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 ...
Yawn...WHO CARES!?!? The Ark of the Covenant is about as relevant as a empty box of Camel Lites. The only thing that matters is that we are headed towards slavery under a New World Order.
Hey, we should consider it good that they didn't think the Ark of the Covenant was a boat. ;)
Actually, the Ark may be in my mother-in-law’s purse. Everything else that gets lost seems to end up there.
The gold and silver items from the Temple treasury were actually preserved by Nebuchadnezzer after 586 BC.
They were given to the folks who were allowed by Darius and Cyrus to go back to Jerusalem starting in 536 BC. In Daniel chapter 5, you see, in the famous chapter of the handwriting on the wall, an expression we use today, that the Temple gold implements were being used by the Babylonian king on the night his empire was taken over by the Medes and the Persians. The phrase for knees knocking together from fear also comes from this chapter.
The first deportation to Babylon of the Jews took place in 606 BC. Daniel was in that group as a teenager. As a man of 86 years old, he reminded God of the prohecy that Israel would be in Babylon for 70 years. Sure enough, God moved the Persian rulers who took over Babylon to let the Jews return to Jerusalem. As a conquered people they were not allowed to go back to their homeland and reestablish themselves as a nation.
From 536 BC the Jews rebuilt a damaged Temple, but not to its former glory as Solomon built it about 1000 BC. Herod the Great expanded the Temple prior to Christ’s birth, and the Romans are the ones who tore the Temple apart in 70 AD in fury over the rebellion of the Jews, which they put down without mercy. Jesus prophesied that this would happen—that not one stone would remain upon another fromt he Temple. Inded today, the Wailing Wall is the only remnat of the retaining wall under the Temple, as none of the original strucure has survived. In its day, the Temple of Herod was an enormous structure, not unlike the scale of the monumental buildings in Washington, DC today.
After 586 BC, we have no information as to what happened to the Ark of the Covenant. It was located in the Holy of Holies, a room that only the Chief Priest could enter, and then, only once a year. He sprinkled the blood from a spotless lamb unto the Ark. The Ark was flanked by two staues of Cherubim, a winged animal. The Chief Priest had a rope tied to his ankle and had a bell. If he died while in the Holy of Holies, then the other priests could retrieve the body by pulling it out.
Between the interior of the Temple and the Holy of Holies was a floor to ceiling cloth veil, with gold lined doors. When the doors opened, floor to ceiling, the Veil was revealed. This is the Veil that was torn from top to bottom by God when Christ died on the Cross to signify that man could come to God through Christ.
I like to think that the Ark is below the Temple somewhere, or hidden in a cave below Jerusalem somewhere. It was so sacred to the Jews that I strongly believe they took steps to hide it knowing about the Babylonian invasion.
One theory is that it is hidden below Golgotha, where the Crucifixion took place, and that Christ’s blood dripped down through the ground and fell on the hidden Ark. Sounds like a cool theory, but we will not know this side of heaven.
The Ark also contained the stone tablets that were given to Moses with the Ten Commandments, as well as other items important to the Jews wandering in the desert after they left Egypt before they got to the Promised Land.
The Ark was so holy that a man could not touch it without dying instantly. God gave very strict instructions about how it was to be carried and who could do the carrying(with poles so that no human touched it.
A fascinating subject, no doubt.
If it fell into the wrong hands, such as the wondrous hands of Barak Obama, it would become the "Holy Harbinger of Change"......
The quote provided was what I could find that came close to what I'd read. IIRC
2 Kings 24:13 "As the Lord had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed all the treasures from the temple of the Lord..."
2 Chron 36:18 "He (Nebuchadnezzar) carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord's temple..."
Both scriptures seem to indicate that the Ark was most likely taken and not hidden since both writers emphasize that "all" treasures were taken.
Very interesting point you make about he goblets, etc. Seemingly the Ark would have been around at this time as well.
Child,
That clock started on 14 May 1948 (5 Iyar, 5708).
You know this to be true, and you know that all these events are ordained and scheduled.
It is better if we speak the truth here.
MA
The ark. The shroud of Turin. The various relics of antiquity.
Interesting, but who needs them? Those whose faith is so weak that the cares of the world will consume it and them.
“The Ark, IMHO, has been stripped of its gold, and now resides in peoples gold filings and jewelry around the world - like most things gold - they keep getting melted, combined and reused.”
Wasn’t the melted down gold used for the Holy Hand Grenades?
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One of the deuterocanonical books, I think it might have been Maccabees 1, said that Jeremiah hid the ark on Mt. Nebo. That may be a late tradition, but I wonder if anybody has looked around the trans-Jordan hill country.
We don’t need the shroud or the ark for our faith, but these alleged relics are still fascinating to investigate, particularly the shroud, as it to think that it might indeed be an actual record of Jesus’ crucifixion.
Mine agrees.
Last I saw of it, it was in the Heavenly Temple.
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: Rev 11:19 KJV
It is guarded day and night by a priest whose only duty is its care. Each new priest is chosen by his predecessor; and henever leaves the chapel precinct.
One of the priests when queried, described as does the Bible. "He cites it as a thing of power"
bttt
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