Ark Of The Covenant Found – Has the long lost Ark Of The Covenant been found after 2,500 years by a British version of Indiana Jones, Tudor Parfitt, a professor of Jewish studies at London’s prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies?
In his new book about the Ark Of The Covenant found at last - in of all places, the storeroom of the Victoria Museum in Harare, Zimbabwe – Tudor Parfitt describes his twenty-year search for the legendary artifact which is central to so many faiths including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The Lost Ark Of The Covenant author Tudor Parfitt on Today Show:
In the late 1980’s, Parfitt’s research helped document a DNA link between the obscure Lemba Tribe in southern Africa – whose oral history claims they are the legendary lost tribe of Israel – and the priestly lineage of Jerusalem, i.e. the descendants of King David.
During the next two decades, his quest led from Israel to Egypt, Ethiopia, Yemen, and even New Guinea, before eventually leading him back to the Lemba tribe in Zimbabwe. Along the way, Parfitt is ambushed and shot at in Africa and narrowly escapes being kidnapped by Islamist extremists in the deserts of Yemen.
In the end, the Ark Of The Covenant found by Tudor Parfitt is a 650-year old copy of the original Ark, which the Lemba tribe’s oral tradition states burst into flames and burned until only a small piece remained.
A small opening in the Lemba ngoma was said to have incorporated the only remaining piece of the original Ark Of The Covenant, now long since disintegrated.
Known as the Von Sicard ngoma for it’s discovery 60 years ago by Swedish missionary Harald Von Sicard buried in a cave near the Limpopo river in Lemba tribal territory, the religious artifact eventually ended up in a cluttered storeroom at the Victoria Museum in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Parfitt’s book entitled “The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500 Year Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark” was published February 26th. The History Channel will also air a special based in part on Parfitt’s work – “The Quest for the Lost Ark” – which airs on March 2.
And that’s the latest news on the Ark Of The Covenant found.
Tags: arc of the covenant, ark of covenant, ark of the covenant, ark of the covenant found, lost ark of the covenant
March 8th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Thank God its in Zimbabwe. Pleave it therer for God knows more than any pne of us why it is there . Obiously its in the most capable hands.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Irregardless of the amount of time that has passed, the Arc was covered in gold, somehow I don’t see that falling to dust or being burned to ash even after all this time. I’m reminded of many other “great” archeological discoveries where some infintesimal piece of flotsum is given supposed signifigance by a person who has wasted their life in rabbit warrens and goose chases gets overzelous in trying to go out with some discovery or another to stick something in the face of all the people who have tried to get them to devote their time to something more productive.
July 21st, 2008 at 12:53 am
Leave it to the History Channel to ‘accurately’ report history. Glad they don’t sensationalize merely for ratings! Possibly a little more field research and less buying what the traveling author/salesman is peddling would go a long way towards rebuilding their credibility.
Fuzzy – irrespective or regardless – please, pick one, don’t combine. Second, pay attention to your spell checker. And lastly, you might have posted the longest run on sentence I have ever seen! Congratulations – your teachers and school system should be proud.
October 27th, 2008 at 3:47 am
I want to go there and see it for myself.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Rev 11:19.Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Wasn’t it the History Channel that gave us a report of a group of hand-selected-sworn-to-secrecy group of men in Ethiopia who gaurd a small building day and night ? They’ve been doing it for years and they all swear the Ark of the Covenant is inside but noone living has ever shown a lack of faith by looking in there! Hah! What a sad cosmic joke.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Wasn’t it the History Channel that gave us a report of a group of hand-selected-sworn-to-secrecy group of men in Ethiopia who guard a small building day and night ? They’ve been doing it for years and they all swear the Ark of the Covenant is inside but noone living has ever shown a lack of faith by looking in there! Hah! What a sad cosmic joke.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:28 am
i saw the show yesterday, and it seems it is beleived to be a drum
600 years old, the original was destroyed somehow. I believe this
to be true. the drum was somehow magical. made of wood, due
to the makers were in the wilderness. (desert) the man search for
20 years and the story was very well documented. very exciting for me anyways. thanks dr tudor parfitt!!
