Searching the mystical Ark of Covenant


By  OVE VON SPAETH

 

  Copyright  © 2014  -    www.moses-egypt.net

Knights Templar and the Ark of the Covenant

 

Was the Templars really in search of the Ark of Covenant, or was it just a cover for another hidden task? Perhaps there were both. Let us look at what the Ark of Covenant actually was, according to the ancient descriptions, especially in the Bible and Rabbinical Writings.

 

It is commonly reported in Book of Exodus that the Israelites particular priestly group, the Levites, who were several times highlighted by Moses. This group, which was the smallest of the 12 tribes, could actually have incorporated many Egyptians who had fled with the Israelites to follow Moses out of Egypt. It is a fact that many prominent Levites had Egyptian names. They constitute the emigrating flock’s priest caste and have likely been priestly educated in Egypt, while the other Israelites, the Hebrews, had never had priests earlier.

 

Were these Levites, Moses’ predominantly Egyptian Special Forces, assigned a special task? It is made evident during the exodus that several Levites were trained to use, protect and transport the very Ark of the Covenant with, besides the Tablets of Law, unknown content.

 

Ancient authors and the Rabbinical Writings’ reference to Moses' exceptional talent as an architect, designer, engineer and inventor - this was well-known in antiquity, but religions later on did not deal with that part - but it must be considered in light of the fact that he had originally such a high position in Egypt that he would have opportunities to actually get his projects realized.


Also, this seems to fit with the Bible's mentioning of other similar of Moses' activities - with strict reproduction of his detailed design description for forming the Israelites’ portable temple tent, known as the Tabernacle, and its therein belongings of religious objects - as well as of the Ark of the Covenant.

 

The Ark of the Covenant was made of acacia wood with thin gold plates. It is known from similar temple chests in the Cairo Museum that they were religiously standard equipment also in Moses' time under the 18th dynasty and widely used by processions in the main city of Thebes. This city‘s later Egyptian-Greek name is from the Egyptian tebet (Hebrew tebah) and Greek taibe, all of which meaning 'sheet', 'chest'.

 

The Ark of the Covenant as a 'secret weapon'?


A further area that may be perceived as associated with magic, was a the particular use of Ark of the Covenant. Several in Moses' Levites group were specially trained to operate it and its mysterious contents, as it was thought to have contained besides the law boards.

At religious performances bar Egyptians idols in procession. Moses' contemporaries, Tuthmosis III, let the god Amon carry in front of his army in the battle at Megiddo - the oldest known historical record of this war tradition.

 

While the Israelites, according to Law of Moses, were not permitted to hold an image of their god, a preserved part of the Egyptian background remained: the Israelites' sacred Ark of the Covenant was equipped on top with a throne for Jahweh - so that Israel's God in that manner anyway could be present in the procession or in the army front row - although invisible.


On the battlefield (and in the later temple) the sight of the Israelites' sacred chest has been a surreal experience: the gaping empty throne which in Israel's enemies was leaving doubts about the god’s total absence or on the contrary a suggestive oppressive presence because anyone could embed his individual image and doubts - and thus fear - into the empty space. The psychological effect of this has been a stronger impact than their enemies’ god figurines.

    

Left:  The Ark of the Covenant may have looked like this one discovered Howard Carter in 1922. - Top right: Reconstruction of the biblical Ark of the Covenant with two cherubim of gold, an Egyptian style.  -  Below right: The bronze bas-relief image, showing the Ark of the Covenant being transported, is from the Auch Cathedral in France, founded in the 1400’s. The Templars 250 years earlier could have had similar idea on how the Ark looks.

 



A holy chest, an ark, carried by Egyptian priests in a procession at The Thebes.

The doctrine of potentially great strength in the divine invisibility and other related issues behind this, belongs not least to the mystery cults of the Egyptian religion. It was also included in the knowledge that Moses brought from Egypt. Incidentally, Egyptian statues of gods most of the time were covered to the eyes of the people.


According to the Bible, Moses constructed the Ark of Covenant with special mathematical ratios. One of its functions is referred as functioning as a dangerous weapon, which made the walls of Jericho to collapse. Also it got the enemy - and by accident also own people - to die or be suffering from terrible skin diseases. The Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites, and a severe skin disease broke out, so they sent the Ark back - carefully on a cart. From descriptions in the Bible, that power in contemporary view is like a symptom of radiation damage also known from radioactivity. (Director Steven Spielberg used the very feature in 1981 in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark").


Previously, respected researchers wrote about Ark of the Covenant. But after Hollywood’s Indiana Jones movies many avoid any touch the item. But it would be wrong to omit the references, even when we today do not know what was behind when the Levites were in fact instructed how to protect themselves against the Ark of the Covenant: At the Jericho battle the Israelites were commanded to stay 2,000 feet away from it.

The Ark of the Covenant with the secret content was managed by the Aaron family. Was it all propaganda or was, possibly, Egyptian technology and knowledge included? Especially that highlighted family used, as mentioned, Egyptian names. It was never allowed other Israelites to take part in that secret knowledge.


Moses' successor, Joshua ben Nun, let the Ark of the Covenant carry around Jericho’s wall for 7 days - and on the 7th day, as many as 7 times - after which city wall crashed. But the circling of the city wall was seen as magical, cf. the ancient ritual in Mecca where Muslim pilgrims walk seven times about the Ka'aba, the sacred (meteor) rock from the sky.


Since Jericho is located in an earthquake zone, the time could be determined from knowledge of an earthquake offing. There may be used animals, e.g. goats, which usually sensitively would detect turmoil come and seek shelter hours or days before an earthquake occurs.

