What happened to the Ark of the Covenant?

[Politesse]

The Ark did not "give its people power" even in legend; in the Jewish mythos, it was said to be essentially the calling-card, the emblem, of YHWH, the Jewish God. As such, miraculous events and divine wrath have always been associated with it, and they always carried it into war. But He is and was not constrained by the box, He consented conditionally that His "Name" should dwell in it provided the customs and laws He laid on the Hebrew people were still observed. If they weren't, there was nothing stopping YHWH from withdrawing His name and all its powers from the Ark, City, and People of Judea, as indeed the Hebrew Scriptures record having happened at least twice. Once, when the Phillistines foolishly captured it in battle, and again at the time of the Babylonian captivity. Christians, of course, insist that the execution of Christ marked the final end of God's indwelling in Jerusalem, symbolized by the (alleged) tearing of the curtain that had once shielded the Holy of Holies from public view.

Stories upon stories upon stories upon...

Your fallacy is believing that human society is or ever has been anything other than a story upon another story.

 

[Swammerdami]

Few if any of us believe the Ark had supernatural powers. It might have had special natural powers, but this is not a focus of this thread. For our purpose the Ark was a wooden box significant to the religion of the Israelites which may or may not have been decorated with precious metals.

In this view, we can assume that an Ark did exist; indeed some writers are concerned with the opposite problem: Were there two or more Arks which have been conflated to make the accounts confusing? Boxes with similar shape and purpose have been attested among Semites and Egyptians, most famously in the tomb of Tutankhamen, successor to the monotheist Akhenaton.

Assuming Solomon's Temple existed and featured an inner room called the "Holy of Holies", should we not assume that something was placed in that special place? Not a magical device perhaps, nor a throne for a powerful alien named Yahweh but something, if only a wooden box containing a few revered writings or trinkets?

And if such an inexpensive or interchangeable box went missing, couldn't one of the Kings or High Priests of Judaea have replaced it, perhaps decorating it with gold leaf? Just building the Temple was a big and very expensive project; we can assume the Temple was equipped with lavish furnishings. Here is a description I found on the 'Net:

In the year 63 BCE, the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, in the process of conquering Israel and all the surrounding territories, entered the most sacred place in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. What he found shocked him. For this temple was different in one crucial respect from all other temples.

Pompey's incursion was made upon what the Jews called their second temple. The original version of the first temple was supposed to have been a magnificent structure in Jerusalem constructed by Judah's King Solomon on land purchased by his father, King David. No archeological evidence - not one brick - has been found of anything remotely on that scale existing in what appears to have been at the time, the tenth century BCE, a tiny, sleepy kingdom. But by the reign of King Josiah, in the seventh century BCE, a central temple certainly existed in Jerusalem. It was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586 B.C. Construction on a new temple began with the return from exile in Babylon in 537 BCE.

That was the second temple. The sacrifices and purity rituals that were at the center of the Jewish religion were performed in and around such a temple in Jerusalem for more than half a millennium. (Herod, beginning in 19 BCE, built a version that may truly have qualified as magnificent.) And it was into an incarnation of this second temple that Pompey, then perhaps the most powerful man on earth, intruded. "As victor he claimed the right to enter the temple," the Roman historian Tacitus explains. (Tacitus, the only source for this incident, is writing, alas, more than one hundred and sixty years after the fact.)

The temple's inner sanctum - the Holy of Holies: Yahweh's sanctuary - was supposed to be entered by only one person, the high priest, on only one day a year: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Pompey forced his way in. And here, according to Tacitus, is what Pompey found:

Nothing. "The sanctuary was empty."

Deliberately leaving the inner sanctum empty would seem peculiar to me. Had an unimportant object gone missing, it could have been replaced. I think that an "irreplaceable" object had been lost — before the Second Temple was even built — and the Holy of Holies was left empty as a poignant reminder of that loss.

So if Solomon did place an Ark in the Temple, when did it go missing?

The most likely solution might be (c) It was confiscated by the 1st Pharaoh of the 22nd dynasty, who treated the "kingdoms" of Judaea etc. as vassals and chose to punish a disloyal king.

that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all:

What does the original Hebrew look like? "He even took away all"? Doesn't this resemble a euphemism for the mournful "Everything, even the Holiest of Holies."?

If the Ark was taken away by Egyptians in the 9th century, what happened to it? Was it placed in a special hiding spot as in the Indiana Jones movie? Or was it simply burned or discarded after any precious metals were taken?