February 17th, 2010 at 7:45 am
the last part of this relic is not the true ark,its not true that when you burn gold it turns out to be ashes like the one found in the Zim museum. unless through a furnace this is not a joke lets be serious when carrying out researches in such very serious matters.
my research is far different to this. there is need to first understand the spiritual side of this tribe
February 17th, 2010 at 7:50 am
I produced a documentary basing on the research that i did on the balemba tribe.
get it , from the balemba themselves
get to mount mberengwa, dumbwi mountains then you will see what am talking about.
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:06 am
While there may be credibility in the link between the Balemba and Israel the given facts of the so called “discovery of the lost ark of the covenant” are in all ways in contradiction of the actual biblical ark which will never be found. This is an error or hoax.
March 26th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
MuZimbabwe hamuna Areka or any other biblical artifects, so don’t fool yourselves. Zimbabwe is the last on the Alphabet just as it is last in the eyes of God.
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:26 am
Just looking at a few of the comments made.
The Drum was never claimed to be the lost ark but a replica made 650 – 700yrs ago when the original was destroyed and the remains of the original possibly kept inside. Note the original was not made of gold but covered in gold. Gold foil or gold leaf was already in use BC an is very fragile. It is doubtful that it would have kept it’s shape and would more than likely have been reused.
Further Judging by the size and shape of the “Ark” in Ethiopa which can be seen under a cloth during ceremonies, this could well be one of the stone tablets which the Ark would once have held.
In all, the claims are still plausible.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
The Lost Ark of the What?
The Lost Ark of the Covenant is probably the most sought after artifact and for lack of a better word the holy grail of archaeology finds, that is if someone found it. The whereabouts of the Ark have been long speculated and debated. The reason for this paper is not to give a definitive thesis on the Ark, view all arguments, objectively and along with research and prior knowledge give my final thoughts on the matter.
God said to Moses to build a vessel which would store God’s commands and rules, and Moses relayed these instructions to a man named Bezalel who then made the vessel which we now know is the Ark. The Ark wondered for a bit with the Jewish people before finding its first resting place in the First Temple in a specially built tomb. This of course is where we start are first argument and where it gets interesting. King Solomon the Great was a living legend, a man whose wisdom and knowledge spread all the way around the known world and a queen by the name of Sheba was listening. Queen Sheba decided to visit Solomon in Jerusalem and she brought gold and jewels of which Solomon used to decorate the Temple. Now King Solomon was a bit of a ladies’ man and sent Queen Sheba home with more than gifts and exotic animals. It is said that Solomon and Sheba had sexual relations which produced their son Menelik. Menelik returned some years later for his own form of child support and Solomon presented him with a replica of the Ark but for some ever reason Menelik stole the real Ark and brought it back to his home state of Axum. Many scholars believe this is still where the Ark resides, in the Ethiopian Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. The Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox church sure does think it is in the possession of the church “The Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia for many centuries,” said Pauolos “As a patriarch I have seen it with my own eyes and only few highly qualified persons could do the same, until now.” The Patriarch has recently called for the building of a museum in which he will show the world the Ark and put to rest all arguments. On a side note I do remember a program I watched on the History Channel in which a archeologist was able to talk to the guard who protects the building in which they claim the Ark is, the guard told the man that every four years or so the guard protecting the Ark dies of a strange illness and has a cataracts that envelops his eye. From looking and being around what? However I believe the Ark that is in possession of the Ethiopian Orthodox church is a replica and not the original.
