TheArk of the Covenant,[a] also known as theArk of the Testimony[b] or theArk of God,[c][1][2] was a religious storage chest and relic held to be the most sacred object by theIsraelites.
Jewish tradition holds various views on the Ark’s fate, including that it was taken toBabylon, hidden byKing Josiah in the Temple or underground chambers, or concealed byJeremiah in a cave onMount Nebo. TheEthiopian Orthodox Church asserts it is housed inAxum; theLemba people of southern Africa claim ancestral possession with a replica inZimbabwe; some traditions say it was inRome orIreland but lost, though no verified evidence conclusively confirms its location today. It is honored bySamaritans, symbolized in Christianity as a type ofChrist and theVirgin Mary, mentioned in theQuran, and viewed with spiritual significance in theBaháʼí Faith. The Ark of the Covenant has been prominently featured in modern films such asRaiders of the Lost Ark and other literary and artistic works, often depicted as a powerful and mysterious relic with both historical and supernatural significance.
There are ongoing academic discussions amongbiblical scholars andarcheologists regarding the history of the Ark's movements around theAncient Near East as well as the history and dating of the Ark narratives in the Hebrew Bible.[11][12][13] There is additional scholarly debate over possible historical influences that led to the creation of the Ark, includingBedouin orEgyptian influences.[14][15][16]
The Book of Exodus gives detailed instructions on how the Ark is to be constructed.[23] It is to be2+1⁄2cubits in length,1+1⁄2 cubits breadth, and1+1⁄2 cubits height (approximately 131×79×79 cm or 52×31×31 in) ofacacia wood. Then it is to be gilded entirely with gold, and a crown or molding of gold is to be put around it. Four rings of gold are to be attached to its four corners, two on each side—and through these rings staves of shittim wood overlaid with gold for carrying the Ark are to be inserted; and these are not to be removed.[24]
The biblical account continues that, after its creation by Moses, the Ark was carried by theIsraelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert. Whenever the Israelites camped, the Ark was placed in the tent of meeting, inside theTabernacle.
When the Israelites, led byJoshua toward thePromised Land, arrived at the banks of theRiver Jordan, the Ark was carried in the lead, preceding the people, and was the signal for their advance.[25][26] During the crossing, the river grew dry as soon as the feet of the priests carrying the Ark touched its waters, and remained so until the priests—with the Ark—left the river after the people had passed over.[27][28][29][30] As memorials,twelve stones were taken from the Jordan at the place where the priests had stood.[31]
During theBattle of Jericho, the Ark was carried around the city once a day for six days, preceded by the armed men and seven priests sounding seventrumpets of rams' horns.[32] On the seventh day, the seven priests sounding the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the Ark compassed the city seven times, and, with a great shout, Jericho's wall fell down flat and the people took the city.[33]
After the defeat atAi, Joshua lamented before the Ark.[34] When Joshua read the Law to the people betweenMount Gerizim andMount Ebal, they stood on each side of the Ark. The Ark was then kept atShiloh after the Israelites finished their conquest of Canaan.[35] We next hear of the Ark inBethel,[d] where it was being cared for by the priestPhinehas, the grandson ofAaron.[36] According to this verse, it was consulted by the people of Israel when they were planning to attack the Benjaminites at theBattle of Gibeah. Later the Ark was kept at Shiloh again,[37] where it was cared for byHophni and Phinehas, two sons ofEli.[38]
1728 illustration of the Ark at the erection of the Tabernacle and the sacred vessels, as in Exodus 40:17–19
According to the biblical narrative, a few years later the elders of Israel decided to take the Ark onto the battlefield to assist them against thePhilistines, having recently been defeated at the battle ofEben-Ezer.[39] They were again heavily defeated, with the loss of 30,000 men. The Ark was captured by the Philistines, and Hophni and Phinehas were killed. The news of its capture was at once taken to Shiloh by a messenger "with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head". The old priest, Eli, fell dead when he heard it, and his daughter-in-law, bearing a son at the time the news of the Ark's capture was received, named himIchabod—explained as "The glory has departed Israel" in reference to the loss of the Ark.[40] Ichabod's mother died at his birth.[41]
The Philistines took the Ark to several places in their country, and at each place misfortune befell them.[42] AtAshdod it was placed in the temple ofDagon. The next morning Dagon was found prostrate, bowed down, before it; and on being restored to his place, he was on the following morning again found prostrate and broken. The people of Ashdod were smitten with tumors; a plague of rodents was sent over the land. This may have been thebubonic plague.[43][44][45] The affliction of tumours was also visited upon the people ofGath and ofEkron, whither the Ark was successively removed.[46]
Joshua passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant byBenjamin West, 1800
After the Ark had been among them for seven months, the Philistines, on the advice of their diviners, returned it to the Israelites, accompanying its return with an offering consisting of golden images of the tumors and mice wherewith they had been afflicted. The Ark was set up in the field of Joshua ofBeit Shemesh, and the people of Beit Shemesh offered sacrifices and burnt offerings according to the first five verses of1 Samuel 6. Verse 19, 1 Samuel 6 states that out of curiosity, the people of Beit Shemesh gazed at the Ark, and as a punishment, God struck down seventy of them (fifty thousand and seventy in some translations). The men of Beit Shemesh sent toQiryath Ye'arim to have the Ark removed in verse 21, and it was taken to the house ofAbinadab, whoseson Eleazar was sanctified to keep it. Qiryath Ye'arim remained the abode of the Ark for twenty years, according to1 Samuel 7.
