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  • From: Brian Roberts <formoria AT carolina.rr.com>
  • To: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • Cc: 'b-hebrew' <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Stone slab replacing the Ark of the Covenant
  • Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 10:55:19 -0400

There is a long and confusing history regarding the Ethiopian "tabota musa", that goes back in writing at least to the turn of the 13th century. In various times it's been presented as the Ark itself , other times as the tablets of the law. All Ethiopian orthodox churches have a stone or wooden slab to represent the central cult object in the St. Mary's Church in Aksum. Of course there are the Falasha and Qemant, Ethiopian Jews, among whom these legends grew and from which they spread. Interesting that of all the diaspora groups in all the world, only this group and the Lemba of South Africa have living legends related to possession of the Ark of the Covenant.

So, there is something to these legends, it's just a matter of finding out what it is.


On Tuesday, August 2, 2005, at 09:24 AM, Peter Kirk wrote:

On 02/08/2005 12:48, Patrick J. Emsweller wrote:

Some may have run across this but just to bring it forward, the Ark is
supposedly located in Ethiopia in the Orthodox Church St. Mary of Zion in
Aksum. There have been numerous shows on this, i.e. the History Channel,
Mysteries of the Bible etc. One can do a search on those key words "Ark"
"Ethiopia" etc at Google.



But, as I understand it, no outsiders have ever been allowed to see this
alleged Ark. Now this makes sense in terms of the HB prohibitions on
anyone other than the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies - but it
does make it impossible to verify whether what is hidden away at Aksum
is the real ark, an ancient or not so ancient copy, or maybe even
nothing at all.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/

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Best Salaams,

R. Brian Roberts
Amateur Researcher in Biblical Archaeology





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