From the Old Testament it is clear that the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt lasted 40 years, and all these years, full of hardships and hardships, people stubbornly carried with them a heavy big …
From the Old Testament it is clear that the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt lasted 40 years, and all these years, full of hardships and hardships, people stubbornly carried with them a heavy large box, studded with gold. Obviously, he was of great value. What was hidden in it?
We know from the Bible that the Ark of the Covenant (and we are talking about it) was a box of acacia wood 2.5 cubits long, 1.5 cubits high and 1.5 cubits wide, covered inside and outside with thin sheet gold. It would seem that any carpenter could make such a box without difficulty. However, the Lord not only gave Moses detailed instructions on the dimensions of the Ark, but also showed him the pattern according to which it should be made. "Be careful to make it according to the model that you saw on the mountain" (2 Book of Moses, 25-40).
What was hidden in the golden box? There is no consensus among theologians on this score. Some consider it "a portable empty throne of God", others - "a container for the Holy Stone." The majority, however, believe that some important relics were kept in the Ark. But which ones?
Let's try to figure it out by referring to other documents describing those old events. So, in the recently deciphered Ethiopian code "Kebra Negest" ("Glory of the kings"), written about 850 BC. e., it is also said about the instruction of God to make the Ark from imperishable wood and cover it with gold. There is also a description of the contents of the Ark:
“Divinity in him of wonderful color and work, similar to jasper, silver shine, topaz, noble stone, crystal and light, which delight the eyes and seduce, and the feelings mix. Made according to the word of God and not by the hand of man: he himself created it to accommodate His singularity. It also contained a golden homer, full of manna that fell from the sky …"
The ancient Ethiopians clearly lacked words and concepts to describe what they saw. This is understandable - after all, there was something strange in the box, not created by human hands. The Zohar, the holy book of the Jews, also describes the Ark and its contents. These are several dozen pages of obscure, enthusiastic expressions, comparisons with precious stones and various miracles, surprisingly similar to a passage from the Ethiopian codex.
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Sacred box
We know that the Ark, estimated to weigh about 300 kg, traveled in a cart pulled by cows. Sometimes he was carried on poles. But why, with such difficulties, it was necessary to transport the box on the difficult path through the desert? Ancient sources say: this is what God ordered. But the purpose of this command is incomprehensible - in long, exhausting wanderings, unnecessary burdens were clearly useless.
What is most needed by a large group of people walking in the desert, where at night it is -10'C, and in the daytime + 50'C, there is almost no rain, there are no vegetation and animals? Food, of course. The people of Moses, as you know, ate manna from heaven. But no one has yet figured out what kind of product is described in the Pentateuch as something like bread?
Where did the manna come from, which should have been enough to feed the entire tribe? In "Kebra Negest" in the description of the contents of the Ark, the "golden Homer full of manna" is also mentioned, and everything else resembles an attempt to tell in accessible words about some very complex equipment.
This point of view is expressed by the British scientists J. Sesson and R. Dale in the book "Machine for the manufacture of manna". Such a machine, which made the food of the Jews, for the sake of safety and was transported in a box called the Ark of the Covenant, researchers believe.
Its principle of operation is extremely simple: the upper part is a distiller with a wavy surface, which contributes to cooling, through which air passes. Water is extracted from the air by condensation and enters a vessel with a biological culture such as chlorella algae. Here is the food source! It only remains to process it, to make it fit for consumption. This was exactly what a machine of unknown origin was doing, which somehow got to Moses. Sesson and Dale give a detailed description of such a device - modern technology allows it to be done.
The machine produced a gomer (3 liters) of manna daily for each family. If we take our technological standards, given the small working volume, its productivity was very high: about 1.5 cubic meters of manna for 600 families. Of course, the menu was not varied, but people were not threatened with hunger under all circumstances.
What source of energy did this machine have if it worked not only during the exodus, but, as it turns out, much later? Nowadays, there are already mini-reactors that provide energy due to the decay of radioactive elements. In them, the decay energy is directly converted into electricity - but in a completely different way than it happens at large nuclear power plants. Perhaps the Ark of the Covenant was arranged in a similar way?