Another likely solution that I will consider in a later post is (j): Priests of Yahweh removed the Ark at a time when King Manasses was desecrating the temple with icons of Yahweh's enemy Ba'al. Surely this would have been a logical action for those priests to take: Yahweh would not want to cohabit with the worshiping of foreign gods.

 

[Swammerdami]

The Ark was already missing in the time of King Josiah

The Bible doesn't tell us when the Ark disappears — though presumably some of the top people in Jerusalem would have known! Was the loss of the Ark such a sad topic that they wanted to suppress any discussion of it? Did they leave us a clue in scripture?

It wouldn't be the only time that the Bible's authors preferred to leave a cryptic clue. Genesis Chapter 46 contains a logic puzzle which, when solved, seems to reveal a fact the authors wanted to keep semi-secret: Joseph's wife Asenath was Joseph's own half-niece.

I am drawn to the description of King Josiah's restoration of the First Temple. The account in 2 Chronicles goes into huge detail, e.g.

And they put [the money] in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the Lord, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the Lord, to repair and amend the house: Even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of musick. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters. And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they do it. And they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.

This passage is full of redundancy, and unnecessary detail. Even the overseers of the construction get their one verse of fame, never mentioned again. Yet for the holiest object in the universe all we get is this cryptic mention

And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the Lord, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the Lord your God, and his people Israel,

... with only deafening silence about whether the order was even obeyed. This strikes me as exactly what an author might write if he wanted to let us know the Ark was missing, but didn't want to say so explicitly. And, as we shall see, the disappearance of the Ark wouldn't be known to the King and most Judahites until the Levites were unable to obey the command to return it.

The same story is written up in 2 Kings as well, where the Ark isn't mentioned at all. That account closes with

And like unto [Josiah] was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him. Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

Despite that Josiah was the most obedient of all Kings, Yahweh casts off his chosen city and the sacred house where his Name resided. Was he abandoning his Ark? Or abandoning the Temple and the whole City because the Ark wasn't there anymore?

Another much-praised King was Hezekiah, father of Manasses the Heretic, and great-grandfather of Josiah. Was the Ark still in the Temple in Hezekiah's time? So it would seem, e.g.

And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.

Yahweh certainly seems to still be where he belongs: in his house and "between the cherubims." And a few verses later we learn that Yahweh did indeed reply to King Hezekiah.

Contrast this with King Josiah; he gets a message from Yahweh but not directly: it comes via Huldah the Prophetess. When Josiah tries to communicate with Yahweh in the Temple, he "stood by a pillar" rather than approaching the place "between the cherubims." And Yahweh doesn't answer. There's no mention of any cherubim. (These facts are the same in both the 2 Chronicles and the 2 Kings accounts, although 2 Chronicles doesn't mention the "pillar.")

So, if we take all this on face value, the Ark went missing sometime between the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah. Obviously this tragedy happened in the time of King Manasses, the heretic who desecrated the Temple with icons of Ba'al and other foreign gods.

 

[Politesse]

Be wary of looking around for "secret clues" and ancient conspiracies in Scripture; that way lies madness, and a path well-traveled.

 

[Swammerdami]

Be wary of looking around for "secret clues" and ancient conspiracies in Scripture; that way lies madness, and a path well-traveled.

Caution is appropriate, but there can still be much of interest in the Bible. I've already mentioned (#2) that Psalm 104 appears to be borrowed from the Hymn to Aten; surely that is a suggestive tidbit. (Are there other copies of that Hymn outside Egypt?)

Genesis 46 contains apparent arithmetic errors, but if stripped of its verbosity would form an elegant logic puzzle! Find the missing descendant of Jacob. Perhaps it was just arithmetic bungling, but one can still appreciate the (inadvertant?) logic puzzle. Here's an example of how carefully that logic puzzle appears to be constructed:

All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six

Jacob's son's wives are excluded (redundant?) ... but not Joseph's wife Asenath: she did not "come with Jacob into Egypt": she was already there. If the writer felt the need to exclude the sons' wives, why did he do it in this subtotal, rather than the grand total? (Jacob had one daughter, Dinah. The Bible doesn't explicitly mention any children for her but tells us she was raped.)


