By Brittani Hamm
Religion News Service
Brushing back a thick layer of dust, Tudor Parfitt revealed a distinctive interwoven pattern carved around the outside of the “terribly, terribly damaged” wooden artifact tucked away on the bottom shelf of a Zimbabwe warehouse.
“The moment I saw it, I felt there was something weird about it,” said Parfitt, a professor of modern Jewish studies at the University of London’s School of African and Oriental Studies. “I wasn’t simply in the presence of a neutral object.”
Parfitt believes he has found the Ark of the Covenant, the legendary vessel that once housed the Ten Commandments. Or at least something like it.
In his new book, “The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500 Year Old Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark,” Parfitt describes how he found the artifact in a global trek that would have made Indiana Jones proud. He was shot at in Ethiopia, escaped capture by Islamist outlaws in Yemen and enlisted the help of a cannibalistic tribe in Papua New Guinea.
Like Harrison Ford’s fictional archaeologist, Parfitt has a love of adventure and a fear of snakes. His 20-year hunt ended last year in Zimbabwe, at the Harare Museum of Human Science, where he found his treasure in a dusty storeroom.
According to the Book of Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant — a gold-covered container carried on poles, topped with two golden cherubim facing each other — was crafted on orders from God given to Moses at Mount Sinai.
Parfitt, however, thinks it is unlikely a group of ex-slaves wandering in the desert had the means to create an object so elaborate. That’s why the piece he found, a carved wooden drum, seems more likely, he said.
“It’s not like anything that we encounter in our daily lives,” Parfitt said. “I think it was both a musical instrument that goes into battle and some kind of weapon using technology we don’t quite understand.”
Parfitt began to suspect that the Ark of the Covenant was a drum in the late 1980s while studying an African tribe called the Lemba. Using genetic testing, he was able to verify a piece of their oral tradition, that they descended from Israelites. At the time, his discovery was featured on “60 Minutes”and the BBC.
Another idea central to the Lemba’s oral tradition was their sacred “ngoma lungundu,” a wooden drum that the tribe’s Israelite priests brought with them from Jerusalem.
“At that time, I thought to connect (it) too close to the Ark of Covenant was too off-the-wall,” Parfitt said. “There wasn’t the remotest amount of evidence.”
However, after studying the similarities, Parfitt concluded that the ngoma and the Ark of the Covenant were one and the same: Both were the dwelling place of God, carried on poles, forbidden to touch the ground and connected with death, fire, smoke and noise.
Lemba tribal lore says the ngoma exploded and destroyed itself, an idea Parfitt used to explain why his relic was radiocarbon dated to A.D. 1350. Parfitt believes the remains of the original Ark of the Covenant spawned the ngoma, an ark-junior, so to speak.
“It presumably is the son of the original,” Parfitt said. “It had the same function. It was holy and had precious secrets kept inside and it was also a weapon. Then it disappeared, and all that was left was the legend.”
Some biblical scholars and archaeologists are skeptical; Parfitt is not the first person to lay claim to the lost treasure.
“It may be that this tribe developed their own Ark of the Covenant, but it doesn’t quite line up with the Tabernacle,” the Israelites’ portable worship tent that housed the Ark, said Roy Bender, who gives tours of a full-sized model of the Tabernacle at the Mennonite Information Center in Lancaster, Pa.
Adds Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archaeological Review, “Many scholars regard his claims with a very jaundiced eye.”
The original ark disappeared after the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and finding it has become the obsession of thousands of adventurers who understand its significance to Christians, Muslims and Jews alike.
Hollywood caught the fever in 1981 with “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The newest film in the series, “Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” is set to be released May 22.
The History Channel recently devoted two hours to Parfitt’s “Quest for the Lost Ark,” following the explorer into caves beneath Jerusalem, through snake- and crocodile-infested swamps in Papua New Guinea, and finally to the museum in Zimbabwe.
While Parfitt hopes the discovery will end some of the tension between Jews and Muslims, others, like Carol Meyers, professor of biblical studies and archaeology at Duke University, believe the discovery would be “meaningless,” even if it proved to be legitimate.
“It would not enter into any religious practice because the Temple in which it was housed no longer exists,” Meyers said.
Nevertheless, Parfitt is confident in his accomplishment and considers the case of the lost Ark of the Covenant closed. He has since begun work on a new project that also has to do with a religious topic.
“It’s something that fell into my lap,” he says, keeping mum on the content, “and it’s an amazing story.”
Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
Beliefnet
Advertisement
posted March 6, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I have to say I’m pretty skeptical. It looks nothing like it’s supposed to, and though it’s quite possible these Lemba are descended from the Israelites (who do seem to have had an amazing ability to wind up everywhere), I don’t see any logical reason they would have been allowed to take the Ark with them. Plus, I think that would make Mr. Partiff the Jewish Messiah or something…
God bless.
posted March 6, 2008 at 8:13 pm
So, did they open it? Did ghosts come flying out and turn people into skulls? We need some real proof!
posted March 6, 2008 at 8:15 pm
It would be great for the folks who feel that Moses was following God’s orders. But I too am skeptical.
posted March 6, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Adds Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archaeological Review, “Many scholars regard his claims with a very jaundiced eye.”
