Ancient ships in seaport. Author: Paul S. Taylor.

Answers about
ships in the Bible

Ships were much used in Biblical times and are often mentioned. Israel was never a major seafaring nation. The Bible’s ship records are mostly about other peoples’ vessels—above all Phoenician ones—or about small lake boats. The real maritime powers of the Biblical world were Egypt on the Nile and Red Sea, Phoenicia (Tyre and Sidon) in the Mediterranean, and Greece and Rome.

What is the earliest sea vessel?

The world’s earliest sea vessel was pre-Deluvian—Noah’s ark (Hebrew: tebah), a box-shaped, huge, multi-story covered barge-like structure. It had no mast, sail, oar, or rudder. It was not built for voyaging or speed, but survival (a sea-worthy floating shelter built according to plans supplied by God to preventing the extinction of mankind and Earth’s air-breathing land animals).

It rode out the Flood for more than a year and came to rest on the mountains of Ararat which are located in modern Turkey.

What is Scripture’s clearest description of a ship?

The prophet Ezekiel described a perfect merchant ship. The timber list is specific:

Rowers came from Sidon and Arvad; pilots from Tyre; caulkers from Gebal (Byblos).

The cargo list runs from Tarshish metals to Arabian spices, Egyptian linen, and Anatolian slaves (Ezekiel 27:5–25). Phoenician hulls of this era were built shell-first, with planks edge-joined by mortise-and-tenon and locked with wooden pegs.

Merchantmen ships were round-hulled and beamy.

Q & A

What Israelite tribes are most associated with ship trade?

Tribe of Zebulun

Zebulun will dwell at the seashore;
And he shall be a shore for ships,
And his flank shall be toward Sidon. —Genesis 49:13 LSB

Moses pairs Zebulun with Issachar and says they “draw from the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand” (Deuteronomy 33:18–19). In the allotment of Joshua 19:10–16, Zebulun is inland, with Asher between it and the Mediterranean, so this very referring to a haven for ships is usually read as access to the coast and to Phoenician trade—through the Kishon and the bay later called Haifa, and along the Via Maris—rather than as a shoreline of its own.

Tribe of Asher

Asher held the actual coastal strip, from Mount Carmel north toward Tyre and Sidon (Joshua 19:24–31). Deborah’s song rebukes this tribe for staying home: “Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings” (Judges 5:17). “Landings” (Hebrew: miphrats) means harbors or creeks. Asher’s coast faced the Phoenician ports, so any ship trade there would have been shared with, or dominated by, Tyre and Sidon.

Tribe of Dan

…why did Dan stay in ships?
Asher sat at the seashore,
And dwelt by its landings. —Judges 5:17 excerpt LSB

This fits Dan’s 1st allotment, on the coastal plain near Joppa, before their move north to Laish (Joshua 19:40–46; Judges 18). The ships are usually taken as Philistine or Canaanite merchantmen using that stretch of coast, not a Danite fleet. After the migration, Dan was inland and the link disappears.

Tribe of Naphtali

Naphtali touched the Sea of Galilee where boats were regularly used in fishing trade and for transportation.

Ships of Solomon, Hiram, and the Red Sea?

The Phoenicians made particularly great use of them for foreign commerce. Their city of Tyre was well known for its ship-building expertise.

The only royal Israelite fleet in the Old Testament was built with Phoenician help. King Solomon made a navy at Ezion-geber, near Elath on the Gulf of Aqaba, and Hiram of Tyre sent ships and experienced sailors (1 Kings 9:26–28; 2 Chronicles 8:17–18).

These ships brought gold from Ophir, plus a very great number of almug wood and precious stones (1 Kings 10:11).

A related Biblical record states that ships of Tarshish, sailing with Hiram’s men, returned every 3 years with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks (1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chronicles 9:21).

King Jehoshaphat later sought to provide himself with a navy at the same port by allying Judah with Israel, but his ships appear to have been wrecked before they set sail (1 Kings 22:48-49; 2 Chronicles 20:35-37).

Egyptian ships

Egypt ran seagoing traffic on the Red Sea centuries earlier.

