The Ark of the Covenant

santana75

Hi

So like most people the first I ever of the Ark was from Indiana Jones, but since becoming a believer and reading the OT, I've developed an understanding of what the ark really is and what its power. And having read about the ark a fairly obvious question occurred to me: "Where is the Ark today?". A casual search on the google machine threw back this answer, The Ark is kept in Aksum at the Church of St. Mary of Zion(Ethiopia). I listened to an interview with an archaeologist who has searched for the Ark and he visited this church and the story goes that the ark is indeed kept there and is guarded by a virgin monk, generation after generation. These monks go blind after 2 or 3 years of service and this guy has spoken to the monks, they say the reason they lose their sight is that the "Ark is fire".

Anyway, an idea has occurred to me to visit this place myself and see if I can get to talk to the monk who (allegedly) guards the Ark. Has anyone already done this for themselves, has anyone here visited this place? If so what did you make of it, is it a load of nonsense or not?

NIMAN

No harm, sounds like a load of nonsense.

Why would every single person go blind after 2 or 3 years? Medically proven?

Blind Virgin monks? Don't sound like the best people to be guarding anything!

I suspect you were reading a makey uppy website. There is no proof it ever existed either.

santana75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120349212#Comment_120349212

Ah I should've stated that I wasn't here to engage in a "Does God even exist" Discussion. Its a given, posting something like this in the christian forum, that believers take it for granted that the Ark did exist.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120349583#Comment_120349583

It's nothing to do with belief in God, it's belief in the current existence of the Ark of the Covenant. I'm inclined to go with this opinion

The Ark of the Covenant was almost certainly disassembled and its precious metals melted and reused by the Babylonians. Years later God allowed captive Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild both the city and the temple. Although the Jews were given back many precious temple items taken by the Babylonians, the Ark of God was not among those treasures they received

See Ezra 1:7 and chapters 5&6

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120349583#Comment_120349583

But when you suggest an archaeologist has visited the location of the ark, and spoke to those guarding it, you are saying it exists, when it clearly doesn't. And you even say you are thinking of visiting this place too.

If its not right to call this nonsense, why not? Its not there, you travelling to see it just sounds like a stupid thing to do.

But hey, each to their own.

Deregos.

Perhaps the ark of the covenant is still out there somewhere, hidden, and to be revealed at the correct time. But this one you referred to appears to be a replica. https://www.livescience.com/64256-ark-of-the-covenant-location.html



santana75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120349749#Comment_120349749

But why is it stupid to check something out for yourself? I mean what if the ark is out there somewhere, not even in this location? Isnt that something incredible, something monumental the grandest of adventures? In fact if the ark were to be found and it was verified as the real deal, to contain the actual 10 commandments........this would change the world.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120350153#Comment_120350153

As a Christian, why would a wooden box change anything? It's a sacred relic of the Israelites and is man made. Christ gave use a new covenant. The Ark was the place God's presence dwelt. Jesus is the Ark. Stop looking for him where he isn't.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120350153#Comment_120350153

No, it wouldn't, since we already know what the 10 commandments are.

Although it cannot be publicly viewed, there is certainly an artefact in the Chapel of the Tablet, annexed to the church at Axum, which on the basis of pious tradition is venerated as the biblical Ark of the Covenant. There's no historical reason to think that it actually is the original Ark, and many reasons to think that it isn't. And it should be noted that there are competing, and equally pious, traditions which suggests that the Ark is elsewhere.

Customarily, every Ethiopian church contains a symbolic replica of the Ark of the Covenant (though many of them were looted by the British in the nineteenth century). The only think that's unusual about the church at Axum is the claim that they one they have is the original. But there is nothing to back up that claim other than the faith of believers who choose to accept this particular tradition.

Beechwoodspark

There was a good documentary about the ark of the convenant on channel 4 a few years ago. Might be online.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120350153#Comment_120350153

If you wear slippers and walk really quietly, those useless monk guards should be easy to get past , and they definitely won’t catch you

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352163#Comment_120352163

Ah, but you're forgetting the rotating knives and the collapsing floor and the challenge where you have to pick the right cup or your face will melt.