The idea that the Ark was taken away for safe-keeping in the time of Manasses makes sense to me. Why should we assume Pharaoh Shoshank I took it? The inner sanctuary where the Ark was held may have been hard to find, or its doors hard to open. Even if found, the Ark might have been a worthless-looking wooden box.

And there is a recent archaeological discovery which fits this chronology and may tell us where the Levites took the Ark! I'll write about that when I have the energy to compose another long post.

 

[Politesse]

Be wary of looking around for "secret clues" and ancient conspiracies in Scripture; that way lies madness, and a path well-traveled.

Caution is appropriate, but there can still be much of interest in the Bible. I've already mentioned (#2) that Psalm 104 appears to be borrowed from the Hymn to Aten; surely that is a suggestive tidbit. (Are there other copies of that Hymn outside Egypt?)

Genesis 46 contains apparent arithmetic errors, but if stripped of its verbosity would form an elegant logic puzzle! Find the missing descendant of Jacob. Perhaps it was just arithmetic bungling, but one can still appreciate the (inadvertant?) logic puzzle. Here's an example of how carefully that logic puzzle appears to be constructed:

All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six

Jacob's son's wives are excluded (redundant?) ... but not Joseph's wife Asenath: she did not "come with Jacob into Egypt": she was already there. If the writer felt the need to exclude the sons' wives, why did he do it in this subtotal, rather than the grand total? (Jacob had one daughter, Dinah. The Bible doesn't explicitly mention any children for her but tells us she was raped.)


The idea that the Ark was taken away for safe-keeping in the time of Manasses makes sense to me. Why should we assume Pharaoh Shoshank I took it? The inner sanctuary where the Ark was held may have been hard to find, or its doors hard to open. Even if found, the Ark might have been a worthless-looking wooden box.

And there is a recent archaeological discovery which fits this chronology and may tell us where the Levites took the Ark! I'll write about that when I have the energy to compose another long post.

There's a difference between noting literary influences and suposing ancient logic puzzles, though. I think people often make the mistake of treating the Scriptures as though they are and were always meant to be a sort of coded message to themselves in the present. The Bible isn't trying to tell you anything, at the end of the day; it was written in many different bursts in phases as you clearly know, and its original audiences are both unknown for the most part and also long dead.

 

[Swammerdami]

I misled when I labeled my inference a "cryptic clue."

King Hezekiah visits "between the cherubim" and converses with God. King Josiah cannot do this. The inference is clear, not cryptic at all.

The verse in 2 Chronicles would seem logical, had the Ark recently gone missing. If not, how do YOU read that mysteriously brief verse?

 

[Swammerdami]

I am definitely no Biblical expert; many of you are probably more knowledgeable than I. I hope one of you picks up the burden and provides a complete list of Jewish Temples. Or at least double-check the following summary:

(0) Ignore any shrines or tabernacles prior to the First Temple.

(1) The First Temple, built as early as the 10th century BC, nominally by King Solomon. This Temple was expanded, eg. by Hezekiah, renovated by Josiah, and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

(2) The Second Temple, built after Cyrus the Great released the Jews from bondage.
(2a) Herod's Temple, although a major expansion of the 2nd Temple, is not listed separately.

(3) "The Third Temple" -- a hypothetical future Temple in Jerusalem.

(4) A Temple built at Elephantine, Egypt while the First Temple still stood.

(5a, 5b, 5c) Ignore for now any conjectured shrines or tabernacles built after the Second Temple was built.

Experts? Is this List correct and complete?

ETA: Supporting an early construction of the Elephantine Temple:
http://www.ancientsudan.org/articles_jewish_elephantine.html

Most scholars support the suggestion that the Jews settled in Elephantine during the reign of Psammetichusis I. Out of three succeeding Judean kings, contemporary with Psammetichusis I, Manasseh is thought most likely to have been the Judean king who dispatched the Jewish troops that settled at Elephantine.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Given all the evidence presented isn't it most likely that this ark is a legend? Not attempting to be pedantic btw.

We are dealing here with translations. Is there confidence in the translations? Are we creating translations that fit our biases?

My two cents.

Also, their god is just their god. It doesn't look like anything, apparently it talks to people and makes things happen but it isn't anything. It just is. So why not the ark too? It doesn't have to be any more real than the god it represents.

 

[Swammerdami]

Connections between the Jewish religion and the upper Nile are key to the following. We've already mentioned the Qemant and the Jewish Temple at Elephantine. The Beta Israel (Falasha) are another group of Jews present in Ethiopia since ancient times. Did one of these groups accompany the Ark?