Hatshepsut’s Punt expedition ship, 15th Century BC
An example of one of lady Pharaoh Hatshepsut’s Punt expedition ships (15th century BC) is carved at Deir el-Bahri: long hulls, a single square sail, steering oars, and a cargo of incense trees.
Q & A

Moses (Deuteronomy 28:68) and Job (Job 9:26) made reference to ships, and Balaam spoke of the “ships of Chittim” (Numbers 24:24).

“But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim,
And they shall afflict Asshur and will afflict Eber; So they also will come to destruction.” —Numbers 24:24 LSB

What are “Ships of Tarshish”?

This phrase appears about two dozen times in Scripture. It can mean ships bound for Tarshish, or a class of large, ocean-going merchantmen—the “ore ships” associated with metal cargo. Tarshish itself is most often identified with Tartessos in southwest Spain, beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, a Phoenician metal source (silver, iron, tin, lead; Ezekiel 27:12). A 9th-century BC Phoenician inscription from Sardinia mentions the land of Tarshish, and Iron Age finds around Huelva fit a western trading station. Other proposals (Tarsus in Cilicia, a Red Sea port, or a generic “far west”) still circulate.

Jonah paid his fare at Joppa for a ship bound for Tarshish—the opposite direction from Nineveh (Jonah 1:3). The record assumes ordinary commercial sailings, a hired passage, a decked hull, and a crew that threw cargo overboard in life-threatening storms.

Q & A

What about ships at the time of Christ and the Apostles?

Jesus and the boats of the Sea of Galilee

Those of Christ’s disciples who were fishermen used them on the Sea of Galilee. Mark 4 and Matthew 8 describe a sudden squall, a boat shipping water, and Jesus asleep on a cushion in the stern.

Fishing boats played a part in Christ’s Galilean ministry:

boat in museum

Archaeologists recovered an ancient hull of that type (often called the “Jesus Boat”), found in 1986 in the mud near Kibbutz Ginosar during a drought. It is about 26.5 feet (8.2 meters) long and 7.5 feet (2.3 m) wide, built of reused timbers, rowed by 4 men with a quarter rudder, and fitted for a mast. Radiocarbon dating centers near 40 BC (±80 years); pottery and construction point to the late 1st century BC through about 70 AD. It is displayed at the Yigal Allon Museum in Ginosar.

Q & A

What about Paul’s voyages?

The Apostle Paul sailed on various ships.

The Acts of the Apostles is the most detailed ancient narrative of ordinary Mediterranean travel from a passenger’s point of view. Paul sailed from Seleucia, Troas, and Caesarea on coastal merchantmen, changing ships at ports such as Myra (Acts 13, 16, 20–21, 27).

In 2 Corinthians 11:25 he says he was shipwrecked 3 times and spent a night and a day adrift.

Paul and other prisoners boarded an Adramyttian coaster, then at Myra transferred to an Alexandrian grain ship bound for Italy. The vessel carried 276 people. Caught by a northeaster past Crete, the crew undergirded the hull with cables, lowered the gear, and later jettisoned cargo and tackling. After about 14 days they grounded on a shoal off Malta (aka Melita); the bow stuck and the stern broke up. Everyone reached shore.

Josephus records a similar wreck in the same waters with about 600 aboard, so a ship of this size is not implausible for the Roman grain run from Egypt.

Much may be learned about the construction of ancient merchant ships, navigation, ports and shipwreck from the record in Acts 27-28.

When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, they proceeded to deliver Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius. And embarking in an Adramyttian ship, which was about to sail to the regions along the coast of Asia, we put out to sea accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica.

The next day we put in at Sidon; and Julius treated Paul with consideration and allowed him to go to his friends and receive care. From there we put out to sea and sailed under the shelter of Cyprus because the winds were contrary.

When we had sailed through the sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy, and he put us aboard it. When we had sailed slowly for a good many days, and with difficulty had arrived off Cnidus, since the wind did not permit us to go farther, we sailed under the shelter of Crete, off Salmone; and with difficulty sailing past it we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea. —Acts 27:1-8 NASB

Are warships recorded in the Bible?

