The Ark of the Covenant: What Became of It?

Exodus 25:10–22 describes the Ark as a gold-covered wooden chest, carried on poles, that held the tablets of the covenant. The Bible follows it from the wilderness to Shiloh, into Philistine hands, to Kiriath-jearim for twenty years, and finally into Solomon’s Temple (1 Samuel 4–7; 2 Samuel 6; 1 Kings 8). Its last narrative mention is Josiah’s order, around 622 BC, to put it back in the Temple (2 Chronicles 35:3).

When the Babylonians destroyed the Temple in 586 BC, 2 Kings 25:13–17 lists the Temple furnishings they carried off, mostly bronze but also gold and silver vessels, and does not mention the Ark. Jeremiah 3:16 speaks of a day when it will no longer be remembered or made again. 1 Esdras 1:54 and 2 Esdras 10:22 suggest it was taken or plundered, and 2 Maccabees 2:4–8 says Jeremiah hid it in a cave on Mount Nebo. Rabbinic sources record two views: that King Josiah hid it beneath the Temple, and that it was carried to Babylon (Talmud, Yoma 52b–54a).

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church holds that the Ark was brought to Ethiopia and is kept at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum, where only one guardian monk may see it. The tradition is told in the Kebra Nagast, which says Menelik I, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, brought it there. Every Ethiopian Orthodox church keeps a consecrated tabot, representing the tablets, at its altar. Historians date the Kebra Nagast in its present form to the 14th century AD; the church holds that it preserves older tradition.

Modern claims include Ron Wyatt’s report of finding the Ark in a cave near the Garden Tomb, a site some Protestants identify as Golgotha. He produced no clear photographs or artifacts, and the Garden Tomb Association says nothing was found. Archaeology has instead examined places in the Ark’s story. A 2017 excavation at Kiriath-jearim uncovered a large monumental platform on the hilltop, which the excavators date, mainly by pottery, to the first half of the 8th century BC and attribute to the northern kingdom of Israel. Egyptian finds, such as the carrying chest of Anubis from Tutankhamun’s tomb, are similar to the object the Bible describes.