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SOPHIA OF WISDOM III - ANCIENT MAGIC 05
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THE LIBRARY OF SOPHIA OF WISDOM III
THE SOPHIA OF ALL SOPHIA OF WISDOMS
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CAROLINE E. KENNEDY____________________________
NOVEMBER 11, 2006
Fate of the Ark
In contrast to the general consensus of historians (that supposes that the ark was taken away and destroyed), variant traditions about the ultimate fate of the Ark include the intentional concealing of the Ark under the Temple Mount, the removal of the Ark from Jerusalem in advance of the Babylonians (this variant usually ends up with the Ark in Ethiopia), the removal of the Ark by the Ethiopian prince Menelik I (purported son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba), removal by Jewish priests during the reign of Manasseh of Judah, possibly taken to a Jewish temple on Elephantine in Egypt, and the miraculous removal of the Ark by divine intervention (Cf. 2 Chronicles).
Concealment
Some believe that the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle of the Lord was hidden. This is referenced by four separate sources:
the Mishnayot of Rabbi Hertz
the Marble Tablets of Beirut
the Copper Scroll
the ancient Ben Ezra Synagogue sacred texts.
Mishnayot
The Mishnayot introduction included ancient records that Rabbi Hertz called the "Mishnayot". Hertz used the term "Mishnayot", since the text of the Mishnayot is missing from the Mishnah (Mishna), which is the first section of the Talmud, a collection of ancient Rabbinic writings including also the Gemara, "the summary", and containing the Jewish religious law. [2]
The "missing" Mishnaic text in the Mishnayot is called the Massakhet Keilim, written in twelve chapters. Each chapter of the Mishnayot describes vessels which were hidden under the direction of Jeremiah the Prophet by five holy men (Shimor HaLevi, Chizkiah, Tzidkiyahu, Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah the Prophet), seven years prior to the destruction of Solomon's First Temple, because the dangers of Babylonian conquest were imminent. The Mishnayot describing this hiding was then written in Babylon during the Babylonian Captivity.
The first chapter of the Mishnayot describes the vessels that were hidden - including the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle of the Lord, i.e. the Mishkan, the Tablets of Moses, the altar (with cherubim) for the daily and seasonal sacrifices (the ushebtis), the Menorah (candelabra), the Qalal (copper urn) containing the Ashes of the Red Heifer (ashes from a red cow sacrificed under Moses, necessary for ritual purification of the priests), and numerous vessels of the Kohanim (priests).
The second chapter of the Mishnayot states that a list of these treasures was inscribed upon a copper tablet. This is the Copper Scroll found at Qumran.
Marble tablets of Beirut
In 1952 two large marble tablets were found in the basement of a museum in Beirut, stating they were the words of Shimor HaLevi, the servant of HaShem, and the writing on the tablets is the entire missing text of "Massakhet Keilim" (Mishnayot) including reference to the Copper Scroll.
Copper scroll
The first of the Dead Sea Scrolls was discovered in 1947, and the famed Copper Scroll - made of pure copper - was found at Qumran in 1952. The Copper Scroll is an inventory - written in Hebrew - of treasures, thought by some to be from Solomon's First Temple, hidden before the destruction of that temple by the Babylonians and treasures which have not been seen since.
The Copper Scroll states that a silver [or alabaster?] chest, the vestments of the Cohen Gadol (Hebrew High Priest), gold and silver in great quantities, the Tabernacle of the Lord (perhaps the Mishkan) and many treasures were hidden in a desolate valley - under a hill - on its east side, forty stones deep. The Mishkan was a "portable" Temple for the Ark of the Covenant. The writings in the Copper Scroll were confirmed 40 years later in the 1990s through an ancient text found in the introduction to Emeq HaMelekh ("Valley of the King(s)") -- a book published in 1648 in Amsterdam, Holland, by Rabbi Naftali Hertz Ben Ya’acov Elchanon (Rabbi Hertz).
Ben Ezra synagogue texts
Work in the 1990s showed that in 1896, almost one hundred years previous, Solomon Schechter at Cambridge University in England had acquired 100,000 pages of ancient Hebrew texts from the Genizah (repository for aged sacred Jewish texts) of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt. A copy of the "Tosefta" (supplement to the Mishnah) was found in these texts, included among the text on Keilim (vessels). This "Tosefta" is the same text as cited by Rabbi Hertz as his source for the Mishnayot.
Present location
Some have claimed to have possession or discovered the Ark.
