Posted on 02/22/2008 2:35:00 PM PST by blam
A Lead on the Ark of the Covenant
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008
By DAVID VAN BIEMA
The Ark of the Covenant is carried into the Temple
When last we saw the lost Ark of the Covenant in action, it had been dug up by Indiana Jones in Egypt and ark-napped by Nazis, whom the Ark proceeded to incinerate amidst a tempest of terrifying apparitions. But according to Tudor Parfitt, a real life scholar-adventurer, Raiders of the Lost Ark had it wrong, and the Ark is actually nowhere near Egypt. In fact, Parfitt claims he has traced it (or a replacement container for the original Ark), to a dusty bottom shelf in a museum in Harare, Zimbabwe.
As Indiana Jones's creators understood, the Ark is one of the Bible's holiest objects, and also one of its most maddening McGuffins. A wooden box, roughly 4 ft. x 2 ft. x 2.5 ft., perhaps gold-plated and carried on poles inserted into rings, it appears in the Good Book variously as the container for the Ten Commandments (Exodus 25:16: "and thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee"); the very locus of God's earthly presence; and as a divine flamethrower that burns obstacles and also crisps some careless Israelites. It is too holy to be placed on the ground or touched by any but the elect. It circles Jericho behind the trumpets to bring the walls tumbling down. The Bible last places the Ark in Solomon's temple, which Babylonians destroyed in 586 BC. Scholars debate its current locale (if any): under the Sphinx? Beneath Jerusalem's Temple Mount (or, to Muslims, the Noble Sanctuary)? In France? Near London's Temple tube station?
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
— “That painting is NOTHING at all like the biblical description of the ark of the covenant.” —
http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2008/0802/ark_covenant_0215.jpg
Don’t you trust Time as a reference?
The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Ethiopia claims they have it. Of course now that we have technology to test authenticity, they are keeping it secreted away from all but one monk.
John saw the Ark in heaven in Revelations, Chapter 12, I think. It appears right before the woman clothed with the sun and with the crown of stars.
There’s something about the Ark’s recovery that ties into the end of days prophecy from what I remember. I think they’re avoiding enticing Iran’s whacko President for the time being.
The ark may be the single most fascinating object described in ancient/pre-classical times. Many of the powers attributed to it read like a bronze age people attempting to describe advanced technology/power.
The relics in the temple were expressly referenced in Daniel (?) -— the “writing on the wall episode” where the Babylonian King is using the gold/silver implements for a dinner party.
I would assume he got the while lot, including the Ark itself.
The Ark, IMHO, has been stripped of its gold, and now resides in people’s gold filings and jewelry around the world -— like most things gold -— they keep getting melted, combined and reused.
The real treasure — the tablets -— were cast aside and trod underfoot. I would not be suprised to find them used as bricks in some stone wall somewhere.
Seen lots of cherubim, have you?
J/k
As a theologian, the importance of the Ark is that if it is found it would be cause to rebuild the Temple on the Mount for its housing. That would precipitate events that would start the clock ticking toward the Apocalypse and Armageddon.
That is one interpretation. There are others. You decide.
by a M.Div grad
It could destroy the space time continuum unraveling the very fabric of the universe. But that would be a worst case scenario.
He did something similar with the bronze snake mentioned in Numbers 21:8-9
It had to be destroyed because the Israelites started worshipping it.
i thought it was in Ethiopia...
This is a more than adequate explanation.
When pondering theology, ask a theologian. My mother's cousin teaches at the Catholic University in Washington after studying for 4(?) years at the Vatican. Unfortunately I have no way of contacting him.
didn't see your post... thankx for the link.
2 Kings 18:3-4
I’m not sure how much gold we’re talking about. The Ark was made out of wood which was covered with gold.
Perhaps the most stunning example of an oopart may be one of history's most powerful and enigmatic symbols. The Ark of the Covenant, designed in accordance with God's (very specific) instructions to transport the Ten Commandments, came with strong warnings. It was to be approached only at certain times, by certain peoples (the Levite priests, and handled in very specific ways. Failure to do so could result in highly fatal eruptions of power that destroyed unwary Israelites as often as it routed enemy armies and aided in sieges. Intrigued by the dry and almost technical nature of the Bible's description of building the ark, a number of individuals (most notably author Richard Andrews, in a 1999 issue of the Daily Mail) have become convinced that the Ark is in actuality a technological artifact -- a capacitor, to be specific, capable of collecting and storing energy. This not only explains the burns and ill effects suffered by those who get to close or handle it inexpertly, but also the nature of many of the materials used in its construction (gold to serve as a conductor, acacia wood to serve as an insulator).
"If the Israelites had set out to construct a primitive accumulator, they could hardly have picked a better design than the Ark," said Andrews in his article. Electrical prodigy Nikola Tesla apparently agreed, allegedly saying in 'Wall of Light', a book co-written with Arthur Matthews, and published in 1940, "Moses was undoubtedly a practical and skillful electrician far in advance of his time. The Bible describes precisely, and minutely, arrangements constituting a machine in which electricity was generated by friction of air against silk curtains, and stored in a box constructed like a condenser."
I had read something about this way back. Makes sense really. A perfect anti-theft device for the tablets.
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