Mentioned in the Bible, as the material out of which Noe's ark was made (Genesis 6). Translators either have not attempted to give an equivalent, or have with early Jewish interpreters read a slightly different word (Vulgate: "LlBvigatis"; D.V.: "timber planks"). Commentators as early as Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine noticed, after Celsius, the close resemblance of the words gopher and kopher (pitch, hence any pitch-exuding tree, especially cypress), and were of the opinion that a tree of the pine or cypress family might be intended. The suitableness of its wood for shipbuilding, known from very early ages, is a further argument in favor of this view.