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Ark of the Covenant Story was Bad Translating, Hype
The Catholic Key Blog ^ | June 26, 2009 | Jack Smith

Posted on 06/26/2009 2:45:21 PM PDT by monkapotamus

World Net Daily reported late Wednesday that Patriarch Pauolos of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church would reveal to the world the true Ark of the Covenant today, Friday, June 26. Pauolos is reported to have said in Rome, excerpt:

Abuna Pauolos, in Italy for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this week, told the news agency, "Soon the world will be able to admire the Ark of the Covenant described in the Bible as the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses and the center of searches and studies for centuries."

The announcement is expected to be made at 2 p.m. Italian time from the Hotel Aldrovandi in Rome. Pauolos will reportedly be accompanied by Prince Aklile Berhan Makonnen Haile Sellassie and Duke Amedeo D'Acosta.

It is currently about 7:00 p.m. in Rome and no ark.

I've been trying to track down whether and to what extent this is a hoax. The World Net Daily article is based on a report from from a news agency in Italy, Adnkronos. The first problem with the WND report is that what they report as the Patriarch's words is actually only the original Italian article's lede:
Roma, 17 giu. (Adnkronos) - Presto il mondo potrà ammirare l'Arca dell'Alleanza descritta nella Bibbia come il contenitore delle Tavole della Legge che Dio consegnò a Mosè e al centro, nei secoli, di ricerche e studi.

Secondly, the Italian article is dated June 17, so the forthcoming Friday was June 19, not today.

Patriarch Pauolos actually did have a press conference June 19 where according to Adnkronos, he backed off saying:
Non sono qui per dare delle prove che l'Arca sia in Etiopia, ma sono qui per dire quello che ho visto, quello che so e che posso testimoniare. Non ho detto che l'Arca sarà mostrata al mondo. E' un mistero, un oggetto di culto.

Or roughly:
I am not here to give evidence that the Ark is in Ethiopia, but I am here to say what I saw, what I know and I can testify. I did not say that the Ark will be shown to the world. It is a mystery, an object of worship.

Hat tip to blogger Richard Bartholomew for finding the second report from Adnkronos.

The original World Net Daily story was a matter of bad translation and not even looking at datelines. The story got legs, Bartholomew reported in previous posts, because of Christian Zionists eager to hasten the Second Coming. I would also note that WND was hawking a two DVD set on the ark along with the story.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: ark; arkofthecovenant; wnd
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To: eastforker

You said — Oh come on now, everyone here knows you are an alien shill trying to discredit alien sighting...

Hey, I’ve been called a shill for a lot of other things, but this is a first for “aliens”... LOL...


21 posted on 06/26/2009 3:52:50 PM PDT by Star Traveler (The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a Zionist and Jerusalem is the apple of His eye.)
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To: monkapotamus

I try find another story to vertify it Monk couldn’t I do go on other news wires


22 posted on 06/26/2009 4:06:59 PM PDT by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us, resistence is futile")
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To: Star Traveler

I have a buddy who completely believes in chemtrails among other retarded stuff.
well look at two planes in the sky giving off different looking trails and he’ll point out the one spraying us with the “chems”.


23 posted on 06/26/2009 6:05:38 PM PDT by mowowie
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To: mowowie

Yeah, I kinda wonder where that whole idea would be without the Internet... LOL...

Oh... one more conspiracy... I hear the Internet is rewiring all our brains, too... :-)


24 posted on 06/26/2009 6:07:52 PM PDT by Star Traveler (The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a Zionist and Jerusalem is the apple of His eye.)
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To: monkapotamus

As usual, FreeRepublic cracked a hole on this WND story hours before the others:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2279094/posts?page=107#107

And I’m taking full credit, darnit!!


25 posted on 06/26/2009 7:35:49 PM PDT by Claud
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To: freedumb2003

I read somewhere today that a guy named freedumb2003 is due to win the lottery tomorrow. ;)


26 posted on 06/26/2009 7:48:37 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: monkapotamus
Hat tip to blogger Richard Bartholomew for finding the second report from Adnkronos.

Actually, that was me, who actually went looking through the Adnkronos website and did a search for "Arca," which turned up the original story and the follow-up story prominently tagged with last week's dates.

It's the old story of the lowly Freeper doing the go-back-to-the-original research that the press won't do anymore.

Feelin' underappreciated much Claud? The answer is yes. Yes I am.

27 posted on 06/26/2009 7:51:49 PM PDT by Claud
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To: monkapotamus
The story got legs, Bartholomew reported in previous posts, because of Christian Zionists eager to hasten the second Coming.

