Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Alexander Oldernes <alexander AT oldernes.no>]

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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