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Ark of the Covenant

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For other uses, see Ark of the Covenant (disambiguation).

"The Bible speaks of the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions. An army which carries the Ark before it is invincible."
―Marcus Brody[src]

The Ark of the Covenant or The Ark is a Biblical artifact. According to the Bible, the Ark was a wooden chest used by the ancient Hebrews to carry the Ten Commandments, the budded staff of Aaron, and a pot of manna.

Long sought by archaeologists and treasure-hunters, the Ark was rumored to possess great supernatural powers that caught the interest of Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler, who was willing to overlook its Jewish origins to take control of the relic's abilities.

History[]

Origins[]

"The Ark. If it is there at Tanis, then it is something that man was not meant to disturb. Death has always surrounded it. It is not of this Earth."
―Sallah to Indiana Jones[src]

Around 1400 BC,[1] after the Ten Commandments were smashed by Moses, the pieces were collected in the Ark of the Covenant, a gold-gilded wooden chest constructed under instruction from God[3] after a vision experienced by Moses at Mount Sinai according to the Bible[4] and carried before the Hebrews on their march towards the Promised Land.[3] During the long trek, the Ark's heralds warned the Israelites to view it from afar. At one point, the Bethsames were all slain by its power because they looked at the relic. Similarly, on an occasion when the ox-cart carrying the chest faltered, Oza tried to steady the Ark and was struck dead for touching it.[5] The Philistines eventually snatched the Ark from the Hebrews, but wherever they took it, some sort of destruction or plague followed until the Philistines couldn't endure disease and death anymore that they returned the artifact.[6]

Bible2

A depiction of the Ark's power.

When the Hebrews settled in Canaan, they placed the Ark in the Temple of Solomon where it stayed until around 980 BC when the Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak raided the Temple and took the Ark with him to the city of Tanis.[3] It was believed according to an old story that the Ark was stolen around the same time as the Staff of Aaron.[7] Following a series of dreams in which he was visited by Osiris urging him to hide it from the eyes of the sun god Amun-Ra, Shishak had the Ark placed inside the Well of the Souls. A Map Room was built so that only Ra could know the Ark's whereabouts but a year later the Israelites' God saw to it that Tanis itself was buried in a sandstorm and the Ark was lost to the passage of time.[8]

A legend would claim that King Menelik, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba who founded Ethiopia in the 20th century, took the Ark of the Covenant there. Many Ethiopians would go to believe the account was factual.[9] Some claimed the Ark had connections to the Knights Templar.[10]

Research[]

Note: The following section is cut content.
It contains information cut from the final release of an Indiana Jones medium, or otherwise unpublished. Everything said in this section and not elsewhere did not happen in the "proper" Indiana Jones continuity.

In June 1909, the American archaeologist Abner Ravenwood had in his possession a map that apparently indicated that the Ark of the Covenant was hidden below the Temple Mount hill in Jerusalem. Graverobber Montague Parker tricked a young Indiana Jones, son of the renowned Scottish professor Henry Walton Jones, Senior, to "borrow" Ravenwood's map in exchange of letting the boy work at his dig. However, the Ark wasn't beneath Temple Mount and Parker and his gang were discovered by the temple keeper, who summoned a large local mob that chased the robbers out of the city. After that, Ravenwood assured Indy that the Ark wasn't believed to be there, but elsewhere and that someday, a real archaeologist would find it.[11]

Cut content information ends here.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Egyptologist Abner Ravenwood grew to become an expert on the Ark of the Covenant's lore to the point it became his life's obsession, collecting some relics at Tanis, but failing to find its buried city. Amassing clues for his personal quest costed him his job at the University of Chicago, Abner dedicated the rest of his life to look for the Ark, spending his summers on excavations in Egypt and the Middle East and bringing his daughter Marion with him on all his travels across the globe. They journeyed for clues at Europe, Egypt, Iraq and Iran before settling in Nepal, India and founded The Raven inn/bar to finance more excavations nearby.[8] Near the Egyptian village of San el-Hagar, Abner recovered the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra, but still failed to locate the Map Room or the Well of the Souls.[12] Unfortunately, Abner never got to find the Ark, as he chose to follow a theory that the Ark had been taken by Alexander the Great and his army through Nepal after months of research, but Abner realized too late that the Ark was indeed in Tanis before apparently perishing in an avalanche.[8]

Discovery in Tanis[]

LostArk

Indiana Jones and Sallah find the Ark.

