ark
At a glance
In short
In English both words are ark, but in Tanach they do not overlap: teivah is Noach's ark and the basket of the infant Moshe, and aron is the Ark of the Covenant and Yosef's coffin. Teivah is an ark or basket, and aron an ark, chest, or coffin. Two readings of the difference are proposed from that usage, and neither is settled: that a teivah is a container kept afloat on water, or that it holds a living person. In Rabbinic Hebrew the two words are used almost interchangeably, so a Mishnaic teivah may well be an aron.
Distinctions
Teivah (תיבה)
In Tanach the word appears in two contexts: the ark Noach built to house his family through the Mabul (Bereishis 6 to 9), and the basket in which Moshe's mother laid him on the Nile (Shemos 2:3). Two readings are proposed from that usage, and both are floated as possibilities rather than settled. By where: one may argue that a teivah is a container kept afloat on water, which an aron need not be. By what: alternatively, one may suppose that a teivah holds a living person, while an aron covers other kinds of storage, even inanimate contents. Rabbi Aharon Marcus (1843 to 1916) points out that teivah is related to bayis (house) because the two contain the same letters; the implication drawn from this is that a teivah is in some ways like a person's home, which supports the second reading. Ibn Janach (Sefer HaShorashim) gives the root as ת-ב-ה, while Radak (Sefer HaShorashim) mentions a possible alternative, ת-י-ב; Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 6:14) derives the word from the Aramaic י-ת-ב, the Hebrew י-ש-ב, sitting or dwelling, the teivah being one's temporary domicile.
Ibn Ezra (to Bereishis 6:14): Noach's ark was an ark and not a boat, which is why it is called a teivah, a chest. It was not shaped like a boat, so the pasuk does not call it a sefinah or an oniyah, and it had no oars, so it is not a shayit.
Aron (ארון)
Also two contexts in Tanach: the Aron HaBris, the gold-plated wooden box holding the Luchos and a Sefer Torah, and the coffin in which Yosef's body was placed (Bereishis 50:26). Neither floats and neither holds a living person, which is what makes the two proposals above possible in the first place.
The rabbinic usage that unsettles both readings
The Mishnah (Taanis 2:1) has the teivah carried out to the city square on a public fast day, and another Mishnah (Megillah 3:1) rules that the proceeds of a sold shul may buy only a teivah or something holier than a teivah. The commentators discuss whether that teivah is the shul's Holy Ark, which houses the Sifrei Torah, or the table on which a Sefer Torah is laid to be read, known as the bimah; either way it is neither afloat nor holding a living person, which defeats the definitions offered above. The Talmud Yerushalmi (Shekalim 6:1) goes further: the Aron HaBris was built of three teivos, two of gold and one of wood nested so that every exposed surface was gold. There a teivah is a component of an aron.
Modern Hebrew draws a clean line, though historically the distinction may not be well grounded: teivah is a storage chest, aron a closet.
Also discussed in
- Wordתיבה / teivah
Radak on these roots
Sefer HaShorashim
א-ר-ן
אֹרֶן, the name of a tree; and אָרוֹן, a chest, like a תיבה, a box, used as both masculine and feminine, mostly masculine.
The tree
נָטַע אֹרֶן (Yeshayahu 44:14), he planted an oren, the name of a tree; so too in the words of Chazal (Parah 3:8), ועצים היו מסודרין שם עצי ארזים ארנים וברושים, and wood was laid in order there, wood of cedars, oranim and cypresses. Some explain it as אל צנוב"ר in Arabic, al-sanobar.
The chest
וְעָשׂוּ אֲרוֹן עֲצֵי שִׁטִּים (Shemos 25:10), they shall make a chest of shittim wood; אֲרוֹן אֶחָד (Melachim II 12:10), one chest, which he explains as one man's chest; and וַיִּישֶׂם בָּֽאָרוֹן (Bereishis 50:26), and he was placed in the chest. Its sense is known: it is like a תיבה, a box. The word is used in both genders, mostly the masculine, and in the feminine at וַֽאֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים נִלְקָֽחָה (Shmuel I 4:17), and the Aron of Elokim was taken, and אֲשֶׁר־בָּאָה אֲלֵיהֶם אֲרוֹן (Divrei HaYamim II 8:11), to which the Aron of Hashem has come.
נָטַע אֹרֶן (ישעיה מד, יד), שם אילן. וכן בדברי רבותינו ז"ל (פרה פרק ג, משנה ח), ועצים היו מסודרין שם עצי ארזים ארנים וברושים. ויש מי שפירשו אל צנוב"ר בערבי. וְעָשׂוּ אֲרוֹן עֲצֵי שִׁטִּים (שמות כה, י), אֲרוֹן אֶחָד (מלכים ב' יב, י), פירוש ארון איש אחד, וַיִּישֶׂם בָּֽאָרוֹן (בראשית נ, כו), ענינו ידוע והוא כמו תיבה ונהגו בו לשון זכר ונקבה לשון זכר ברוב, ולשון נקבה וַֽאֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים נִלְקָֽחָה (שמואל א' ד, יז), אֲשֶׁר־בָּאָה אֲלֵיהֶם אֲרוֹן י"י (דברי הימים ב' ח, יא).
ת-ב-ה
The ark, תֵּבָה, whose sense is known; its root may be תיב, though Rabbi Yonah files it under this one.
The whole entry
צֵא מִן־ הַתֵּבָה (Bereishis 8:16), go out of the ark, and תֵּבַת עֲצֵי־גֹפֶר (Bereishis 6:14), an ark of gopher wood; the word is known. The root may be תיב, the noun then standing on the pattern of צֵידָה, provision, and שֵֹיבָה, grey age. But Rabbi Yonah wrote it under this root, on the pattern of לֶחֶם הַפֶּחָה (Nechemiah 5:18), the governor's bread.
צֵא מִן־הַתֵּבָה (בראשית ח, טז), תֵּבַת עֲצֵי־גֹפֶר (בראשית ו, יד), ידוע. ואפשר ששרש המלה תיב בפלס צֵידָה, שֵֹיבָה. אבל רבי יונה כתבו בזה השרש בפלס לֶחֶם הַפֶּחָה (נחמיה ה, יח).
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "A Tale of Two Arks," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 24 September 2016.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Words for Words," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 23 October 2021.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "A Tale of Two Arks," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 6 to 9 and 50:26; Shemos 2:3; Mishnah Taanis 2:1; Mishnah Megillah 3:1; Yerushalmi Shekalim 6:1; Rabbi Aharon Marcus, Keses HaSofer; Ibn Janach and Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Rav Hirsch to Bereishis 6:14; Ibn Ezra to Bereishis 6:14.