WORLD

ISRAEL: ARCHAEOLOGISTS
HUNTING THE ARK OF THE
COVENANT BELIEVE ANCIENT
RELIC MAY HAVE HELD PAGAN
GODS
BY CALLUM PATON ON 8/30/17 AT 10:34 AM
II Possibly Found in Egypt

WORLDARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeologists tracing the origins of the Ark of the Covenant, a lost

biblical chest that is said to contain ancient relics, believe it may have
also carried pagan idols thousands of years old.

The team from Tel Aviv University and College de France have been
excavating the town of Kiriath Jearim where the Old Testament states
the ark containing the Ten Commandments was kept for 20 years
before it arrived in Jerusalem, Haaretz reported.

While the excavators do not expect to find the ark itself in the ancient
town, their discoveries have cast new light on the religious practices of
the Israelites before the arrival of monotheism in the holy land,
supporting a number of theories about the ark suggested in the Bible.
The Old Testament states that the ark was recovered by the Israelites
after it was lost in battle with the Philistines. Following divine
intervention it was returned and kept at Kiriath Jearim before being
moved to King Solomons Temple in Jerusalem. It was then lost after
the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem.
 A
view shows the West Bank Jewish settlement of Shiloh February 3,
2016.REUTERS/MOHAMAD TOROKMAN

The archaeologists have uncovered a huge retaining wall at Kiriath

Jearim which, judging from the pottery shards that surround it, dates
from the 8th or 7th century B.C. The terrace that would have sat
above the wall, according to contemporary architectural styles, could
have supported one of the most important cultic centers in Israel, with
a temple that would have rivaled the Temple in Jerusalem.
It is possible that the ark stayed much longer at Kiriath Jearim, and it
was only Josiah who brought it to Jerusalem when he wanted to
centralize all cultic and political activity there, and his scribes justified
it by writing the story about David taking the ark, Professor Thomas
Rmer, an expert in Hebrew at the College de France explains.

It now seems possible that before its arrival in Jerusalem, the ark
was associated with religious practices far removed from Judaism.
Early Israelites from the 8th and 7th century B.C. worshipped
Canaanite gods like Baal and El. Baal, who was worshipped as a bull
statue, lends his name to the alternative title for Kiriath Jearim: Kiriath
Ball. Contemporary evidence from around the Middle East shows that
polytheist nomads like the Israelites prior to monotheism were likely to
carry their idols in boxes like the ark.
Israel Finkelstein from Tel Aviv University, who conducted digs in the
1980s at Shiloh, north of Jerusalem as well as the ongoing Kiriath
Jearim excavations, has said he is less interested in the narrative of
the ark than what the findings can reveal about life 2,600 years ago. I
want to know whats behind it, what it tells us about the history of
Judah and Israel, of the cult of the God of Israel and the Temple in
Jerusalem, he said

http://www.newsweek.com/archaeologists-ark-covenant-pagan-idols-656955