Ships used in military contexts are mentioned in the Bible, though they are not a major focus of Israelite warfare.

War galleys were longer and were often biremes, equipped with two tiers of oars on each side—one visible bank of oars and a second working through ports. The name bireme comes from “bi-” meaning 2 and “-reme” (oar). They were often 80 feet (24 meters) long.

References to warships or navel forces:

Outside the Bible, the Hebrew book of Maccabees explicitly mentions “ships of war” and a “great navy” (e.g., 1 Maccabees 1:17 and 15:3, referring to Seleucid fleets under King Antiochus IV Epiphanes).

Assyrian sources and reliefs show that powers like King Sennacherib employed Phoenician-manned ships in military campaigns, and war galleys (with rams and multiple banks of oars) were standard in the eastern Mediterranean.

What known from ARCHAEOLOGY about ancient ships around Israel?

Israelite access to the sea was limited. The Mediterranean coast was held for long stretches by Philistines, Phoenicians, and later Hellenistic and Roman powers. Joppa was the main Judahite outlet (cedar rafts for the temple in 2 Chronicles 2:16 and Ezra 3:7; Jonah’s departure). Dor, on the Carmel coast, has produced Iron Age cargoes—11th, 9th, and 7th/6th centuries BC—from wrecks in its harbor, evidence of trade while the site was at times under the northern kingdom. Caesarea Maritima, built by Herod, is the great New Testament port (Acts 10, 21, 23–27). Tyre’s northern harbor still has a submerged Phoenician jetty of large ashlar blocks (fine dressed rectangular stone with thin joints).

Many shipwrecks have been found in the coastal waters of Israel which sat at the crossroads of commerce for many empires. The leading researcher is marine archaeologist Kurt Raveh who has uncovers ancient shipwrecks from the time of David, King Solomon-era artifacts, treasure of the time of Jesus Christ, the Herods and even Napoleonic cannons. So many ancient ships passed this region where safe sheltered bays were scarce. Some ships ended up on the seafloor due to storms, pirates or war. Raveh says “I think we just excavated 5%. There are much more to find.

We know only that for …5,000 years shipwrecks are laying out here. If one sunk every year, there must be thousands of them. Here in the site of a football field we found already 28, so who knows how many more are under this region. —Kurt Raveh, Marine Archaeologist and diver

In the bay of ancient Dor, he found 28 wrecks.

We took out …at least a ton of coins, silver decorated plates, candlesticks, statues, nails, whatever you want can imagine. And just when we thought we cleared everything out… I start cleaning a little piece of pottery by my hand and it grew and it grew and then I saw it was an amphora, one of those beautiful rodian brick and fora. But then when I tried to lift it, it was impossible. It turned out to about 200 pounds (90 kilos) of jewelry and other beautiful stuff …with each wave breaking on this land's shores more treasures are revealed and with them the rich tapestry of our ancient history unfolds.

PORTS—What are the port cities of biblical times?

Ancient seaport. Author: Paul S. Taylor.

Which BODIES OF WATER where boats sailed are named in Scripture?

What NAMED SHIP PASSENGERS are specifically mentioned in the Bible?

What are the original language words for ships/boats

Hebrew: אֱנִיָּה —transliteration: oniyyah —meaning: ship, boat

Hebrew: אֳנִי —transliteration: oni —meaning: fleet or navy (1 Kings 9:26–27; 1 Kings 10:11, 22; Isaiah 33:21)

Hebrew: sefinah —meaning: a decked vessel (Jonah 1:5)

Hebrew: tsi —meaning: a galley or warship (Numbers 24:24; Isaiah 33:21)

Greek: πλοῖον —transliteration: ploion —meaning: ship, boat (Matthew 4:21; Revelation 8:9) —occurrences: 67

Greek: ναῦς —transliteration: naus —meaning: a boat (of any size), and in the case of Acts 27:41, a large sea-going vessel with 276 souls aboard

Greek: ploiarion —meaning: small boat, skiff, or little vessel (Mark 3:9; John 6:22, 23, 24; John 21:8)

More information

Article Version: October 7, 2026