According to the biblical writings , the Ark of the Covenant , also known under the name of lost Arch, would have contained the Tables of the Law (Ten Commands) given to Moïse on the Mont the Sinai.

Presentation

The Ark of the Covenant ( Hebrew Aron in ), also called the Arch of YHWH or the Arch of testimony, was an oblong wood trunk covered with Or. The word Aron (Arch), comes from the root Ar meaning Lumière and of the suffix One meaning the force, is Aron : “The Force Light”, or “the Light which is Force”, from where its crowned character, because it represented the Divine presence.

The Arch, oldest and the most was crowned religious symbols of the Jews. The propitiatory one surmounted of two Kérubim, which formed the lid of it, was regarded as the throne, the terrestrial residence of Jéhovah (Exodus 25:22). When the gate vault was finished, the arch was put in the Saint saints, the holiest place of the building (1 Kings 8:1 - 8).

Biblical account

Description

The description of the arch is in the Bible: the account of the Exodus, in chapter 25, of verses 10 to 21:
* “ They will thus make an arch out of wooden of acacia, long of two bent and half, broad of one bent and half, high of one bent and half.
* You will plate it of pure gold; you will plate it with-inside and with-outside and you will surround it by a gold moulding.
* You will run for it four rings of gold and you will place them at his four feet: two rings on a side and two rings of the other.
* You will make bar out of wood of acacia, you will plate them of gold
* and you will introduce into the rings on the sides of the arch the bars which will be used for carrying it.
* the bars will remain in the rings of the arch, they will not be withdrawn from it.
* You will place in the arch the charter that I will give you.
* Then you will make propitiatory out of pure, long gold of two bent and half, broad of one bent and half.
* And you will make two gold chérubins; you will forge them at the two ends of the propitiatory one.
* Make a Chérubin at an end, and other chérubin at the other end; you will make projecting chérubins on the propitiatory one, at its two ends.
* chérubins will spread their wings upwards to protect the propitiatory one from their wings; they will be face to face and they will look towards the propitiatory one.
* You will place the propitiatory one above the arch and, in the arch, you will place the charter that I will give you. ”

Course

Exit of Egypt to the entry of the Jews in the Country of Canaan, the arch is carried by the Lévi your, which go at three days in front of the other tribes. It belongs to the procession which allows the crossing of the the Jordan under the direction of Josué then of that which makes it possible to make fall the walls from Jericho, at the time of its conquest told in the Livre of Josué.

After the installation of the Jews, the arch remains with Guilgal, then Silo before being placed in the Saint of the saints by the King Solomon.

If one limits oneself to the biblical texts, according to the gun of the Jewish writings, it would seem that the Arch, after having resided of many years in the Temple of Solomon, purely and simply disappeared from the surface of the Earth. In the second book of the Maccabées, in chapter 2, however, one finds reported as a legend that Jérémie would have attended or taken part in the camouflage of the arch at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem the sixth century. It is the most authorized oldest source and, although very ignored by the historians:

2 Maccabées 2,4: There was in this writing that informed by an oracle, the prophet was made accompany by the tent and the arch, when it went to the mountain where Moïse, being assembled, contemplated the heritage of God.

2 Maccabées 2,5: Arrived there, Jérémie found a dwelling in form of cave and it introduced there the tent, the arch, the furnace bridge of the perfumes, then it blocked the entry of it.

2 Maccabées 2,6: Some of his/her companions, having come then to mark the way by signs, could not find it.

2 Maccabées 2,7: what learning, Jérémie did to them of the reproaches: " This place will be unknown, says it, until God operated the gathering of his people and made him mercy.

2 Maccabées 2,8: Alors the Lord will again express these objects, the glory of the Lord will appear thus that the Cloud, as it was shown at the time of Brace and when Solomon requested so that holy place glorieusement was glorieusement devoted.

Other writings, such as those of the Kebra Nagast , propose another lighting to us: the Arch would have been concealed by Ménélik Ier (wire illegitimate of Solomon and the queen Makeda of Sheba), following a visit in Jerusalem. The tradition of the Kebra Nagast affirms in addition that the Arch would be always in the Holy of Holies of a Christian church located at Aksoum: The Church Holy-Marie-of-Sion. In fact after being brought in Ethiopia, in an island of the Lac Tanned, it would have been brought to Aksoum at the 4th century, by a king, at the time of the christianization of the country. Currently, it would be then in the cathedral under the protection of a guard who is only authorized to see it and who seldom leaves the enclosure.

The Ark of the Covenant and Islam

According to certain interpretations, the Mahdi will be that which will find the Ark of the Covenant, which contains the original Laws (not falsified), that it will present like argument to the skeptics.

Artistic representations

Anecdote

The Ark of the Covenant is the object of the search of Indiana Jones in the film the Adventurers of the lost arch (1981) of Steven Spielberg with Harrison Ford.

Appendices

Related articles

  • List of legendary objects
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