The Ark of the Covenant: The True Story of the Greatest Relic of Antiquity

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Stuart Munro-Hay, Roderick Grierson

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Pages: 480 (Paperback)

ISBN: 0753810107

Pub: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )

Pub date: 2000-03-02

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 92028

Editorial Review:

There are so many imaginative rewrites of religious history and archaeology these days--most of them full of factual inaccuracies and hop-skip-and-jumps of logic--that it's a delight to read one which is sound and scholarly. The authors of The Ark of the Covenant are academics specialising in the history of Africa, particularly Ethiopia.
The Ark is nothing to do with Noah's Ark. It was the most sacred object in ancient Judaism: the casket in which the Tablets of the Law which God gave to Moses--the Ten Commandments--were kept. The Ark led the Israelites to battle but it was always carefully shielded from view; anyone who saw it or even came too near would be killed by its awesome power. Initially it was kept in a tent or Tabernacle but when Solomon built his famous temple it was housed in the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctuary. The historical books of the Old Testament are full of references to the Ark--but after that it is barely mentioned again, as if it has vanished completely. Was it destroyed when Jerusalem was sacked in 587B.C.? Was it stolen, hidden or spirited away to safety?

Grierson and Munro-Hay discuss in detail an ancient Ethiopian epic called The Glory of Kings which claims that the Ark was taken from Jerusalem to Ethiopia by the son of Solomon and his most famous lover, the Queen of Sheba. They visit a shrine in Ethiopia which even today claims to house it, and examine the peculiarly Jewish nature of Ethiopian Christianity. But unlike Graham Hancock, whose book The Sign and the Seal they describe as a "sensational account", they make no wild claims. This is an historical study by scholars, and a very sensible and readable work. --David V Barrett

Reader Reviews:

Sound and accessible account of the Ark in history (16/16 people found this helpful)

There is an obscure region on my bookshelves devoted to unusual books on theology. These books make interesting claims: that Jesus survived or avoided the crucifixion, that he founded a royal bloodline, that he was an Egyptian mystic, a Freemason and/or a Templar, that his body lies buried somewhere in this world. They usually include a heady mixture of ingredients including Cathars, the Turin shroud, the Pyramids, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ark of the Covenant.

These books are worth reading if only for their entertainment value - but they also tutor the critical faculties and sometimes (though too rarely) offer valuable challenges to and reinterpretations of orthodoxy. Since these books can usually be bought at remaindered prices they don't challenge the finances.

When I saw Grierson and Munro-Hay's book 'The Ark of the Covenant' I thought I had come across another addition for this bibliothecal cul-de-sac. I quickly finished an irritatingly naïve interpretation of one of the Dead Sea Scrolls and settled down for a couple of evenings light entertainment.

I was wrong, very wrong. 'The Ark of the Covenant' is not one of these books. It is scrupulous in its scholarship and assiduous in its presentation of evidence. The authors are experts on Ethiopian and Egyptian Christianity and have a well-grounded and scholarly understanding of modern Biblical criticism.

In reality this is a number of books masquerading as a single volume. The book is a definitive exploration of the descriptions and status of the Ark in Judaism, Christianity and Islam through their evolution. It is the story of how a Near Eastern tribal religion developed into monotheism, and how venerated tribal cult objects evolved into monotheistic mythic concepts and symbols. And it describes the often violent interaction of the three monotheistic religions in Southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa.

This book is a superb first step (and a giant step at that) for anyone wanting to research the Ark, monotheism, African Judaism, Ethiopian Christianity and/or the traditional culture of southern Arabia, to name a few.

Very serious and factual (4/5 people found this helpful)

I was looking for an easy to read book on the subject of the Ark of the Covenant - Covering details from its building to its possible whereabouts now - I was somewhat disappointed. Whilst the book is incredibly detailed and factual, it is also a very serious read and is not the ideal text to start researching the Lost Ark - Rather for the experienced scholar.

Mapping the True Meaning of Myth (1/3 people found this helpful)

Grierson and Munro-Hay have written a scholarly yet entertaining book which does not seek to prove or to disprove the ancient myths of the ark; rather, it is a reflection on the meaning of myth from antiquity to George Lukas and modern media. The core of the book is an exploration of the known historical and archaeological facts related to the myth of the ark as it has manifested itself through the ages. The book is sweeping in it's perspectives, it is daring and it reads like a novel.

The funny thing is that it also looks like a novel. The publishers have done a fine job: The text-editing, the typesetting, the choice of paper and the binding - the book is an example of British academic book production at it's very best. The dustcover though, curiously disproves the classic qualities of the book itself. Is it an advanced joke on behalf of the book's academic and semi-academic readership? Or did the sales-department of the publishing house put it on as a last minute appeal to the millions of loonies allways craving for myth at bargain prices?

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