Episode #131 – Does Ethiopia Have the Ark of the Covenant? (Part I)

The Ark of the Covenant is one of the most fascinating objects mentioned in the Old Testament. The ancient Israelites believed the Ark held a divine power that made them unstoppable on the battlefield. When Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587BC, most assumed the Ark was lost. That is, except the Ethiopians. According to many pious Ethiopian Christians, the Ark was not destroyed in the sack of Jerusalem, because the Ark wasn’t there that day. Could it be that the Ark of the Covenant has been safely squirreled away in Ethiopia for centuries? Tune-in and find out how thirst potions, Bob Marley, and the tiny space between cherub wings all play a role in the story.

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Works Cited

Adejumobi, Saheed A. The History of Ethiopia. Greenwood Press, 2006.

“The Kebra Nagast.” The Kebra Nagast Index, www.sacred-texts.com/chr/kn/.

May, Herbert G., and Bruce Manning. Metzger. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Containing the Old and New Testaments … Introductions, Comments, Cross References, General Articles, Measures and Weights, Chronological Tables of Rulers, Maps, and Indexes. Oxford University Press, 1973.

Munro-Hay, Stuart C., and Pamela Taor. Ethiopia, the Unknown Land: a Cultural and Historical Guide. I.B. Tauris, 2019.

Norwich, John Julius. Cities That Shaped the Ancient World. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2015.

Phillipson, D. W. Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum, Its Antecedents and Successors. British Museum, 2002.