The Ark of the Covenant: Unveiling Its History and Ethiopian Connection

The Ark of the Covenant is one of the most fascinating objects mentioned in the Old Testament. Religious tradition describes it as a wooden storage chest decorated in solid gold accompanied by an ornamental lid known as the Seat of Mercy.

According to the Book of Exodus and First Book of Kings in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, the Ark contained the Tablets of the Law, by which God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai. According to the Book of Exodus, the Book of Numbers, and the Epistle to the Hebrews in the New Testament, it also contained Aaron's rod and a pot of manna.

The biblical account relates that approximately one year after the Israelites' exodus from Egypt, the Ark was created according to the pattern that God gave to Moses when the Israelites were encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Book of Exodus gives detailed instructions on how the Ark is to be constructed. It is to be 2+1⁄2 cubits in length, 1+1⁄2 cubits breadth, and 1+1⁄2 cubits height (approximately 131×79×79 cm or 52×31×31 in) of acacia wood. Then it is to be gilded entirely with gold, and a crown or molding of gold is to be put around it.

The ancient Israelites believed the Ark held a divine power that made them unstoppable on the battlefield.

The biblical account continues that, after its creation by Moses, the Ark was carried by the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert. After the defeat at Ai, Joshua lamented before the Ark. When Joshua read the Law to the people between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, they stood on each side of the Ark. The Ark was then kept at Shiloh after the Israelites finished their conquest of Canaan.

We next hear of the Ark in Bethel, where it was being cared for by the priest Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron. According to this verse, it was consulted by the people of Israel when they were planning to attack the Benjaminites at the Battle of Gibeah.

According to the biblical narrative, a few years later the elders of Israel decided to take the Ark onto the battlefield to assist them against the Philistines, having recently been defeated at the battle of Eben-Ezer. They were again heavily defeated, with the loss of 30,000 men. The Ark was captured by the Philistines, and Hophni and Phinehas were killed.

The news of its capture was at once taken to Shiloh by a messenger "with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head". The Philistines took the Ark to several places in their country, and at each place misfortune befell them. At Ashdod it was placed in the temple of Dagon. The next morning Dagon was found prostrate, bowed down, before it; and on being restored to his place, he was on the following morning again found prostrate and broken. The people of Ashdod were smitten with tumors; a plague of rodents was sent over the land.

After the Ark had been among them for seven months, the Philistines, on the advice of their diviners, returned it to the Israelites, accompanying its return with an offering consisting of golden images of the tumors and mice wherewith they had been afflicted. The Ark was set up in the field of Joshua of Beit Shemesh, and the people of Beit Shemesh offered sacrifices and burnt offerings according to the first five verses of 1 Samuel 6. Verse 19, 1 Samuel 6 states that out of curiosity, the people of Beit Shemesh gazed at the Ark, and as a punishment, God struck down seventy of them (fifty thousand and seventy in some translations). The men of Beit Shemesh sent to Qiryath Ye'arim to have the Ark removed in verse 21, and it was taken to the house of Abinadab, whose son Eleazar was sanctified to keep it.

Under Saul, the Ark was with the army before he first met the Philistines, but the king was too impatient to consult it before engaging in battle. In the biblical narrative, at the beginning of his reign over the United Monarchy, King David removed the Ark from Kirjath-jearim amid great rejoicing. On the way to Zion, Uzzah, one of the drivers of the cart that carried the Ark, put out his hand to steady the Ark, and was struck dead by God for touching it. The place was subsequently named "Perez-Uzzah", literally 'outburst against Uzzah', as a result.

When Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, he caused her to dwell in a house outside Zion, as Zion was consecrated because it contained the Ark. King Josiah also had the Ark returned to the Temple, from which it appears to have been removed by one of his predecessors.

To many scholars, Hezekiah is also credited as having written all or some of the Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes in the Christian tradition), in particular the famously enigmatic epilogue. Notably, the epilogue appears to refer to the Ark story with references to almond blossoms (i.e., Aaron's rod), locusts, silver, and gold.

