Where is the Ark of the Covenant?

Almost 3500 years ago, gifted artisans and craftsmen were given specific instructions on how to construct a golden box. This box was to house the stone tablets and other articles that was significant to the migrating Israelite tribes. The ark was to be placed within the most sacred section of the Tabernacle and its lid, The Mercy Seat would serve as the earthly throne of the Almighty Creator. 

All aspects of the Ark and surrounding items made for the Tabernacle were designed based on the vision and pattern shown to Moses. For over 800 years. The Ark was in the possession and safekeeping of the Levitical priesthood, aside from its brief and disasters captured by the neighboring Philistines. For almost half of this time, it remained in Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.  

However, in the fifth century BC, the city, its inhabitants, and the surrounding region were taken captive and led away by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Yet there is no record found in the Bible of the ultimate fate of the Ark of the covenant. Was it taken to Ethiopia, Babylon, or even Ireland? Let's examine the evidence for some of the main theories, to see if there is any trail to find the Ark of the covenant.  

Ethiopian Christians have for centuries claimed to hold the ark in a small church in the northern town of Aksum. As the legend goes, the Queen of Sheba visited Jerusalem during Solomon's reign, and Menelik the first was the illegitimate result of a short lived affair. The Ethiopian chronicles, Kebra Nagast (Glory of the Kings), described the sons of the nobles in Israel, along with some of the priesthood, carrying the ark in secrecy back to Ethiopia with Menelik. 

This would mean that for almost the entire time that Solomon's Temple stood, a counterfeit ark would have been in place. The account reports that when he realized the ark had been stolen, Solomon said, let us set up these boards which are lying here nailed together, and let us cover them over with gold, and let us decorate them after the manner of Our Lady Zion, and let us lay the book of the law inside it. 

This 14th century A.D. account is filled with veneration of the Virgin Mother. Even taking this as far as to refer to the Ark is Our Lady Zion. The recent age of the text, its written style and bold claims make for a unrealistic theory. When the Babylonians captured Jerusalem, they removed the articles from the temple and carried them back to Babylon. 

In the Book of Daniel. King Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple, which had been in Jerusalem. The Babylonians had kept many of the articles, but made no mention of the Ark of the covenant. The most prized possession of the temple. The Babylonians, were eventually conquered by the Persians, and the Book of Ezra provides an inventory of the items taken from the temple that was presented to Cyrus the Great. 

This inventory, which is found in the Book of Ezra, does not mention the Ark of the covenant. The lack of any written account mentioning the Ark makes it highly unlikely that the Babylonians found the Ark when they took Jerusalem in 586 BC.  

In the Jewish books of the Maccabees, an earlier record is referenced concerning the Ark. It states that Jeremiah came and found a cave dwelling, and he brought there the tent, and the ark, and the altar of incense. 

And then he sealed up the entrance and declared, “the place shall remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy”(2 Maccabees 2:5-7). Other historians, such as that of F.R.A.  Glover, have alluded to the possibility that the stone tablets contained in the Ark were taken to Ireland by Jeremiah, who was often linked with an Irish king named Ollam Fodhla and used to establish the line of David upon the Hill of Tara, or Torah, from which he claims the word originates. 

Glover himself admits to this uncertainty when he wrote “whether or not there was deposited in that wonderful tomb any sacred relic of the law. In two tables called by the Hebrews Torah, and from which the mount of the covenant might have gotten its name, is more than one can say”. (England, the Remnant of Judah and the Israel of Ephraim, Frederick Robert Augustus Clover, p.88) These are just a few of the numerous theories surrounding the disappearance of the Ark of the covenant. 

Many historians and archeologists have either claimed to have located or know of the Ark's whereabouts, and yet, to this day, there has been no convincing evidence brought forward. Others suggest the Ark was destroyed. But if you believe that there is a more credible theory or source that would help us learn of the Ark's fate, then please comment below.