Ark of the Covenant

ARTIFACT
Ark of the Covenant
Origin
Culture	Hebrew
Discovery
Location	Tanis, Egypt
Date	1936
Discoverer	Indiana Jones
Collector	U.S. government

"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

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.

History

When the Hebrews settled in Canaan, they placed the Ark in the Temple of Solomon, until it mysteriously disappeared. However, it seems that in about 980 BC the Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak raided the Temple and took the Ark with him to the city of Tanis, where he placed it inside the Well of the Souls to hide it from the eyes of his sun god Amun-Ra.

Indiana Jones and Sallah find the Ark.

Adolf Hitler became interested in acquiring the Ark in order to achieve world domination. In 1936, when US agents Colonel Musgrove and Major Eaton discovered this, they sent Indiana Jones on a mission to find the Ark before the Nazis. Though he did find the Ark first, it was later stolen by Nazis nonetheless.

The Ark changed hands between Indy and the Nazis several times before the Nazis eventually opened the Ark at a secret island base near Crete. Ghostly apparitions emerged from within and swarmed playfully about the Nazis before adopting a more sinister tone; the spirits transformed their appearances from angelic beings into monstrous demons. Lightning burst through the soldiers and their souls were taken to be judged. Indy and Marion Ravenwood, who closed their eyes and looked away from the Ark, were spared from God's anger.

However, instead of giving the Ark to the museum, the US government took possession of it. Jones and Brody were told by Major Eaton that it was to be studied by higher authorities, although it was simply nailed inside a wooden box numbered 9906753 and placed inside a gigantic warehouse among hundreds of similar crates.

In 1957, Jones was taken to the warehouse when captured by Soviets looking for another crate, 9906573; the box containing the Ark was broken during the subsequent action, but Jones may not have noticed it.

Behind the scenes

Though 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. Plus the Ark is supposed 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.

In the Bible, it is implied that whosoever even touches it directly will die on the spot. Two Nazis opened the Ark, which would have been three crimes against God; touching, opening, and looking inside the Ark, so if the movie were following the story as written, all of them would have died the instant the Ark was touched. Anyone who watched the broadcast, if it ever made it off the island, would also have died.

The actual fate of the Ark, if the artifact exists, 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.

The design of the prop Ark used in the film was based on artwork by the nineteenth century painter James Tissot.

Appearances

• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Jerusalem, June 1909" (Mentioned only) (Cancelled)
• The Secret Treaty (Mentioned only)
• Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx (Mentioned only)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark novel (First appearance)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Image on wall)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade novel (Image on wall)
• LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Non-canonical appearance)
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novel

Sources

• Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide

External Links

• TheBibleProject.com's image of Tissot's "The Ark of the Covenant"
• TheBibleProject.com: Tissot illustration "The Ark Passes Over The Jordan"
• TheBibleProject.com: Tissot illustration "The Seven Trumpets of Jericho" (Featuring the Ark)
• Smithsonian.com article: "Keepers of the Lost Ark?" (Ethiopian claim to Ark)