It is probable that the Ark is in Ethiopia and there is evidence to support that, but of course there is always another story. The Jewish people after acquiring the Ark carried it for 40 years around the desert following Moses to the promise land. When they would stop to rest the Ark was placed in the Tabernacle, a special tent that in which the Ark rested. The Ark was carried to battle on many occasions and used as a scare tactic but usually only after a defeat would the Ark work its magic. The Philistines captured the Ark after the battle at Shiloh and kept it with them for 7 months and then promptly sent it back with apologize. They included in their apology a series of gold tablets depicting catastrophes, hemorrhoids, and plagues of mice and with a sigh of relief the Ark was built into the First Temple. In the year 586 B.C Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, captured the city, and then proceeded to destroy the Temple and everything in it and many archeologists believe they cared the Ark away or destroyed it on the spot. Or another theory is that before the siege the prophet Jeremiah “being warned by God” and hid the Ark in a cave on Mt. Nebo never to be found again “until the time that God should gather His people again together, and receive them unto mercy.” Maccabees 2:4-10. Or maybe it could still be buried under what used to be the Second and First Temple. This has not been explored however, due to the fact of what now resides on top of the Temple mount. The Islamic mosques that now resides there are as important to Islamic people as the First and Second Temple’s are for the Jews and there for do not want them disturbed. They fear that if the Ark is indeed found under the Temple mount that this would signal the Rebuilding period for the Jews and thus give the rightful claim of Jerusalem back to the Jews.
There are many arguments like these above, some supported by biblical text others passed down by word of mouth, all in my opinion very generic. There is however one other argument that I find the most intriguing and fascinating. Dr.Tudor Parfitt while giving a lecture in South Africa noticed a group of black South Africans wearing yarmulkes, the Jewish skull cap. He approached them asked them some few questions and then was invited to stay with their tribe for the weekend. He discovered that this tribe how called themselves the Lemba we said to have and claim to have Jewish decent running through their veins. Dr. Parfitt was stunned he ordered DNA tests for the tribe and one clan in within the tribe, the Buda came back with striking similarities with Jewish peoples located in a valley in southern Yemen, from an ancient town that has since long been destroyed called Sena. He believes that the Jewish priests after the destruction of Sena fled towards the coast and headed off in ships. Due to some mishap, storm, or something of that nature they landed in South Africa and were dispersed about tribes and eventually until finally they came together as the Lemba tribe. The truly interesting part about this is what the priests brought with them. The Lemba call it the Ngoma Lungundu which translates to “Voice of God.” It is a giant wooden drum about 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep which the Lemba would take to war, and like the Jews did, strike fear into the hearts of their enemy’s and while on the warpath is never allowed to touch the ground and so was placed in a sacred tent. Tudor makes the claim that this is the Lost Ark, he uses this passage from Deuteronomy 10: 1-5 ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me. Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as the LORD commanded me.” He uses this as hard evidence to make the claim that the Ngoma Lungundu is in fact the Ark of the Covenant, but not the original. He claims that over the millenniums the Ark has been recreated and remade again and again and again. He denies the fact that the Ark was made out of gold and he said there was no way at the time that the Jews would be able to collect, work, and know how to apply all that gold. Tudor does make some very interesting points, but in my opinion they are also very narrow.
I do concur with the fact that yes the Ark has been recreated, and yes the Ngoma Lungundu is the Ark, the Ark of the Lemba that is. I would argue that Ark have been recreated and tailored to fit the needs and likings of the people for which they created it. Moses needed something quick and easy to place to Ten Commandments and so made an Ark out of acacia wood until something more decretive was needed. The Jews who came out of Egypt were the Egyptians slaves and probably did most of the manual labor and at the time the gold capital of the world, probably knew how to work, acquire, and apply gold. In Egypt the gold was probably plundered from tombs of pharaohs or other important Egyptian peoples. There are too many references in both the Old and the Testaments about the Ark being made of gold, for example, Exodus 12: 35-36 “The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.” For the Lemba drums in African culture are very prevalent and what would be more domineering than giant drum that has the voice of God within it.
I believe that there is no original Ark of the Covenant either it was destroyed, plundered, stolen, or recast. From a spiritual stand point that doesn’t mean that what the Ethiopian Orthodox Church or the Lemba have isn’t the real Ark. When it all boils down to it, it is going to be whatever you believe in is what’s probably true. As I said in the begging this paper was not planned to give a definitive answer but I do hope I give the world of academia something else to ponder