Put on your fedora and bullwhip, we’re looking for the lost Ark of the Covenant today.
Where is the Ark of the Covenant?
When precisely did the Ark disappear and where’d it go?
Possibilities:
926 BC – King Rehoboam saw Israel looted by Shishak of Egypt (1 Kings 14:25-26)
598 BC – Nebuchadnezzar invades Israel (2 Kings 24:10-13)
or many times in-between. We know that by the rebuilding of the Temple in 517-515 it was missing with no mention of it, which makes us infer that it’s disappearance was already an accepted fact.
Talmud states it was “buried in it’s own place” by Josiah in 609 BC (a decade before Nebuchadnezzar’s raids). This supports rumors that it was stashed in the catacombs (The Well of Souls) beneath Jerusalem.
2 Maccabees claims Jeremiah stashed it in Mt. Nebo. Yet many excursions to find it have failed.
Ethiopians claim the Ark was secreted to an island in Lake Tana in 470 BC.
Almost all the theories are completely extra-Biblical. The Bible just stops mentioning the Ark.
The Bible Clues:
– King Manasseh was evil and defiled the temple. (2 Kings 21:2-7,16)
– Priests would’ve been irate based on how they treated King Uzziah (2 Chron 26:16-21)
– The Ark SEEMED to be present for Manasseh’s father Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:15)
– The Ark WAS MISSING when Manasseh’s grandson Josiah sat on the throne because he commands it to be returned (2 Chron 35:3)
– Josiah was focused on rebuilding and reforming.
– Josiah seems to wage war on Egypt for some reason (2 Chron 35:20-24)
– Why attack Neco? After setting the TEMPLE in order? Why does Neco say, God is with me?
Graham Hancock (The Sign and the Seal) discovered that a colony of Hebrews once lived on the Egyptian Elephantine island in the northern Nile during the reign of Manasseh. Remnants of a replica of Solomon’s Temple has been found there. Papyri found there indicated animal sacrifices happened there and spoke of God literally dwelling there. This temple appears to have been destroyed in 410 BC
Back to legend. The Ethiopian legend states an illegitimate son of Solomon and Queen Sheba carried the Ark from Elephantine down the nile to Tanos Kirkos (an island in Lake Tana)
Robert Cornuke finds temple treasures on Tanos Kirkos (Numbers 10:1-2)
The natives tell Cornuke they had the Ark but it was taken to Axum to the Chapel of St. Mary of Zion. Cornuke gets an audience with the President of Ethiopia who confirms the story.
Resources
– The Sign and the Seal – Graham Hancock
– The Lost Ark of the Covenant – Robert Cornuke