As early as around 1932, Adolf Hitler became interested in acquiring the Ark of the Covenant, lusting for the Ark with an intensity only rivalled by his desire to claim Richard Wagner's last work due to his beliefs it could summon an army of phantoms loyal to Germany.[13] In 1936, when US agents Colonel Musgrove and Major Eaton discovered Hitler's plan to use the Ark's fabled powers in order to achieve world domination through an intercepted German communique sent from Cairo, where the Nazis had set up a dig[3] that occupied several square kilometers,[9] so they consulted Indiana Jones and his friend Marcus Brody about the artifact. Jones explained some of the history of the Ark to the government men, showing them a depiction of the Ark's destructive power after which Brody noted that any army which carried the Ark before it would be invincible.[3] Indy didn't quite believe the Ark was real, deeming all of the stories surrounding it as folklore, but in case it was, he didn't want it to fall in Hitler's hands because historic artifacts belonged to museums and not in the collection of a crazy dictator.[14] Eaton and Musgrove subsequently hired Jones to find the Ark before the Nazis. The archaeologist managed to find the Well of Souls and acquire the Ark out from under the German expedition, but it was later captured by Nazis nonetheless.[3]

Tabernacle1

The Ark is prepared in the Tabernacle.

The Ark changed hands between Indy and the Nazis several times before the Nazis took the Ark to a secret island base near Crete. After René Emile Belloq, dressed in the traditional attire of an Israelite High Priest, performed a Hebrew ritual, the Ark was opened. When Belloq and his cohorts, Colonel Herman Dietrich and Major Arnold Ernst Toht, looked inside, they saw nothing but sand, all that was left of the Ten Commandments. This drew a bout of laughter from Toht, who had long been a skeptic. While Belloq looked upon the sand with an anguished expression on his face, a sudden screeching noise drew his attention. Moments later, a power surge from the Ark disabled all the lights, electronics and weapons in the vicinity, some blowing up in the soldiers' hands.[3] As a strange and luminiscent white mist rose up from the artifact, Indy wondered if maybe the legends of Tanis hadn't been just myths, concluding that an unknown force had been unleashed and could punish those curious like it happened to Lot's wife for turning back to see God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.[14]

Ghostly apparitions emerged from within and swarmed playfully about the astonished onlookers. Belloq and his cohorts continued staring into the ark, saying, "It's beautiful!" Little did he know, these would be his last words. The spirits' appearances transformed from angelic beings into monstrous abominations. Belloq, Toht and Dietrich's expressions turned from wonder to horror. Rooted to the spot with fear, the Nazis beheld a pillar of holy fire rising from the Ark and coalescing around Belloq before shooting bolts of fiery energy through the assembled soldiers, killing them. The Ark then turned its full and terrible wrath on the three men who had dared look inside: Colonel Herman Dietrich's head imploded, Major Arnold Ernst Toht's face melted off his skull and Belloq's entire body exploded. The Ark then swept the Nazis' remains into the air, then fire blasted them and the ark's lid into the sky. Once the fire receded, the lid returned to the ark and the apparitions vanished, leaving no trace of those who had beheld them. The captured Indy, witnessing energy beginning to come out of the Ark, had already realized beforehand what was about to happen. Warning Marion, they closed their eyes and looked away from the Ark, symbolically showing proper respect, and were spared from the wrath of God. They then brought the Ark back to the United States.[3]

400

Hangar 51, where the Ark was finally placed.

Afterwards, instead of giving the Ark to the National Museum as agreed, the US government took possession of it. Though Jones and Brody were told by Major Eaton that it was to be studied by higher authorities,[3] the relic was instead analyzed by a United States Air Force team consisting of E. Clinton, K. A. Day, R. Frost, L. Stahl, J. Washington and S. Widnall;[15] to be later simply nailed inside a wooden crate numbered 9906753 and placed inside a gigantic warehouse[3] in Nevada[16] among hundreds of similar crates.[3] Buried among many other crates, the Ark started gathering dust once again.[17]

Legacy[]

After the failure to obtain the Ark,[3] now known in Germany as the "Ark of the Covenant fiasco",[18] the Fuhrer bristled at the mention of the lost Ark affair, particularly at Indiana Jones' participation in it.[19] The Ruling Council of Twenty-Three would eventually become aware as Indy's participation in locating the Ark, regarding the whole affair as one of the three best known so-called adventures of Jones alongside those where he found the Sankara Stones and the Holy Grail.[20] Despite Indy's involvement in retrieving the Ark, no one would ever know about it as mysterious yet powerful people decided the Ark should stay hidden, being this a closely guarded secret known only to a few people even though rumors about its resting place left Hangar 51,[21] considered by most a "secret desert base".[6]

Some time after, while involved with the plans of the immortal Prospero, Indiana remembered how he didn't believe in the power of the ancient Jewish relic, but saw it destroy a Nazi regiment.[22]

