Ark of the Covenant inside a church in Ethiopia?Historian’s claim of having seen the Ark disputed

Christian Post ^ | 12/12/2018 | Stoyan Zaimov

[SeekAndFind]

The search for the Ark of the Covenant has led to renewed speculation that the biblical artifact may be hidden inside a church in Ethiopia, but historians have pushed back against the theory.

Archaeologists have searched for centuries for clues and hints of where the Ark, containing the stone tablets bearing the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God, could be.

The BASE Institute has sent research teams to Ethiopia, Egypt, Israel and Rome and it believes the evidence points to Ethiopia.

Although it has not found the actual Ark, it stated, "As unusual as this may sound, the BASE team has uncovered compelling evidence that the Ark may well have been spirited up the Nile River to an eventual resting place in the remote highlands of ancient Kush–modern-day Ethiopia."

Some claim that the artifact lies specifically inside the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum, Ethiopia.

Monks serving as guardians do not allow historians and archaeologists to come investigate. The chapel is said to be "off-limits to all but a few members of the Ethiopian Christian church hierarchy, hindering any independent confirmation of their authenticity.”

Fueling the speculation are old accounts by late British scholar and historian Edward Ullendorff, who claimed to have seen the Ark inside during World War II.

Live Science spoke last week with Tudor Parfitt, who was also a professor at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, and heard Ullendorff's claim firsthand.

Parfitt, now a professor of religion at Florida International University, clarified that what Ullendorff saw in 1941, when he was a British army officer leading forces into Ethiopia, was a copy, and not the actual Ark.

Furthermore, he clarified that Ullendorff never actually believed it was the real Ark, but kept the pretense due to his work in the African country.

"He went to the Church of Mary of Zion with a couple of soldiers," Parfitt said, but Ullendorff was refused entry by the guards, who said the church is holy.

"He said, 'Well, I'm sorry, but I want to go in,'" and "he did go in with his soldiers behind him. They couldn't do anything to stop him," Parfitt explained.

"What he saw was what you find in any Ethiopian church, which is a model of the Ark of the Covenant," the professor stated.

Ullendorff privately admitted at the time that the artifact “didn't differ in any way from many arks he had seen in other churches in Ethiopia," and that it wasn’t the original biblical Ark.

Since Ullendorf continued working in Ethiopia after the war and became a personal friend of the emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, he did not want to hurt the people’s feelings and claim that the Ark inside the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion was not the real one.

Ullendorff made such an admission in a Los Angeles Times article in 1992 but hoped that Ethiopian authorities would not become aware of it. His supposed claim to have seen the real Ark was not challenged in Ethiopia itself.

In other research, archaeologists working at Shiloh in the West Bank found 10 pre-First Temple pottery jugs in July 2017, which they said could point in the direction of the Ark of the Covenant.

As the Bible describes in the Psalms and in the book of Jeremiah, Shiloh was destroyed when the Israelites were defeated by the Philistines, who stole the Ark.

"This is a very exciting find. The destruction could have been caused by the Philistine invasion and the fire that raged [at Shiloh]," Hanina Hizami, coordination officer for archaeology at the Civil Administration, said at the time.

[Petrosius]

It is possible that an ark is there, but not the Ark. There is evidence that a Jewish community in Elephantine, Egypt had built their own temple, complete with a copy of the Ark. If true, this could be the ark that is claimed to be in Ethiopia.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Still looking?

Jeremiah 3:16
“And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the LORD, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again”.

“...it shall not be made again” sounds as if it had been destroyed thousands of years ago.

[Albion Wilde]

If it’s hidden inside the church, it must be one hell’va big church!

Why? Exodus gives its exact dimensions. It was only about 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet, plus the mercy seat on top with figurines of the cherubim would have added a little height—but it could have been removed and transported separately. The whole thing could gave easily been hidden in a hay cart.

[Albion Wilde]

The exact description of the ark of the covenant is given in Exodus. It most certainly wasn’t a bowl — it was a box, like a half-sized coffin, to hold the Ten Commandments tablets and a couple of other small things.

[DesertRhino]

“”What he saw was what you find in any Ethiopian church, which is a model of the Ark of the Covenant,” the professor stated. Ullendorff privately admitted at the time that the artifact “didn’t differ in any way from many arks he had seen in other churches in Ethiopia,” “

So he knows it isn’t original because all ethiopian churches have a model of one. It would logically follow that the models would look like the original. The real one is out there somewhere, Ethiopia is a pretty good candidate.

[DesertRhino]

“Everyone loves a good tourist attraction, especially one that never has to be seen.”

Except they haven’t promoted it and do nothing to support tourism.

[Albion Wilde]

Note: the Person speaking is God, giving the instructions and specifications to Moses, who later wrote it down. "They" refers to Israelite craftsmen under Moses' direction. A cubit is about a foot and a half:

Exodus 25:10-22 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Ark of the Testimony
10 “And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side. 13 And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them. 15 The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you.

17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. 18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. 20 And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. 21 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. 22 And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.

This is an artist's conception of how such an ark would look:

[Tanniker Smith]

We need to have Top Men look into it.

[Blurb2350]

Rabvinic sources tell of two arks — the gaudy golden Ark of the Covenant that everyone’s familiar with, and an Ark of War. The Ark of War was the drum Parfitt believes he traced to a small museum in Africa. The Lemba people are very proud of their Jewish heritage (and DNA tests have confirmed Semitic descent thru the male line) and believe they were given the Ark of War for safekeeping . . . and stashed it in a dusty little museum in Zimbabwe. It was this lesser-known “Ark of War” that Parfitt traced to Zimbabwe. The fancy Ark is still MIA.

[jjotto]

It seems amazing that Christians who claim the Bible is Divinely inspired and accurate would also give credence to the Axum Ark story. Something seems wrong with that.

Just FYI, here’s the Christian Post on Donald Trump:

https://www.christianpost.com/news/donald-trump-scam-evangelical-voters-back-away-cp-editorial-158813/

[Albion Wilde]

I’ve never heard of a second ark or an “ark of war”, and the only thing I could find online was a fiction book by that name. Perhaps they used the term “arc” in its generic sense, something that holds something; and the Lemba’s relic was used at a drum in warfare. Unless it was God fighting satan, hard to make a comparison between that, and the Ark of the Covenant.

[Caipirabob]

Technically I agree this could come in handy in a fight with the left. Still, would it really have any impact? Nanzi Pelosi’s face has already melted...

[Augie]

[jim_trent]

> “I’d be very curious as to what the lost 5 Commandments were about.”

I’ve always wondered about that, too. However, missing 5 commandments goes a LONG was to explain why the world is so screwed up nowadays.

[BBB333]

Nothing new here...

Read: ‘Sign and the Seal,’ a book by Graham Hancock, 1993:

https://www.amazon.com/Sign-Seal-Quest-Lost-Covenant/dp/0671865412

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SeekAndFind.

[Balding_Eagle]

That is exactly the mistake I made. And then I got terribly busy and didn’t have a chance to correct what I said.

[Petrosius]

Actually, the English word “ark” comes from the Latin “arca,” which just means box or chest.

[SunkenCiv]

Shel Silverstein did his "20 Commandments" as well, that was in 1982..

[SunkenCiv]

Shel Silverstein did his "20 Commandments" as well, that was in 1982..