Okay, we all know what's inside the Ark of the Covenant, because of "Raiders of the Lost Ark,"
right? It's a glowy energy ball that gives Nazis a bad case of melty face.
But it turns out that when it comes to details about the Ark,
there's a source even more reliable: The Bible.
First, let's go over the basics, as retold for thousands of years.
The Ark of the Covenant is a holy relic from 1000 BCE, kind of like a box covered in gold,
carried by the Israelites for 40 years after they were led by Moses to escape from slavery in Egypt.
They wandered the desert until they found the promised land of Canaan, and along the way got
involved in all sorts of shenanigans like being fed by God with manna from the sky,
worshiping golden calves, and watching Moses go up Mt. Sinai to get the Ten Commandments.
"The Lord Jehovah has given unto you these 15… Oy. Ten. These ten commandments!"
This story, found in the second book of the Old Testament, Exodus, should be familiar to anyone
who's gone to Yeshiva or Sunday School. Later, the Ark was apparently given by King David to his son
Solomon, who installed it in the temple at Jerusalem. It's been connected to
the Knights Templar, and some believe it wound up in Ethiopia, in the town of Aksum.
But what exactly is supposed to actually be inside the Ark, anyway?
Part of the issue in trying to decipher the truth about the Ark of the Covenant, even the
truth of its existence, is all the secrecy and protectiveness surrounding it. No one was allowed
to tend to it besides the ancient Israelites' Levitical priest class. And this remains true
today: at the St. Mary of Zion Church in Ethiopia, where some believe the Ark is kept, a single monk
called "The Guardian" tends to the site - and even he is not allowed to actually see the Ark.
But one thing can be agreed on: the Ark is supposed to contain the Ten Commandments,
the essence of "the law" given to God's chosen people. You know,
"thou shalt not kill," "thou shalt not steal," and so on. That is, the Ark houses the physical stone
tablets onto which the commandments were scrawled - either by Moses using a chisel, or, according
to the classic 1956 movie Ten Commandments, burned into the stone by the finger of God.
And there's more. In Hebrews 9:4,
the Bible goes into some detail about the Ark's contents, which include
"A golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant."
Manna was supposed to be divine food from God found on the ground
that kept the Israelites alive in the desert. As read on Open Bible,
it's described in a lot of different ways. In reality, as Moment Mag states,
manna means "wet honey" in Farsi, and is likely honeydew, the "digestive byproduct of insects"
that feed on the tamarisk tree found in the Sinai Peninsula. Such biomatter probably wouldn't have
survived 3,000 years, and is unlikely to still be in the Ark now, wherever the Ark might be.
The staff, or rod, of Aaron was an artifact wielded by the brother of Moses. As Rehabilitated
outlines, the Book of Numbers describes the leaders of the Twelve Tribes of Israel writing
their names on staves and putting them in a pile on the ground. The following morning,
Aaron's staff had sprouted not only flowers, but entire almonds.
According to 1 Kings 8:9, however, there was nothing in the Ark except, quote, "the two
tablets of stone that Moses put there." So does that mean the other parts of the Bible are wrong?
Not necessarily, because Kings was written at a later date. This means someone might have taken
the manna and staff out before the Ark was apparently moved to Egypt for safekeeping in
586 BCE. So unless someone else put something in before it allegedly arrived in Ethiopia — and,
of course, barring miracles — it seems like the Ark might, at present, contain only stone.
And maybe a face-melting lightning ball made of angel ghosts.
Until someone opens the Ark, there's no way to know for sure.
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