Under Saul, the Ark was with the army before he first met thePhilistines, but the king was too impatient to consult it before engaging in battle. In1 Chronicles 13, it is stated that the people were not accustomed to consulting the Ark in the days ofSaul.
Illustration from the 13th-centuryMorgan Bible of David bringing the Ark into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6)
In the biblical narrative, at the beginning of his reign over theUnited Monarchy, KingDavid removed the Ark fromKirjath-jearim amid great rejoicing. On the way toZion,Uzzah, one of the drivers of the cart that carried the Ark, put out his hand to steady the Ark, and was struck dead by God for touching it. The place was subsequently named "Perez-Uzzah", literally'outburst against Uzzah',[47] as a result. David, in fear, carried the Ark aside into the house ofObed-edom theGittite, instead of carrying it on to Zion, and it stayed there for three months.[48][49]
On hearing that God had blessed Obed-edom because of the presence of the Ark in his house, David had the Ark brought to Zion by the Levites, while he himself, "girded with a linenephod[...] danced before the Lord with all his might" and in the sight of all the public gathered in Jerusalem, a performance which caused him to be scornfully rebuked by his first wife, Saul's daughterMichal.[50][51][52] In Zion, David put the Ark in the tent he had prepared for it, offered sacrifices, distributed food, and blessed the people and his own household.[53][54][55] David used the tent as a personal place of prayer.[56][57]
The Levites were appointed to minister before the Ark.[58] David's plan of building a temple for the Ark was stopped on the advice of theprophetNathan.[59][60][61][62] The Ark was with the army during the siege ofRabbah;[63] and when David fled from Jerusalem at the time ofAbsalom's conspiracy, the Ark was carried along with him until he orderedZadok the priest to return it to Jerusalem.[64]
Model of the First Temple, included in a Bible manual for teachers (1922)
According to the Biblical narrative, whenAbiathar was dismissed from the priesthood by KingSolomon for having taken part inAdonijah'sconspiracy against David, his life was spared because he had formerly borne the Ark.[65] Solomon worshipped before the Ark after his dream in which God promised him wisdom.[66]
During the construction ofSolomon's Temple, a special inner room, namedKodesh Hakodashim ('Holy of Holies'), was prepared to receive and house the Ark;[67] and when the Temple was dedicated, the Ark—containing the originaltablets of theTen Commandments—was placed therein.[68] When the priests emerged from the holy place after placing the Ark there, the Temple was filled with a cloud, "for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord".[69][70][71]
When Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, he caused her to dwell in a house outsideZion, as Zion was consecrated because it contained the Ark.[72] King Josiah also had the Ark returned to the Temple,[73] from which it appears to have been removed by one of his predecessors (cf. 2 Chronicles 33–34 and 2 Kings 21–23).
Prior to kingJosiah who is the last biblical figure mentioned as having seen the Ark, kingHezekiah had seen the Ark.[74][75] Hezekiah is also known for protectingJerusalem against theAssyrian Empire by improving the city walls and diverting the waters of theGihon Spring through a tunnel known today asHezekiah's Tunnel, which channeled the water inside the city walls to thePool of Siloam.[76]
In a noncanonical text known as the Treatise of the Vessels,Hezekiah is identified as one of the kings who had the Ark and the other treasures ofSolomon's Temple hidden during a time of crisis. This text lists the following hiding places, which it says were recorded on a bronze tablet: (1) a spring named Kohel or Kahal with pure water in a valley with a stopped-up gate; (2) a spring named Kotel (or "wall" in Hebrew); (3) a spring named Zedekiah; (4) an unidentified cistern; (5) Mount Carmel; and (6) locations in Babylon.[77]
To many scholars,Hezekiah is also credited as having written all or some of the Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes in the Christian tradition), in particular the famously enigmatic epilogue.[78] Notably, the epilogue appears to refer to the Ark story with references to almond blossoms (i.e., Aaron's rod), locusts, silver, and gold. The epilogue then cryptically refers to a pitcher broken at a fountain and a wheel broken at a cistern.[79]
Although scholars disagree on whether the Pool of Siloam's pure spring waters were used by pilgrims for ritual purification, many scholars agree that a stepped pilgrimage road between the pool and the Temple had been built in the first century CE.[80] This roadway has been partially excavated, but the west side of the Pool of Siloam remained unexcavated, as of 2016.[81]
In 587 BC, when theBabyloniansdestroyed Jerusalem, an ancient Greek version of the biblical third Book of Ezra,1 Esdras, suggests that Babylonians took away the vessels of the ark of God, but does not mention taking away the Ark:
And they took all the holy vessels of the Lord, both great and small, with the vessels of the ark of God, and the king's treasures, and carried them away into Babylon[82]
