Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion

Is the Ark of the Covenant located inside
the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Ethiopia?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3accee361ca8.jpg[/atsimg]

St. Mary of Zion claims to contain the original Ark of the Covenant. According to tradition, the Ark came to Ethiopia with Menelik I after visiting his father King Solomon. Only the guardian monk may view the Ark[1], in accordance with the Bible accounts of the dangers of doing so for non-Kohanim. This lack of accessibility, and questions about the account as a whole, has led foreign scholars to express doubt about the veracity of the claim. The guardian monk is appointed for life by his predecessor before the predecessor dies. If the incumbent guardian dies without naming a successor, then the monks of the monastery hold an election to select the new guardian. The guardian then is confined to the chapel of the Ark of the Covenant for the rest of his life, praying before it and offering incense. Agreeing with ancient sources about a magnificent light emitted from the Ark, the History Channel in a 2008 special claimed that many of the guardian monks have died in short time, mostly with cataracts having formed in their eyes.

Source: Wikipedia

For a long time the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia has claimed to house the very Ark of the Covenant which the prophet Mosjeh (Moses) was ordered by God to build to contain the two tabots (tablets) containing the Ten Commandments. Apparently it was lost several times and possibly rebuilt maybe as many as three times or more up throughout the ages until it dissapeared leaving only mysteries of it's hidden location. Or maybe not. Perhaps it rests in Ethiopia....

According to Jewish tradition, the original Ark was lost during the sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC, but the Ethiopians claimes it was taken to the Ethiopian town of Aksum as early as about 1000 BC during the reign of king Menelik I, a son from a supposed union between Solomon (the elusive king of Israel and Judah who is believed to have reigned between 970-930 BC) and the perhaps even more mysterious Queen of Sheba (Sjabah). Apparently a group of Israeli priests who had accompanied Menelik on his way home after a visit to his father, stole the Ark and brought it to Ethiopia without Menelik's knowledge, but since he had survived, he reasoned that it must have been God's will, and thus didn't do anything to return it. Even today, priests and monks related to the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum, in the Northern highlands of Ethiopia, are believed to be of Kohenim descent.

According to the patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, called His Holiness Abuna Paulos, with some 40 million adherents worldwide, who was installed as patriarch in 1992, Ethiopia has gone through, quote:

"1,000 years of Judaism, followed by 2,000 years of Christianity, and that's why our religion is rooted in the Old Testament. We follow the same dietary laws as Judaism, as set out in Leviticus. Parents circumcise their baby boys as a religious duty, we often give Old Testament names to our boys and many villagers in the countryside still hold Saturday sacred as the Sabbath."

Source: Keepers of the Lost Ark?

So the question remains: Is the Ark of Covenant resting inside a Judaist Christian chapel not far from the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia? Rumors have it that many of the guardians have lost eyesight and diesd due to light emitting from the Ark and tradition wants it that the power of the Ark has hewn 500 ton, 80 feet tall stone steles, erecting them without the need of human labour. What is the Ark, beyond being a casket to hold the Ten Commandments? Can it really win wars and bring fire from Heaven to eradicate it's keepers' enemies in an instance and destroy whole cities? Sounds like scary scenarios of God-like proportions. Is it a nuclear devise, a static electricity cannon or simply a golden (or wooden) chest containing two stone tablets and a few stone frogs?

[edit on 3/4/2010 by Neo Christian Mystic]

It is difficult for any of us to comment what exactly is inside that church. The Ethiopian Church is not allowing anybody except their High Priest to even look inside the Church. At least the Catholic Church has allowed various individuals from time to time to examine the Shroud of Turin and conduct tests on it.

reply to post by hotpinkurinalmint


Indeed. But the Torah denies non-Kohanim to approach it, and only a single man is allowed to see it, a guardian who is either chosen by his predecessor or by a certain quorum of priests and monks, and who is not allowed to leave the premesis until he dies. Sounds like a terrible destiny. His obligation includes constant praying and burning of holy incence from dusk till dawn. Guess he must feel abandoned and alone in the presence of our Lord's Law, though the job has a slight exclusiveness over it. Wonder if these guardians may say no to being elected....

