Archaeologists have discovered in the Israeli village of Bet Shemesh the ruins of a temple where the ark with the ten commandments of Moses was kept before it was transferred to Jerusalem in the 10th century BC. They have been trying to find the relic itself for more than 2.5 thousand years - since it mysteriously disappeared from the capital of the Hebrew state. About where the famous Ark of the Covenant may be - in the material of RIA Novosti.
The stone "suggested"
The archaeologists working in Bet Shemesh did not even think they were dealing with one of the greatest shrines of antiquity. Excavations have been carried out since 2012, but only now experts have found the main artifact - a huge stone table. It was on it, according to the biblical books of Kings, that the Ark of the Covenant stood - a richly decorated box where the tablets of the Covenant were kept, given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai.
“The inhabitants of Bethsamis were reaping wheat in the valley, and looking, they saw the Ark of the Lord, and were glad that they saw it. The chariot came to the field of Jesus the Bethsamite and stopped there; and there was a big stone here, and they split the chariot into wood, and the cows were offered as a burnt offering to the Lord,”the ancient text says.
Now scientists have to explore the surrounding area in the hope of finding the very Ark of the Covenant. They are sure that the most significant shrine for the Jews could not disappear without a trace - apparently, the precious chest was hidden. Indeed, before the loss, the history of the relic can be traced quite clearly.
According to the Bible, the Lord himself commanded Moses to create a repository for stone tablets with the ten commandments. The instruction given by Him is replete with details, on the basis of which it is possible to reliably reproduce the image of the artifact.
“And let them make an ark of shittim wood (acacia, which was widespread at that time on the coast of the Red Sea, where the ark was eventually made. - Ed.): Two cubits and a half (115-125 centimeters) its length and one and a half elbow width (65-75 centimeters), and one and a half cubits its height. And overlay it with pure gold; cover it inside and out; and you will make a circle of gold on top of it,”says the Bible.
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The sacred box with the tablets was carried with the help of poles, on top of it there was a lid of pure gold. For the sake of a massive relic, the Jews built a tabernacle - a marching temple in which services were performed until the era of King David in the 9th century BC, that is, approximately 300 years.
Painting by Gustav Dore * Moses with the Tablets *.
And the temple found in Bet Shemesh was, apparently, David's attempt to find a permanent place for the shrine. But only his son Solomon managed to do this - the Lord ordered him to erect a huge temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
In the Solomon temple, the ark was kept in a small room called the holy of holies - no one except clergy had the right to enter there. And this prescription played a cruel joke with the shrine about three centuries later.
Mysterious loss
The last mention of the Ark of the Covenant dates back to around 622 BC. Then the Jewish king Josiah told the ministers of the temple that there was no need to carry the relic on their shoulders. Apparently, before that, it was periodically exposed to ordinary believers. According to legend, the ark disappeared before King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC and took the Jews to Babylon.
And here the strangeness begins: the shrine is not mentioned in the detailed list of the removed relics. Nor is it among the utensils that the Persian king Cyrus the Great returned to Jerusalem about a hundred years later. None of the sources from that era mention the ark at all! It is only known that with the restoration of the Jerusalem Temple, the Holy of Holies, although it did not lose its sacred significance, always remained empty.
Ark of the Covenant. Artistic reconstruction.
This leads researchers to the idea that the Ark of the Covenant was taken out of the Jerusalem temple long before the invasion of the Babylonians in the 6th century BC. But for what?
The biblical account clearly links the destruction of the temple with the refusal to worship the true God in the Jewish kingdom. This was a consequence of the half-century reign of King Manasseh (Menashshe), who planted the cult of the Phoenician deity - Baal and the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
“And he built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and led his son through the fire, and divined, and bewitched, and brought the callers of the dead and magicians; He did much that was evil in the sight of the Lord, in order to anger Him,”says the Fourth Book of Kings.
The prophet Jeremiah exposed the sin of apostasy of the Jewish people. The Ark of the Covenant “miraculously followed” after him as far as Mount Nebo, located beyond Jordan. It was there that the prophet Moses died.
In one of the caves of this mountain Jeremiah hid the shrine from the pagans. We know about this from the Second Book of the Maccabees, which is not included in the biblical canon.
“When Jeremiah got there, he found a dwelling in a cave and brought in the tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and barred the entrance. When later some of the attendants came to notice the entrance, they could not find it,”says the Maccabean book.
These lines prompted many to seek the Ark of the Covenant east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. The last large-scale search for the shrine was conducted by Franciscan monks in the 1930s.
“They searched for the grave of the prophet Moses and the Ark of the Covenant, but to no avail. Instead, the monks unearthed several Byzantine temples of the 6th-7th centuries with unique mosaics,”Jordanian archaeologist Rustom Mdjian told RIA Novosti.
It is this circumstance that makes researchers doubt that the shrine could have been hidden in the territory of modern Jordan. It is only obvious that either the servants of the Jerusalem temple, or the Levites, their assistants, who had access to the forbidden zones of the building, were involved in her disappearance. And the story of the prophet Jeremiah, most likely, appeared only with the compilation of the Second Maccabean book approximately in the II-I centuries BC.
