Ark of the Covenant Discovered
The Ark of the Covenant
For centuries Historians and Archaeologist having been seeking an answer as to what happened to the Ark of the Covenant. We have also been asked many times what we think happened to the Ark. Based upon the great interest in the Ark, we have put together the following historical facts about the origins of and that last known place of this lost treasure.
The Ark of the Covenant known as the Ark of the Testimony, is describe as in Exodus as a Gold-covered chest with a lid cover. Contained within the Gold Box where two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on this. According to the King James Version in Hebrews 9:1
“Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.”
2 “For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.”
3 “And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;”
4 “Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;”
5 “And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.”
6 “Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.”
And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the Ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. Exodus 25:22
Moses was instructed to gild it entirely in gold, and a crown molding of gold to be put around it. Four rings of gold were to be attached to its four corners, two on each side—and through these rings staves of shittim-wood, again overlaid with gold for carrying the Ark were to be inserted and were not not to be removed. Finally, a golden lid was is to be placed above the Ark. .
The Bible states that its creation by Moses, the Ark was to be carried by the Israelites during their 40 years the desert. Whenever the Israelites camped, the Ark was placed in a separate room in a sacred tent, called the Tabernacle.
As Joshua let the Israelites towards the Promised Land, as they arrived at the banks of the Jordan river, the Priest accompanied the Ark as it was carried in the lead as the people followed behind. The Jordan River dried up as the Ark touched its waters of the Jordan, and remained so until the priests—with the Ark—left the river after the people had passed over to the other side. As memorial, the Israelites left twelve stones taken from the Jordan where the priests had stood.
Before the Battle of Jericho, the Ark was carried around Jericho once a day for seven straight days, led by the armed Israelites and seven priests sounding seven trumpets. On the seventh day, the seven priests after sounding the seven trumpets before the Ark was carried around the city seven times and, with a great shout, the walls of Jericho fell down down to the ground and the city was taken.
A few years later the Israelites took the Ark into battle against the Philistines, however, they were defeated with the loss of 30,000 men. The Ark was captured by the Philistines and Hophni and Phinehas were killed. The news of its capture was at once taken to Shiloh by a messenger “with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head.”
The Philistines took the Ark to number of places in their country, however, at every place they took the Ark, misfortune befell them. The Philistines, on advice from their priests, returned the Ark to the Israelites, with offerings of Gold from the Philistines
Upon hearing that God had blessed Obed-edom, a Levite, because of the presence of the Ark in his house, David had the Ark brought to Zion by the Levites. In Zion, David put the Ark in the tabernacle he had prepared for it. The Levites were appointed to minister before the Ark. When David fled from Jerusalem at the time of Absalom’s conspiracy, the Ark was carried along with him until he ordered Zadok, the priest, to return it to Jerusalem.
During the construction of Solomon’s Temple, a special inner room was prepared to receive the Ark of the Covenant and it was dedicated in the Temple. The Ark, containing the original stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, was placed in the Temple. When the priests emerged from the holy place after placing the Ark there, the Temple was filled with a cloud, “for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord”.
In 587 BC, the Babylonians destroyed both Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple. However, there is no record of what became of the Ark in the Books of Kings and Chronicles. Writings suggest that ark and other treasures of Jerusalem were taken back to Babylon.
In Rabbinic writings, the conclusion about what happened to the Ark is disputed. Some rabbis say it was carries off to Babylon, while others say the priests hid it in Jerusalem. To this day there is active discussion of what happened to the Ark of the Covenant.
Possible locations of Where the Ark Might be.
Since its disappearance from the Biblical narrative, there has been a number of claims of having discovered or of having possession of the Ark, and several possible places have been suggested for its location.
Mount Nebo
2 Maccabees 2:4-10, written around 100 BC, says that the prophet Jeremiah, “being warned by God” before the Babylonian invasion, took the Ark, the Tabernacle, and the Altar of Incense, and buried them in a cave on Mount Nebo. Mount Nebo is also described in the Bible (Deuteronomy 34) as the site from which Moses views the Promised Land, and apparently also is his final burial place. Mount Nebo is approximately 47 km (29 miles) slightly south of due east from Jerusalem, near the east bank of the Jordan River.
Ethiopia
The Chapel of the Tablet at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum allegedly houses the original Ark of the Covenant.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant, or Tabot, in Axum. The object is currently kept under guard in a treasury near the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. Replicas of the Axum tabot are kept in every Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo church, each with its own dedication to a particular saint; the most popular of these include Mary, George and Michael.
