If it is the real ARK of the Covenant, they’d better not touch it.
It was captured once in Old Testament times and the enemies of Israel gave it back after a few days - bad things tend to happen to those who abuse it.
The Romans may have been able to plunder it in 73AD when they sacked Jerusalem - they tortured most of the hidden Temple treasure out of the hapless Priests who were taken alive, and apparently didn’t miss much.
The Romans knew their history and no doubt were familiar with the legend of the Ark. Despite their greed for booty, hey might not have wanted to fool with it either.
Legend has it that the Knights Templar might have recovered it from under the Temple ruins and brought it back to Europe or even to North America (there is some evidence that they knew how to get here well before Columbus).
I’ve been told that the Islamics have had plenty of chances to recover it and would love to be able to defile or destroy it, but they don’t dare get near it - they know better.
This latest claim sounds like just another rumor to me, but they are all interesting.
Start in 1 Samuel, Chapter 4 and read the story for yourself.
If you have the American Standard Version, you will discover that the story ends with God smiting the possessors' of the ark with all sorts of plagues, culminating with a plague of hemorrhoids (in their dark and secret places) which led to them offering to give it back.
Being no fools, the Israelites said "How much will you pay us to take it back?" and a price was eventually established.
Other versions try to disguise the exact name of the ailment, but it is clearly hemorrhoids.
The Ark was not in the Second Temple, so it wouldn’t have been there for Romans to plunder.
If it is the real ARK of the Covenant, they’d better not touch it.
Really? A variation of the Curse of the Mummy? I submit you have been watching way too much television.
It was captured once in Old Testament times and the enemies of Israel gave it back after a few days - bad things tend to happen to those who abuse it.
This is true in one sense, that Israel abused the AoC by removing it from its place in Shiloh, taking it to the battle front because the people, like you, thought the Ark itself had autonomous supernatural powers that somehow were naturally favorable towards Israel. This is an early example of "Cargo Cult" mentality.
The Philistine captors also believed that possession of the Ark would allow them to be masters of it. They mistakenly thought that the AoC was in effect the only point of contact the Almighty Creator had with mankind. Control the Ark, you control God Himself. So in 1 Samuel 4-5 we discover that the people were clueless about God and the naturally leaned towards worshiping man made objects.
The Romans knew their history and no doubt were familiar with the legend of the Ark. Despite their greed for booty, hey might not have wanted to fool with it either.
OK, you just flat out made that up despite the historical fact that the Romans had zero respect for the things of Israel's God and were ignorant of Jewish history.
The Romans may have been able to plunder it in 73AD when they sacked Jerusalem - they tortured most of the hidden Temple treasure out of the hapless Priests who were taken alive, and apparently didn’t miss much.
Yet another piece of pure fiction contradicted by the facts. Jerusalem was plundered in 70AD, the AoC never saw any temple other than Solomon's, and the AoC was long gone at least five hundred years earlier during the prophet Jeremiah's day. Depictions of the Temple Furniture being hauled out on Titus' sacking of Jerusalem shows all kinds of things but no AoC. Josephus' description of the Temple has an empty Holy of Holiess
Antiochus Ephiphanes reportedly smashed up and broke into pieces ALL of the temple furnishings, so, yet while there was no mention of the AoC there, if it was present at that time, it would have been destroyed.
Before Antiochus, there was Nebuchadnezzar, and the inventory of the plundering of the temple does not record the AoC. The only previous sacking of the Temple is recorded in II Chronicles 12. If the Egyptian king Shishak looted the Ark then, the order of Josiah, many years later, commands the priests to put the AoC in the Temple.
2 Maccabees 2 tells us that Jeremiah instructed that the Ark be buried in a cave. That is the last we ever hear of the AoC. So your camp fire story has no merit and is quickly discredited with evidence at hand.
I’ve been told that the Islamics have had plenty of chances to recover it and would love to be able to defile or destroy it, but they don’t dare get near it - they know better.
Anybody can make up stories and sell them as fact. That is what the enemedia does to us each and every day. Some fools believe in the myth of Global Warming despite the evidence to the contrary.
This latest claim sounds like just another rumor to me, but they are all interesting.
Not really, consider our LORD's words through the prophet Jeremiah:
Jer 3:16 "Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days," says the Lord, "that they will say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of the Lord.' It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore."
Because it isn't here - "...the temple of the God was opened in heaven, and the Ark of His Covenant was seen in His temple..."
Last I checked, Greece is not heaven no matter what their Tourism and Travel board tries to tell you.
The Romans would not have found the Ark, as it disappeared when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon’s Temple. Herod’s Temple never contained it. When the Romans under Titus entered it in 70 AD, the Holy of Holies was empty.
didn’t the ark fade from reference in the old testament after the babylonians conquered israel? (rough on that part of history but have read this in the past).
The philistines seemed to have gotten a darn good dose of radiation when they tried to take/keep it.
It disappeared long before the Romans arrived on the scene, something like the mid 500s BC.
This report is from a Russian site, Grekomania.ru. I *always* have a huge dose of skepticism about info from .ru sites. .ru must stand for “rumor.”