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Ethiopian Christianity:
The Ark of the Covenant
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Solomon & the Queen of Sheba
The Ark of the Covenant
Ethiopian Protestantism
Ethiopians claim that they have possession of the orginal biblical Ark of the Covenant, taken from the Temple in Jerusalem, just as the Babylonian army invaded Judah and took the Jews into captivity for seventy years.[See II Kings 25 for the Biblical account of the fall of Jerusalem]
While there is no way to verify the truth of their claim, particularly since only the Keeper of the Ark is permitted to actually see it, it is not inherently historically implausible. The Ethiopians make as good a case for possessing the Ark as anyone else could, and are virtually the only people who do claim to have it.
Most historicans and biblical scholars assume that the Ark was taken by the Babylonians as plunder, along with the rest of the Temple treasure. This is certainly as likely to be the cases as is the claim that it is in the Church of St Mary Zion in Axum. However, two factors lend credibility to the possibility that the Ethiopians are speaking the truth.
First, the Ark of the Covenant was the greatest of all of the treasures in the Temple. If the priests were to attempt to escape Jerusalem with only one treasure, the Ark is the most likely candidate.
Second, if the priests did make off with the Ark of the Covenant, they would have taken it west towards Egypt. Those (including Isaiah) who escaped Judah after the Babylonian captivity went to Egypt, Egypt was Judah’s political ally, and the Babylonians came from the east. If the priests took the Ark to Egypt, they would probably take it up the Nile River as the safest part of Egypt, and this comports with the Ethiopian claim that it was kept along the Upper Nile for many years, before being conveyed to Ethiopia.
The strongest modern argument supporting Ethiopia’s claim has been presented in Graham Hancock’s book, The Sign and the Seal.
While this page does not fully support Hancock’s argument, neither does it find the case he makes entirely without merit.