New evidence for the antiquity of the tradition associating Mt. Ararat in Turkey with the landing place of Noah’s Ark comes to us in the form of a unique coin on display at the Israel Museum. This large bronze medallion was struck 1700 years ago at Apameia Kibotos in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) near the mountains of Ararat where, it is said, Noah’s Ark came to rest after the flood.
This coin, depicting the events of the story of Noah’s Ark related in Genesis 6–8, is the only coin-type known to bear a Biblical scene.
Apameia Kibotos was a Phrygian city established by Antiochus I (280–261 B.C.) who named it after his mother, Apameia. At that time, there were at least two other cities in the region named Apameia, one in Bithynia (northern Turkey) and the other in Syria. The addition of the word kibotos, which means “ark” in Greek, differentiates this particular Apameia from the others.
The Jewish community in Apameia was probably as old as the city’s foundation in the third century B.C.1 The legend of Noah seems to have been localized at Apameia Kibotos, and the Jewish element in Apameia was strong enough, as early as the time of Jesus, to give the city the name, Kibotos, derived from the Biblical story.
On the Israel Museum ark coin three portions of the flood story are depicted on one side. In the center of the coin, the head and shoulders of Noah and his wife protrude from the ark, perhaps to see if the rain has stopped. The ark, depicted as a box with an open lid, floats on water while its lid shelters Noah and his wife from the rain. The side of the ark is inscribed with the three Greek letters NWE (Noah).
The second portion of the flood story is shown above the ark’s lid. A dove, the olive spray in its beak symbolizing the subsidence of the waters and the end of the flood, lands on the ark cover.
The third episode in the story is shown just to the right of the ark: Noah and his wife stand with arms upraised in an attitude of grateful prayer for their salvation.
The Greek inscription on the lower part (exergue) of the coin (APAMEWN) means “Of the people of Apameia.” The inscription at the upper edge of the coin (PAR KL APOLINARIOU) translates as “by KL [Claudius?] Apolinarious” and refers to a person, unknown to us, who may have been the magistrate of the mint or the head of local games.
The vessel may be shaped like a box rather than a boat because Greek artists had already used box-forms to represent boats. The Jewish artist who engraved Noah’s Ark on this coin-medallion may have used Greek examples as his model. In depictions of the Greek myths of Danae and Perseus and of Auge and Telephos, Danae and Auge each floated across the sea in a box. Another explanation for the representation of the ark as a box on this coin-medallion is that one of the meanings of the 039Hebrew word teva is “box,” “chest” or “coffer.” Teva also means “vessel,” “boat” or “ark.” The Hebrew Bible uses the word teva to describe both Noah’s Ark and the vessel made of bulrushes in which Miriam placed her son, Moses. In the Septuagint, the third century B.C. Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, teva is translated as kibotos, a word which means “box” as well as “ark.” Noah’s vessel may, therefore, appear to be a box because of these meanings of kibotos and teva.
On the obverse side of the coin, the Roman Emperor Trebonianus Gallus is portrayed.
This Noah’s Ark medallion originally belonged to Hans Von Aulock, the German consul to Turkey. The consul accumulated the largest collection of Greek, Hellenistic and Roman coins struck in Asia Minor. This collection was eventually reproduced and documented in a 17 volume series. At a certain stage, Von Aulock sold some of his coins including three different ark coins, one of which (Von Aulock no. 3513) was bought by an American dealer who sold it to Norbert Schimmel. Schimmel, a distinguished art collector, donated the medallion to the Israel Museum. Another Noah’s Ark coin from the Von Aulock collection, shows the same scenes as the one described here, but was minted 40–50 years earlier. That medallion is in the coin collection of the Ha’aretz Museum in Tel Aviv.
New evidence for the antiquity of the tradition associating Mt. Ararat in Turkey with the landing place of Noah’s Ark comes to us in the form of a unique coin on display at the Israel Museum. This large bronze medallion was struck 1700 years ago at Apameia Kibotos in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) near the mountains of Ararat where, it is said, Noah’s Ark came to rest after the flood. This coin, depicting the events of the story of Noah’s Ark related in Genesis 6–8, is the only coin-type known to bear a Biblical scene. Apameia Kibotos was a […]
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