Yes, here’s one explanation:
“Gopher wood” is a misreading and scribal error. “Kopher” wood is correct and means wood (any wood) that is covered with Kopher. Kopher is bitumen. In the Genesis text (6:14), the context is clear. The GPR wood used, (a scribal error) is to be covered in KPR. G and K in Hebrew are so similar that inexperienced Hebrew “scholars,” such as those translating the King James Version of the Bible, could have been prone to such errors, indeed, they made many such errors.
Well that nice and all, but doesn't all that jitterbugging trash the idea of a Bible that's inerrant --free of error?
Close.
Actually, “gopher” in Hebrew is separate from “kopher”. It is derived from an unused root word, probably meaning to house in: a kind of tree or wood (as used for building: apparently the cypress. (Ref: Strongs)
You nailed the kopher. Betumin, along with the henna plant for dyeing. (Ref: Strongs)
The KJV translators didn’t need to translate the OT Hebrew because it was the Hebrews themselves (the Masoretes) that added a full system of vowels between 600-950AD, allowing it to be printed five centuries later. (Ref: Unger’s pg 883).
Another example of God keeping His promise to preserve His Word. (Ps 12:6-7)
In actuality it is a mistranslation. What really happened is when Noah asked God how to build the ark, God responded,”First go fer wood.”