Has the Ark of the Covenant Been Found?

hey 42 here we all know the story boy meets girl boy loses girl boy finds girl in a bar in nepal and saves her from the nazis in return for which she gives him a mystical medallion then they head off to discover a chest containing the ten commandments in order to prevent it from being used by the forces of evil to help them take over the world it's a tale as old as time right the film fans amongst you plus any budding archaeologists may have realized that what i just loosely described was the plot of the film raiders of the lost dock in which case you might be forgiven for thinking that it's not a tale as old as time because it came out in 1981 which in reality makes it a tale as old as nine to five by dolly parton love that song but in some ways it really is a tale as old as time because the artifact indiana jones and his old flame marion were searching for is said to have been made some 3 000 years ago since then it's been depicted not just on the silver screen but in numerous works of art countless books several epic poems oh and the bible it's really big in the bible i'm talking of course about the ark of the covenant it's indisputedly one of the most famous objects in history and yet nobody has set eyes on it in two and a half thousand years so what happened to it and perhaps more importantly did it actually exist in the first place if you love travelling like i do then you'll love the fastest and easiest vpn surf shock did you know surf shock helps you to avoid price discrimination based on your location so you can save money on plane tickets and car rentals whilst travelling surf shark runs on any device anywhere and it's packed full of features such as industry-leading uncrackable encryption ip and dns leak protection an internet kill switch of your vpn drops out and 24 7 customer support personally i use surfshark to watch netflix content from other countries such as the us that's usually blocked here in the uk it's really easy all you have to do is switch 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as two other holy relics perhaps unsurprisingly given its divine contents the ark is described as having incredible power admittedly there doesn't seem to be any historical references to it melting people's faces off as is the case in the indiana jones film but it's said to have been the source for several other miracles the most spectacular of which took place during the battle of jericho when the israelites laid siege to jericho they proceeded to march the ark around the city walls every day for six days i can only imagine that the king of jericho spent most of that time wondering if the israelites had lost their marbles that is until the seventh day when they marched the ark around jericho one last time and the city's towering walls crumbled into dust as impressive as this arc-based warfare may be it seems that having your own magic arc didn't always guarantee victory as several years later the israelites battled the philistines and lost not only that but the ark itself was captured not that it remained an arctic triumph for the philistines for very long in fact it brought nothing but bad luck to its new keepers as they were afflicted by amongst other things a nasty bounce of bubonic plague apparently deciding this was a sign because everything's a sign the philistines swiftly returned the ark to the israelites and it remained with them for several generations residing in the temple in jerusalem built by the wise king solomon it must be great to be referred to as wise by everyone wasn't it anyway around 587 bc the babylonians attacked jerusalem led by king nebuchadnezzar the second they destroyed much of the city including solomon's temple so what happened to the ark well this is where the adventure really begins because from here on in there are several theories as to where it went if you believe indiana jones and frankly why wouldn't you the man's a doctor for goodness sake then the ark was taken by the egyptian pharaoh shishak long before the babylonians attacked and was buried in a really creepy vault in the ancient city of tanis you might remember the scene in raiders when indy and marion are trapped down there it's dark their torches are slowly going out and dozens of snakes are coming in through the holes in the walls swiftly followed by a load of mummified corpses basically if you're playing indiana jones bingo when you see that bit give yourself a full house immediately another story albeit one that sadly involves fewer snakes and nazis also begins with the ark being removed from jerusalem before the babylonians turn up in this version it was nabbed by king menelik who took it back to his home country of ethiopia the ark of zion as followers of the ethiopian orthodox church refer to it is supposed to have been kept for a time in a church on the island of tanakurkos home to an order of monks historically the monks took a vow of celibacy and no women were allowed onto the part of the island where they lived so i imagine having a fancy art to look after was quite a welcome distraction according to ethiopian orthodoxy the ark was then moved to the city of aksum where it remains to this day in the church of saint mary of zion unfortunately for the rest of us and for the sake of the ethiopian orthodox church proving their claim no one's actually allowed to see the ark which is really convenient except of course the monk who sits with it day and night praying constantly burning incense and paying tribute to god this guardian of the ark is referred to as the guardian