No one nor event can "hasten" the second coming. Jesus Christ IS coming again some day, you will get no argument from me about that. But that day was chosen and chiseled in celestial stone before time itself was created, and nothing anyone can do or say will "hasten" it's arrival. No one knows when it will be, and Jesus said that no one can learn when it will be. If anyone predicts a date for Christ's return, that prediction itself is a guarantee that the predicted day will NOT be the day on which He returns.

I love my evangelical Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, but I wish they would stop jumping at every vague "sign" that they see or hear which in their minds indicates that the return of Jesus Christ to earth is only a few days, or weeks, or at most a few months, away. Jesus himself said that no man knows or will be allowed to learn the point in time at which He will return to earth to first destroy the armies of AntiChrist, and then to set up His global millennial Kingdom of perfect justice, peace, and plenty that he will rule over from His throne in Jerusalem.

I personally believe that the dearth of information in the New Testament concerning the time of His return is meant to persuade Christians to be ready to meet Him at any given moment without constantly searching for "signs" of His return. My current tagline is excerpted from the next to last verse in the New Testament. According to Dr. James Strong's Greek Dictionary, the Greek word in the original autograph that is translated "quickly" in most English versions of the Apocalypse can just as properly be translated "suddenly", or "by surprise". "Soon" doesn't normally refer to a 1900 year wait. Therefore if God the Father had intended for the Apostle John to say that His Son Jesus Christ would return "soon" instead of "suddenly" or "by surprise" when God the Holy Spirit dictated the book of the Revelation 19 centuries ago, Jesus would surely have returned long before now.

28 posted on 06/26/2009 11:01:33 PM PDT by epow ( Revelation 22:20; Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.)
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To: surfer
Ignore WND and don’t spend anymore time on anything they do.

I don't hold WND's veracity in high regard, but neither do I hold the veracity of the American mainstream media in high regard.

ABC has finally done all that it possibly can to hype the Obama plan for socializing the US as the only salvation for the American nation, and nothing WND can sweep up from the floor of it's editorial staff's office can top ABC for presenting sheer nonsensical fantasy as factual news reporting. Whatever happened to serious news reporting such as we once got from that epitome of truthful reporting called the National Enquirer?

29 posted on 06/26/2009 11:19:07 PM PDT by epow ( Revelation 22:20; Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.)
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To: VRWCTexan; narses; Kolokotronis; nickcarraway; NorwegianViking

ping. After the WND story came out, a number of Ethiopians online got really, really angry. But the Patriarch had debunked the story a week before.


30 posted on 06/27/2009 6:20:17 AM PDT by cmj328 (Filibuster FOCA or lose reelection)
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To: epow
No one nor event can "hasten" the second coming

Preaching the Gospel to every nation would hasten the second coming.

31 posted on 06/27/2009 7:13:22 AM PDT by cmj328 (Filibuster FOCA or lose reelection)
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To: cmj328
Preaching the Gospel to every nation would hasten the second coming.

I have to politely disagree unless you can provide a scriptural reference to verify that statement.

If God is omniscient, and He is, there can be no doubt that He knew who would be saved and who wouldn't long before He created the universe. Actually, He knew that in eternity past, which is beyond our ability to comprehend. Therefore, nothing that happens on planet Earth before Jesus Christ returns could or will take Him by surprise, including who will be the last man or woman who will accept His Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and thereby complete the Body of Christ, aka His Church.

32 posted on 06/27/2009 7:54:46 AM PDT by epow ( Revelation 22:20; Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.)
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To: monkapotamus; Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...

For those looking for the follow-up story.


33 posted on 06/28/2009 1:46:00 PM PDT by NYer ("Run from places of sin as from a plague." - St. John Climacus)
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To: NYer

Even for WND this is pretty pathetic. Italian newspapers almost always have English translations that are 100% accurate and even if it wasn’t, how can you miss the date.


34 posted on 06/28/2009 1:57:18 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: epow
I have to politely disagree unless you can provide a scriptural reference to verify that statement.

Here are 7 scriptural references. I copied and pasted from the Catechism because I'm lazy, and because I don't believe in debating theology the same way you do. But if you read the Scriptural references at the bottom, and pray before reading, I'm sure you'll find the answer you seek.

The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come upon part of Israel" in their "unbelief" toward Jesus.569 St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old."570 St. Paul echoes him: "For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?"571 The "full inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of "the full number of the Gentiles",572 will enable the People of God to achieve "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", in which "God may be all in all".573

569 Rom 11:20-26; cf. Mt 23:39.
570 Acts 3:19-21.
571 Rom 11:15.
572 Rom 11:12, 25; cf. Lk 21:24.
573 Eph 4:13; 1 Cor 15:28.

God acts on earth in many ways, including through human instruments.

35 posted on 06/29/2009 8:59:23 PM PDT by cmj328 (Filibuster FOCA or lose reelection)
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