As a mysterious and sacred artifact, the Ark of the Covenant played a major part in several Old Testament miracles, and served as a visible sign of God's presence to the wandering tribes of Israel. They carried it before the army during their 40 year trek wandering through the promised land.
Blueprint and Contents
The case was to be a portable ornate, gold-plated reliquary for the stone tablets. Built from Acacia wood and gilded with gold, it was supposed to be the most important artifact of the Israelite tribes, but only priests from the tribe, Levi, allowed to carry it.
The measurements were to be approximately 3 feet, 9 inches in length and 2 feet, 3 inches both in width and height. Gold rings placed on the corners would allow gold-plated poles to pass through and provide handles for portability. Two cherubim faced each other with extended wings on top of the box. Then it was covered with a blue woolen cloth and animal skins for protection, more for the people near it than for the Ark itself, since the unfortunates who touched it were instantly electrocuted.
Moses produced the design of the Ark; but arks were nothing new. Growing up and learning Egyptian magic and wisdom, Moses knew that many arks had been built there and were buried in the tombs with the pyramids. Archaeologists even discovered an ark in King Tut's tomb. Tut's ark carried a statue of the jackal headed Egyptian god, Anubis.
It contained other sacred objects besides the stone slabs of the commandments: Aaron's rod was a magical stick that sprouted new leaves and a bowl of the manna which the tribes ate in the desert when food ran out.
Electrical Properties
The Ark had electrical properties. It sparked constantly and roared; sometimes it would levitate itself. It was dangerous because no one could look at it or touch it without being instantly incinerated. After it was first built, two Levi priests tried to make an offering to it but were both vaporized.
It might have been a battery, a capacitor, a loud-speaker, or maybe a radio. Over time and re-telling of the stories, its powers may increased and been distorted. Interestingly, 3000 years ago electricity had not yet been discovered, but the Ark seemed to exert the properties of static electricity. Another artifact from the period is the Baghdad battery. Archaeologists don't know how the device was used but it definitely works as a battery in a pottery vessel.
History
The warring tribes of Israel carried it into battle and believed that it served to repulse and kill the enemy. They carried it around the walls of Jericho for several days before the walls fell down to the victorious Israelites. However after losing several battles to the Philistines, the ark was surrendered to the victor. The Philistines didn't know what to do with it and the trail of the ark grows dim here. But according to the records, it ended up in Jerusalem when David became the King of Israel. Here it eventually found a place in the Temple of Solomon where it rested for many years and its powers were forgotten.
Then King Nebuchad-nezzar II of Babylonia invaded and took the Israelites captive in 587 BCE and the Ark was lost to history. The Ark may have been destroyed or as the Talmud suggests, hidden in a maze of underground tunnels under the First Temple of Solomon before the Babylonians seized the city. It was never recovered.
Another legend says that the son of Solomon and Sheba stole it in 1000 BCE and hid it in Aksum, Ethiopia where it remains guarded in the St. Mary of Zion chapel today. No one has ever seen it. However Hitler's Nazi troopers may have searched the Middle East and Egypt for it without success during World War II.
One amateur archaeologist, Ron Wyatt, claimed that he found the Ark beneath the hill where the crucifixion took place, but he never produced the relic. He went as far to say that blood from the crucifixion dripped from the cross through a fracture in the rock on to the Ark. Strangely it disappeared when he saw it.
The site of the First Temple is sacred to Judiasm but it is now the Dome of the Rock shrine, a sacred site in Islam. There is no possible way to check that out due to the political nature of the situation. The Ark of the Covenant may never be recovered if, indeed, it does exist.
Source:
Searching For The Ark Of The Covenant: Latest Discoveries and Research by Randall Price; Harvest House Publishers; 2005
Diane Evans - I am a retired civil engineer as well as a member of Sisters in Crime and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
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