[edit on 2/4/2010 by Neo Christian Mystic]

i would think that if the ark of the covenant had ever been in ethiopia, the vatican would have sent armies to fetch it to rome. They believed and still believe that they are the one true christian religion and the only way to salvation, so they wouldnt fear the orthodox priests cautions if there ever were any. Well thats my opinion anyway

reply to post by Neo Christian Mystic


I saw a recent TV show on it. People are allowed to come up to the fence surrounding the Church and talk to the guardian. In this regard, I do not think he is very lonely because he probably gets many visitors. You are right though, it takes a special kind of person who is willing to pretty much give up his life to take that job.

reply to post by cosmodromia tis parnasida


Nobody, except one person on earth, knows what is in that church. We only have his word to rely on, and its not like the heads of churches never cover up things.

Even if the man is honest, it does not necessarily mean somebody in the past was not. There could very well be a very old relic in that church. That relic could have come from King Solomon's temple, or it could be something a fraud made that has passed for the real thing.

reply to post by cosmodromia tis parnasida


Well, I'm not as much concerned by the Vatican, but how on Earth the nazis didn't obtain it is a mystery to me, they must have known about it and Hitler et al were obsessed with religious relics, like the Vienna Lance AKA the Spear of Destiny etc. The Vatican, though pope John Paul prayed infront of it, has never canonised the Shroud of Turin for instance, so I don't understand why they would wage wars to cease another artifact of the Faith.

reply to post by hotpinkurinalmint


Yes, I'm aware of that. But I still find his job to be quite a lonely one. Wonder what his family feels about the whole thing.... Was it the show on History Channel Wikipedia mentions you saw?

[edit on 2/4/2010 by Neo Christian Mystic]

It is said that every Guardian of the 'Ark' of the Covenant (whether the one inside is the original' or maybe a later or a contemporary copy of an original model, or perhaps there were many of these devices in existence from before the Exile (BCE 587) when many Temples to YHWH and other clan-gods existed in Palestinian-Israelite lands, who knows) develops 'cataracts of the eyes and other eye-related diseases' after a few years being in front of the object, which is generally kept draped in thick persian-rug like woven cloth material (i.e. hidden).

The few interviews these Guardians have given since 1920 over the years have included phrases like, 'the Ark is a fearful thing of immense awe that must not be tampered with and can only be approached by a male virgin priest Guardian who is wholly without male carnal sexual lusts....'

Whatever that means....

Interestingly, there is no longer a mention of the existence of the Ark after the c. 55 year reign (c. 687BCE to 642 BCE) of the southern clan chiefdom of Manasseh of Judah - and oral history seems to indicate that since Manasseh worshipped cannanite deities e.g. the merman fish god Dagon and also Chemosh and Astarte and Ben-Hadad and Molech other non Yahwistic clan-gods & goddesses, the older Hezekiah era Priests of YHWH took the 'Ark' into Elephantine Island in Egypt (where a mini shrine was built, complete with a holy of holies) which lasted until at least 400 AD. Ruins at Elephantine show that not only YHWH and his ark were there, but also plaques were found stating phrases like:

"This Temple Shrine is Sacred to YHWH and his Asherah and also to Ba'al, who is their Divine Son...'

which co-relates to what we know of the worship of YHWH alongside other clan gods ('monolatry' i.e. YHWH at the head of a pantheon of gods/goddeses) in the socalled 1st Solomonite Jerusalem temple (King Jedediah aka 'Solomon' married several foreign wives for political reasons with other tribal neighbouring clans around Palestine (including, rarely, at least one Egyptian princess !) who brought their clan gods and goddesses with them, and he built shrines to them, including shrines to sodomite priests too (the so-called 'QEDESHIM' or 'holy ones' i.e. cultic male prostitutes, later outlawed by Ezra's reform c. 480 BCE after the Return from Babylon, when the other clan gods and goddesses and sodomites apart from YHWH's priests had to flee the country) ...

Whatever this Ark of the Covenant (haA'haron haBerit) cultic thingy was, the lid alone was made from solid gold and must have weighed (if we are to believe the descriptions of this thing in the supposedly ancient Torah) nearly a tonne !

Ahar'on could mean 'powerful' or 'exalted' but also could mean something like 'lit up' as in 'glowing'.