The Kebra Nagast was composed to legitimize the Solomonic dynasty, which ruled the Ethiopian Empire following its establishment in 1270. It narrates how the real Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia by Menelik I, with divine assistance, while a forgery was left in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Abu al-Makarim, writing in the last quarter of the twelfth century, makes one early reference to the belief that the Abyssinians possess also the Ark of the Covenant”, he wrote, that the liturgy is celebrated four times a year for the Ark. (1) the feast of the great nativity, (2) the feast of the glorious Baptism, (3) the feast of the holy Resurrection, and (4) the feast of the illuminating Cross.”
In his 1992 book The Sign and the Seal, British writer Graham Hancock suggests, that the Ark spent several years in Egypt before it arrived in Ethiopia via the Nile River, where it was kept in the islands of Lake Tana for about four hundred years and finally taken to Axum.
On 25 June 2009, the patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, Abune Paulos, said Ark of the Covenant had been kept safe and secure in a church in Axum, Ethiopia.
Southern Africa
The Lemba people of South Africa and Zimbabwe have claimed that their ancestors carried the Ark south, calling it the ngoma lungundu or “voice of God”, eventually hiding it in a deep cave in the Dumghe mountains, their spiritual home.
In his book The Lost Ark of the Covenant (2008), Parfitt suggests that the Ark was taken to Arabia following the events depicted in the Second Book of Maccabees, and cites Arabic sources which maintain it was brought in distant times to Yemen.
Europe
Chartres Cathedral, France
French author Louis Charpentier claimed that the Ark was taken to the Chartres Cathedral by the Knights Templar.
Rennes-le-Château, then to the United States
One author’s theory was that the Ark was taken from Jerusalem to the village of Rennes-le-Château in Southern France. Karen Ralls has cited Freemason Patrick Byrne, who believes the Ark was moved from Rennes-le-Château at the outbreak of World War I to the United States.
According to Exodus about one year after the Israelites left, the Ark of the Covenant was created according to instructions given by Moses the he received by God as the Israelites were camped out at the foot of Mount Sinai. After its creation, the gold-plated Ark was carried in front of the Israelites as they marched and before the Israelite army as they battled their enemies. The Ark was hidden under a veil made with skins and blue cloth and was concealed from all, even the from the Priests and Levites who carried it. It was said that God spoke to Moses from between the two cherubims’ on the top of the Ark, on the Ark’s cover.
As written in Exodus, God spoke to Moses while on Mount Sinai and instructed him to put the The Commandments on tablets of stone. He also gave Moses the construction plans to build the Ark of the Covenant that would house the Ten Commandments. Here is how Exodus describes it:
And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. Exodus 25:10 (translated) 2½ cubits in length, 1½ in breadth, and 1½ in height (approximately 131×79×79 cm or 52×31×31 in).
And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them. Exodus 25:14 The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it. Exodus 25:15 And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. Exodus 25:16
And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. Exodus 25:21
Rome
The Ark of the Covenant was said to have been kept in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, surviving the pillages of Rome by Alaric I and Gaiseric, but lost when the basilica burned.
“Rabbi Eliezer ben José stated that he saw in Rome the mercy-seat of the temple. There was a bloodstain on it. On inquiry he was told that it was a stain from the blood which the high priest sprinkled thereon on the Day of Atonement.
United Kingdom
In 2003, author Graham Phillips speculated that the Ark was taken to Mount Sinai in the Valley of Edom by the Maccabees. Phillips claims it remained there until the 1180s, when Ralph de Sudeley, the leader of the Templars found the Maccabean treasure at Jebel al-Madhbah, and returned home to his estate at Herdewyke in Warwickshire, England taking the treasure with him.
Ireland
During the turn of the 20th century British Israelites carried out some excavations of the Hill of Tara in Ireland looking for the Ark of the Covenant—the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland campaigned successfully to have them stopped before they destroyed the hill.
One thing we know for sure, no one can, or is unwilling, to produce the Ark of the Covenant. Excuse the pun, only “God knows” where the Ark is and maybe God wants it like that. However, what we do have Gods word today, which we all have access to. We don’t have to wonder were his word is or how to access it. It resides in many places and one of those places is right here on scourby.com. You can download that treasure right now to your phone, tablet or your computer. Don’t delay, download it today.
