St. Pachomius Library

The Ark of the Covenant

(Hebrew ARON)

The Ark was placed in the First Temple, but by the time of the Second Temple its location was unknown or disputed. Christians see the Ark as a symbol of the Virgin Theotokos. In Ethiopia, the Ark holds an especially important place in liturgical worship, and a "tabot" or symbolic replica of the Ark is found in every Ethiopian temple. (However, a tabot does not look like the Biblical Ark: it is a flat slab of wood or sometimes stone, which is used as an antimension.)
Norman Hugh Redington
Under construction --- far from complete! Read with caution.

General:
- Ark of the Covenant Homepage, by Annie: Numerous links of widely varying quality; caveat lector. --- Annie's Homepage
- Martyn Barrow: The Ark of the Covenant, the Rod of Aaron, and the Golden Pot: READ WITH CAUTION: We assume the author is non-Orthodox. --- Domini
- Elisabeth Revel-Neher: On the Hypothetical Models of the Byzantine Iconography of the Ark of the Covenant, (1995). In D. Mouriki et al., eds., Byzantine East, Latin West, Princeton University Dept. of Art and Archaeology, 1995.
The "Lost" Ark:
- Current Location: Under the Temple Mount? This seems to be the most popular theory, and the one most in accord with Biblical evidence. However, there is little to be found about it online which we consider to be of sufficient quality to index.
  - Philip Coppens: Found: One Ark of the Covenant? Account of a (characteristically) somewhat hare-brained expedition which combined scientific exploration of Warren's Shaft with illegal treasure-hunting on and under the Mount, ending in chaos and rioting around Pascha in 1911. --- Philip Coppens
- Current Location: Axum, Ethiopia? According to the Kebra Negast, the Ark was brought to Ethiopia by Solomon's son Menelik. An Ark said to be the original is kept in Axum to this day, and is perhaps the most revered artifact possessed by the Ethiopian Church. Western scholars, without seeing the Axum Ark, have tended to dismiss its authenticity a priori, although a few think it may possibly come from the Temple at Elephantine. The Ark is also associated in Ethiopia with the islands of Lake Tana.
  - Axum's St. Mary of Zion Church: Where the Ark is said to be kept. --- Ethiopia First
  - Lara Santoro: Legend of the Lost Ark Lives On in Africa: --- Christian Science Monitor
  - An Interview with the Venerable Getahun Atlaw, Archdeacon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, Israel: The second half of the interview defends the authenticity of the Axum Ark. --- Augustan Society
  - Graham Hancock: The Sign and the Seal: A sort of condensed version of Hancock's best-selling book on the Axum Ark. READ WITH CAUTION: Hancock holds (or pretends to hold) some outlandish beliefs about the Ark as an Atlantean high-tech artifact, and he is certainly not Orthodox. Nevertheless, his information about Ethiopia is so far as we can tell quite sound. Apparently he decided he could sell more copies if he mixed it with silliness, and apparently, too, he was right. --- OneWorld
  - Stuart Munro-Hay: The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant, (2005). London: Tauris, 2005. Although unsatisfactory in many respects, this is the first full-length scholarly study of the Ethiopian Ark tradition. Munro-Hay takes a minimalist view, arguing that the object hidden in Axum was only identified with the Ark in the XVI or XVII Century, and is probably either a (mediæval) tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments or simply an old Axumite inscribed stone.
  - Paul Raffaele: Keepers of the Lost Ark? (2007). Smithsonian (38/12): 38. An article on Ethiopian Orthodoxy with some interesting pictures and an interview of sorts with the guardian of the Axum Ark.
- Current Location: Ireland? Almost certainly not. That the Ark is at Tara is sometimes claimed to be a tradition of the Celtic Church. This does not appear to be correct, but is rather based entirely upon the speculations of XIX Century occultists and sectarian "British Israelite" groups.

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