Also here is the story plausible, since the land at the Jordan River often have extremely large earthquakes. This river had a few months before Jericho Battle been drained a short time when the Israelites, according to the Bible, could go dry shoed across - especially where the river flows near Jericho at the ford may be down to only 10 m wide in the dry season. - It is known that earthquakes cause the Jordan River, like back then, blocked by huge amounts of mud (often caused by earthquakes), which holds back the water flow. For example, it is well-documented also to have happened in 1927.


The special "Ark formula" in "The Genesis" (10:34-35) is just like a magical incantation. It is the type known in the later example in "A Thousand and One Night" when the genie of bottle or the lamp had conjured up the container or back down in it:

      "... And whenever the ark set in motion, Moses said, 'Get up, Jahweh, and let your enemies spread, and let those who hate the you flee before you.' And when it was at rest, he said: 'return, Jahweh, Israel tens of thousands of tens of thousands' ... ".


Later, at the Temple of Jerusalem some chosen priests had access to a secret tradition about how The Ark of the Covenant’s "magic" should be handled without the attending personnel suffering injury. The Bible teaches that these priests should undergo specific purification processes.


In any case, the scaremongering effect cannot be underestimated. Here are widespread reports of the Ark of the Covenant has been efficiently acting itself as a powerful "weapons scare" when the Ark was carried at the head of the army, just as also the high priest during the war should be localized on the front line and take sacred omens there. In principle corresponding to the tradition that the Babylonians and Egyptians’ magicians were placed at the head of these nation's armies.



Moses' treasures, sought after by the Knights Templar, were first and foremost
secret valuable records, but also the Ark of the Covenant (an Egyptian ark is
here seen in a temple relief) or residues thereof, if any existed.

 

 

Where and when was the Ark of the Covenant Hidden?

 

The Bible states that Moses ordained that the law tablets with the 10 Commandments, etc. should be stored in the Ark of the Covenant when it was originally constructed, and these texts also were to be considered as sacred and magical. But from the description of its other use appears Ark of the Covenant also like to give the impression of a magic weapon with terrible secret powers.


The Ark of the Covenant was kept in the Holy of Holies room both in the Tabernacle (Temple tent) and later in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, where there were many different treasures. - King Solomon's Temple, also called the first temple was in 587 BC looted and burnt down by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II, according to the Bible.


In contrast to the general consensus of historians who assume that the Ark of the Covenant was taken away and destroyed by the attacking Babylonian army, there are other different traditions about the ultimate fate of the Ark of the Covenant:


-  1) The Ark was carefully hidden in secret tunnels under Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Or -  2) the Ark of the Covenant secretly moved out of Jerusalem before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, this variant often ends up with the Ark in Ethiopia, but another tradition seems to know that it was hidden away at the sacred mountain, Mount Nebo (about 30 km to the east). - 3) The Ark was brought to Ethiopia by the Ethiopian Prince Menelik (an alleged son of King Solomon and the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba). -  4)  The Ark was removed by Jewish priests during the reign of Manasseh (687-642 BC). -  5)  The Bible’s “2nd Chronicles” discusses a more miraculous removal of the Ark by divine intervention.

-  6) Or a late removal from its secret hideout was made ​​when the Christian King Lalibela returned in 1185 to his native country, Ethiopia, in rapid flight through the hostile Egypt, but he was underway protected by a group of Knights Templar. They knew that afterwards they could not return because of the danger zone.

 

Both in Jerusalem’s hidden tunnels and tunnels to ancient sewage system, could be used as good hiding places - and, according to one tradition it was here that the prophet Jeremiah hid the Ark of Covenant.

 


The warring and punitive Babylonian army abducted everything of value from the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. All objects and their value are minutely bookkeeper-like shown in the Bible’s "2nd Book of Kings "(24:13-14 and 25:13-18), and "2nd Chronicles" (36:17-20), and "Book of Jeremiah" (52:17-24), but it says nothing whatever about the Ark of the Covenant. Remarkably, so this even most important, and even gold lined, subject would definitely have been included on the lists if it had been looted along with the rest of the temple objects. This highly prized artifact has then been removed before the arrival of the Babylonians.


In some of the old traditions there is pointed to the prophet Jeremiah who according to the Bible prophetically foresaw the disaster and therefore in due time got arranged to have the Ark removed out to a secret location - either, as mentioned, at Mount Nebo, or carefully hidden in one of Jerusalem many tunnels.


It is this last feature that the Knights Templar were strongly interested in, as they through ca. 9 years, from 1118 to 1028, had their headquarters in the vaults of the Temple Square’s underground which connects into the tunnel system.


It is also this feature t the Parker Expedition had aimed on when, in 1909-1911 it examined these tunnels, where they even found a secret section which could not be investigated deeper as the expedition's presence was abruptly stopped by the authorities. Thus, there is still no clarification.

The interesting information in the Bible about whitish skin, radiation damage, arising by unprotected close contact with the Ark of the Covenant can hardly be mentioned without problems with critics. However, one of the Parker expedition participants, the librarian and researcher Juvelius, described and sketched (only 10 years after the element of radium was discovered and also before radioactive dangerousness was known for real) a detected radioactive trap inside a tunnel, for preventing intruders.



Mount Nebo, the southern tip is left, the north in the middle being the highest. - In one of the
traditions  it is mentioned that the prophet Jeremiah to avoid the Babylonians looting, let the Ark of
the Covenant be hidden somewhere in this area where, according to the Bible, Moses was buried.

 

 

Ove von Spaeth      Copyright  © 2014  -    www.moses-egypt.net

 

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