Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

ARK
ARK
77
Josiah, or by others, at some time previous to
the destruction of Jerusalem, and that it was
afterward, at the building of the second Temple,
discovered and brought to light . But
such a theory is entirely at variance with all
the legends of the degree of Select Master and
of Royal Arch Masonry . To admit it would
lead to endless confusion and contradictions in
the traditions of the Order . It is, besides, in
conflict with the opinions of the Rabbinical
writers and every Hebrew scholar. Josephus
and the Rabbis allege that in the second
Temple the Holy of Holies was empty, or contained
only the Stone of Foundation which
marked the place which the ark should have
occupied .
The ark was made of shittim wood, overlaid,
within and without, with pure gold . It
was about three feet nine inches long, two feet
three inches wide, and of the same extent in
depth . It had on the side two rings of gold,
through which were placed staves of shittim
wood, by which, when necessary, it was borne
by the Levites . Its covering was of pure
gold, over which was placed two figures called
cherubim, with expanded wings. The covering
of the ark was called kaphiret, from
kaphar, " to forgive sin," and hence its English
name of " mercy-seat," as being the place
where the intercession for sin was made .
The researches of archeologists in the last
few years have thrown much light on the
Egyptian mysteries . Among the ceremonies
of that ancient people was one called the Procession
of Shrines, which is mentioned in the
Rosetta stone, and depicted on the Temple
walls. One of these shrines was an ark, which
was carried in procession by the priests, who
supported it on their shoulders by staves passing
through metal rings . It was thus brought
into the Temple and deposited on a stand or
altar that the ceremonies prescribed in the
ritua1 might be performed before it . The
contents of these arks were various, but always
of a mystical character . Sometimes the ark
would contain symbols of Life and Stability ;
sometimes the sacred beetle, the symbol of
the Sun ; and there was always a representation
of two figures of the goddess Theme or
Truth and Justice, which overshadowed the
ark with their wings . These coincidences of
the Egyptian and Hebrew arks must have
been more than accidental .
Ark, Substitute. The chest or coffer
which constitutes a part of the furniture, and
is used in the ceremonies of a Chapter of
Royal Arch Masons, and in a Council of Select
Masters according to the American system,
is called by Masons the Substitute Ark,
to distinguish it from the other ark, that which
was constructed in the wilderness under the
direction of Moses, and which is known as the
Ark of the Covenant. This the Substitute Ark
was made to represent under circumstances
that axe recorded in the Masonic traditions,
and especially in those of the Select Degree .
The ark used in Royal Arch and Cr tic
Masonry in this country is generally of tthis
form :
WNINAmnnnA/'/.y 1 1 , 11,
ll El EU
owmuuuumuuuwcwnuuweunumm~mut~munmmur
Prideaux, on the authority of Lightfoot,
contends that, as an ark was indispensable to
the Israelitish worship, there was in the second
Temple an ark which had been expressly made
for the purpose of supplying the place of the
first or original ark, and which, without possessing
any . of its prerogatives or honors, was
of precisely the same shape and dimensions,
and was deposited in the same place . The
Masonic legend, whether authentic or not, is
simple and connected . It teaches that there
was an ark in the second Temple, but that it
was neither the Ark of the Covenant which
had been in the Holy of Holies of the first
Temple, nor one that had been constructed as
a substitute for it after the building of the
second Temple . It was that ark which was
presented to us in the Select Master's Degree,
and which being an exact copy of the Mosaical
ark, and intended to replace it in case of its
loss, which is best known to Freemasons as the
Substitute Ark .
Lightfoot gives these Talmudic legends, in
his Prospect of the Temple in the following
language : " It is fancied ly the Jews, that
Solomon, when he built the Temple, foreseeing
that the Temple should be destroyed,
caused very obscure and intricate vaults
under ground to be made, wherein to hide the
ark when any such danger came ; that howsoever
it went with the Temple, yet the ark,
which was the very life of the Temple, might be
saved. And they understand that passage in
2 Chron . xxxv . 3 'Josiah said unto the Levites,
Put the holy ark into the house which Solomon,
the son of David, did build,' etc ., as if
Josiah, having heard by the reading of Moses'
manuscript, and by Huldah's prophecy of the
danger that hung over Jerusalem, commanded
to convey the ark into this vault, that it might
be secured ; and with it, say they, they laid
up Aaron's rod the pot of manna, and the
anointing oil. 'For while the ark stood in its
place upon the stone mentioned-they hold
that Aaron's rod and the pot of manna stood
before it ; but, now, were all conveyed into obscurity-and
the stone upon which the ark
stood lay over the mouth of the vault . But
Rabbi Solomon, which useth not, ordinarily,
to forsake such traditions, hath given a more
serious gloss upon the place ; namely, that
whereas Manasseh and Amon had removed
the ark out of its habitation, and set up images
and abominations there of their own-
Joshua speaketh to the priests to restore it to
its place again . What became of the ark, at
the burning of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar,
we read not ; it is most likely it went to the
fire also. However it sped, it was not in the
second Temple ; and is one of the five choice