MYSTERY OF THE LOST ARK OF THE COVENANT REVEALED

History of The Ark of the Covenant
--Some facts, reasoning, overviews, references and links.

1. Did The Ark exist?

In the Tanach, also called "The Old Tesatment", The Ark is mentioned there about 203 times. A number of name variations are used, including The Ark, Ark of Witness, Ark of the Covenant, Ark of the Covenant of the God, Ark of the Lord, Ark of the God of Israel.

For the linguist, we note that 178 of the times Ark is spelled in hebrew with a "vov" and in 25 times without a "vov".

My point is that with that quantity of references, The Ark is unlikely to be only a literary device, and that some form of Ark did exist!
The real mystery is that after so many references, The Ark is lost and not mentioned again.

2. Significant of The Ark in context .

A very good exposition of the function of The Ark is found in the book,"Exploring Exodus -- The Origins of the Biblical Israel", by Nahum M. Sarna,Schocken Books,1986&1996, pages 209-211.

After some background, Nahum say," In the Israelite Tabenacle there was no actual throne, only the boxlike Ark with its tables of stone inside it and its cherubim on top of it -- an abiding reminder both of the invisible presence of the soverign God and of His inescapable demands upon his people."

The concept of an Ark in the form described in Exodus 37 may have antecedents in Egyptian designs (see pictures from the Treasure of the Tomb of Tut-ankh-amun as found by Howard Carter)

A new book by Grierson & Munroe-Hay, The Ark of the Covenant, explores the notion of multiple arks and/or ark copies in later religions of the middle-east and Ethiopia.

3. Hiding of The Ark

In the second book of Macabbees chapter 2, there is the story of Jeremiah hiding The Ark and other temple stuff.".....as he went forth into the mountain, where Moses climbed up, and saw the heritage of God. And when Jeremy came there, he found an hollow cave, in which he placed the tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so closed up the opening."

This appears to be the source of the interest in Mt Nebo as a hiding place, because of the tradition of Mt Nebo being where Abraham, Moses, and later Jesus viewed the land of Israel.

The more interesting passage follows immediately in lines 6 & 7:
"And some of those that followed him came to mark the way, but they could not find it. When Jeremiah realized this, he criticised them, saying, As for that place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather his people again together.."

This episode can be viewed in many ways. As a literary device, it explains why all those items are still lost. As a cautionary tale, it says that the people who looked in those days when the trail was still warm could not find it, so do not bother looking today. As a clue, it says that the area around the hiding place looked different between leaving it and later going back-- such as a winding twisting wadi might to a city dweller.

4. A Talmudic reference to The Hidden Ark

In the Talmud there is a curious tale about The Ark after it was hidden away.
A simple translation of the hebrew is:

An incident with a priest who was working (in the temple).
Who saw that the floor (tile) was different from its neighbors.
Came and told his friend.
Did not finish speaking the word when his spirit left him( e.g. he died)
And that is how they especially knew that there the Ark was hidden.

The tale is curious because of what was not said. Telling the tale alone did not cause death, because that friend told someone, etc., until the tale was recorded in the Talmud. If one floor tile was visibly different than another, then other should have been able to see it once they knew to look. Was the priest psychic / prophetic and that is why he saw a difference that other could not see? The rabbis added a comentary that the priests death was really because he was physically defective and thus should not have been working in the temple -- a justification, rather than an explanation.

My view is that this incident is really a cautionary tale -- warning that searching and telling can be a very unhealthy career move.

5. My Timeline For The Lost Ark Mystery

There is no agreement among the various self-proclaimed experts on the key events in the time history of the Ark of the Covenant. However a timeline is useful to understand when the different theories diverge.

Moses told Bezalel to create the Ark
- Alterantive: Moses copied an earlier Ark in Egypt.
Ark stays in First Temple built by Solomon, son of David.
- Alternative: Queen of Sheba's son, Menelik, stole real ark, left copy behind, and went to Ethiopia.
Egyptian King Shishak took temple treasury -- 925 BCE
- Implies look in nearest Egyptian Temple.
- Theory advanced by Michael Sanders.
Ark hiding place built into design of First Temple
- Late Rabbi Getz saw The Ark under Temple Mount
- Ron Wyatt saw The Ark near Calvary
Jeremiah or Others hid it away from city of Jerusalem
- Vendyl Jones archaelogy dig in cave near Qumran on Dead Sea
- Look around Dead Sea
- Search by Oren P. Purcell in Jordan
Babelonia destroyed First Temple in 576 BCE
Rome destroyed Second Temple in 70CE
- Titus Arch shows Candelabra as spoil from Temple
- Vatican inherited much of Roman spoils.
Knights Templar founded in 1112 CE
- They controlled temple mount for a while
- Claim Templars moved Ark to France
- Claim Ark then went to Roslyn Chapel in Scotland