The Temple Mount version
In the twentieth century, some prominent figures in Judaism suggested that the Ark of the Covenant never left Jerusalem. For example, the chief rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Goren, believed that the shrine was hidden under the Temple Mount and when Moshiach (Messiah) comes into the world and the Third Temple is erected, the shrine will be delivered there.
But from an archaeological point of view, it is still very difficult to test this theory. The fact is that the third most important shrine of Islam is located on the Temple Mount - the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The territory itself is governed by a special Palestinian body - the waqf. And the keeper of Muslim shrines is the king of Jordan. The area around the mountain, including the Western Wall, part of the foundation of the temple, is controlled by Israel.
The Temple Mount's ambiguous legal status prevents full-scale exploration. Of course, Israeli archaeologists have repeatedly excavated at its base, but this has led to international scandals and increased tensions in the Middle East region.
However, many historians consider the version that the Ark of the Covenant is hidden in Jerusalem as untenable. After all, as you know, in 516 BC, the restoration of the destroyed temple of Solomon began, which ended almost six centuries later.
“In this case, it is logical to assume that as soon as the Second Temple was completed by King Herod the Great and his descendants in the 1st century AD, the Ark of the Covenant could have been transferred there. But this never happened - Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian of that time, noted that the Holy of Holies was empty,”writes Australian researcher Andrew Snelling in his work.
In his opinion, the Ark of the Covenant was nevertheless destroyed by the Babylonians. However, critics of this version note that the destruction of such a significant shrine would certainly have been recorded in one of the biblical books.
Sensational manuscripts
At the beginning of the 20th century, the community of historians was shocked by a sensation. Experts have deciphered papyri dating from the 5th century BC, found at the site of the ancient Egyptian Elephantine (a suburb of modern South Egyptian Aswan). There it was written in the Aramaic language that in this city there was … a Jewish temple! After all, before that, scientists believed that he could only be in Jerusalem.
How did the ancient Jews end up so far from their homeland? It turns out that under King Manasseh, who worshiped pagan gods, a Jewish garrison was stationed in Elephantine. And, judging by the presence of the temple, these were most likely Jews who fled here. The scrolls found, among other things, describe in detail the rituals of Passover (the holiday of Jewish Passover).
And the ancient references to the Ark of the Covenant can be found just south of this city - in Ethiopia. It is known for certain that Judaism was widespread in this country as early as the 5th century BC.
“Ethiopians believe that Judaism came to their land thanks to King Menelik. He was the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. So, 20 years after his mother's visit to Jerusalem (this event is described in the Bible), he goes to Judea for the clergy. And they take the Ark of the Covenant with them,”said Ethiopian historian Sisay Enar in an interview with RIA Novosti.
The greatest shrine of Judaism Menelik brought to the capital of his kingdom, the city of Aksum. Scientists considered this version from beginning to end a fiction, until in 2008 German archaeologists found indirect confirmation of the authenticity of the events described in the legend.
“In the 10th century BC, a palace was built in Axum. The structure is truly grandiose: a large reception hall, several wells inside the building, rooms for servants. That is, the ruler who lived here was very rich. We believe that the palace was built by the Queen of Sheba, known for her wealth,”says the historian.
Shrine of Africa
Ethiopians believe that they still have the Ark of the Covenant. With the arrival of Christianity in the Aksumite kingdom at the beginning of the 4th century AD, the shrine was transferred to the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary of Zion. Nowadays it is a large temple complex. In the main building, fenced with barbed wire, the relic resides - only one priest can go inside, who is elected for life as the keeper of the ark.
“Once a shrine was shown to believers once a year. However, this stopped during the occupation by fascist Italy in the late 30s of the XX century, when many of our churches were desecrated, - says the minister of the church of Mary of Zion, Godefa Mercha, to RIA Novosti.
Services at the ark are not performed; for this, a temple was built next to the storage of the relic in the Middle Ages. True, only men can enter there - the Ethiopians adopted the rules established in the Jerusalem temple.
Until recently, access to this church was closed for foreigners, and even for journalists - even more so. The RIA Novosti correspondent was among the first foreign media workers who were opened their doors and allowed to capture the service that inherited the rites of the Old Testament times. For example, priests use the ritual instruments described in the Bible - the psalter (harp), systrons (rattles), horns and drums.
“This is the main shrine of Ethiopia, to which we have been praying since ancient times. I would even say that the Ark of the Covenant contains not only the tablets with the commandments, the manna from heaven and the staff of the prophet Aaron, but also the soul of our people,”notes Godefa Merha.
However, some scholars are inclined to believe that the artifact stored in Aksum appeared here much later than the era of King Solomon. Most likely, it was brought by Christians who arrived here along the Nile from Egypt at the end of the 3rd century. Indeed, the very city of Elephantine was on their way.
True, not all experts agree with this version either: in their opinion, it is premature to draw conclusions without special studies. However, Ethiopian Christians, of whom the majority in the country, insist on the inviolability of their main shrine.
Author: Anton Skripunov