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  • From: Alexander Oldernes <alexander AT oldernes.no>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Stone slab replacing the Ark of the Covenant
  • Date: Wed, 03 Aug 2005 08:41:42 +0200

Thank you very much Kevin, for your good explanation!
And thanks to Keith for the extraction of Talmud.


Alexander Oldernes

----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin P. Edgecomb" <kevino AT bombaxo.com>
To: "'Alexander Oldernes'" <alexander AT oldernes.no>
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 12:50 AM
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] Stone slab replacing the Ark of the Covenant


Mr. Oldernes,
As the discussion on the b-hebrew list has gone in a direction other than
that of an answer to your question, I thought I'd chime in.

The Ark wasn't "replaced" with a slab of stone. The stone referred to was
simply the exposed bedrock which constituted the floor of the Holy of
Holies. The Ark rested on this stone floor. After the Ark was destroyed by
the Babylonians (if that was truly iits fate) and the Temple was rebuilt,
the Holy of Holies remained empty: no large cherubim and no Ark. It was
onto this stone floor that the High Priest would sprinkle blood on the Day
of Atonement, on the floor where the Ark used to sit. This stone is
referred to in rabbinic literature as the "even ha-shettiyah" which is often
translated as "foundation stone" though "placement stone" or "setting stone"
might be a better translation. It was said to be three finger-beadths high.


A fairly recent and very interesting series of observations by Dr. Leen
Ritmeyer, as detailed in his short but fascinating book, Secrets of
Jerusalem's Temple Mount, shows that the exposed stone beneath the Muslim
Dome of the Rock is the stone floor of the Holy of Holies and its
surrounding foundations. There is, precisely in the center of this proposed
space a rectangular depression in the stone which corresponds to the
dimensions of the ark. This depression in the stone is likely the "even
ha-shettiyah" and its "height" as described in the literature is actually
its depth.

Regards,
Kevin P. Edgecomb
Berkeley, California

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Alexander Oldernes
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 3:57 AM
To: b-hebrew
Subject: [b-hebrew] Stone slab replacing the Ark of the Covenant

Maybe your expertise can help me with this question...

I have read somewhere that when the curtain covering the entrance to the
Most Holy was torn in two, in the first century CE, the Most Holy was
exposed containing no Ark of the Covenant. In place of the Ark was a stone
slab upon which the high priest sprinkled the blood on the Day of Atonement.

I know the last mention of the Ark of the Covenant is in 2. Chronicles 35:5,

saying:
He said to the Levites, who instructed all Israel and who had been
consecrated to YHWH: "Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of
David king of Israel built. It is not to be carried about on your
shoulders."

This happened around 642 (?) BCE.

And now the question...
Do we know that the Ark of the Covenant was replaced by a stone slab?

If so...
Who writes about it?
Do we know when this was done?
Do we know what the stone slab looked like?

----

Alexander Oldernes

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