Keepers of the Lost Ark?

I guess most people know that the Ark of the Covenant has been widely claimed to be kept in Ethiopia for quite some time now.
This article on the Smithsonian magazine website adds alot more colour and detail to the story, whether you believe that is where the ark is kept or if in fact you believe that there is an Ark it still makes for fascinating reading.
It remains that there are still many unanswered questions.

Enjoy.

Keepers of the Lost Ark?

According to the First Book of Kings, King Solomon built the First Temple in Jerusalem to house the ark. It was venerated there during Solomon's reign (c. 970-930 B.C.) and beyond.
Then it vanished. Much of Jewish tradition holds that it disappeared before or while the Babylonians sacked the temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
But through the centuries, Ethiopian Christians have claimed that the ark rests in a chapel in the small town of Aksum, in their country's northern highlands. It arrived nearly 3,000 years ago, they say, and has been guarded by a succession of virgin monks who, once anointed, are forbidden to set foot outside the chapel grounds until they die.

Lake Tana

Then Abba Gebre added: "The baby Jesus and Mary spent ten days here during their long exile from Israel." It was after King Herod ordered the death of all boys under the age of 2 in Bethlehem, he said. "Would you like to see the place where they often sat?"
I followed him up a wooded path and onto a ridge where a pair of young monks were standing by a small shrine, their eyes closed in prayer. Abba Gebre pointed to the shrine. "That's where Jesus and Mary sat each day while they were here."
"What proof do you have that they came here?" I asked.
He looked at me with what appeared to be tender sympathy and said: "We don't need proof because it's a fact. The monks here have passed this down for centuries."

Gonder

As the clerics began to walk down a rocky pathway toward a piazza at the center of town (a legacy of Italy's occupation of Ethiopia in the 1930s), they were hemmed in by perhaps 1,000 more chanting and ululating devotees. At the piazza, the procession joined clerics carrying tabots from seven other churches. Together they set off farther downhill, with the trailing throng swelling into the thousands, with thousands more lining the road. About five miles later, the priests stopped beside a pool of murky water in a park.

Aksum

Ahead was a towering stele, or column, 79 feet high and said to weigh 500 tons. Like other fallen and standing steles nearby, it was carved from a single slab of granite, perhaps as early as the first or second century A.D. Legend has it that the ark of the covenant's supreme power sliced it out of the rock and set it into place.
On our way to the chapel where the ark is said to be kept, we passed Sheba's bath again and saw about 50 people in white shawls crouched near the water. A boy had drowned there shortly before, and his parents and other relatives were waiting for the body to surface. "They say it will take one to two days," Abbay said. "They know this because many other boys have drowned here while swimming. They believe the curse has struck again."

The Guardian

He wore an olive-colored robe, dark pillbox turban and sandals. He glanced warily at me with deep-set eyes. Through the bars he held out a wooden cross painted yellow, touching my forehead with it in a blessing and pausing as I kissed the top and bottom in the traditional way.
I asked his name.
"I'm the guardian of the ark," he said, with the priest translating. "I have no other name."

The mystery lingers on.

But the reality of the ark, like a vision in the moonlight, floated just beyond my grasp, and so the millennia-old mystery remained. As the devotion of the worshipers at Timkat and the monks at Tana Kirkos came back to me in the shimmering light, I decided that simply being in the presence of this eternal mystery was a fitting ending to my quest.

One thing that i find interesting is that in all the time that it has supposedly been held in Ethiopia is why it has never been captured or stolen in all that time. I mean there have been numerous wars, rebellions and changes of government in all that time.

Anyone willing to put together a team of mercenarys and drop in there in the dead of night and steal it away, surely others over the past 3000 years have thought of doing something similar, particularly if its as powerful as stated.

Was a copy purposefully sent to Ethiopia by Solomon to ensure the real Arks safety.

Is the Ark real, is it in Ethiopia, if not where?

mojo


[edit on 1/12/07 by mojo4sale]

[edit on 1/12/07 by mojo4sale]

The true Ark of the Covenant is located under the city of Jerusalem, as revealed in the book "Chosen: End Times Truths Revealed" and accompanying Newsletters that are available free on Lulu.com Here's the link if anyone's interested: Chosen Newsletters

What exactly do you believe the ark is?

a shrine?
a physical objekt?
Knowledge?
a person?

i would like to know

reply to post by mojo4sale


Apparently, (I've read a few books on this subject..) the 'Ark' has been moved occasionally in times of war to an island in a lake in the south ofthe country for safe keeping.

