασθαι. Ἐπηπόρουν τινές, εἰ δύναται ἡ τηλικαύτη κιβωτὸς χωρῆσαι κἂν τὸ πολλοστὸν μόριον τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς πάντων ζῴων. Καὶ μάλιστα Ἀπελλῆς, ὁ τοῦ Μαρκίωνος γνώριμος καὶ γενόμενος ἑτέρας αἱρέσεως παρ' ἐκεῖνον πατήρ, ἀθετεῖν 28 βουλόμενος ὡς οὐχ ἅγια τὰ Μωυσέως συγγράμματα τοῦτο ἐπαπορήσας ἐπιφέρει, τό· ψευδὴς ἄρα ὁ μῦθος· οὐκ ἄρα ἐκ θεοῦ ἡ γραφή· μὴ συνιὼν ποδαποὺς τριακοσίους πήχεις καὶ ποδαποὺς πεντήκοντα πηλίκους τε τριάκοντα ὠνόμασεν ἐπὶ τῆς κατασκευῆς τῆς κιβωτοῦ ἡ γραφή. Ἐμάθομεν δὲ ἡμεῖς ἀπό τινος τῶν παρ' Ἑβραίοις ἐλλογίμων, ὡς ἄρα οἱ τʹ πήχεις ὠνομάσθησαν ὡς ἡ καλουμένη παρὰ τοῖς γεωμέτραις δύναμις τοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ τριακόσια τετραγώνου, ὡς εἶναι τοὺς πήχεις τοῦ μήκους ἐν τῷ κάτω ἐπιπέδῳ θʹ μυριάδας· οὕτω δὲ καὶ τοῦ πλάτους δισχιλίους πεντακοσίους καὶ τοῦ ὕψους ἐννακοσίους. Καὶ γὰρ πάνυ ἂν εἴη ἀτοπώτατον τὸν «παιδευθέντα πάσῃ σοφίᾳ Αἰγυπτίων» τῶν γεωμετρικωτάτων μάλιστα, καὶ ἐν οἴκῳ βασιλέως ἀνατραφέντα μὴ συνεωρακέναι, ὅτι οἱ κοινότερον νοηθέντες τʹ τοῦ μήκους καὶ νʹ τοῦ πλάτους καὶ λʹ τοῦ ὕψους οὐδὲ ἐλέφαντας ἂν ἐχώρησαν τάχα που δʹ καὶ τὰς τούτων ἐπ' ἐνιαυτὸν τροφὰς <προστά 29 ξαντος τοῦ θεοῦ «δύο δύο» ἀπὸ τῶν ἀκαθάρτων εἰσέρχεσθαι ζῴων εἰς τὴν κιβωτόν>. Εἰ δὲ χρὴ ἐπὶ τοῦ τρανότερον νοῆσαι τό· «ἐπισυνάγων ποιήσεις τὴν κιβωτὸν καὶ εἰς πῆχυν συντελέσεις αὐτὴν ἄνωθεν» ἐκθέσθαι τὸν οἱονεὶ ἀρχιτεκτονικὸν περὶ τῆς κιβωτοῦ λόγον, φέρε, ὡς ὑποπέπτωκεν ἡμῖν καὶ μεμαθήκαμεν, αὐτὸν ἐκθώμεθα. Νόει μοι τριακοσίων πηχέων τῶν εἰρημένων κατὰ τὴν καλουμένην δύναμιν εἶναι κατωτάτω τὸ τῆς κιβωτοῦ μῆκος καὶ πεντήκοντα πλάτος, εἶτα κατὰ πῆχυν ἐπισυνάγεσθαι τοῦ μὲν μήκους ιʹ πήχεις, τοῦ δὲ πλάτους ἕνα δίμοιρον· ὥστε γενέσθαι τὸ τριακοστὸν τοῦ ὕψους πῆχυν, δέκα μὲν τοῦ μήκους, ἑνὸς δὲ καὶ διμοίρου τοῦ πλάτους· εἶτα μετὰ τοῦτο συντελεῖσθαι εἰς πῆχυν τὴν ἐπισυναγωγήν. Εἰ δέ τῳ βίαιος εἶναι δόξει ὁ πῆχυς τριακοστὸς καὶ πρῶτος ὢν τοῦ ὕψους, προσεχέτω τῇ λέξει λεγούσῃ· «καὶ λʹ πήχεων τὸ ὕψος αὐτῆς· ἐπισυναγαγὼν ποιήσεις τὴν κιβωτόν, καὶ εἰς πῆχυν συντελέσεις αὐτὴν <ἄνωθεν>«. Οἶμαι γὰρ ἐμφαίνεσθαι μετὰ τό· «καὶ λʹ πήχεων τὸ ὕψος» τὸν πρῶτον καὶ τριακοστὸν πῆχυν διὰ τοῦ· «καὶ εἰς πῆχυν συντελέσεις αὐτὴν ἄνωθεν». Ἐγένετο δὲ οὕτως ἵνα ἡ τῶν ὑδάτων ἐπιφορὰ ἔχῃ τὸν ὄλισθον καὶ μὴ καθάπερ εἰς πέτραν παντόθεν ἔχουσαν ὕψος προσαράττῃ τὰ κύματα. Καὶ τὸ τὴν θύραν δὲ ἐκ πλαγίων γενέσθαι ἐπιτηδείως προσετάττετο· ἐν ὀροφῇ μὲν γὰρ εἰ γέγονεν ἐκ τῶν ὄμβρων ἐπλήρου τὴν κιβωτόν, 30 ἐκ δὲ τῶν πλαγίων ταχθεῖσα τὸ ἀσφαλὲς τοῖς ἔνδον παρείχετο, τῆς μὲν κιβωτοῦ ἐφ' ὕδατος φερομένης, τῆς δὲ θυρίδος ἀνωτέρω τούτου τυγχανούσης.