The Ark of the Covenant

sacolton

alt

Do you think it could be found? When was it last seen in the bible?

MissingLink

Those OT stories are so exaggerated. If it ever existed at all, it was probably a lame bronze box. Are there ANY fancy jewish artifacts from that time?

BurnTheShips

It's probably been melted down and the gold has become part of the general circulation.

Who knows, there may be a few molecules in some of your jewelry.

Still, this is rather interesting:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1715337,00.html

There is no way that the ark could have been made in the wilderness. For a gold smith to make such an elaborate chest he would have needed at least a workshop and would never have been able to make it in the wilderness. It would have to be quite a sophisticated workshop as well. Only in Egypt would such a workshop have been available.

The interesting thing is that the description of the ark is so very similar to other chests that have been found in royal Egyptian burial chambers, even down to the detail of the eyelets that the chest is carried on. But the difference between the biblical description of the ark and the Egyptian chests that I've seen is that there was a cat that sat on top rather than the cherubs that were supposedly on the ark.

BurnTheShips

the cherubs

And the cherubs looked like griffins.

alt

LearningMore

Wow. The title of this thread brought me back to being at the hall as a pre-teen and reading about whoever it was that got struck down for touching the ark. I just couldn't wrap my head around that...he was just trying to keep it from falling over! I used to look this scripture/passage up just to freak myself out when I was bored of the talk. LOL. Sorry for hijacking the thread, I just had to share.

Mr. Majestic

And the cherubs looked like griffins.

BTS

That’s a very good point. The description of the ark and its artwork were very much a rip off of Egyptian symbols, and not original at all.

The other interesting thing is the biblical descriptions of the ark. In Exodus it is described as the ornate gold chest that everyone is familiar with. But when you read the description in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 10 it is only described as a wooden chest. This would be more of an accurate rendition of what they would have been capable of achieving while in the wilderness. But the idea still was very much from an Egyptian source.

Maybe god didn’t want to be left out and had the ark made so he could be like all the other gods……..

yknot

Isn't it suppose to be in heaven?

Rev 11:19

gaiagirl

I once watched a documentary about the ark, hosted by Harrison Ford, which indicated that it had been buried in some location or another, but eventually found, and ended up in a government warehouse ; )
Further, the contents of that warehouse were eventually sold as government surplus during the mid 1990's, and I was the lucky purchaser of the crate which contained that ark ; )
Mr. Majestic's comments are insightful, as it does look a bit TOO nice to have been made by a bunch of wandering sheep-and-goat herders. Perhaps it was something they (ahem) took with them when they left Egypt? Or perhaps mine was actually made later, after they had invaded Canaan and killed and raped the inhabitants, and took all the land for themselves?
In any case, it lends a unique aquarium stand, with the tank on the chest-shaped base, and the lid on the top of the tank. Haven't had a single fish die since setting it up ; )

dinah

Wow. The title of this thread brought me back to being at the hall as a pre-teen and reading about whoever it was that got struck down for touching the ark. I just couldn't wrap my head around that...he was just trying to keep it from falling over! I used to look this scripture/passage up just to freak myself out when I was bored of the talk. LOL. Sorry for hijacking the thread, I just had to share.

That was Uzzah, and I never understood that either.

The Ark of the Covenant

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