Shanks should know about scholars and their jaundiced eyes. He and his magazine promoted two of the biggest hoaxes in modern Biblical Archeology: the Joash stone and the James Ossuary.
That said, I watched a cable channel program about Parfitt and his theory this Sunday while suffering from a bout of the flu. What struck me, even in my fever-adled state, was how he went about meticuloulsly debunking every theory and legend about the ark that did not conform to his thesis. But the one thing he never, ever questioned was the the existence of the ark itself. He admits Torah may be wrong and unrelieable when it says the ark was covered in gold, but it’s somehow “gospel” when it claims the ark was actually contructed.
posted March 6, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Hunting for the ark is a very zen thing. Why? Because whatever you find is sure not to be what you are looking for. The Ark is long gone and probably as much a part of the tapestry of Biblical stories as Noah’s Ark and so many other nifty “things” in the ancient stories. Does that make it untrue? NO. It simply means that it cannot exist. The Ark is an article of faith not archaeological proof. Well, it will be great to tag onto the opening Indiana Jones film – which is decidedly NOT Biblical – thoug it is surely religious.
posted March 7, 2008 at 9:15 am
what I would like to know is did anybody die when they touched it? It says in the bible that anyone who touches the holy Ark would die (2 Samuel 6:6-7) Uzza died on the spot when he reached out to steady the Ark.
posted March 7, 2008 at 9:27 am
I find it amazing when these “scholars” seem to know more about the biblical artifacts than did the Lord’s prophets who wrote the biblical history. If the ark was designed in the fashion that was described in the bible, then anything short of it’s exact description is not the ark to me.
posted March 7, 2008 at 10:04 am
I remember reading about some quack named Ron Wyatt a few years ago who claimed to have found the Ark of the Covenant. He also said he found Goliath’s sword in the same cave, and on another expedition located the remains of Noah’s ark. Allegedly, he kept the ten commandments in his garage.
Somehow, no one else ever laid eyes on these artifacts, and they have mysteriously disappeared since his death. That’s some bad luck, huh?
posted March 7, 2008 at 10:45 am
“I find it amazing when these “scholars” seem to know more about the biblical artifacts than did the Lord’s prophets who wrote the biblical history.”
Maybe the reason for that is that those “prophets” were plugged into a source that just wasn’t there. And isn’t there.
The ark may have enough documentation to consider it likely to have existed, I don’t know. But any mystical powers it may have had were in peoples’ minds. Like voodoo.
posted March 7, 2008 at 10:54 am
How is the Ark in anyway meaningful to Muslims?
posted March 7, 2008 at 11:52 am
The Ark of the Covenant was real. Whether it exists today, does not matter, as it has already served its purpose. When Moses and his people made their exodus through the wilderness the “portable tent,” serving as a temple to house the Ark of the Covenant during worship, allowed the Lord’s people to make and keep covenants.
When ancient Israel was scattered throughout the earth–The lost tribe’s of Israel–it was because the people rejected God’s covenant. Through His prophets, though, God has promised to gather scattered Israel once again (See Jeremiah 31:10). Through His priesthood the Lord will restore a covenant people to prepare the way of the Lord before His second coming. These ordinances will need to be performed in Holy places, temples, even the house of the Lord. Interestingly, ancient temples have been found in places like Central America and ancient records have been translated, supporting evidence of a branch of the House of Israel worshipping the Almighty God and the Savior, Jesus Christ you know through the Bible, whom was sent.
The gathering of Israel has begun. Truths are being restored. People are coming to know Jesus Christ and preparing to come to the House of the Lord in these great days. Biblical prophecies are being fulfilled, as God uses prophets of another testament of Jesus Christ of which I speak, found in the Book of Mormon, to support and restore truths and covenants previously lost to us. If you are looking for God’s covenants, He has prepared a way for you to receive them, where temples serve today, the purpose the ark served in previous days (See http://www.lds.org).
posted March 7, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Chad I see you are deeply into your particular shrub of this mythology thicket.
posted March 7, 2008 at 2:35 pm
So this guy is right, and Moses and Aaron were wrong? Duh. Come-on people. This is another nutty guy. “Like Indiana Jones he also has a fear of snakes?” Sounds like someone needs their research funding cut.
On a different note, I met the guy that was guarding the holy grail. I was at seven-11 and met him – you know, the guy in the 3rd Indiana Jones installment? Anyway, he was right behind me buying a cherry-coke slurpee. I kept trying to not stare, but eventually asked him for his autograph.
posted March 7, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Wait and see what will materialize in regard to what Jesus Christ, Son of the Father has to say (if anything). No spiritual connection will prove that it is not the arc of the covenant.
posted March 7, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Linda:
I don’t think I’ll hold my breath to see what JC has to say.
posted March 22, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Don’t Give Up Trying.
posted March 25, 2008 at 2:54 pm
When Jesus Christ speaks, do we know how to hear his words? (Deut. 18:18) Does His way change? (Jer. 29:19) Should we not learn from past prophets and hear the word of the Lord through His Prophet today?
posted March 29, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I wish I can distinguish the real prophets from the fake ones..How?..
posted April 1, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Learn God’s way for us to distinguish truths by copying and pasting the following into your websearch address above and pressing enter:
http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/the-restoration-of-truth/how-can-i-know-this-is-true