The Kohathites were one of the Levite houses from the Book of Numbers. Theirs was the responsibility to care for "the most holy things" in the tabernacle. The Talmud in Yoma suggests that the Ark was removed from the Temple towards the end of the era of the First Temple and the Second Temple never housed it. Another perspective proposes that Josiah, king of Judah, hid the Ark in anticipation of the Temple's destruction. Where it was hidden remains uncertain. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the Ark remained underground in the Holy of Holies.

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Some of the Chazal, including the Radak and Maimonides, propose that Solomon designed tunnels beneath the Temple to safeguard the Ark that Josiah later used. Archaeological evidence shows strong cultic activity at Kiriath-Jearim in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, well after the ark was supposedly removed from there to Jerusalem. Thomas Römer suggests that this may indicate that the ark was not moved to Jerusalem until much later, possibly during the reign of King Josiah (reigned c. 640-609 BCE). He notes that this might explain why the ark featured prominently in the history before Solomon, but not after.

K. L. Noegel suggests that the ancient Egyptian Solar barque is a more plausible model for the Israelite ark, since Egyptian barques had all the features just mentioned. Levin holds that some biblical texts suggest that the Ark of the Covenant was only one among many other different arks at regional shrines prior to the centralization of worship in Jerusalem, although Raanan Eichler disagrees.

While Clifford Mark McCormick has questioned whether the Ark ever existed, other scholars such as Eichler, David A. Falk, Roger D. Isaacs, and Adam R. The records show that it was the prophet Jeremiah who [...] prompted by a divine message [...] gave orders that the Tent of Meeting and the ark should go with him. Then he went away to the mountain from the top of which Moses saw God's promised land. When he reached the mountain, Jeremiah found a cave-dwelling; he carried the tent, the ark, and the incense-altar into it, then blocked up the entrance.

Some of his companions came to mark out the way, but were unable to find it. When Jeremiah learnt of this he reprimanded them. "The place shall remain unknown", he said, "until God finally gathers his people together and shows mercy to them.

Samaritan tradition claims that the Ark of the Covenant had been kept at a sanctuary on Mt. In the New Testament, the Ark is mentioned in the Letter to the Hebrews and the Revelation to St. John. The contents of the ark were seen by Church Fathers including Thomas Aquinas as symbolic of the attributes of Jesus Christ: the manna as the Holy Eucharist; Aaron's rod as Jesus' eternal priestly authority; and the tablets of the Law, as the Lawgiver himself.

Thomas Aquinas compared the two types of materials of the ark to the two natures of Christ in the hypostatic union (Jesus having human and divine natures). He wrote, "The Ark, wherein were the Law and the manna, signified Christ, who is 'the living bread that came down from Heaven' and 'the fulfillment of the Law'.

Catholic scholars connect the pregnant, birthing Woman of the Apocalypse from Revelation 12:1-2, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom they identify as the "Ark of the New Covenant." Carrying the saviour of mankind within her, she herself became the Holy of Holies. This is the interpretation given in the third century by Gregory Thaumaturgus, and in the fourth century by Saint Ambrose, Saint Ephraem of Syria and Saint Augustine.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that Mary is a metaphorical version of the ark: "Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. Saint Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, is credited with writing about the connections between the Ark and the Virgin Mary: "O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O (Ark of the) Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold!

Their prophet further told them, “The sign of Saul’s kingship is that the Ark will come to you-containing reassurance from your Lord and relics of the family of Moses and the family of Aaron, which will be carried by the angels. The Book of 2 Maccabees 2:4-10, written around 100 B.C.

Ethiopia's Claim: The Ark in Axum

According to Ethiopian tradition, the Ark of the Covenant is preserved in the ancient holy city of Aksum. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant in Axum. For centuries, the great relic was kept in the Church of Mary of Zion, where the emperor Iyasu is recorded as having seen it and spoken to it in 1691. Now it is kept under guard in a treasury near the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion.

The Ark is kept under guard in a treasury near the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. Replicas of the tablets within the Ark, or tabots, are kept in every Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The relic is entrusted to a single guardian, who burns incense before it and recites the Biblical Book of Psalms. No one else can approach it, including the high priest of Aksum.

