Ark of the Covenant found?
According to the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant was a wooden box that contained the Ten Commandments. It could also zap people and reduce them into columns of ash. The Ark was reportedly kept in the Temple of Solomon, which was razed by the Babylonians. According to Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, the lost Ark was found in the Egyptian desert by the intrepid archaeologist Indiana Jones (who, considering the amount of time he spent away from his university and the fact that he never seemed to publish any papers, would’ve been kicked out of the academe). The Ark was then snatched by the Nazis, who did not do their research—they looked when the Ark was opened, and were promptly incinerated. Spielberg and Lucas go on to say that the Ark is now stored inside the Library of Congress or some other building in Washington D.C.
According to Professor Tudor Parfitt of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, the Ark—or a replacement container—is currently on dusty shelf in a museum in Harare, Zimbabwe. In the 80s, Parfitt supported the claim that a South African clan called Lemba was a lost tribe of Israel. Subsequent DNA tests supported this claim. The Lemba venerated the ngoma lungundu, a drum that contained ritual objects. It also zapped people and reduced them into columns of ash. Parfitt concluded that the ngoma was the Ark, which the Lemba had brought to Africa.
Naturally this theory would be greeted with skepticism, but it is fascinating stuff. Interesting how this surfaces while a new sequel to the Indiana Jones movies is in production. By the way, one thing has troubled me since the last Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade. Anyone who drinks from the Holy Grail becomes immortal, right? And Indy and his dad both drank from the grail. Does that mean they’re immortal?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 25th, 2008 at 15:42
Let’s see. Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, who were in turn sacked by the Persians, who were sacked by the Greeks who were sacked by the Romans, whose empire transmogrified into the Frankish, then Norman, then British empires. The ark is probably somewhere in Wales. ;-)
February 26th, 2008 at 08:50
Judging from Indy’s appearance at the Oscars, then no.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:06
A friend claims the remains of Jesus is in Japan. How it got there, she doesn’t know.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:34
For the Indy question:
No, they didn’t become immortal. The Knight said that the Grail and eternal life cannot go past the Templar seal on the temple floor – you’d have eternal life if you want, but you are eternally grounded there forever. So eternal life ceased when Indy, dad, et. al., went past, got out, and rode to the sunset. My main problem was, why did the curing effect went on after they rode out?
And yeah, he wouldn’t look like that in the Oscars if he did. But it had some effects in dad, who got to bump Catherine Zeta-Jones in a movie.
February 26th, 2008 at 13:32
No, the Holy Grail in the Last Crusade just has healing/regeneration properties. You can only become immortal if you drink from it on a regular basis – just like the knight did. That’s why it can’t go beyond the seal of that building carved into a rock. Obviously, since the grail fell into that deep chasm the knight probably died.
At least, this is what I’ve repeatedly told myself for the last 18 years.