Middle East
In 1989, the late Ron Wyatt claimed to have broken into a chamber while digging underground beneath Mount Moriah, also known as The Temple Mount. He claimed to have seen the ark and taken photographs. All photos came out blurry (leading to skepticism of the claim). According to Wyatt the excavations were closed off (because of private property concerns) and, to the extent of knowledge, no one has seen the ark since. Ron Wyatt was widely seen in the Biblical archeology community as an attention seeker, often announcing he had found Biblically important objects with little or no hard evidence to back up his claims.
Vendyl Jones claimed to have found the entrance to the chamber in the cave of the Column - Qumran. Here, he stated, is where the Ark was hidden prior to the destruction of the First Temple. Arutz Sheva quoted Jones stating he would reveal the ark on Tisha B'Av (August 14, 2005), the anniversary of the destruction of both the First and Second Temples. [3] However, this did not occur. On Jones' website he states that he was misquoted and actually said it would be appropriate if he discovered the ark on Tisha B'Av. Jones is waiting for funding to explore the cave.
Modern excavations near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem have found tunnels, but digging beneath the Temple Mount is somewhat restricted. One of the most important Islamic shrines, the Dome of the Rock, sits in the location where the Temple Mount in Jerusalem once stood. Ron Wyatt claimed he felt it unwise to fully excavate the Ark for a variety of reasons, including bloody ownership disputes and divine inspiration.
Africa
Some sources suggest that during the reign of King Manasseh (2 Chron 33) the Ark was smuggled from the temple by way of the Well of Souls and taken to Egypt, eventually ending up in Ethiopia. There are some carvings on the Cathedral of Chartres that may refer to this.
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Axum, Ethiopia claims to still possess the Ark of the Covenant. Local tradition maintains that it was brought to Ethiopia by Menelik I following a visit to his father King Solomon. Although it was once paraded before the town once each year, it is now kept under constant guard in a "treasury" near the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, and only the head priest of the church is allowed to view it. Most Western historians are skeptical of this claim.
Dr Bernard Leeman, in his 2005 book "Queen of Sheba and Biblical Scholarship" (Queensland Academic Press) accepts the Ethiopian traditions. He argues that the Ge'ez narrative of the Sheba-Menelik Cycle of the Kebra Nagast supports the case that ancient Judah was in west Arabia not Palestine and that Menelik's escape with the Ark follows landmarks and place names in Asir,Yemen, and Eritrea. Second, Leeman draws attention to the Ark culture of Arabia (detailed in Munro-Hay and Grierson's works), the "Hebrewisms" in the Ancient West Arabian language, the word for Ark in Ge'ez (which is taken from pre-Babylonian captivity Hebrew), inscriptions in Sabaean near Mekele that speak of Hebrew resident there ca. 800 B.C. ruled by three queens of Sheba, and the continued presence in the region of a Hebraic remnant group, the Ibro (or Yibir) of northern Somalia.
Valley of Kings
Andis Kaulins claims that the hiding place of the ark, said specifically by ancient sources (such as the Mishnayot), to be
"a desolate valley under a hill - on its east side, forty stones deep".
Today, it is believed by some that this refers to the Tomb of Tutankhamun (east side of the Valley of Kings, ca. forty stones deep). Some believe that what was found there are the described treasures, including the Mishkan and the Ark of the Covenant.[4]
Walter Juvelius
Early in the 20th century, a Finnish scholar and poet named Valter H. Juvelius (1865-1922) claimed to know where the Ark of the Covenant was hidden. Juvelius believed that certain ciphers in biblical passages – when read in their original Hebrew format –could reveal the secret hiding place of the greatest biblical treasure on record. He thus obtained a Hebrew Old Testament and tried to solve the problem, before going to the Holy Land and start digging underneath the Temple Mount. The excavations continued throughout the summer and autumn of 1909, before they were stopped due to incessant rain storms. The excavations were resumed in August 1910, and the cleaning of the water systems continued. Certain artifacts were discovered and photographed.
Throughout the Holy Week of 1911, excavations continued by night in Solomon's Stables and in the well beneath the Foundation Stone. One night, one of the keepers of the mosque, unaware of the “private arrangement” between the expedition and the Sheikh, slept on site – and was awakened by the noise of the excavation going on below him. Rather than report to his superior, the man ran into the streets, to reveal the sacrilege. A riot ensued and apparently the Turkish rulers had problems keeping the crowds under control. The team was caught red-handed and everyone knew – at least Parker did – that this was the end of the game.
The expedition left the country as planned on April 18, 1911, due to heavy rains which did not allow any further excavations. However, the news of his illegal excavation arrived in Jaffa by telegraph before he did – just like it arrived at Juvelius’ home before expedition leader Parker told him. Parker was arrested upon his arrival and accused of stealing King Solomon's crown and ring, the Holy Ark and Mohammed's sword. Parker managed to escape and flee the country by sea, with no further news of the Ark ever heard since.
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