6. Arrange ideas by geographic distance from Jerusalem

Jerusalem & Vicinity
- Late Rabbi Getz efforts in underground passages
- Late Ron Wyatt's believers near Calvary
- Vendyl Jones dig at Qumran on Dead Sea
- Near Mount Nebo, Jordan -- work by Oren P. sPurcell
- Near Mount Nebo, Jordan -- advanced at one time by Bob Cornuke
Egypt -- Is this is a more ancient Ark than Moses's Ark?
- See work of Gerry Cannon
Ethiopia -- City of Axium
- Scholarly work of late Stuart Munro-Hay
- Popularist work of Graham Hancock
- History Channel program
Knights Templar connection with Roslyn Chapel, Scotland and with Bornholm Chapel, Denmark
England -- The Coronation Stone
Ireland -- Buried in Tara
Elsewheres: Utah? Japan?

7. Arrange ideas by who was the searcher

A very intersting listing ordered by searcher is presented by Oren Purcell.

8. Why Look for the Ark of the Covenant?

Here are three different viewpoints

"Some dig to prove the Bible is in error, and others dig to prove it true," Reggie Bollich said, "I dig just to learn."
" My kids think I'm nuts".
"Our interest does not have much to do with the finding of The Ark....
We do not believe there was ever a single, complete, object such as is described in the classical biblical account.
But I would think that many 'finders' enter the lists because of the media hype and its attendant profits, others because they see themselves as Indiana Jones, and perhaps some others, like me, are always on the search or new evidence that can corroborate, deny, improve or change our awareness of the past." -- Dr. Stuart Munro-Hay ( died Oct. 2004).
"...the discovery of the Ark... is meant to bring renewed faith in the Lord God throughout all nations of the world and all the peoples of the land.
... the expedition will be, shall be multi-national. It is coming in a time of great need of all peoples of the world to be enlightened and encouraged by the discovery of this great ark. The power within is no longer there but the essence and spirit of this power is within the ark. It no longer can be used to wreak destruction or great positiveness, except the positive imprint that all mankind will have knowing that it truly and still truly exists." -- Channeled July 10, 1992.

9. Archaeology, Ark-ology, dowsing and psychic connections

Most archaeologists shun any talk about "spirit" guidance because:
- Basic claim : good technical training, knowledge looks like intuition.
- No acknowledgement of how much is owed to unusual lucky coincidences.
- Plain ignorance of usefulness and acceptance of dowsing.
- Fear of label like "Treasure Hunter", "Pyramidiot", etc..
History note: Frederick Bligh Bond did archaeology at Glastonbury Abbey, England (1907-1922). He used automatic writing sucessfully for 10 years until the Church learned of it and stopped it.
History note: Saga of Montague Parker's dig in Jerusalem (1909-1911) based on information from " an Irish clairvoyant". Dig ended with riots under Dome of the Rock and Parker fleeing back to England.
- History replay: Rabbi Getz dig under Dome of the Rock in July 1981 also stopped with riots.
Extreme Claims of Ron Wyatt make many extremely skeptical;
- Found Noah's Ark, Sodom & Gemorah, Red Sea Crossing Point
- Saw Ark of Covenant, Table for Showbread, Scrolls by Moses
- And more claims of discovery.
For those not familiar with the basics of dowsing, see Letter To Robin on the web site of the American Society of Dowsers (ASD).

10. Is The Ark Hidden under the Temple Mount?

Many people speculate that under the Temple Mount, with all its caves and quarries, there is The Ark. You can get currently visit Zedekiah"s cave in Jerusalem (entrance opposite the bus stop in the old city) , " a small natural cave until the Second Temple Period when it was enlarged into a huge subterranean stone quarry extending under the houses of the Old City. This quarry supplied the stone for many magnificaent buildings in Jerusalem and according to common belie, was used to contruct the First Temple. Hence the nickname King Solomon"s Quarries." That cavern has a connection to a long, narrow natural cave (complete with brick walls and archery ports) rumored to extend down to the Dead Sea area.

