Forgive our debt or the Ark gets sent to the Nazi’s!
Well maybe not the Nazi's, but the Germans will definitely have a claim to it in bankruptcy court.
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.
Nazi's, with an apostrophe, are much worse than the Nazis in WWII.