The Kebra Nagast is often said to have been composed to legitimise the Solomonic dynasty, which ruled the Ethiopian Empire following its establishment in 1270, but this is not the case. The classic account of the Ark in Ethiopia is found in a medieval epic written in Geez, The Glory of Kings. It describes how the Queen of Sheba had heard that King Solomon possessed great wisdom, and traveled to Jerusalem so that she could learn to govern her own people more wisely.

It was originally composed in some other language (Coptic or Greek), then translated into Arabic, and translated into Geʽez in 1321. It narrates how the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia by Menelik I with divine assistance, while a forgery was left in the Temple in Jerusalem. Although the Kebra Nagast is the best-known account of this belief, the belief predates the document. Abu al-Makarim, writing in the last quarter of the twelfth century, makes one early reference to this belief that they possessed the Ark.

When she arrived, Solomon was impressed by her intelligence as well as her beauty. He began to hope that he might have a child by her, although the epic is anxious to tell its readers that the king was not driven by lust, but by a plan to fill the earth with sons who would be serve the God of Israel. The queen did conceive a son, and after he had grown he set out from Ethiopia to visit his father. Solomon anointed him as king of Ethiopia, and then instructed the elders of Israel to send their own sons to Africa to serve him as counselors. Because the young Israelites were desperately unhappy that they would never see Jerusalem and its Temple again, they decided to carry the Ark with them.

In fact, The Glory of Kings tells us that the Ark itself had decided to leave Jerusalem because the Jews had abandoned the faith that God had revealed to them. The epic provides a history for two essential themes of the medieval Solomonid dynasty: the descent of the royal family from King Solomon, and the presence of the Ark of the Covenant as proof of the sanctity of the Ethiopian state.

One of the great mysteries of this epic was when it was written, and when the tradition of the Ark in Ethiopia began. We know from the evidence of coins and inscriptions that the ancient kings of Aksum were pagan until the 4th century A.D., when they converted to Christianity. There is no evidence that they claimed descent from King Solomon or that they were especially interested in the Ark of the Covenant.

The earliest report that the Ark had been brought to Ethiopia appears at the end of the 12th century, when an Armenian named Abu Salih wrote in Arabic at Cairo that the Ethiopians possessed the Ark of the Covenant, and that it was carried by a large number of Israelites descended from the family of King David, who were white and red in complexion and had blond hair. While popular writers have claimed that Abu Salih is clearly stating that the Ark was carried by a mysterious band of Europeans rather than by Ethiopians, his account cannot be interpreted in this way. In the Song of Solomon, we read that Solomon possessed white and red cheeks and hair like fine gold.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the Ark that Abu Salih describes is its decoration. Crosses would be a very unusual feature for an ancient Israelite Ark, although medieval Christian artists did often assume that if Christianity were the true faith the Ark would quite naturally have displayed its central symbol. If his account is reliable, it would seem that Abu Salih is describing a later Christian Ark.

Even though an ancient wooden box could have survived in the dry air of a sealed Egyptian tomb, the humidity of the Ethiopian rainy season would be very damaging. The question therefore arises of whether an Ark might have decayed in Ethiopia, but the stone Tablets of Moses for which the Ark of the Covenant had been made would survive unharmed. In fact, the earliest accounts by foreign travelers in Ethiopia refer to a Tablet rather than an Ark, and the research undertaken for the recent book published by Roderick Grierson and Stuart Monro-Hay has revealed that the clergy at Aksum also describe the great relic as a Tablet rather than an Ark.

They use the word sellat, which means 'tablet', rather than tabot, which could mean either 'ark' or 'tablet'. The ambiguity of the word tabot has made the question of the Ark in Ethiopia very difficult to understand. Not only is it used for the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament, it is also used for the Tablet at Aksum, and for the tens of thousands of altar tablets in every Ethiopian church. Each of these altar stones, on which the sacraments of the Christian liturgy are consecrated, is believed to be a replica of the Ark. In fact, each one is believed actually to be the Ark.