The geography of the Nile is relevant. Traveling southward from Elephantine, there are the six famous cataracts until you reach Khartoum where Blue and White Niles join. Follow the Blue Nile upriver and, after circuitous route, eventually reach Ethiopia's Lake Tana. However there is a more direct route to Lake Tana: follow the Atbara River (which joins the Nile at about the Fifth Cataract) to the Ethiopian highlands: it's then a short journey to Lake Tana. (The Takazze is a tributary of the Atbara whose source is also near Lake Tana.)

Most people agree that Graham Hancock's construction of the Ark story is very flawed, but his speculations are still fun and interesting. Even if purely fictional one can admire the intricate connections. And the distinguished scholar Richard Pankhurst accompanied Hancock on his 1989 visit to Tana Kirkos, where the Ark was allegedly kept for 800 years. Had Hancock bribed the islanders to tell a fiction to Pankhurst? (I once e-mailed Pankhurst for comment; his reply was neutral. By then he'd probably grown tired of talking about it.)

Here's the chronology of some events in Hancock's story. I barely scratch the surface of the intricate connections Hancock describes. If interested I recommend reading his book even if you're sure it's crackpottery.

• 955 BC -- Solomon installs Ark in Temple.
• 701 BC -- Ark is still in Temple (Isaias 37:14-16).
• 687 BC -- Manasses becomes King of Judah; he desecrates the Temple with his worship of pagan gods.
• ca 685 BC -- Levites remove Ark to avoid sacrilege, seeking a refuge far from Judah.
• by 650 BC -- Jewish Temple is constructed at Elephantine (Aswan). Writings imply Yahweh (Ark) resides at Temple.
• 628 BC -- King Josiah begins renovation of Solomon's Temple.
• 626 BC -- Ark is known to be missing (Jeremias 3:16).
• 622 BC -- Josiah asks Levites to return Ark (2 Chron 35:3), but they do not respond.
• 598 BC -- Nebuchadnezzar desecrates Temple; Ark unmentioned.
• 587 BC -- Nebuchadnezzar destroys Temple; Ark unmentioned.
• 538 BC -- Cyrus of Persia returns Jewish treasures; Ark unmentioned.
• 525 BC -- Cambyses of Persia invades Egypt, destroys temples; Jews, seen as allies of Persia, become non grata; any escape must lie to the South rather than through Egyptian heartland.
• ca 460 BC -- Ark is taken South, first to Meroe, then to Debra Sehel (Mount of Forgiveness) in Ethiopia's Lake Tana.
• 410 BC -- Egyptians regain control of Egypt; destroy Elephantine Temple.
• ca 335 AD -- Ethiopia converts to Christianity; the Ark is moved to Christian church in Axum.
• ca 960 AD -- Queen Gudit rises to usurp Ethiopian throne; Ark is brought to Debra Zion in Lake Zwai for safe-keeping.
• ca 1032 AD -- Ark returned to Axum.
• 1120 AD -- The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon occupy the Temple Mount and begin excavations.
• 1160 AD -- Lalibela, "Solomonid" Prince of Ethiopia exiled to Jerusalem, possibly meeting Knights Templar.
• 1182 AD -- Chrétien de Troyes introduces the Grail to European literature.
• 1185 AD -- Lalibela returns to Ethiopia to claim throne, possibly accompanied by Knights Templar.
• ca 1195 AD -- North porch of Chartres cathedral built depicting Sheba, Ark and Grail.
• ca 1210 AD -- Wolfram von Eschenbach writes Parzival, with the Grail Temple at Munsalväsche (Mount of Salvation)
• 1306 AD -- Ethiopian ambassadors visit Pope in Avignon.
• 1307 AD -- Knights Templar outlawed, tortured, killed.
• 1535 AD -- Axum church destroyed by Muslims; Ark rescued to Lake Tana.
• ca 1650 AD -- Emperor Fasilidas builds new cathedral at Axum; Ark returned.
• 1768 AD -- James Bruce of Kinnaird, a Mason, begins explorations in Ethiopia.
• 1941 AD -- Edward Ullendorff examines an alleged Ark in Axum, Ethiopia; he later reports that he saw an empty wooden box only a few centuries old.
• 1989 AD -- Graham Hancock and Richard Pankhurst visit Tana Kirkos (the island once known as Debra Sehel).