The story goes that Sheba had a sexual encounter with the King of Israel and begot him a son. It was that son who took the 'Ark' to Ethiopia just before the sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians...or so the story goes..

Jimbo

reply to post by Bluess



It is said to be a physical object. A small wooden box, covered in gold, that held the original '10 commandments' of Moses. Great story...however, probably pure myth.
J.

reply to post by ReginaAdonna

Nope. Apparently that's what the 'Knights Templar' believed too. But they searched for decades and never found it.

J.

Here is a link to a interesting video on this very topic video.google.com...

Hope you like

Originally posted by jimbo999

Apparently, (I've read a few books on this subject..) the 'Ark' has been moved occasionally in times of war to an island in a lake in the south ofthe country for safe keeping.

Yes it was moved to Lake Tana for approx 400 years, or so the story goes. See the second link in my OP.

I personally think its purely myth but i do love a good mystery.

Anyone wants to take on that little church with a large group of mercenaries, and actually find out just what it is meant by the wrath of God?

It is said only one of a pure heart can even get close to it, and the keeper of the Ark is set on this path at birth.

I don't think I would want to head down into that small church with my past.

If the true Ark does exist then it would be foolhardy to meddle with its powers. It has been said that man cannot look upon God because it would kill him. (This is supposedly one of the reasons angels were created, to act as intermediary.) Surely the powers of the Ark would smote all those who approached who were not worthy if its prescence. At the very least, the keepers of the Ark would know how to unleash its powers. Do we not remember the fate of Belloque, Indiana Jones' nemesis in "Raiders..."? (I'm not trying to be snarky, just to give a mental picture that can be related to.)

On the other hand, Hitler and the Nazis were indeed obsessed with the occult and the aquisition of artifacts. Their aquisition of the "spear of destiny" is a subject of much debate, but is an example of their keen interest in such artifacts. Surely they would have gone to any length to aquire the Ark. Fascist Italy was the key ally of Nazi Germany, and therefore it only stands to reason that the Nazis would have used this relationship to at least make a determined effort to seize the Ark. Even if they didn't get it, I would think there would be some record of such an attempt being made. Even if that record was simply that an entire Nazi division just up and vanished in Ethiopia.

I think that church in Ethiopia is very important regardless.

Originally posted by mojo4sale

Originally posted by jimbo999

Apparently, (I've read a few books on this subject..) the 'Ark' has been moved occasionally in times of war to an island in a lake in the south ofthe country for safe keeping.

Yes it was moved to Lake Tana for approx 400 years, or so the story goes. See the second link in my OP.

I personally think its purely myth but i do love a good mystery.

Yeah - me too. Fascinating stuff!

Jimbo

reply to post by jackinthebox



Apparently, and I don't remember the sources for this story, but instructions for building the Ark of the Covenant are contained in the Bible somewhere (Old Testament). Some group built a reproduction in recent times (1970's?) and discovered it basically acted as a high-powered transmitter/receiver of some kind. As in radio...

Anybody ever hear of this story?

Jimbo

Originally posted by jimbo999
reply to post by jackinthebox

 

Apparently, and I don\'t remember the sources for this story, but instructions for building the Ark of the Covenant are contained in the Bible somewhere (Old Testament). Some group built a reproduction in recent times (1970\'s?) and discovered it basically acted as a high-powered transmitter/receiver of some kind. As in radio...

Anybody ever hear of this story?

Jimbo

I too remember hearing this same story , but I like you have no other info other than that I have herd the same report .

It would be nice if one of our fellow ATS members could possibly shed some light on this report .

