Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Brian Roberts <formoria AT carolina.rr.com>]

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