If you wanted to hide a previous object for centuries, how would you do so? I think a religious sanctuary on an island (whether Elephantine or Debra Sehel) would be a logical place.

I am NOT at all certain of any of this. King Solomon himself may be fictional; Mr. Moogly may be right that the Ark never existed; Hancock my be a total crackpot. But the uncertainty just makes the Ark an interesting topic!

Given all the evidence presented isn't it most likely that this ark is a legend? Not attempting to be pedantic btw....

Also, their god is just their god. It doesn't look like anything, apparently it talks to people and makes things happen but it isn't anything. It just is. So why not the ark too? It doesn't have to be any more real than the god it represents.

I've addressed this already. I agree that most of the Ark legends are likely fictional. But I still say that it would be simple enough to fashion a pretty box and place it in the Temple's Inner Sanctuary. But instead they left that sanctuary empty?

King Josiah seems to have thought there was an Ark. Why not present him with something, if it was just a fiction anyway?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Thanks, Swami, for indulging my ignorance on the topic.

The reason I brought up translation is because as we know we can make translations into what we want them to say, which changes the context. That's an unfortunate fact we all have to live with.

Is it possible the Ark story has been borrowed from another culture? There is a lot of convincing scholarship out there about how Jewish religion has borrowed heavily from other cultures. I know you mentioned this as a possibility earlier in the thread.

And thank you for allowing me to understand the recent historical connection between the grail legend and the ark story. It makes sense from a religious and a whodunnit points of view. I love a good tale that is woven into historical fact, thank-you for another good thread.

 

[Swammerdami]

I am most definitely NOT an expert on any of these matters. I did read Hancock's The Sign and the Seal with much interest.

I'm not sure what to make of Hancock's wild conjectures, but the book introduced me to the Qemant and Falasha people whose existences pose intriguing questions about the origin of the Jewish religion.

Wikipedia and commentators at another message-board seem to think the history of the Jews BEGINS with their Captivity in Babylon; that they may have adopted monotheism from their contact with Persian Zoroastrianism. This strikes me as absurd!

I've also browsed a very small portion of Donald B. Redford's Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, viewable on-line for free. That's where I learned that, for example, Egyptian inscriptions like "Yahweh in the Land of the Shasu" can be dated to about 1420 BC. (Wikipedia dates it to the reign of Amenhotep III, but Redford has a footnote making it a century earlier.) The Shasu may or may not have been identical to the 'Apiru/Hebrew; their "Land" was in northern Edom, or possibly a bit farther South near the Petra site.

In addition to the possible match between Debra Sehel (Mount of Forgiveness), where monks told Hancock the Ark had resided for 800 years, and Parzival's Munsalväsche (Mount of Salvation), there are several other linkages between the Parzival story and the Ethiopian legend of the Ark. Hancock claims that some Templar Knights accompanied Lalibela to Ethiopia, and later provided information to Parzival's authors, making it a sort of treasure map telling the Ark's story. Most of this is too farfetched even for me, but his book is still an interesting read.

 

[Swammerdami]

Scholars, including Jewish scholars, seem uninterested in pursuing some of the topics of early Jewish history. A Jewish Temple is built specifically to house the Ark, and is the only place where Jews perform animal sacrifice. The (relatively recently discovered) Temple at Elephantine is the ONLY Temple ever built by Jews outside Jerusalem, yet it seems to be almost ignored by scholars. I see on the 'Net that that Temple was allegedly associated with a garrison of Jewish soldiers sent by King Manasses — what is the evidence for this?

The (non-Biblical) history of Judaism goes back much earlier than generally acknowledged, e.g. "Yahweh in the Land of the Shasu" 1420 BC. (Yahweh was then probably an ordinary god, pre-monotheism.) The Bible itself gives plenty of evidence that the Israelites were originally pastoralists associated with Edom. (And the mountains near Petra may have been a special site meaningful to early religions including the early Israelites. There are strong circumstantial connections between those mountains and the mountains key to the Exodus story.) I think 'Shasu' was an ethnonym, and 'Apiru/Hebrew' began as a pejorative perhaps meaning "bandit." (I hope I'm not accused of bigotry for this suggestion about the fore-bearers of Israel 3300 years ago.)

The stories of Joseph and Moses in Egypt are closely paralleled with the Egyptian practice of taking the sons of their vassals hostage, and giving them princely Egyptian educations.

