In Hollywood movie lore, specifically Harrison Ford’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the Nazis, in possession of the biblical Ark of the Covenant, open it and energy flashes forth, destroying them.
That actually follows a biblical description of what happened when people historically peaked into the Ark. 1st Samuel 6:19 documents, “He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the Lord struck the people with a great slaughter.”
Much of the rest of the movie is fiction, and it ends with the Ark, boxed in a wooden crate, being stored, essentially lost, in a vast warehouse with wooden crates stacked high and wide.
Biblically, the Ark, containing the two stones of the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s staff that budded and a sample of manna, was placed behind a veil that set aside the Holy of Holies in Israel’s temple, and it often led the nation into battle. It’s been missing for centuries.
But there’s hope now.
A report in the Daily Mail explains archaeologist Chris McKinny has suggested the Ark could be hidden in one of the underground spaces under Jerusalem, not far from the Temple Mount.
“Researchers plan to scan underground spaces in the area using powerful technology designed to detect hidden cativites and muried metals,” the report said.
The report said the search method uses muon detectors, which track tiny subatomic particles created when cosmic rays from space strike Earth’s atmosphere, allowing scientists to see deep underground and detect hidden chambers without digging.
Earlier scans, the report said, already have confirmed “previously unknown voids and structures” that are buried there.
McKinny does not claim he’s found the Ark, or learned its location, but he’s released a documentary that suggests it vanished about the time of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem’s First Temple in 586 B.C.
His theory is that the Ark was hidden, more than once, to protect it from invading hordes.
McKinny suggested advanced imaging tools will end up capable of mapping whatever labyrinth exists underground.
Currently, in advance of any actually physical digging, which may or may not be allowed, he’s reviewing historical document about a theory called the Mount Legend, which suggests the Ark is hidden beneath or near the Temple Mount, the report said.
The theory is that priests would have hidden items of such value underground when an invasion was expected.
The second account, called the Rock Legend, posits that the prophet Jeremiah hid the Ark at a mysterious site between two mountains, the report said.
A third tradition, the Mount Nebo Legend, supposes Jeremiah took the Ark and other sacred objects to a cave on Mount Nebo.
Some have asserted the holy item is in Ethiopia.
Revelation 11:19 mentions: “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament … .”
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