Some info I did find about the Ark

Building the Ark

The construction of the Ark is commanded by God to Moses while the Jews were still camped at Sinai (Ex. 25:10-22; 37:1-9). The Ark was a box with the dimensions of two-and-a-half cubits in length, by one-and-a-half cubits in heights, by one-and-a-half cubits in width (a cubit is about 18 inches). It was constructed of acacia wood, and was plated with pure gold, inside and out. On the bottom of the box, four gold rings were attached, through which two poles, also made of acacia and coated in gold, were put. The family of Kehath, of the tribe of Levi, would carry the ark on their shoulders using these poles.
Covering the box was the kapporet, a pure gold covering that was two-and-a-half by one-and-a-half cubits. Attached to the kapporet were two sculpted Cherubs, also made of pure gold. The two Cherubs faced one another, and their wings, which wrapped around their bodies, touched between them.
The contents of the Ark has been debated through the centuries. The general consensus is that the first tablets containing the Ten Commandments, which were broken by Moses, and the second tablets, which remained intact, were contained in the Ark (Bava Batra 14b). According to one opinion in the Talmud, both Tablets were together in the Ark; according to another, there were two Arks, and each contained one set of Tablets .
The Ark was built by Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, who constructed the entire Tabernacle – the portable Temple used in the desert and during the conquest of the land of Israel. The Tabernacle was the resting place for the Ark, and also contained other vessels that were used in the physical worship of God. The Biblical commentators argue over why God commanded Moses to build a Tabernacle in the first place: According to Rashi (Ex. 31:18), God realized after the sin of the Golden Calf that the Israelites needed an outlet for physical worship, and commanded that they build the Tabernacle as a way of expressing their own need for physical representation of God. According to Nachmanides (Ex. 25:1), however, the Jews were commanded to build the Tabernacle even before the sin of the Golden Calf; rather than filling a human need, the Tabernacle was God\'s method of achieving continuous revelation in the Israelites\' camp. These two opinions as to whether the Tabernacles, and the Temples that followed them, were an a priori necessity or a necessary evil demonstrate the controversial role of physical worship in Judaism as a whole.

reply to post by mojo4sale


between o'flarety's book ogyia and keatings book history of ireland and the bible---- jeremiah was released from the jewish captivity of 586 bce by nebuchadnezzer the king of babylon and the chaldeans-----the prophet then took the jewish kings daughters and some mysterious religious artifacts with him to ireland arriving in 569 bce where lived a colony of the tuatha de danaan =tribe of dan that had left israel in their ships prior to 1000bce before the assyrian conquest of the northern 10 tribes of israel in 721 bce.the kings daughter tea-tephi married the jewish prince herremon thus continueing on the throne of king david in ireland---which later went to scotland and later again moved to london england upon which now sits queen elizabeth-----a grand daughter of king david of ancient israel

In "Raiders of the Lost Ark" Indiana Jones' nemesis claims the Ark is a "transmitter for speaking to God." This fictitious account is based on real interpretaions.

Many have also claimed that mysterious powers and death have surrounded the Ark.

What if the Ark is or houses a literal transmitter? Perhaps nuclear powered? Emitting radiation and dispensing death to those who do not know it's "secrets"? What if the Ark literally contains a highly advanced piece of technology?

In recent years, aliens and UFO's have taken a prominent role in re-interpretations of religeous stories. Some claim that a UFO hovered overhead during the Exodus and may have even parted the Red Sea for Moses among other re-interpretations. There is also the appearance of UFO's in many religeous paintings of the Renassiance. What if the ancient Israelites were literally communicating with a technologically advanced lifeform?

reply to post by Max_TO


Yes, it would. Obscure stuff, I know. But very interesting. My recollection of the story was that it was at a University somewhere in the West...

Jimbo

reply to post by yahn goodey


Interesting stuff. Except the current 'Royal' family of England is in fact German They were recruited several centuries ago from Germany to fill the void on the throne (it had been empty since the execution of Charles by Cromwell after the English Civil War). They even changed their family name to 'Windsor' in order to sound more English & less German The real Royal family of England are actually the Stewarts of Scotland.

Sorry about that little diversion there......back to the Ark.

J.

reply to post by jackinthebox


Yes. well I think the actual Bible mentions the deaths of several men who were members of the tribe. From the accounts I can recall, the Ark is actually highly charged with electricity - which is why the family who were entrusted with it's protection had to wear special 'garments'.

The alien factor is, in my opinion, quite feasible.

J.

reply to post by Max_TO


Actually, from what I understand, it is not so much a transmitter/receiver, but a capacitor. It has gold on the inside and out, with wood separating the layers. The wood acts as an insulator between two conductors. Some have even speculated that the cherubim that sit on top of the Ark are the discharge point.

There is a particular story I remember in the Bible where a man was struck dead instantly because he touched the Ark trying to keep it from falling. This could be evidence of a high voltage (500+ Volts) discharge into a human being.

The Bible also says that only certain priests were able to be in the presence of the Ark - is it possible that they were trained in the handling of it so as not to "incur the wrath of God"... errr... electricity?