And chronologies point strongly to contemporaneity between Akhenaton's monotheism and that of the Jews. (The close resemblance between the Biblical Ark and an Ark found in King Tut's tomb is just one hint.) Did the Jews adopt their monotheism from Akhenaton? Or vice versa? (There is a record of adherents to Atenism fleeing Egypt upon Akhenaton's death — Could that be the "Exodus"?)

When first hearing about a connection between Israel and Ethiopia, it's tempting to think these locations, on different continents, are too distant from each other. Yet the Nile River serves as a highway from Lower Egypt straight to Lake Tana. The religions of Qemant and Falasha have undeniable connections to Judaism. The Falasha celebrate Passover but not any Jewish holidays instituted AFTER the Fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. Occam's Razor fills in the gaps to give a simple compelling story. Are parts of this story much too uncomfortable for Jewish scholars?


Ethiopia was one of the very first nations to convert to Christianity (it converted at almost the same time as Armenia and Caucasian Albania) so for almost 17 centuries the 'Ark' — whatever it is — is possessed and valued by Christians, not the Falasha. Every Orthodox Christian church in Ethiopia has a 'tabot', said to be a replica of the "Ark" but actually a stone tablet, presumably intended as a replica of one of the Tablets inscribed by the Finger of Yahweh and deposited in the Ark.

One witness, arguing against Ethiopia's possession of the Ark, claims to have been shown, as the True Ark, a 'tabot' with no containing box. Another witness claims to have been shown a wooden box with no tablets inside. (Since such 'tabotat' are plentiful in Ethiopia, why weren't one or two placed in the box before showing the 'Ark' to this foreigner?)

I think the original Tablets may have been lost or stolen. I think the wooden box may have become rotten or damaged over the centuries and been replaced. Like the Tin Woodman, does the Ark remain the Ark when its pieces are all replaced? For me, the interesting questions are NOT whether the Ark at Axum is the very same Ark that "brought down the walls of Jericho," but what light the Elephantine Temple and other puzzles might shed on ancient history.

 

[Swammerdami]

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/474061

I just stumbled on an article which tells much about the Elephantine Temple. Contents include (an Eglish translation of) a long parchment letter from the Temple to the Governer of Judaea, after the Temple had been razed by Egyptians. Honesty requires that I divulge it at once.

[Yeb is an old name for Elephantine. The Assuan Fortress is sited at present-day Aswan, just north of the First Cataract. Yahu (or Ya'u) is 'Yahweh.']

[discussion of  Elephantine papyrus who are clearly non-Egyptian because ...]
[First, the letter writers] differentiate themselves sharply in their conduct from the Egyptians. Second, they are Semites, for the inscription is written in Aramaic. Third, when they speak of Chnub the god of Elephantine, they do not honor him by prefixing to his name the title "god," as any ordinary Semite would have undoubtedly done....

Interesting and valuable as such a group of texts is, it is surpassed in both particulars by a later discovery. In the Berlin Museum is a collection of papyri found by Dr. O. Rubensohn, director of the German Society's excavations at Elephantine in the winter of 1907. Three of these papyri have been copied and translated by Professor Sachau of Berlin. They are the copy of a letter sent by the Jews of Elephantine to Bagoas, the governor of Judah; together with a duplicate of it and a memorandum of the reply received. The original letter reads as follows:

To our Master Bagoas, Governor of Judah: Thy servants Jedoniah and his companions, priests in the fortress Yeb. May our Lord the God of Heaven greatly increase prosperity for thee at all times and grant thee grace in the sight of King Darius and the members of his household, a thousand fold more than thou hast now; and may he grant thee long life. Mayst thou be happy and enjoy good health continually. Now thy servants, Jedoniah and his companions, speak as follows: in the month Tammuz in the fourteenth year of King Darius, when Arsam had departed and gone to the King, the priests of the god Chnub, who were in the fortress Yeb, conspired with Widrang who was Governor (?) and said, "the temple of the God Yahu which is in Yeb the fortress, let it be removed thence." Thereupon this Widrang, the Commandant (?), sent a letter to his son Nephayan who was captain of the garrison in Assuan the fortress, saying, "the temple which is in the fortress Yeb is to be destroyed." Thereupon Nephayan led forth Eygptians together with other troops. They came to the fortress Yeb with their pick-axes (?). They went up into this temple. They razed it to the ground and the pillars of stone which were there they broke in pieces; moreover, the seven stone gates, built of hewn stone, which were in that temple, they destroyed and turned them upside down (?). The hinges of the bronze doors and the roof which was all of cedar, together with the plaster of the wall and other articles which were there, all of them they burned with fire. And the sacrificial bowls of gold and silver, and whatever else was in this temple, all of it they took and used for themselves. Now from the day of the King(s) of Egypt our fathers had built this temple in the fortress Yeb. And when Cambyses came to Egypt he found this temple built; and although the temples of the gods of Egypt were all destroyed, no one harmed anything in this temple. And ever since they did this, we with our wives and children have clothed ourselves in sack cloth and have been fasting and praying to Yahu the Lord of the Heavens, who has given us vengeance upon this Widrang, the Commandant (?). The anklet of office was removed from his feet and all the goods which he had acquired perished; and all who wished evil against this temple have been slain and we have seen our desire upon them. Even before this, at the time when this harm was done to us, we sent a letter to our master and to Johanan, the High Priest and his companions the priests in Jerusalem, and to Ostan the brother of Anani. But the nobles of the Jews sent us no reply. Moreover, from the Tammuz day of the fourteenth year of Darius the King even up to this very day, we have clothed ourselves in sack cloth and fasted. Our wives are become like widows. We have not anointed ourselves with oil, nor drunk wine. Moreover, from that time even unto this day of the seventeenth year of Darius the King, meal-offerings, incense-offerings and burnt-offerings have not been presented in the temple. Now thy servant Jedoniah and his companions and the Jews, all the citizens of Yeb, say as follows: If it seem good to our master, let him bethink himself upon this temple that it may be built; for we are not permitted to build it. Look upon the recipients of thy goodness and of thy favor who are here in Eygpt. Let a letter be sent from thee to them concerning the temple of the God Yahu, that it may be built in Yeb the fortress just as it was built in former times. And they will offer meal-offerings and incense-offerings and burnt-offerings upon the altar of the God Yahu in thy name, and we will pray for thee continually; we and our wives and our children and all the Jews that are here. If thou doest thus, so that this temple may be rebuilt, then there shall be righteousness to thee in the sight of Yahu, God of the Heavens, more than that of the man who offers to him burnt-offerings and sacrifices to the value of a thousand talents of silver. Concerning the gold, concerning this we have sent, we have given directions. Moreover, we have sent all about the matters in a letter in our name to Delaiah and Shelemaiah, the sons of Sanaballat, the Governor of Samaria. Moreover, Arsam knew nothing of all this that has been done to us. On the twentieth day of Marcheswan, in the seventeenth year of Darius the King.

A favorable reply to this letter was evidently received as appears from the accompanying memorandum of its contents:

Memorandum of what Bagoas and Delaiah said to me. Memorandum as follows: Thou shalt say, in Egypt before Arsam concerning the house of the altar of the God of Heavens which was built in Yeb the fortress before our time, prior to the time of Cambyses, which Widrang this Commandant (?) destroyed in the fourteenth year of Darius the King, that it is to be rebuilt in its place just as it was before our time, and meal-offerings and incense-offerings shall be offered upon this altar as used to be done formerly ...

There were two "King Darius" who reigned as both Shahanshah of Persia and Pharaoh of Egypt. The King Darius referred to must(?) be Darius II, great grandson of Darius I.

Obviously this letter was written long after the Second Temple (the Zerubabel Temple) was built, but what about the "Ark" allegedly sent up-river, first to Meroe? Had the cautious guardians of the Ark acted earlier? The letter described a razed Temple which lost gold, silver and "all" but little hint of any Ark. I'm starting to think Mr. Moogly is probably right: The "true" Ark, if that term is even meaningful, was probably long gone. Imposters may have been put forth from time to time.

 

[none]

box, big fucking deal

 

[ideologyhunter]

Yes, but just don't touch the fucking thing, even if it's tipping over. The love god will whack you. He guards it like your perv uncle guards his porn.

 

[none]

uncle? he is a law enforcement official.

 

[ideologyhunter]

In that case, don't tell him I blew his cover.

 

[none]

In that case, don't tell him I blew his cover.

he's embedded

 

[steve_bank]

You first have to assume the myth is reality.

If the Ark assuming it exists and is located in Ethiopia or anywhere else, the Israelis would not tolerate anyone else possessing it.