This has meant that foreign travelers in Ethiopia have often understood Ethiopians to be talking about the Ark of the Covenant described in the Old Testament when they are really speaking about a tabot in a local church. The rich symbolism that surrounds the tabot and the Ethiopian traditions about the Ark is a source of mystical inspiration for the Ethiopian church in the liturgy, and especially during the great processions such as Timkat or Hedar Seyon, festivals that commemorate the Baptism of Christ in January and the arrival of the Ark in November. It is this tradition of profound spirituality that is the key to understanding the nature of Ethiopian claims about the Ark.

While sacred stones marking the covenant between God and man have survived in Mecca for at least sixteen centuries, and while there is no reason why an ancient stone tablet could not have survived at Aksum as well, the clergy in Aksum clearly believe that more than one Tablet or Ark can be the real and true Ark. As a careful reading of the Hebrew and Greek versions of the Bible also reveals evidence of more than one Ark, the Ethiopian tradition should not be thought to be impossible or incredible.

In his controversial 1992 book The Sign and the Seal, British writer Graham Hancock reports on the Ethiopian belief that the ark spent several years in Egypt before it came to Ethiopia via the Nile River, where it was kept on the islands of Lake Tana for about four hundred years and finally taken to Axum. Archaeologist John Holladay of the University of Toronto called Hancock's theory "garbage and hogwash"; Edward Ullendorff, a former professor of Ethiopian Studies at the University of London, said he "wasted a lot of time reading it."

In a 1992 interview, Ullendorff says that he examined the ark held in the church in Axum in 1941. Describing the ark there, he says, "They have a wooden box, but it's empty.

Alternative Theories and Claims

Jewish tradition holds various views on the Ark’s fate, including that it was taken to Babylon, hidden by King Josiah in the Temple or underground chambers, or concealed by Jeremiah in a cave on Mount Nebo. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church asserts it is housed in Axum; the Lemba people of southern Africa claim ancestral possession with a replica in Zimbabwe; some traditions say it was in Rome or Ireland but lost, though no verified evidence conclusively confirms its location today. It is honored by Samaritans, symbolized in Christianity as a type of Christ and the Virgin Mary, mentioned in the Quran, and viewed with spiritual significance in the Baháʼí Faith.

On 14 April 2008, in a UK Channel 4 documentary, Tudor Parfitt, taking a literalist approach to the Biblical story, described his research into this claim. He says that the object described by the Lemba has attributes similar to the Ark. In his book The Lost Ark of the Covenant (2008), Parfitt also suggests that the Ark was taken to Arabia following the events depicted in the Second Book of Maccabees, and cites Arabic sources which maintain it was brought in distant times to Yemen.

Genetic Y-DNA analyses in the 2000s have established a partially Middle-Eastern origin for a portion of the male Lemba population but no specific Jewish connection. Lemba tradition maintains that the Ark spent some time in a place called Sena, which might be Sena, Yemen. Later, it was taken across the sea to East Africa and may have been taken inland at the time of Great Zimbabwe. According to their oral traditions, it self-destructed sometime after the Lemba's arrival with the Ark. Using a core from the original, the Lemba priests constructed a new one.

The 2nd century Rabbi Eliezer ben Jose claimed that he saw somewhere in Rome the mercy-seat lid of the ark. Between 1899 and 1902, the British-Israel Association of London carried out limited excavations of the Hill of Tara in Ireland looking for the Ark of the Covenant. The British Israelites believed that the Ark was located at the grave of the Egyptian princess Tea Tephi, who according to Irish legend came to Ireland in the 6th century BC and married Irish King Érimón. Because of the historical importance of Tara, Irish nationalists like Douglas Hyde and W. B. Yeats protested against the dig.

Many Malaitans claim that the ark of covenant is buried somewhere deep in the jungle of their island. They have a family tradition that they are a lost Jewish tribe from Zedekiah the high priest of Israel. And that he came there in the year 66 AD to bury it. This idea has been recently presented in the article “Ark of Covenant Location Discovered!” by Mike Edery. Additionally in the year 2013, a journalist by the name of Mathew Fishbane had visited the island in the hopes of finding the ark on Malaita island. He interviewed several Malaitans who gave the story of how the ark ended up there. In the Danish family film The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar from 2006, the main part of the treasure found in the end is the Ark of the Covenant.

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