St. Augustine, in book 15 of The City of God, chapter 26, briefly teaches that the measurements of the length, breadth, and height of the ark correspond beautifully to the dimensions of the human body. For the length of the ark, three hundred cubits, was sixfold its breadth of fifty cubits, and tenfold its height of thirty cubits. By a like ratio, the length of the human body from the crown to the soles is six times as great as the breadth — which is from one side to the other side — and ten times as great as the height, the measure of which height is in the side, from back to belly: just as, if you measure a man lying down, supine or prone, he is six times as long from head to feet as he is broad from right to left, or from left to right, and ten times as long [as he is] high from the ground.¹

But St. Ambrose treats this likeness of the ark and the human body more fully and distinctly — and indeed most elegantly — in his book On the Ark and Noah, in the sixth chapter and several following: “The Ark of Noah,” he says, “if anyone should wish to consider it more attentively, he will find described in its construction the figure of the human body. ‘Make for thyself,’ says God, ‘an ark of squared timbers (de lignis quadratis).’”²

“We call ‘squared’ that which stands well together in all its parts and is consonant with itself. That the members of man are squared, plain reason shows, if you consider a man's chest, if you consider the belly, of equal measure in length and breadth — except when, the belly being distended with pleasures and feasting, the natural measure is exceeded. Again, who would not notice from use itself that the feet and hands, the arms, the thighs and legs are fourfold (quadripertita)? And though most of them are not of the same length or breadth, yet they keep such proportion (analogia) that in them too a fitting measure and ratio concurs: that the length be longer than the breadth, and the breadth than the height. And just as the wooden ark has a threefold dimension — since [God] prescribed that a length of three hundred cubits, a breadth of fifty, and a height of thirty cubits be observed — so also in our body there is a greatest, a middle, and a least dimension. The greatest, according to length; the middle, according to breadth; the least, according to height: yet the whole body, woven together out of its single members, appears squared. For in common usage it is so, that we call those men ‘squarely built’ (quadratos) whom we judge neither excessive in tallness yet strong in the sturdy quality of the body.”³

“What, too, is meant by his saying, ‘Thou shalt make nests (nidos) in the ark’ — this likewise by no means seems to be passed over in silence. For I judge it was said in a natural sense, in that our whole body is woven together like a nest, so that the vital spirit may penetrate all the parts of the inner organs, and pour itself out from our principal [organ] through the several limbs. Our eyes are a kind of nest, in which sight serves itself. The hollows of our ears are nests, through which hearing pours itself in and casts itself as into a deep pit. The cavity of the nostrils is a nest, which draws odor to itself. The fourth nest, greater than the rest, is the opening of the mouth, in which taste is nourished until it grows; and from which the voice flies forth; in which lies hidden the tongue, which, like the organ of the voice, modulates its sounds with skilled sweetness. And though it is itself irrational, it produces a rational voice.”⁴

“The half-skull (hemicranium) is a nest. That membrane which warms the brain and holds it within is a nest. The inner organs of the lung and the heart are nests. Of our spirit — that is, the breath which we draw and by which we are nourished in this life — the lung is the nest. But the nest of the blood and of the spirit is the heart. For it has two chambers (uteri): one, in which it receives the blood as in a kind of bosom and pours it into the veins; the other, watered from that upper one, which leads it into the arteries in a continuous stream. The stronger bones too have nests: for they are hollowed out within, and in certain cavities there is marrow. In the softer inner organs themselves are the nests of desire or of pain. And if one considers other things, he will find still more nests in the fabric of the human body. Whence I think that he too in the Psalm said, not only mystically but also naturally: ‘For the sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtledove a nest where she may lay her young’ (Ps. 83). For there is now in this body a nest of chastity, where once was a nest of irrational concupiscence. But where formerly lust nourished its misshapen offspring, there now grows up the inheritance of comely chastity.”⁵

“‘Thou shalt smear it,’ he says, ‘with bitumen.’ The human body consists of many bones and sinews and various other parts. And so, both outside and inside, knit together in a fitting framework, it clings to itself, and is held by its proper condition (habitudo), which the Greeks call [hexis]:”⁶

“…so that the spirit enclosed within, which is poured in, or the spiritual substance which works within, as though bound by twin chains, may not wander abroad, but is restrained to a fitting and cohesive unity and a strong connection. Therefore the ark is commanded to be bound fast with bitumen: for bitumen is of a nature powerful for binding. Whence in Greek it is called νάφθα (naphtha), from ‘to join together’ (συνάπτειν), because it connects what is disjoined and binds it with an indissoluble bond, so that you would believe [the parts] to come together in a natural unity. For this reason the ark is bound with bitumen within and without, lest that connection be easily broken.”⁷

