The Lost Ark of the Covenant
What is the Ark of the Covenant?
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Ark of the Covenant was constructed by Moses and the Israelites after they fled Egypt to wander the Sinai Desert for 40 years. Home to the Ten Commandments and purported to have magical powers, in one story, the Jordan River stopped flowing and parted when a group of priests attempted to cross the river with the ark, while other biblical stories flesh out how the Israelites carried the ark into battle, which in turn helped the Israelites defeat their enemies. In a third story, when the ark was captured by the Philistines, an outbreak of tumors and disease obliged the Philistines to return the ark to its rightful owners.
While the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy describes an ark made of wood, the Book of Exodus describes how God ordered Moses to build the ark out of an assortment of wood and gold, leading some scholars to believe that multiple arks may have been constructed concurrently or at different times in history.
As for the ornate lid commanded by God in Exodus 25:20,
“The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover.”
Exodus 25:20
During the reign of King Solomon, the ark was placed in the First Temple—the holiest place in all of Judaism—and when Moses grew enraged that the Israelites worshipped the golden ark more than God, he withdrew the Ten Commandments and smashed them to the ground.
Where is the Ark of the Covenant?
According to the Book of Deuteronomy, God then ordered Moses to create new tablets, which were then placed in an ark of wood rather than eye-catching gold. After the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple when they conquered Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E., according to the Book of Maccabees, the ark was hidden in a cave on Mount Nebo by the weeping prophet Jeremiah, who said that this “place shall remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy.”
Another story recounts how the ark was smuggled into Ethiopia and is now hidden within the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum, which has been protected by priestly Guardians of the Ark since its removal from Israel. In a Hebrew text called the Treatise of the Vessels, the text maintains that the ark was made of gold from Eden, and “shall not be revealed until the day of the coming of the Messiah son of David,” while the Book of Revelation proclaims that the ark will not be seen again until the end times, making the Ark of the Covenant one of the most important missing artifacts in Judeo-Christian history.