The mysteries of the Ark of the Covenant

Abstract

The Ark of the Covenant, or Ark of Yhwh, has stimulated the imagination of many people from biblical times up to today: it has served as the inspiration for many stories, as the subject of paintings, and even the fodder for Hollywood directors, who still today show an interest in producing movies about the Lost Ark. There are probably many reasons for this fascination. For starters, the Hebrew Bible itself leaves many questions about the Ark open: What happened to the Ark after King Solomon brought it into the Temple? Was the Ark deported or destroyed when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem? And what did the Ark originally contain?

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 LXX uses for the Ark of Noah and the Ark of Yhwh the term κιβωτός, whereas the box of Moses is rendered with θίβις.

2 The two exceptions are Gen 50:26 (Joseph's coffin) and 2 Kgs 12:10–11 (2 Chr 24:8–11), where it designates a money chest.

3 For a listing of all terms see Jonker, “Ark of the Covenant,” 410–11. LXX differs very often from the MT as to the designation of the Ark. This shows that these titles were not very “stable.”

4 For an overview of Mowinckel's contributions to HB/OT scholarship in its biographical setting see Hjelde, Sigmund Mowinckel.

5 Mowinckel, “Le culte de Yahvé.” For a discussion of this article, see Römer, “Sigmund Mowinckel.”

6 On this, see also Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel, 100, n. 57.

7 Ibid., 200. Mowinckel does not envision this possibility, although he rightly observes that there was a representation of Asherah in the temple of Jerusalem.

8 Ibid., 214–5. Mowinckel envisages the possibility that these stones were also used as oracles, and that one could identify them with the ûrim and tummîm.

9 Ibid., 199.

10 Ibid., 197.

11 Excerpts can be found in Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica 1.10.12–13.

12 Michel, Palmyre, 112–3.

13 A representation can be found in Layard, The Monuments of Nineveh, pl. 65.

14 Uehlinger, “Die Götter von Samarien,” 763–5.

15 A later glossator added “fifty thousand men” (this gloss is missing in some manuscripts).

16 Rost, Thronnachfolge Davids. According to Rost, the story contained 1 Sam 4,1b–18a.19–21; 5,11–11b1.12; 6,1–3b1.4.10–14.16.19 – 7,1 and 2 Sam 6,1–15.17–20a.

17 See e. g. Noth, The Deuteronomistic History, 77 and 86; McCarter, I Samuel, 23–6.

18 The Greek text does not mention Samuel at all; the MT's version of 1 Sam 4:1 (“And the word of Samuel came to all Israel”) is a later revision. In contrast to the Greek version, the MT attributes the initiative of the battle to the Israelites. This may be understood as a theological modification in order to explain that the Israelites lost the war and the Ark because they had not consulted Yhwh before waging war.

19 Schicklberger, Die Ladeerzählungen; Miller and Roberts, Hand of the Lord; Porzig, Die Lade Jahwes.

20 Schäfer-Lichtenberger, “Beobachtungen zur Ladegeschichte,” 328.

21 For the reconstruction of the original narrative, see Finkelstein and Römer, “Historical and Archaeological Background.”

22 “Against this city” is missing in LXX. This may be due to haplography, cf. Janzen, Text of Jeremiah, 119. For the opposite idea, according to which the references to the “city” should be considered as a proto-masoretic revision, cf. Stipp, Sondergut des Jeremiabuches, 103.

23 For the Talmudic references, see Haran, “Disappearance of the Ark,” who claimed that the ark had been removed from the temple by Manasseh and was lost or destroyed.

24 Curtis and Madsen, The Books of Chronicles, 512–3.

25 Haran, “Disappearance of the Ark.”

26 For an overview of different theories see Day, “What Happened.”

27 This idea can be found in the rabbinic discussion, cf. Schäfer-Lichtenberger, “Verlust der Lade,” 239–40.

28 Enstrom and van Dyk, “What happened?”; Day, “What Happened,” 267–70.

29 The expression in brackets, missing in LXX*, is a gloss that wants to specify where the nations will gather.

30 LXX and other manuscripts have a 3rd masc. pl. form, which is certainly a harmonization. Since v. 18 refers back to v. 14, the 2nd person makes perfect sense; cf. Römer, Israels Väter, 471.

31 Schäfer-Lichtenberger, “Verlust der Lade,” 235.

32 Utzschneider, Das Heiligtum, 280–97.

33 Nihan, From Priestly Torah, 44–50.

34 Schäfer-Lichtenberger, “Verlust der Lade,” 240–1.

35 See on this Römer, “Origin, Function and Disappearance,” forthcoming.

36 Mowinckel, “Le culte de Yahvé,” 211, n. 53.

37 This may be a reference to the Epistula Ieremiae or the Apocalypse of Jeremiah, cf. von Dobbeler, Die Bücher 1/2 Makkabäer, 173.

38 Weinfeld, “Jeremiah,” 23–4.

39 For the Ark in the Quran and Islamic traditions, cf. Rubin, “Traditions in Transformation.” For the hiding of the Ark, see ibid., 212.

40 See the article of Arnaud, “L’arche d’alliance.”