I honestly can't 100% believe that the Ethiopian church has the ark, they've definately got something there. I mean you don't fortify the place and surround it with armed guards if there's nothing there. However, no-one is allowed inside, even Taw. Even the replica's they put in other churches no-one is allowed to see. While there is a lot of evidence that points towards ethiopia, it's not irrefutable. The Ark could still be residing quietly away beneath the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

EDIT: Here is a pic of where the Ark is allegedly stored.


But only this guy is allowed to see it. Almost makes you want to break into the place and have a peek for yourself eh?


Edited by - Mustang on 4/29/2004 6:53:06 PM

it isn't under the Dome of the Rock or the Shettiyah or anything else even near jerusalem. Your picture is where it is.

Taw/Indy/etc - Well Hitler thought that the Ark was powerful enough that he devoted a considerable amount of manpower to search for it.

Chips - You lucky bastards in the UK get all of the good documentaries .

Edit: Here's an interesting article about the Ark, including information on Axum.

Edited by - esquilax on 4/30/2004 12:57:55 AM

@esq, are you sure you've not been watching too much "indiana jones"?

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Here Endeth the Post of Gromit. RIP.

no grom, the nazis really did go looking for the Ark of the Covenant, Indiana Jones isnt too far from the truth. There was a special SS section of the Race and Purity Kommando that looked for ancient artifacts and symbols, they went to S. America, Mexico, all over Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and india - they were looking for, amongst other things, Agarrtha (home of the Unrevealed Masters of the World) the Spear of Longinus (that pierced Christ) but it was in errrm Austria all along I think, the Ark, Mu, and the entrance to the Hollow Earth (haven't we done this already?) and a load of other crackpot stuff. You know Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the game? also based on true events, Himmler was obsessed with the idea that he was the spiritual incarnation of Heinrich 1 of Saxony, to the poiint he spent years looking for his body so that he could inhereit Heinrich's dark powers of telluric magic. oh yes, it was quite an obsession, the loon. if you're in Germany at any time, you should check out the Wewelsburg, Himmler's mad castle (near Paderborn iirc?) it's fookin insane and full of this kind of stuff.

oh yeh the Nazis got the Spear, but they couldn't get the Cross because that's in the Vatican. They never got a sniff of the Ark.

Grom - Well, Taw's said it all I guess .

Taw - Yes we have done this before . Interestingly, the article that I provided a link to states that Spielburg was inspired by Hitler's search, and hence "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

I seam to remember watching something that stated that the Ark was an anicent batterie, and when placed on "hot spots" on the Earth, it would gather up power. Thats how it killed various people.

Life: No one gets out alive.

well there ya go...ya learn somethin' every day. I knew about Hitler and Himmler's spiritual artifact searches but I never had a clue that he actually went for the Ark.

I'm still in shock about this Ark thing - and whats with the picture of the guardian? Has no-one else noticed that he looks like he's got a superimposed garfield grin on his face?? I kept looking past him for Odie...

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but it's the same gold covered box that could lift itself off the ground, burn anyone who approached, and wipe out entire armies

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Taw I wont agree with that, nowhere in the bible do you read that the arc lifted itself from the ground or buned peopl. I was to be carried on the shoulders of priests, If I remember correctly nobody but them were allowed to touch it, if you did you died. As for burning anyone who approached never heard about that either, but if it is true, it wouldn't be the arc burning the people. And wipe out entire armies, again not the arc, God, the arc was just a place to keep the ten commandments etc, it could not do anything. The proof for this in my opinion, is found in 1Samual I think the isrealites were fighting agains someone and losing so they decided to take the arc with them, to help them win, well they didnt win, they lost by far...anyway this is just imho


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@Zlo: You have some kinda .exe in your comp that makes speciall words like "car" or "air tickets" into search phrases. You can delete em' with adaware, or such a program.

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I believe that the Ethiopians have the best proof to show that what they claim to be the Ark is the true Ark... at least the Ark which their ancestors were led to believe to be the true Ark. Whether it is in fact the Ark of the Bible is not something I care to say one way or the other.

Tracing the movement of the AoC, itself, is not easy to say the least. There are gaps in time that are not accounted for... But I don't know the full Ethiopian story of "provenance" as they say. But, compared to much flimsier claims from elsewhere, the Ethiopian case is likely the strongest that you will find.

That the Nazis did not think to investigate this claim is not surprising if you take their racist policies into account. Their beliefs necessarily made it less credible for non-Aryan, indeed African, claims to be given much credibility if at all.

The Ethiopian AoC has been hiding in plain sight, so to speak for a thousand years iirc.

<Edit>

I meant to add that I've been puzzled by the story of the arrival of the AoC in Ethiopia (Menelik 1, a son of Solomon brought to Ethiopia) when the Church in Ethiopia is an offshoot of the Coptic Christian Church. You would expect that if
Menelik 1, son of a Jewish King, were to have brought the Ark to Ethiopia, it would be housed in a New (and Jewish) Temple and not in a coptish Christian sanctuary.

Edited by - Indy11 on 4/30/2004 6:53:32 PM

@sw, you have a point. The Bible (Old Testament) makes no such claims; but not all literature concerning the Ark was codified into the OT, there is a substantial amount of contemporary jewish tradition and legend and rabbinical commentary concerning the Ark that dates back to the time when it was the absolute centre of their culture. Many of the "midrashic" tales and apocrypha plainly describe it doing such incredible things.

Bear in mind that the Biblical descriptions are, if you like, the "official" versions. Also note that the Bible clearly states what are important rituals that are to take place when the Ark is approached or brought forth, and just as clearly what happens when those same precautions are NOT taken for example, when the Ark is taken by the Philistines at the battle of Ebenezer (I Samuel 4:6-9) because the Israelites don't use it properly, and so lose, the artifact inflicts great suffering and affliction upon the Philistines of Ashdod, then Gath, then Ekron. the Philistine chiefs then return it to Israel who they have miltarily defeated, and it kills there, at Bethshemesh, over 70 people, until the Levites come for it and remove it to a safe place, Kiriath-Jearim, where it stays for the next 50 years until King David comes for it. Whereupin it kills Uzzah who strecthed out his hand to it. David then left it with Obeodom the Gittite for 3 months until he felt it was safe to approach it, then removed it to Jerusalem to the Temple (after it had made the women of Obeodom miraculously fertile.

it's encased in gold, carried on poles, housed in special tents and buildings, drpaed in heavy cloths and behing cloths and screens, no-one dare approach it except the initiated caste of Levites because if you did you's almost certainly die, and there was an exclusion zone around it proclaimed by Joshua; the Ark was not a safe thing to be around.

The thing that I always found fascinating was the belief that the holder of the Ark would be invincible in battle (or that they would always win). It makes you wonder whether or not it was due to the supernatural powers that the Ark was supposed to possess, or merely the enormous increase in morale that would have been a direct side-effect of the Ark's possession.

Taw - So you're saying that the Bible is the "offical" word of God, and the other sources are merely minutes from meetings and drafts?

@ taw interesting point

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because the Israelites don't use it properly

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i think the importatn part here is the word use, the Ark(i cant spell ok) was not there for the Irealites to use, I don't think it was even given to them for protection. I dont want to get into an argument with u
Just apint i want to make, David didnt wait till he thought it was safe to apprach the Ark, he saw how prosperous(sp?) Obeodom the Gittite had become because of the Ark in ihis home and then decides to bring tha Ark home in the right way this time. But ow well i guess this is a topic you can talk about hours on end, so i'll just shut up now