of the ark which seems pretty sensible when you think about it but possibly my favorite theory is to the ark's whereabouts claims that it never left jerusalem in the first place but was instead hidden from the babylonians beneath temple mount the site on which solomon's temple stood before it was destroyed fast forward 1500 years or so to the early part of the 20th century and it was the golden age of british adventurers men with stiff upper lips and implausibly posh-sounding names were busy making their way across the globe in service of the british empire spreading religion sharing innovation and stealing from the natives you know good empire building stuff one of these men with the stiffest of upper lips and the most implausibly possessed of names was montague brownlow parker fifth earl of morley parker's early life had followed a route typical of many aristocratic young men in the late 1800s he was educated at eaton and then joined the british army as an officer monty which i'm pretty sure is what all his poshmates would have called him fought in the second boer war in south africa and stayed there afterwards as to personal assistance to a british general adventures in far-off lands were veritable catnip to old mbp so it's no surprise that when he came across a mysterious finnish scholar by the name of dr volta juvelius he was deeply intrigued by what the man had to say and in fairness it was quite the story in many ways worthy of indiana jones himself juvelius claimed he was a code breaker and that he'd found secret ciphers in the book of ezekiel that described exactly where the ark of the covenant was buried rather than treating this information with the kind of suspicion most of us would have demonstrated if a shadowy mystic told us they'd discovered a secret map to a lost treasure hidden in plain sight inside the most widely read book in history monty's first reaction appears to have been great when do we start between them monty and dr juvelius recruited a group of adventurous archaeologists secured the equivalent of almost one million pounds in today's money from some frankly irresponsible investors and set off for palestine to seek fortune and glory kid fortune and glory as it happens monty wasn't the first brit to go digging around in the holy city that dubious honor belonged to general sir charles warren another mustachioed adventurer type who'd conducted an exploratory dig 50 years earlier and discovered a promising network of tunnels underneath temple mount he'd also uncovered an archaeologically significant water channel that was named warren's shaft in his honor yeah that hasn't aided too well has it building on the work of sir charles before him monty's excavation started in the summer of 1909 and carried on through 1910 and well into 1911. but two and a half years later he still hadn't found the ark desperate for results monty and co decided the time had come to dig in the dome of the rock as you may know jerusalem is a city not just revered by jews and christians it also has massive significance for muslims the dome of the rock is the world's oldest surviving example of islamic architecture and a shrine that's deeply revered so when monty and the boys bribed the guardian of the temple and started up its floor things were always going to go badly which they julie did when word got out about where these plucky imperialists had decided to start planting their shovels a full-scale riot broke out and the group only just managed to get out of jerusalem alive making their escape on a yacht the treasure hunters vowed to return though believing they'd come very close to discovering the ark but before they had the chance to do so the first world war broke out the world was a very different place after 1918 and ultimately our edwardian expendables never went back to finish what they'd started so were they indeed on the brink of discovering an artifact which has captivated people for thousands of years is the ark of the covenant buried there to this day tantalizingly out of reach in the tunnels beneath jerusalem well after extensive research i can exclusively reveal that the answer is i have no idea no one does the ark may indeed be lying undisturbed beneath that holiest of cities waiting for a modern day monty to unearth it it may be in ethiopia under the watchful gaze of its presumably slightly bored guardian it could be pretty much anywhere as recently as 2008 british university professor tuda parfit whose name makes him sound like a colour you'd use to paint the spare room claims to have tracked it down to hurrah in zimbabwe but others believe it was taken to france by the knights templar and still others placed the ark in a secret location inside a church in rome but the truth is we'll likely never know not just where the ark is but if it ever actually existed in the first place after all underneath the fancy gold grills the bible tells us that the ark of the covenant was made of wood which would likely have turned to dust by now as of today there simply isn't enough evidence to draw any firm conclusions but perhaps that's all for the best the mystique the centuries-old tale of celestial power and of course the prospect that it might yet one day be found these are the reasons that from the ancient world to the silver screen we've remained so utterly transfixed by the ark of the covenant [Music] thanks for watching

Channel: Thoughty2

Views: 846,102

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Id: gPCaE3iGS9o

Length: 13min 59sec (839 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 29 2022