The Ark of the Covenant is one of the holiest
artifacts of the Hebrew Bible. So holy that looking at or touching it could
be deadly. But what actually is it, and what is it for? Here’s the untold truth of the Ark of the
Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant, also sometimes called
the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, is not to be confused with the other famous
ark in the Bible, which was a boat. The word "ark" comes from the Latin word arca,
meaning "big box." Just as Noah's Ark was a big floating box
for him to put animals in, the Ark of the Covenant was apparently a big box full of
things important to God that would represent his presence among the people of Israel as
they wandered through the desert after escaping slavery in Egypt. The Jewish Encyclopedia describes the Ark
as a movable sanctuary for the Israelites, a place for God to sit until they arrived
in the promised land and could establish a temple there. The Ark was not to be touched or looked at
when uncovered. On the move, the Ark was always covered by
skins and cloths, hidden even from the priests who carried it. When stationary, it was held up by poles so
it wouldn't touch the ground. Even the high priest was forbidden from being
in the place of the Ark except when it necessary to perform certain rituals and ceremonies. And as the Christian Apologetics and Research
Ministry explained, the top of the Ark was known as the mercy seat, a lid of pure gold
placed on the Ark and put within the Holy of Holies behind the veil of the Tabernacle,
where God himself actually showed up and the High Priest would go once a year to sprinkle
blood as a sacrifice to calm God down for another year. “Yeah, the Ark of the Covenant, the chest
the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten Commandments.” In Exodus Chapter 25, after God has given
Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, he gives him detailed instructions about building
the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle to house it in. The whole thing is covered in gold, with a
gold ring at each corner for acacia wood rods to be placed through for carrying and holding
the Ark off the ground. But what goes inside it? In various places in the Hebrew Bible, the
Ark is said to hold the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were carved, and a pot full
of manna, the miraculous food God provided for the Israelites to eat as they wandered
the wilderness. The Christian Epistle to the Hebrews, however,
also mentions it contained a staff belonging to Moses's brother Aaron, which miraculously
grew flowers and almonds in the Book of Numbers. While the Israelites marched through the desert,
the Ark usually led the way, but whenever they set up camp, it was placed within a temporary
shelter known as the Tabernacle. According to Exodus, the Tabernacle was basically
a tent made up of layers of curtains, veils, and skins. Nobody really knows what animal those skins
come from, though. The Hebrew word is tachash, but comparison
of different translations of Exodus shows tachash is variously rendered as goat, porpoise,
badger, manatee, dolphin, or seal skin. However, another theory suggests that the
tachash was actually an enormous wild animal with a single horn, that was covered with
skin of six colors. Does this mean that the special tent for the
Ark of the Covenant was made of the skin of an enormous rainbow unicorn? We can only hope. The Ark of the Covenant was no ordinary box. The Bible shows it to possess a great power
to destroy the enemies of God or remove obstacles that stand in the way of his chosen people. In the Book of Joshua, when Moses's successor
Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, the Ark parted the waters of the Jordan
River so that they could cross. And when the Ark was carried around the city
walls of Jericho, the walls came tumbling down. The sacred nature of the Ark is no joke, either. The Book of Samuel records that somewhere
between 50 to 70 thousand people died immediately having just looked at the Ark out of curiosity. Even those with good intentions weren't spared,
as 2 Samuel tells the story of a guy who reached out to steady the Ark when it was about to
topple off of an ox cart. Despite trying to be helpful, he was struck
immediately dead by divine fire. The Jewish Encyclopedia also reports that
the Ark not only protected the Israelites from their human enemies within the Promised
Lands, but from natural obstructions found within the desert on their way there. The story goes, sparks would form in between
the two cherubim of the mercy seat and basically fire lasers that cleared the path of snakes,
scorpions, and thorn bushes. Furthermore, the smoke produced by these lasers
reportedly smelled like sweet perfume that alerted people to the presence of God's chair. The Ark is also mentioned in the Quran, and
other Islamic sources discuss it as well, including one that adds to the contents of
the Ark Moses's hat, robes, and shoes. Perhaps most interestingly, however, comes
the story recorded in the book Sudanese Memoirs, which tells of how the Ark contained a ruby
statue that looked like the head of a cat with two wings. The cat, despite being a statue, was vocal,
and meowed like the roaring of the wind. When it cried out, it caused the Ark to rush
toward God's enemies and assured victory for the Israelites. The Ark of the Covenant features heavily in
the Hebrew Bible from the time of Moses through the eras of King David and Solomon, and even
into the time of the Divided Kingdom, but it basically disappears from the record around
the time of the prophet Jeremiah. What happened at that time that might account
for such an important artifact disappearing from history altogether? "Where is the Ark?" Well, Jeremiah lived at the end of what is