It may have had more uses than mere decoration, especially the technical terms Kheruvim which were some kind of cultic idols (meaning lit. 'swords' or perhaps 'intercessors': later Rabinnic tradition translates Keruv as 'like a child' hence, the boyish cupid like 'Cherub' or 'boy-angel') which sat on the heavy gold lid (Kapporeth - translated 'mercy seat', but from K-F-R meaning 'to cover over' so it probably meant 'cover' in the literal sense at one time, but later had an extended meaning 'to atone for/cover over/blot out sins', 'to assuage', hence Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement)

K-F-R could also mean 'cleanse/wipe clean off' which might have something to do with the fact that animal sacrificial blood was thrown on it at certain times of the year. The 'wings' of the two gold Kheruvim idols were supposed to point towards the center of the top of the Ahar'on which kind of formed a 'seat' for YHWH.

It may have generated something akin to an electrical charge (the Kheruvim sword-weilding idols being positive/negative poles ?) and this might be the reason why priests who touched the Ark fell down dead (possibly from electrocution?) : see the earlier account of the Death of the priest Uzzah in 2 Samuel chapter 6:6-9 and the re-edited version of the story during Ezra's time in 1 Chronicles 13:10-11

reply to post by Sigismundus


As always, great elaborations on the current as on any given subject. What's your personal belief about what the golden ark was beyond being a "golden apocalypse" or a capsule for the Law Tabots? From looking at how it was designed I personally believe it was a static electrical weapon or devise capable of delivering thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of highly powerful volts. Gold leads electricity very well, and with wood being a good insulator, the two wings of the kerubim "sitting" on top of the box being capable of creating lightningbolts between them. Carrying the casket in dry sand using the shoes discribed, could in my opinion create static charges of massive force to be formed between the wings of the Kerubim, or as the Good Book explains how "God's Glory" could be seen as lightning above the Kerubim.

[edit on 2/4/2010 by Neo Christian Mystic]

I don't know about you guys, but If I was a Millionaire I would hire a team of mercenary's to breach the church and bring me its contents.

Just to see what all the fuss is about, ... I mean, people are living and dying to keep this secet, there must be something to it.

In the last interview of the guardian I saw, he refused to speak anything of an Ark. If they had it why would they not show it off to strengthen their faith, increase spirituality around the world and increase tourism.

Then I think, these are humble men, surely they care not what the world wants, .... they know they have it, and thats enough for them, .... besides if the ark was ever confirmed then someone would surely try to steal it.

Maybe they just like the way things are, nice and quiet, watching over this "Ark" for our sake, ..... or maybe their full of it !! and the very secret they hide IS that there is no ark!! and its just a tourism attraction.

The world will never know ....... less i hit the lottery.

There might actually have been two arks, a wooden box made by Mosjeh and a golden one (perhaps made much later by a certain Bezalel), as discribed by Talmudian, Rasji and Midrasj sources. And as it may be discribed in the Book of Deuteronomy:

De 10:1 At that time the LORD said to me, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden chest. 2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the chest." 3 So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4 The LORD wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me. 5 Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD commanded me, and they are there now.

It may also have contained a certain Book of the Law as discribed in Deuteronomy 31:

De 31:24 After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, 25 he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD: 26 "Take this Book of the Law and place it beside (or as in KJV "In the side of") the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness against you.

Whether it is the wooden box or the golden chest which is resting in Ethiopia is unknown. The claim is that it is the original, which may infact suggest that it may be the wooden one.

[edit on 2/4/2010 by Neo Christian Mystic]

Originally posted by Neo Christian Mystic

Whether it is the wooden box or the golden chest which is resting in Ethiopia is unknown. The claim is that it is the original, which may infact suggest that it may be the wooden one.

[edit on 2/4/2010 by Neo Christian Mystic]

One important question here is "how long would old wood survive?"
Organic material is very perishable, especially for a period of more than two thousand years.
For me, this puts an enormous question mark over any tradition that the original ark is still around.

reply to post by DISRAELI


Indeed, untreated wood disintegrates rather fast, but there are ways to treat wood making it more robust, like encapsuling it in with oil or tar and different kinds of paints etc. stopping the oxygen in the air from reaching the wood. Smoke and different heating and drying techniques can also be used to make it endure longer. Take all the wooden artifacts found in Egypt from as far back as the earliest dynasties, which are infact waay older than Mosjeh and the Ark of the Covenant. And knowing how Mosjeh was schooled by priests and scholars in the court of the Egyptian pharao, he must have known such techniques.