“Nor must that which is added be passed over: ‘Gathering it together thou shalt make the ark, and in a cubit thou shalt finish it from the top’ — so that the head of man may fittingly and gracefully square with the rest of the body, of a measure suited to it, as though one were joining on the royal [part] of the ark: from which, while all the senses are diffused to the other parts of the body, yet most of all the eyes, set there like watchers and guards by the providence of nature, might survey from above almost the whole state of our world. And the mind itself, located there — according to the opinion of most, and especially of Solomon, who says, ‘The eyes of a wise man are in his head’ — as in an imperial hall of the virtues gathers counsel to itself, whereby, surrounded with a retinue, it may itself be the better fortified, and, as from a certain height, may dispense the governance of guarding the whole body, and deliver responses, by which we ourselves may not only look back, nor only see what is before our feet, but even behold the secrets of heaven itself with the deep gaze of wisdom. There, then, is the height of our salvation, where grace is. Thence guard, thence also beauty is acquired for the body, which first blooms in the face. For it is fitting that the splendor of the royal hall be more excellent, in which, as the use is greater, so is the brightness.”⁸

After this, Ambrose adds much most eloquently about the senses located in the head. Then he subjoins: “These things about the head we have said at greater length, because it was fitting that all the senses be located at the top, whence all the offices might be distributed through the remaining parts. Next to our head at the back is the neck; on the right and left are the arms, which guard the imperial citadel like faithful sentinels. In short, these parts are the stronger in us; and the nearer they are to the head, the more excellent. The chest too is, as it were, a certain sanctuary of wisdom, and the stomach is, as it were, a kind of witness (as the physicians say) and confidant of the head's secrets, and a sharer of its sympathy, into which the head pours all its own affairs, whether wholesome or adverse. The sides, the buttocks, the thighs and legs signify by their very appearance the breadth-measure, and the stepping of the feet — which, though they seem slighter, are nevertheless broader when [men] walk.”⁹

“And it is beautifully said: ‘Thou shalt make the door on the side’ — indicating that part of the body through which we are accustomed to discharge food, so that upon those parts which we think more ignoble of our body [God] might bestow more abundant honor (1 Cor. 12). This was especially fitting for decency, that he should turn certain ducts or outlets of our channels (cuniculi) to the rear, lest in the purgings of the belly our sight be offended. But what is this: ‘Thou shalt make the lower parts of the ark with two and three stories (bicamerata et tricamerata)’? By saying ‘lower parts,’ he wished to signify that the receptacles of food are to be reckoned by us in a lower place…”¹⁰

“…the receptacles, that is, the inner organs (viscera) which work up the food received. For food is corruptible. And what is corruptible must be compared not to the higher but to the lower things. Food too is carried downward: of which a small portion profits the strength and nourishment of the body, but the remaining part is led down to be purged from the bowels, since there are intestines through which the superfluities of food descend. Thus our Maker arranged that [the intestines] should not be extended straight from the stomach to the bottom, but be coiled and folded back, that the [duration of] use of our life might be prolonged. For if the intestines of man, which receive and convey food, were extended straight, [the food] would pass through at once without any delay; and it would be necessary for us always to be hungry and to feast continually, or, if the substance of nourishment failed, [men] would forthwith fail. But now, in that twofold and threefold coiling and folding of the intestines, the food clings, and descending little by little supplies strength, infuses juice into the body, maintains satiety, defers the appetite for eating: there is neither a sudden discharge, nor an abrupt evacuation, nor an insatiable appetite, nor an unappeasable craving for feasting. For while the food descends gradually, natural providence tempers hunger and indigestion (cruditas).”¹¹

“For first, in the stomach — which most call the upper belly — the food is worked up; then it is cooked in the liver, and digested by that heat (vapor), and its juice is distributed to fixed portions of the inner organs, from which the whole body gains strength. This the growth of the young sufficiently [proves], and the endurance of the old testifies. The rest of the food flows down into the belly, which we all call simply the belly. Many call it the lower belly, from which it is necessary that the dung — which had already descended full of corruption — be discharged through that side door.”¹²

“Although these things seem so composed, by natural arrangement, in accordance with God's command, yet if a measure of eating and of acting is not kept by us, then, as it were from overflowing passions, a flood is engendered, and a kind of ruin (labes) of the body. Whence it seems to me that, through the figure of this ark, God wished to teach us how we may be safe against this particular flood: for corruption is the cause of the flood; when it has crept in, the waters are opened, all the fountains of desires boil up, so that the whole body is submerged in so great and so deep a flood of vices. For there is nothing that subjects man to so wretched a slavery as lust, and desires of this kind, which press down the wretched conscience with a certain heavy yoke of crimes, so that it cannot raise itself up, inasmuch as it has lost the freedom of innocence.”¹³

“The greatest remedy, therefore, in this flood, is that you set the just man before you, and choose him as the executor of the heavenly command. What is the just man in us, but the vigor of the mind, which encloses within that ark every kind of living thing that is upon the earth? Restrain, therefore, you also, all your irrational passions, and subject all your senses to the mind, and accustom yourself to the commands of the spirit. Do not allow your desires to fly forth, nor your lust to go out among the crowd: and through the rational mind you will be able to free even your irrational and unclean sins from all danger of the flood.”¹⁴