known as the First Temple period. The First Temple was constructed by King Solomon,
possibly with the assistance of a horde of enslaved demons, based on the plans of his
father, David. After seven years of work, the great temple
was completed and the Ark of the Covenant placed inside, in a new, more permanent Holy
of Holies that was not made of rainbow unicorn skin. The end of the First Temple period came several
centuries later after Israel split into two nations. The Northern Kingdom of Israel fell in 722
BCE, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, where the temple was, was conquered by the Babylonian
Empire in 587 BCE, the temple was destroyed, and the people of Judah were sent into exile. So what actually happened to the Ark? Was it taken to Babylon or hidden in ruins? No one really knows. But there are some pretty fascinating theories
about where it might be. One proposed location of the Ark of the Covenant
comes from the book Second Maccabees, one of a group of Greek Jewish texts thought by
Christians to take place between the Old and New Testaments, and often referred to as the
Apocrypha. The books of the Maccabees describe the conflicts
of the Jewish people with the Greek successors of Alexander the Great and how a great military
leader named Judah Maccabee, also known as "the Hammer", and his brothers led a successful
revolt that led to the restoration of the Second Temple, and ultimately to the Jewish
people enjoying autonomous rule until the Romans showed up. The Maccabees are pretty great reads, full
of armies of ghosts and a dude so mad at the Greeks he literally threw his own intestines
at them. Anyway, chapter two of Second Maccabees is
a flashback to the time of the Babylonian siege, and tells how the prophet Jeremiah,
applying the kind of foresight unique to prophets, grabbed the Ark, the Tent of Meeting, and
the temple altar, and absconded with them to Mount Nebo, currently in the country of
Jordan, to be hidden there until such time as God decides to reveal it. Not everyone agrees with the theories claiming
that the Ark was taken to Babylon, or hidden in Jerusalem, or sealed in a cave on Mount
Nebo. Namely, Ethiopian Christians have claimed
for centuries that the Ark of the Covenant is, in fact, in the Ethiopian city of Aksum. Per Smithsonian, the Christians of Ethiopia
claim the Ark came to Aksum nearly three millennia ago and has been fiercely guarded by a succession
of virgin monks ever since, who dedicate their lives to keeping watch over the Ark in the
chapel and are forbidden to step foot outside once anointed to this duty. The Ethiopian chronicle known as Kebra Nagas,
or "The Glory of Kings", records when the Queen of Sheba went to visit Solomon to consult
his fabled wisdom, she got pregnant with his son, named Menelik. When Menelik later visited his father, some
Israelite nobles accompanied him on his return trip. Unknown to Menelik, these nobles had stolen
the Ark and replaced it with a fake. Since Menelik had borne the Ark all the way
to Ethiopia without being destroyed, he knew it had to have been God's will. And allegedly, the Ark has been in Aksum's
Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion more or less ever since. Since no one but the Ark's guardian is allowed
to see it, who can dispute this version of events? There's no biblical artifact so famous someone
won't claim it was recovered by the Knights Templar and taken from the Holy Land back
to Europe somewhere. "The Holy Grail." As Crusader History explains, the Templars,
not satisfied with having attained the Holy Grail, apparently removed the Ark of the Covenant
from the ruins of Solomon's temple and took it back to the French Cathedral of Our Lady
of Chartres. The theory is that the Templars, in their
roles as master stonemasons, on top of being bodyguards for Crusaders, were the ones to
rebuild Chartres Cathedral as an exquisitely carved Gothic cathedral after it had burnt
down, the intention being that it would be a great storehouse for holy relics and wisdom. The evidence of this can be found in reliefs
depicting the transportation of the Ark. However, The Leamington Courier reports that
British author Graham Phillips writes that the Templars took the Ark not to France, but
to Britain. In Phillips's reconstruction of events, the
Templar leader Ralph de Sudeley found the Ark among the hidden stash on Mount Nebo and
carried it back to his estate in Warwickshire meaning that it's now somewhere in England. Anything is possible, right? One of the most recent claimants to being
the location of the Ark of the Covenant is the alleged tomb of Alexander the Great on
the Greek island of Thasos. According to the Huffington Post, in 2012
an amazingly sketchy archaeological outfit announced they'd uncovered the final resting
place of one of history's greatest conquerors, and they allegedly found the Ark of the Covenant
inside as well. Thasos, which is near Macedonia, where Alexander
was from, has long been rumored to be where The Great One was buried, so the announcement
of finding his tomb there was not entirely unexpected. But why would the Ark of the Covenant be buried
with him? Well, according to Jewish historians, Alexander
did in fact go to Jerusalem, where he was shown a copy of the Book of Daniel, which
prophesied that a great Greek leader would conquer the Persians. Seeing this, he was apparently satisfied and
left Jerusalem alone. However, there was no mention of Alexander
the Great taking one of the holiest items of all time, which had been missing for centuries
since the destruction of the First Temple. Whether or not this really happened is anyone's
guess. But it goes without saying that the Ark of
the Covenant remains one of the world's most interesting mysteries. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Grunge videos about history
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