What we know about the Ark of the Covenant is that it was also known as the Ark of the Testimony: a gold-covered wooden chest with a lid cover described in the Book of Exodus as containing the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. According to various texts within the Hebrew Bible, it also contained Aaron’s rod and a pot of manna (Hebrews 9:1–5).
Aaron’s rod refers to the staff carried by Moses’s brother Aaron in the Torah. Along with Moses’s rod, Aaron’s rod was endowed with miraculous power during the Plagues of Egypt that preceded the Exodus.
The Pot of Manna, which was also in the Ark, was an edible substance which God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert during the forty-year period following the Exodus and prior to the conquest of Canaan.
One year after the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, the Ark was created according to the pattern given to Moses by God when the Israelites were encamped at the foot of biblical Mount Sinai. Thereafter, the gold-plated acacia chest was carried by its staves while en route by the Levites approximately 2,000 cubits in advance of the people when on the march or before the Israelite army. When carried, the Ark was always hidden under a large veil made of skins and blue cloth, always carefully concealed, even from the eyes of the priests and the Levites who carried it.
Where Is The Ark Now?
There are many legends and the fact is that its true location is unknown. Here are the most notable accounts about its location today.
1. Mount Nebo. 2 Maccabees 2:4-10, written around 100 BC, says that the prophet Jeremiah, “being warned by God” before the Babylonian invasion, took the Ark, the Tabernacle, and the Altar of Incense, and buried them in a cave on Mount Nebo, informing those of his followers who wished to find the place that it should remain unknown “until the time that God should gather His people again together, and receive them unto mercy.”
2. Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant, also known as the Axum Tabot. The object is currently kept under guard in a treasury near the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in the town of Axum in the Tigray Province. Much of Jewish tradition holds that it disappeared before or while the Babylonians sacked the temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Only one man, a monk known as “the Guardian,” is allowed to see the Ark, and church authorities have never allowed it to be studied to determine its authenticity.
3. The Lemba People. The Lemba people of South Africa and Zimbabwe claim that their ancestors carried the Ark south, calling it the ngoma lungundu or “voice of God,” eventually hiding it in a deep cave in the Dumghe mountains, their spiritual home.
4. Chartres Cathedral. The priory claimed that the Ark was taken to the Chartres Cathedral by the Knights Templar and taken to the Rennes-le-Château at the outbreak of World War I to the United States.
The bottom line is that since its disappearance, some 2,000 years ago, any number of theories have arisen about its fate. The most well-known theory is that of Levitical priests who moved the Ark to Egypt just before the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem in 586 B.C. I would be more inclined to believe the Maccabees account and that the Ark remains buried in an unknown location, as are the bones of Moses.
“And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.”
Deuteronomy 34:6