Or, wait, was that the Holy Grail?

santana75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120349851#Comment_120349851

Yeah I just realised that theres a passage in 2 Maccabees that says as much:

4 It was also in the same document that the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and that he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God. 5 Jeremiah came and found a cave-dwelling, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense; then he sealed up the entrance. 6 Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the way, but could not find it. 7 When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: “The place shall remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. 8 Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated.”

magicbastarder

sounds like a lot of expense and effort to go visit something that most experts do not believe is what some claim it to be?

blingrhino

Watched a programme on sky last week about the Arc and they reckon it was transported to Ireland !!

Around Tara in meath buried in one of the hills ,i kid you not

SouthWesterly

The Revelation says John saw it in Heaven.that will do me

HeidiHeidi

I visited Aksum a few years ago, and we went to that church. I can't remember why, but we didn't go in (I can't remember if it was just temporarily closed to visitors, but I have a feeling visitors either aren't allowed in at all, or only occasionally and our timing was wrong).

We got the story about the monks and the Ark, sounded like a fanciful legend to me, but I wouldn't be the religious type.

Ethiopia is a fantastic country to visit, we're going for our 3rd time later this year, so if you want to satisfy your curiosity for yourself I can recommend a trip there, make sure you include the sunken churches in Lalibella, and I highly recommend a trip with Tesfa Tours (look them up on FB).

santana75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120362102#Comment_120362102

Perfect, thanks for the information. Reckon I'll still head over and visit the place anyway, like you said Ethiopia is a fantastic place to visit and thats enough for me.

homer911

I understand that Jews believe that the ark is buried somewhere under the Temple Mount

tibruit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120362023#Comment_120362023

The British Israelites spent about three years digging at Tara for the Ark beginning in 1899 I think. They had their own interpretation of Irish legends and believed that the prophet Jeremiah brought the Ark to Ireland and buried it with an Egyptian princess at the Mound of the Hostages. They believed that the Irish and British were descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel and that the Irish language showed numerous similarities to Hebrew. There was some truth in that insofar as some of the ancient Irish glossaries were highlighting similarities as early as the 8th century. I think there was about 90 words that were supposed to have had Hebrew origins.

martinedwards

The British Israelites are..... interesting......

they were around before tin foil hats!

Archaeology is showing that there was a lot more international trade in prehistory that we ever imagined with Tin from Cornwall being traded all over the Mediterranean for making Bronze.

COULD the ultra orthodox Jewish guardians of the Ark brought it beyond the very edge of the world to bury it under a heretical sun worship site?

maybe, but very unlikely!

Peregrinus

British Israelitism is somewhere between bizarre, funny and horrifying. Its foundational assumption is basically racist; since the British are clearly superior to all other nations, they must be God's chosen people. Every distorted reading of scripture, acceptance of bizarrely poor scholarship, feeble reasoning and embrace of fiction is embraced to sustain this fundamental delusion.

As Martin says, it's not strictly impossible that an artefact like the Ark could have been brought from the Middle East to Ireland and buried there. But we have zero reason to believe that anything of the kind happened, and the fact that British Israelites believed it does not make it one whit more likely.

Timfy

Serious question... would God not want the "old" covenant to remain lost seeing as it was replaced with the "new" covenant as taught by Jesus? The equivalent of deleting an outdated post! I'm talking about the actual covenant itself, not the container (the Ark)

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120821090#Comment_120821090

Serious answer: This is the subject of theological debate within Christianity, mostly focussed on how Christians should regard the Jews (and, lets face it, there have been, um, problems in this department in the past). If the new covenant wholly supersedes the old, where does that leave the Jews? Plus, if God is faithful to his covenant, how can the new covenant wholly supersede the old? As long as Jews are faithful to the Jewish covenant, how can it be superseded for them? There are different views on this, both as between different Christian denominations/traditions and within denominations/traditions.

Timfy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120821272#Comment_120821272

Of course... I was blinkered into looking at it purely from a Christian perspective without even factoring in the other Abrahamic belief systems. Complex!