A year after finding the Ark, as Jones returned to Egypt alongside Gina Lombardi in their search for Lombardi's sister Laura and to uncover the mystery behind the Great Circle before the Third Reich Special Antiquities Collection agent Emmerich Voss and his Wehrmacht forces beat them out on it, Jones overheard a pair of diggers from the Tanis excavation who recalled that the Nazis looted "a gold chest", implying some if not all of the diggers never found out what significant artifact they unearthed from the desert. Voss himself would later remark at his Ziggurat of Ur, Iraq excavation, where the Circle revealed to have contained apparently Noah's Ark, that while Indy found Moses' Ark, he found Noah's one, being obsessed to use this Ark especially for Germany's glory. However, in the end, that Ark's power similarly claimed Voss' life akin to how the Ark of the Covenant claimed most of its Nazi victims.[23]


Two years after discovering the Ark, Jones later uncovered a wall painting depicting the Ark in some tunnels beneath the Biblioteca di San Barnaba in Venice, Italy. When Elsa Schneider asked what the image was, Jones confirmed that it was the Ark, mumbling that he was "Pretty sure..." given past encounters.[24]

The following year, while exploring an Algiers, Algeria dig site in his search for Atlantis, Jones found a similar wall painting depicted two women holding a white sphere coming from a chest or ark that resembled the image Jones saw of the Ark of the Covenant in Venice's tunnels, leading him to acknowledge that he had already seen a similar painting before.[25]

In September 1940, upon confronting Belloq's twin, Jones told Linda about their experience with the Ark as the reasons for how Belloq's twin couldn't be his brother and then asked the twin if he had "taken up again" the job of retrieving the Ark, with which he concluded it wasn't René when he made clear he wasn't looking for the Ark but remembered the artifact's search as his brother's cause of death.[26]

By 1941, Daan van Rooijen had learned of Jones uncovering the Ark and the Holy Grail leading van Rooijen to mention them when the archaeologist dismissed the Golden Fleece as a myth.[27] Some time later that year, Jones similarly reflected on not dismissing an artifact's potential existence when Tamara Jaglova approached him to look with her for the Sword of Genghis Khan, privately admitting to himself that any legend in the price range like the Excalibur or Barbarossa's Tomb could turn out to be real like the Ark of the Covenant, plus his scientifical self persuaded him to take the chance to find Genghis Khan's tomb and sword if true.[28]

In 1943, during a World War II mission to Zile Muri-yo, Haiti to retrieve the Heart of Darkness before the Nazis or the Japanese Imperial Army, Indiana Jones reflected to himself that whatever Marie Arnoux was keeping to herself about the Heart, it didn't matter and he should let her have her own secrets because everybody deserved a few, such as the Lord with the Ark of the Covenant. Later on, when warned about a gris-gris, Indy reflected that despite having been once an educated and not superstitious scientist, he had started to accept science may not have all the answers after dealing with the Ark and that only an idiot wouldn't accept such possibilities.[29]

The Ark in number 4

The Ark in 1957.

Over two decades later, in 1957, Jones was taken to the warehouse when captured by Soviets led by Irina Spalko looking for a different crate. The box containing the Ark was broken during the subsequent action brought about from his escape attempt.[16] Jones saw enough of the relic to recognize it and realized that Hangar 51 had become the Ark's fate but continued with his getaway,[30] while Spalko and her men didn't notice the relic as they pursued Jones.[16] The archaeologist made a note in his journal that he had learned of the Ark's whereabouts and mused on the possibility of making a return trip as well as wondering what else could be in storage there.[5] Sometime afterwards, after making contact with the Crystal Skull of Akator,[30] which was even more precious and powerful than the Ark,[31] Jones reflected that he thought the Ark of the Covenant didn't exist prior to finding it due to considering himself as much scientist as adventurer, but the Ark's existence and powers had made him become more openminded, hence his reasons to not dismiss Akator's existence.[30]

In 1992,[32] while flying over the United States of America,[33] an older Indiana Jones[32] relived the adventures of many years ago, including the memories of the Lost Ark of the Covenant.[33]

Behind the scenes[]

"Never touch it."
―Indiana Jones to Sallah of the Ark[src]
ArkPlate

The Ark depicted in the 2013 artwork "Ark of the Covenant".

