II KINGS 24:13 THE LOST ARK OF THE COVENANT

Q: This verse mentions that the Israelites were instructed to put the sacred ark in the temple of Solomon. The Daily Bible dates this as 621 B.C. Later it mentions that Nebuchadnezzar removed all the treasures from the temple of the Lord and carried them off to the temple of his god in Babylonia. The Daily Bible dates this event to 597 B.C. Is this likely when the ark disappeared from history? Do scholars believe it to be carried off to Babylonia? If so, why was Indiana Jones looking for it in Egypt?

It is true that “no more is heard of it after the destruction of the first temple by the Chaldaeans in 587 B.C. [note the discrepancy with the date above] although legend is more than willing to supply the lack of historical evidence.” (F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 187-188) If Nebuchadnezzar had taken the ark along with the vessels in the Temple, it is almost certain to have been mentioned in the II Kings passage or its parallel in Daniel 1. So it probably had been removed some time before the Babylonians arrived.

Late in Jeremiah's career but before the fall of Jerusalem, he prophesied of a future time when the people “would no longer say 'The Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh!' It will not enter their minds; they will neither remember it nor miss it, nor will another one ever be made.” (Jeremiah 3:16) This is because Jerusalem will be the throne of God and symbols such as the ark will not be needed anymore. This passage indicates that the ark was no longer in the temple at the time of Jeremiah's prophecy, or that he was referring to the time of the coming exile when the people would be missing the ark.

II Maccabees (2:1) states that Jeremiah hid the ark in a cave on Mt. Nebo before the sacking of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar. The only supporting evidence in favor of this apocryphal account is the fact that Jeremiah came from a priestly family and may have had access to the ark. Others translate this verse differently and come up with the story, in line with rabbinical tradition, that Jeremiah hid the ark on the Temple Mount, possibly in a cave under the Holy of Holies. Excavations in search of the ark there have been halted due to Muslim opposition, but I personally think they would have better luck searching for it in the network of hidden government tunnels located under abandoned Walmart stores.

In another intertestamental book, II Baruch 6:7 states that an angel hid the ark before the Babylonian conquest, and a Samaritan tradition states that the ark was hidden on Mt. Gerizim and will be restored when “the prophet like Moses” comes. Josephus refers to this belief in his Antiquities of the Jews.

Finally, there is a modern-day Indiana Jones, an amateur archaeologist who pops up on many prophecy websites. I won't give his name, but he has claimed to have found the ark of the covenant, Noah's ark and the remains of the cross containing Jesus' blood. In each case, hostile authorities have conspired against him and prevented him from returning to the sites to investigate further. What a shame that he can't then prove his claims!

Why Egypt? The close association of Jeremiah with the ark in the references cited above may have been the catalyst for some to think that the ark is in Egypt since that is where Jeremiah ended up. After the fall of Jerusalem, a group of Jews living in Mizpah forced Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch to accompany them to Egypt to flee the Babylonians (Jeremiah 42-43). The supposition is that Jeremiah knew where the ark was hidden and took it with him.

However, I think that the alternative explanation of my friend, John Murphy, is a good one:

“The movie is premised on Pharaoh Shishak’s invasion into Israel around 925-920 B.C. It presumes Shishak captured the ark at that time and took it back to Tanis in Egypt. However, as noted in the question the Bible clearly details the ark existing in Israel after that time period. I assume they took that position for the movie because the Egyptian monuments and background would make for a more exciting and visually entertaining tale and production. Also, it would have been much easier to film in Egypt at the time vs. modern Iraq or Iran where Babylon used to be. Just another example of Hollywood taking liberties with the truth to make a movie. Don’t ever let the facts stand in the way of a good story!”