User:Rburton98/Ark of the Covenant (Additions)

There have been many claims on the where the Ark of the Covenant is, when it was created, and even whether it exists at all. These claims can at times, validate Graham Hancock’s claims and disprove all of them at once. According History Channel however, "one of the most well-known holds that Leviticus priests moved the Ark to Egypt just before the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem in 586 B.C. From there it was supposedly moved to Ethiopia, where it resides to this day in the town of Aksum,in the St. Mary of Zion cathedral.” Throughout history, there has always been very intense cultural, military, and political rivalry between the Christians and the Jews. It is only after this period that the Christian version of the ark story appears to have been written down. It has led to the debate among not only archaeologist, but also those studying pseudoscience, on how much the conflict between those who practice Judaism and Christianity affected the development of the respective legends about the Ark coming to Ethiopia. After spending a year in 1983 in Ethiopia and watching “Indiana Jones, the raiders of the lost ark, Graham Hancock published the book, Sign and the Seal The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. The Sign and the Seal details his encounters and belief that the Ark of the Covenant is not in fact in Egypt or any of the other claimed locations, but in a small secluded temple in Ethiopia. “The Ark itself, however, mysteriously disappears from recorded history sometime after the building of the Temple of Solomon.” (Hancock 1992) Graham Hancock who is often mistaken as an archaeologist for his many, books, podcasts, and TV shows, is “a British writer and journalist. Hancock specializes in pseudoscientific theories involving ancient civilizations, stone monuments or megaliths, altered states of consciousness, ancient myths, and astronomical or astrological data from the past.” (Routledge, 2010 edition)

In the course of his search, Hancock also interviewed members of the Ethiopian Jewish community, the Falashas. According to the Greenberg tripod, They "have a story about the ark coming to Ethiopia, but it differs substantially from that of the Kebra Nagast". According the novel, "the local Jewish tradition, the Falashas were the Jews who first entered Ethiopia but did so only after a lengthy stay in Egypt where they had built a temple near Aswan. That temple was destroyed and they moved into Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, the Ark was first kept in a tent on the Island of Tana Kirkos, but approximately sixteen hundred years ago it was removed to Axum. To the extant that the Jewish version may have a kernel of truth, the story of a Temple in Aswan would refer to the famous Jewish temple in Elephantine, an island in the Aswan territory, which was destroyed in the late fifth century BC, dating the Falasha arrival in Ethiopia to around 400 BC." The detailing of all aspects listed, led to the establishing of “validity,” and “credibility,” within the entirety of the piece. Although Hancock takes the time to extensively detail all of the history behind the final “location,” of the Ark of the Covenant, there are aspects that weakened Hancock’s argument, that being him never actually seeing it. In the novel, when Graham Hancock finally arrived in Axum to see the Ark, it is unable to be brought out to him. He therefore, is unable to confirm clear proof of his this, in addition to this, there still is no confirmed description of what the Ark is supposed to look like, other than the description by the bible or the description of local legends. What is known is that throughout Ethiopia, churches contain a “tabot”, a symbolic replica of the ark.

Tabot is a ""Ge'ez" word referring to a replica of the Tablets of Law, onto which the Biblical Ten Commandments were inscribed, used in the practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Tabot can also refer to a replica of the Ark of the Covenant." Without the formal documented proof of the Ark of the Covenant residing in the small temple in Axum, it is hard to find truth in the claims that are made by Graham Hancock. As the book stated, Graham Hancock was never able to physically see or document the Ark of the Covenant or its existence, the “confirmation of the facts,” becomes increasingly challenging and frankly impossible. In addition to this, the claims made are that of local legend.