The Ark of the Covenant appeared as the titular MacGuffin of Raiders of the Lost Ark.[3] While George Lucas conceived of the Indiana Jones character as a seeker of supernatural artifacts, it was Philip Kaufman's idea to use the Ark as a MacGuffin, influenced by an old dentist of his who was obsessed with the relic's powers.[34] Sculptor Kev Short designed the angels on the Ark's top, detailing the actual box around the top and one of its panels, which Brian Muir did based on a sketch design.[35] The design of the prop Ark used in the film was based on artwork by the nineteenth century painter James Tissot. As of 2014, the actual prop resides in the art room of the Lucasfilm Ltd. archives at Skywalker Ranch.[36]

In the film, it goes unexplained how Indiana Jones knew not to touch the Ark or look upon its contents.[3] Campbell Black's novelization, however, provided a scene where Imam warns Indy and Sallah about the danger the Ark poses. As such, Indy later reminds Sallah to not touch the artifact upon uncovering it and instead instructs that it be carried out with a set of poles.[37] The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones would later suggest that Jones researched this ahead of time from The History of the Ark, a book which contained a passage explaining how some individuals who looked into or touched the Ark died.[5]

During production of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, George Lucas had the idea for an episode entitled "Jerusalem, June 1909" which saw a nine-year-old Indiana Jones meeting Abner Ravenwood, who would have been searching the Ark of the Covenant on Temple Mount, Jerusalem, as a means to foreshadow the events of Raiders. The series was cancelled before the episode could be produced.[11]

For the development of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, director Steven Spielberg became determined to have the Ark of the Covenant make a cameo in the film as a callback to the franchise's earlier installments. Although a props team would normally have been expected to rebuild the Ark, it wasn't necessary for Crystal Skull as Lucas' archives had kept the original prop from Raiders intact. As it was such a sought-after piece of memorabilia, guards were actually brought in to protect it.[34] Around 2007, a rumor circulated that Ark would play an instrumental role in the plot, which turned out to be false.[38]

Depiction[]

While the Ark is described in the Bible, some elements of the Ark were altered in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. For example, Brody's statement that "the Bible speaks of the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions" is only partially accurate (when it was captured by the Philistines it "laid waste" to their "region" via bubonic plague), though the Bible does state the Ark had supernatural powers. The Ark is reputed to have the second set of the Ten Commandments written in it, which are whole, not the first broken pair. Although a Rabbinic tradition states that Moses also put the broken fragments of the first tablets of the Law into the Ark.

The picture in which Jones and Brody show Musgrove and Eaton the Ark's destructive power might be another version of the Battle of Jericho. It is written in the Book of Joshua, a biblical story of how Israel had conquered Canaan, that for six days the Israelites had marched around the walls of Jericho once every day with their priests carrying the Ark, after which on the seventh day they marched around seven times.

The punishment of death upon Belloq and the Nazis for disturbing the Ark is inspired by a Bible reference in 1 Samuel 6:19 when seventy people of Beth-Shemesh were struck down because they looked into the Ark.

Also, the Bible relates a command by King Josiah of Judah in 2 Chronicles 35:3 for the Levites to "Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon built". Since King Josiah reigned from 640 - 609 BC, and the Bible mentions the Ark as being present in Jerusalem during his reign over three hundred years after Shishak's invasion, the Tanis theory is untenable.

The fate of the actual Ark, if the artifact does exist, continues to elude archaeologists. The city of Tanis is one of many locations where it is theorized the Ark may lie, although the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Ethiopia claims to have the true Ark safely kept in the Chapel of the Tablet. The Ark's guardian, and only he, is allowed to see it. Some Catholics believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the new Ark of the Covenant due to similarities between her and the actual Ark.

People have even asserted that the Ark is in Japan, within the catacombs of Mt. Tsurugi.[39]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Indy's Notebook: "Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark!" – Indiana Jones Comic 7
  2. ↑ Indiana Jones apparel  (Design: Rare Artifacts Poster T-Shirt)
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 Raiders of the Lost Ark
  4. ↑ Indiana Jones Activity Annual
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Indiana Jones Handbook
  7. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Indiana Jones and the Lands of Adventure
  10. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Templars
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 StarWars.com The Lost Chronicles of Young Indiana Jones on StarWars.com (backup link on Archive.org)
  12. ↑ Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
  13. ↑ Indiana Jones Artifacts
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark junior novel
  15. ↑ "Ark of the Covenant" 2013 artwork
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
  17. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark Read-Along Adventure
  18. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
  19. ↑  The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones – "Gateway to Infinity!"
  20. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Sky Pirates and Other Tales
  21. ↑ Indiana Jones: The Search For Buried Treasure
  22. ↑  The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones – "The Devil's Cradle"
  23. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
  24. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  25. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
  26. ↑ Indiana Jones und das Erbe von Avalon
  27. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Golden Fleece
  28. ↑ Indiana Jones und das Schwert des Dschingis Khan
  29. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull junior novel
  31. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novel
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Verdun, September 1916"
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 The Day of Destiny
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 The Complete Making of Indiana Jones
  35. ↑ Indymag, February 2017
  36. ↑ 'Star Wars' trilogy is retold in new kids' book at USA Today
  37. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark novel
  38. ↑ Indymag, October 2016
  39. ↑ Mt. Tsurugi — A Mountain Shaped in Legend and Mystery

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