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Mar 25th, 2025
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Joined: Aug 2002
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Originally posted by Dmitri Rostovski:
Oh - someone should tell H.H. Pope Shenouda.
Dmitri  I don't think anyone needs to alert the Pope, since we never claimed to have the ark. I think the confusion is in the fact that we use something called a "tabut" in the Coptic Orthodox Liturgy. The "tabut", or "ark" is what contains the Chalice, so we do not claim to have the actual Ark of the Covenant. We don't have the actual ark of the Covenant in Canada either, nor do I actually think that what the Ethiopians claim is the ark, is actually it. See this site: http://www.webstories.co.nz/focus/etiopia/ark.html Apparently they used to be allowed to look at it. I believe that we will see the ark on the Last Day, if it hasn't already been taken up to heaven! Peace and grace. Agape, Wak-Wak Amen, maranatha!
Peace and grace.
Agape,
Fortunatus
Amen, maranatha!
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 943
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WOW! Justin! Great minds think a like.
I, too, have been thinking quite a lot about the Ark of the Covenant. Yeah, mostly due to the Indiana Jones movie too.
I've always been fasinated in the Ark. And I've always wondered what happened to it. Why was the Ark taken out of the Temple in Jerusalem and taken out of the country?
Yes, I know of stories of men who carry it, and the Ark would tilt and the men would touch it so it won't fall off, but they still die from touching it. I guess that's how holy it was.
But some folks are right, Blessed Theotokos is the true Ark of the Covenant. She is more honorable than the Cherubim, more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim. She is the one who bore the Flesh of God in her.
The Ark only carries the tablets of 10 Commandment. It does not carry God in the Flesh like Blessed Theotokos.
And yet, we can touch her, for she is our mother.
I'm sure the High Priest in the Temple knew who she was when she entered the Holy of Holies when she was a small girl. It's ironic, it's actually the true Temple of God (Theotokos) that entered the earthly Temple of God in the Holy of Holies where the Ark was located.
But, can you folks tell me a short account of how the or WHY the Ark was brought out of Jerusalem?
And by the way, I watched a documentary on the Ark of the Covenant on Public Televison a year or two ago. And they showed a chapel where the Ark is claimed to be in Ethopia, which is of course like everyone else have been saying. It was a very interesting documentary, I had a fixation to it.
I'm glad that Justin brought up this topic. It is quite an interesting way to remember that Jesus didn't come to destroy but to fullfill the Old Testament times. That the new is better than the old.
SPDundas
Deaf Byzantine
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Truly, St. Mary is the true Ark, we call her the 2nd Heaven, for she was another dwelling place for God. Here's the Ethiopian account of why the Ark left Jerusalem: The monk sighed. 'The name of the prince you are speaking of was Menelik - which in our language means "the son of the wise man". Although he was conceived in Jerusalem he was born in Ethiopia where the Queen of Sheba had returned after discovering that she was carrying Solomon's child. When he had reached the age of twenty, Menelik himself travelled from Ethiopia to Israel and arrived at his father's court. There he was instantly recognized and accorded great honour. After a year had passed, however, the elders of the land became jealous of him. They complained that Solomon showed him too much favour and they insisted that he must go back to Ethiopia. This the king accepted on the condition that the first-born sons of all the elders should also be sent to accompany him. Amongst these latter was Azarius, son of Zadok the High Priest of Israel, and it was Azarius, not Menelik, who stole the Ark of the Covenant from its place in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Indeed the group of young men did not reveal the theft to Menelik until they were far away from Jerusalem. When at last they told him what they had done he understood that they could not have succeeded in so bold a venture unless God had willed it. Therefore he agreed that the Ark should remain with them. And it was thus that it was brought to Ethiopia, to this sacred city... and here it has remained ever since.' Peace and grace. Agape, Wak-Wak Amen, maranatha!
Peace and grace.
Agape,
Fortunatus
Amen, maranatha!
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