Ark of Covenant Found - Almost

Raiders of the Lost Ark was a thrilling movie, but what Indiana Jones sort-of found was not the Ark of the Covenant. Here are some clues that might help you solve the greatest historical mystery of all times.

According to Exodus in the Old Testament, God spoke to the Israelites from amidst thunder, lightning and smoke from the summit of Mount Sinai.

God ordered them to build an ark of specific materials and dimensions so that he “could dwell among them.”

While the ark was under construction, God summoned Moses to the summit. “I will give thee the tables of stone and the law and the commandments which I have written” (scratched).

Moses returned after 40 days (symbolic for “a long time”) with the tables. He found that in his absence the Israelites had constructed a golden calf (Egyptian bull-god).

Angry that his people were backsliding, Moses cast down and broke the tables that God had made. The people repented. Moses prayed for a second chance.

God told him to hew two tables of white stone and bring them in an ark of wood to the summit where God would again write the “testimony.”

Thus it is clear that there were two arks – one of gold-plated acacia wood approximately 4 feet, by 2 1/2 feet by 2 1/2 feet, equipped with long carrying-staves and topped by two “cherubims” with out-stretched wings.

The design was a standard, Egyptian motif for sacred objects – similar to one found in King Tut’s tomb.

The makeshift ark was plain, unspecified wood and dimensions – certainly smaller inasmuch as Moses had to carry it up and down the mountain by himself.

The tables probably were no larger than today’s printer-copier paper. It was common practice to scratch messages on stone or pottery when scarce papyrus paper was not available.

Jewish tradition is that the golden Ark contained God’s broken tables, a jar of “manna” (unidentified) that sustained the Israelites in the wilderness, and Aaron’s rod that budded overnight as a sign he was to be high priest.

These eventually were installed in Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem. The wooden Ark supposedly was shuttled around between the homes of priests -- to be carried, as needed, in war.

Ark’s Mystical Power

The Old Testament repeatedly emphasizes that the golden Ark had mythical, lethal power. Only members of the Levi tribe were allowed to carry it.

At one time, the Israelites waged war against the Philistines, but were slaughtered. The Ark was brought up to inspire a second attempt. Again, the Israelites were defeated; and the Ark carried away by the Philistines.

After seven months of plague, the Philistines begged the Israelites to come and get the Ark.

While carrying back the Ark on a cart, the oxen stumbled. The driver steadied the Ark with his arm and was struck dead.

Upon reaching homeland, the Ark was set in a field where Israelites came to worship it. Curious men – the King James Bible says 50,310, tradition says 52 -- “gazed into the Ark and were “smitten” by God.”

Then, the Ark was taken to the house of Abinadab where it resided for 20 years.

Some scholars surmise the Ark -- gilded inside and out with a perfect, electrical conductor, and rubbed by motion of cloth coverings while being carried -- would discharge a powerful surge of electricity.

My engineer friends smile and point out that static electricity is harmless. High school science classes demonstrate this with a Leyden-jar hand-rubbed capacitor that makes one’s hair stand up. Lots of voltage, no amperage.

Solomon’s Temple

King Solomon about 1,000 B.C. built a permanent House of God for the Ark in Jerusalem.

Solomon put Jeroboam in charge of building the temple. The latter was ambitious to become king of the Ten Northern tribes. Solomon learned this and “sought to kill” Jeroboam who fled to the household of Egyptian king, Shishak.

After Solomon’s death, Jeroboam returned to Israel and became king of the Ten Tribes. This left Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, king of Judah and Benjamin, which included Jerusalem

With this, Shishak, Jeroboam’s Egyptian ally, came and conquered Jerusalem. He “took away all the treasures of the House of the Lord.” (1 Kings 14)

This is the foundation for a widely believed account that the Ark ended up in Axum, Ethiopia, a province of ancient Egypt.

In this scenario, the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon seeking wisdom; and was impregnated by him. Upon her return to Sheba (Africa or Yemen?), she bore a son Menelik. Ethiopians insist Menelik went as a young man to visit his aging father and was given the Ark for safekeeping.

Ethiopians venerate an ark today, which they say is the original, and parade it, under covering, one day a year. It is kept under lock in an Axum sanctuary and guarded constantly by a sentry chosen as a youth for life.

It is said to be of wood and contain two tablets of white stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments. All Ethiopian churches display replicas of the ark.

Temple Ark Disappears

Manasseh became King of Israel in 687 B.C. and reigned 57 years. He built up the religion of Bel (Baal) that included idols, sacred prostitution and sacrifice of babies by fire (2 Kings 21).

He ordered the priests and Levites to remove the Ark, and other holy articles, from the Temple to maker room for Bel idols.

According to the Apocrypha (unapproved books of the Old Testament) the prophet Jeremiah -- “being warned by God” -- took the Ark and buried it in a cave of “Mount Nebo.”

The place was to be “unknown until the time that God should gather his people together again, and receive them unto mercy.”

Manasseh’s son was assassinated, and Josiah became king in 628 B.C. He sought to restore the House of the Lord and asked Levites to bring forth the Ark. The Levites said they were “unable to comply.”

When Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the first Temple in 586 B.C., the Babylonians enslaved the Israelites and carried away the Temple treasures carefully listed. The Ark was not mentioned.

It is clear the Ark had disappeared before that time.

Babylon permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem in 520 B.C. and build the Second Temple. The Ark was not there.

Location Now

Messianic Jews today believe an unauthorized tunnel was dug under the Islam Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem a few years ago. A vault containing the Ark Of The Covenant was located and awaits finding a pair of unblemished “red heifers” for sacrifice that would signal return of all Jews to Zion.

It is unlikely that the priests and Levites -- who removed the Ark by command of King Manasseh -- would have dug a crypt below the Temple itself. Such labor involving scores of workers would have been noticeable.

The Apocrypha probably is correct in relating that when the golden Ark and other temple furnishings were removed by order of Manasseh, Jeremiah and the Levites “buried the treasures in a cave at Mt. Nebo.”

This would be logical inasmuch as the Ark was the special project of Moses.

As the Israelites approached the destination of their exodus from Egypt, “Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho.” (Deut 34)

There, God permitted Moses at age 120 (computed in Lunar months) – to view the Promised Land.

Moses died there and “was buried in the valley of Nebo, over against Bethpeor; but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day.”

All we have to do to locate the Ark of the Covenant is find the valley of Mount Nebo east of the Jordan River and dig.

November 7, 2004

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Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at:

LinWms@earthlink.net or LinWms@lindseywilliams.org

Website: http://www.lindseywilliams.org with several hundred of Lin's Editorial & At Large articles written over 40 years.

Also featured in its entirety is Lin's groundbreaking book "Boldly Onward," that critically analyzes and develops theories about the original Spanish explorers of America. (fully indexed/searchable)

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