All that speculation ignores one historical fact: the crusaders were in control of Jerusalem for a fair number of years, and would have looked in all the obvious spots. for "the holy grail", considered by some as a code for "The Ark of the Covenant".

There is an interesting tale of a search beneath the Temple Mount that nearly set off a religious war-- that occured almost 90 years ago. The story is found in "Digging for God & Country -- exploration, Arcaeology and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land, 1799-1917," by Neil Asher Silberman, published by Alfred A. Knoff, 1982. Chapter 17 (p180-188) is the story of Captain Montague Brownslow Parker and his search in Jerusalem in 1909-1911.

The story of more recent efforts to search beneath the Temple Mount can be found in "The Lost Ark and the Last Days --In Search of Temple Treasures ," by Randall Price, Harvest House Publishers, 1994.

11. Searching around the Dead Sea!

The finding of the Dead Sea scrolls has put a lot of attention on the caves of that area. A good reference to that area is,"The Dead Sea -- Myth History and Politics" , by Barbara Kreiger, Brandeis University Press, 1988,1997.

The excavation work of Vendyl Jones at one of the Qumran caves is based on his interpretation of the copper scroll and his knowledge of the topology in that one area.

Of particular note is Vendyl Jone's web page Door of Hope . There you will find a Talmudic reference to the major holy objects missing from the second temple and that

" prophets Haggai, Zechariah and their companions ...did not return those Holy items."

Also, there is mention to the documentEmek Ha Melech written in 1648, which matches the Marble Tablets found in Lebanon except for the introduction which says,

"These records were written by five righteous men. They are Shimur HaLevi, Hizkiyah, Zidkiyah, Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah the son of Ido the Prophet. They hid and concealed the vessels of the Holy House and the wealth of the treasures that were in Jerusalem ...".

Oren P Purcell has an interesting claim to discovery in 1975 near Mount Nebo, Jordan on his web site

12. Cautions for today's Ark searchers

A small concern of all is that the searcher is considered very odd or just plain crazy. Searching itself requires caution. A larger concern is what happens if you do find something.

There are health risks to incautious meandering around the Dead Sea. Many caves have been used to shelter sheep and goats, whose dung may harbor various diseases. There are old minefields, from the various wars with still active mines, whose locations may have shifted in the infrequent but torrential rain.

The reality of that area of the Middle East is that there are people around, even in the desert. Nothing happens unobserved. For example, a local child watching a flock of goats knows that watching what a bunch of foreigners are doing is more interesting and potentially more profitable. And the story of treasure seekers he relates to his elders may be mythical, but believed. For example, an archaeologist advances the theory on a Discovery TV program that King Shishak got the ark, and points to a building in the Palestinian territories as a likely hiding spot. When the archaeologist and cameraman leave the area, what do you think happened?

Poor locals are always looking to find something they can sell for a lot on the antiquity market. They are more sophisticated than a hundred years ago when the Madaba stone was broken up looking for the hidden gold within. Metal detectors are illegal in most of that area, but do exist. Governments make promise of compensation for any archaeological find, but from past performance local people are very skeptical. Prosecution is more likely than compensation from proper disclosure.

A real concern is that good intentions can still lead to vandalism of historical and religious important sites. When the Copper scroll was discovered, its contents was immediately dismissed as fantasy, specifically to avoid setting off a treasure hunt. Some proponents of the theory that the ark ended buried with the Irish kings' tomb at Tara, Ireland want to have Tara ripped open.

Also, forget any idea that the Israeli government would jump at the opportunity to help discover important items from the First Temple, never mind the Ark of the Covenant. The reality of Israeli partisan politics is a strong desire not to risk upsetting the current status quo, a balance of domestic power between religious and non-religuous groups. Plus there are international power minefields to avoid. See the movie: The Body (2001) for some credible historical fiction about what could happen with religiously important finds.

13. To where does all this knowledge lead?

Assume that all elements of psychic power have left the Ark by now -- finding the Ark could still result in ( take your pick):

a) Peaceful, but commercial Disney-world-style "ark park". The husksters take over.
b) Religious denominations fights over ownership. The true believers move in, and claim it for their particular interpretation of what is valid faith.
c) Physical terrorism to destroy any increase in legitimacy of one religion.
d) Government(s) step in, and nothing happens for generations, except talk and courtroom appearances.

An alternate postulate is that some element of psychic energy is still guarding the location of the Ark.
In that case, we shall have to wait until the time, place, people are right to uncover it.


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