101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

Myths of the Heroes 227
placed it in his temple, putting a key Israelite icon in Judahite hands. On the other
hand, other passages of the Bible, especially in Deuteronomy, treat the Ark as simply
a box that contained the Ten Commandments.
The differing views of the Ark can be seen from the different names associated
with it. Sometimes it is called the “Ark of the Covenant,” other times it is called the
“Ark of the Testimony,” and on other occasions the Bible associates it with a title for
God, such as “Ark of Jahweh” or “Ark of the God of Israel.” The term “Ark of the
Covenant” is usually associated with Deuteronomy while“Ark of the Testimony,” usually
appears in passages identified with the priestly source. The use of “testimony” or
“covenant” in connection with both the Ten Commandments and the ark shows the
existence of underlying competing source materials in the development of the final
biblical text.
What is most interesting about the Ark is that it seems to have disappeared without
any explanation, and this has fueled endless fantasies, legends, and speculations.
The Ark was last seen in Solomon’s Temple and then the Bible no longer mentions it.
No biblical passage referring to the post-Solomon period describes it as being taken
by enemies or destroyed or removed. But obviously it disappeared because we don’t
have it. Ethiopian traditions say that a son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
brought the Ark to the city of Axxum and there has been speculation that enemies
took it during the occasional sackings of Jerusalem, but while the Bible sometimes lists
items removed from the temple, the Ark is never included in those inventories.
How could the nation’s most important protective talisman containing its most
sacred written document just vanish without notice? This brings us to the question of
what purpose the Ark served and what was in it.
The traditional second commandment says,
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that
is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD
thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto
thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.