Whatever did happen to the vessel that held the original Ten Commandments? It is a question older than any of us, and one seeped in more mystery than almost any other. There was a program about this very topic on the other day, and it was very interesting. It basically spoke of the Ark being in a little village in Ethiopia with a man who guards it behind an iron fence his entire life. Just seeing him is a rare thing in itself, much less any hint of an Ark. Whether or not it is really there, something is, and it is the most precious thing on Earth to these people. Anyway, dug up my old thread on this topic and reposted it. for what it is worth.
And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it. And you shall make two cherubim of gold. And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. - Exodus 25:10-22
God instructed Moses to build the gold-covered wooden box to house the greatest of his words, The Ten Commandments. Also the ark was supposed to according to the Bible, literally converse with Moses when God wished to. Also, as legend claims, it was a source of great and unimaginable power. This makes the Ark one of the most interesting, desired and mysterious artifacts of the Old Testament. It is considered by the Israelites to be the literal embodiment of God himself on Earth, and so they carried the Ark before them as they traveled in search of a homeland and to lead their armies into battle. According to "The Sign and the Seal" by Graham Hanthingy, legends describe the Ark as sometimes "blazing with fire and light, inflicting cancerous tumors and severe burns, leveling mountains, stopping rivers, blasting whole armies, and laying waste to cities." Some of the other Biblical stories about the Ark's amazing powers include but are not limited to: an incident in which priests attempting to carry the Ark were thrown into the air and then to the ground killing them; two of Moses’ nephews being killed by the Ark when they entered the holy spot where the Ark was kept; and that the cherubim figures on top of the Ark often sparked and caused damage to nearby objects.
Are the stories true? If so, why does an almighty and omnipotent God need such a vessel through which to speak and wield his power in the first place? Is he not strong enough to take his message directly to the people? Why does he require such a volatile and deadly weapon as his message bearer? This particular question has led some paranormal investigators and archeologists to speculate that the Ark was, in fact, a kind of communication device that an "extraterrestrial god" designed to speak to the Earthlings he favored and befriended - namely, the Israelites. Exodus provides the dimensions of the Ark and describes how it should be overlaid in gold, inside and out, but there is no mention of any kind of circuitry... or even some kind of rudimentary speaker. So unless we take the stories of the Ark strictly as a fable, its workings and its amazing feats of communication and powers of destruction are a great mystery.
Of course just as mysterious as the Ark's powers and history, so to is its fate. Built by Moses and his artificer Bezaleel around 1250 BC, the Ark is mentioned off and on in various books of the Bible. Then somewhere in the time period between the tenth and sixth centuries BC, the references to it end. It simply is not mentioned again. There is no indication of where it was kept, where it went, how it was hidden... nothing. It literally vanished from existence of the written and recorded word. Besides providing a great premise for the first Indiana Jones film, Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Ark has inspired many modern-day archaeologists and religious organizations to search for its present location - not knowing whether or not, of course, that is still exists. Astonishingly, some Ark hunters have claimed recently that they have found the long-lost Ark. or at least know where it currently resides - and of course... they don't all agree. In the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, swashbuckling archaeologist Indiana Jones locates the long-missing Ark of the Covenant in the snake-filled Well of Souls. He then loses it again to the hands of the Nazis who have orders to deliver it directly to the occult-obsessed Adolf Hitler, who believes the Ark will make his army invincible.
All complete fiction, of course. But the search for the vessel that supposedly contains the shattered remains of the tablets on which was written the original Ten Commandments (by the finger of God, according to the Bible) is a real one. Its true location has been the subject of speculation, tireless research, and digging by archaeologists and treasure hunters alike for centuries. Certainly, if it were ever found and confirmed as being genuine, it would be considered the greatest archaeological discovery of all time, especially because of the extraordinary paranormal powers it is said to possess.
Most recently, several researchers have come forward to claim that they have actually found or at least know the true location of the lost Ark. One mention of the location of the Ark in the Bible is in II Maccabees 2:5: "And when Jeremy came thither, he found an hollow cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle, and the Ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door." The cave mentioned is in mount Nebo in Jordan, and many believe that it is still there. Whether or not this is being explored, no one save the explorers knows for sure. According to "The Ark of the Covenant: Present Location and Importance", the Ark was hidden by the prophet Jeremiah at God's instruction. He moved it out of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, its former resting place, because God knew it would be looted and destroyed. When the Temple was rebuilt, many thought that the Ark would be returned to this Second Temple's Holy Guardroom. But, according to "Where Is the Ark of the Covenant?", "when the Roman General Pompey conquered Jerusalem around 63 B.C., he demanded the privilege of entering the Holy of Holies. When he did, he came out saying that he could not understand what all the interest was about the sanctuary, when it was only an empty room." Many believe the Ark exists right in the center of Israel. Again according to "Where Is the Ark of the Covenant?", "A view that has predominated in rabbinic circles is that the Ark was hidden in a cave beneath the Temple Mount in the very heart of Israel. The theory goes that the priests hid the Ark beneath the Temple Mount, perhaps as early as during the time of King Josiah." The work of Biblical archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer is summarized at Where Has the Lost Ark of the Covenant Been? And his research also points to the Temple Mount. And while he has conducted many excavations of the site of the area, the Supreme Moslem Council, which has authority over the Temple Mount area itself, "has been unwilling to allow any archaeological excavations. This is partially due to their desire to keep any evidence of an ancient Jewish temple from being found on their holy site."
Ron Wyatt claimed to have found the Ark of the Covenant, but was never allowed to provide the conclusive evidence. In 1978, according to his story, Wyatt was walking along the Calvary Escarpment in Israel when he inexplicably raised his left arm and pointed to a site being used as a trash dump and said, "That's Jeremiah's Grotto, and the Ark of the Covenant is buried in there." Amazingly, he was given permission to dig in the area and, after many trips and hours of digging; on January 6, 1982 Wyatt found and entered the cave that he believes contains the Ark of the Covenant. In fact, he claims to have actually seen the Ten Commandments stones, which "look as if someone wrote in soft butter with their fingers and then turned them to stone."
Unfortunately, Ron Wyatt died before he was able to prove his claims. In his book The Sign and the Seal, archaeologist Graham Hanthingy contends that the Ark resides in a chapel in Axum, a city in the Ethiopian highlands, and is guarded by a dedicated monk sworn to protect it. According to the story related to Hanthingy by the guardian monk, the Ark was stolen from the Temple by Menelik (the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba) and Azarius (son of Zadok, the High Priest of Israel) and taken to Ethiopia, where it has been ever since. "Are you telling me that this legend is literally true?" Hanthingy asks the monk. "It is not a legend," the monk replies. "It is history." What would it mean to the world if the Ark of the Covenant were actually found and revealed? Would it be paraded around the globe like the treasures of King Tutankhamun? Or, as many fundamentalist Christians believe, will it be revealed soon as advent of the Second Coming and, with its supernatural powers, be used in the apocalyptic Battle of Armageddon to help usher in a new age?
Or are the Ark and its legendary paranormal powers merely the stuff of religious myth? Perhaps we will never know. Should it ever be found though, who is to say who will find it, and to what ends it will be put. Indeed, if it is as earthshaking as some believe, then it could destroy nations with little trouble.
Wikipedia Page
Arkcovenant.net
Domini.org
Christian Answers
Further Reading
Searching for the Ark of the Covenant: Latest Discoveries and Research by Randall Price
The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant: The True History of the Tablets of Moses by Stuart Munro-Hay
Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant by Graham Hancock
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