InRabbinic literature, the final disposition of the Ark is disputed. Some rabbis hold that it must have been carried off to Babylon, while others hold that it must have been hidden lest it be carried off into Babylon and never brought back.[83] A late 2nd-century rabbinic work known as theTosefta states the opinions of these rabbis thatJosiah, the king of Judah, stored away the Ark, along with the jar ofmanna, and a jar containing the holy anointing oil, the rod of Aaron which budded and a chest given to Israel by the Philistines.[84]
TheKohathites were one of theLevite houses from theBook of Numbers. Theirs was the responsibility to care for "the most holy things" in thetabernacle. When the camp, then wandering the Wilderness, set out the Kohathites would enter the tabernacle with Aaron and cover the ark with the screening curtain and "then they shall put on it a covering of fine leather, and spread over that a cloth all of blue, and shall put its poles in place." The ark was one of the items of thetent of meeting that the Kohathites were responsible for carrying.[85]
Another perspective proposes thatJosiah, king of Judah, hid the Ark in anticipation of the Temple's destruction. Where it was hidden remains uncertain. One account in the Talmud[88][89][90] mentions a priest's suspicion of a tampered stone in a chamber designated for wood storage, hinting at the Ark's concealment.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the Ark remained underground in theHoly of Holies. Some of theChazal, including theRadak andMaimonides, propose thatSolomon designed tunnels beneath the Temple to safeguard the Ark that Josiah later used. Attempts to excavate this area have yielded little due to political sensitivities.[91][92][93]
K. L. Sparks believes the story of the Ark was written independently around the8th century BC in a text referred to as the "Ark Narrative" and then incorporated into the main biblical narrative just before theBabylonian exile.[96]
Römer also suggests that the ark may have carried sacred stones "of the kind found in the chests of pre-Islamic Bedouins" and speculates that these may have been either a statue ofYahweh or a pair of statues depicting both Yahweh and his companion goddessAsherah.[14] In contrast, Scott Noegel has argued that the parallels between the ark and these practices remain "unconvincing" in part because the Bedouin objects lack the ark's distinctive structure, function, and mode of transportation.[15] Unlike the ark, the Bedouin chests "contained no box, no lid, and no poles," they did not serve as the throne or footstool of a god, they were not overlaid with gold, did not havekerubim figures upon them, there were no restrictions on who could touch them, and they were transported on horses or camels.[15]
Noegel suggests that the ancient EgyptianSolar barque is a more plausible model for the Israelite ark, since Egyptian barques had all the features just mentioned. He adds that the Egyptians also were known to place written covenants beneath the feet of statues, proving a further parallel to the placement of the covenantal tablets inside the ark.[15]
Levin holds that some biblical texts suggest that the Ark of the Covenant was only one among many other different arks at regional shrines prior to the centralization of worship in Jerusalem,[97] although Raanan Eichler disagrees.[98] While Clifford Mark McCormick has questioned whether the Ark ever existed,[99] other scholars such as Eichler, David A. Falk, Roger D. Isaacs, and Adam R. Hemmings have defended its historicity and antiquity based on linguistic evidence and significant parallels with similar artifacts fromNew Kingdom Egypt.[100][101][16]
In theBook of Jeremiah, it is referenced byJeremiah, who, speaking in the days ofJosiah,[102] prophesied a future time, possibly theend of days, when the Ark will no longer be talked about or be made use of again:
And it shall be that when you multiply and become fruitful in the land, in those days—the word of the LORD—they will no longer say, 'The Ark of the Covenant of the LORD' and it will not come to mind; they will not mention it, and will not recall it, and it will not be used any more.
Rashi comments on this verse that "The entire people will be so imbued with the spirit of sanctity that God's Presence will rest upon them collectively, as if the congregation itself was the Ark of the Covenant."[103]
The records show that it was the prophet Jeremiah who[...] prompted by a divine message[...] gave orders that the Tent of Meeting and the ark should go with him. Then he went away to the mountain from the top of which Moses saw God's promised land. When he reached the mountain, Jeremiah found a cave-dwelling; he carried the tent, the ark, and the incense-altar into it, then blocked up the entrance. Some of his companions came to mark out the way, but were unable to find it. When Jeremiah learnt of this he reprimanded them. "The place shall remain unknown", he said, "until God finally gathers his people together and shows mercy to them. The Lord will bring these things to light again, and the glory of the Lord will appear with the cloud, as it was seen both in the time of Moses and when Solomon prayed that the shrine might be worthily consecrated."
The "mountain from the top of which Moses saw God's promised land" would beMount Nebo, located in what is nowJordan.
The contents of the ark were seen byChurch Fathers includingThomas Aquinas as symbolic of the attributes of Jesus Christ: themanna as theHoly Eucharist;Aaron's rod as Jesus' eternal priestly authority; and thetablets of the Law, as the Lawgiver himself.[109][110] Thomas Aquinas compared the two types of materials of the ark to the two natures of Christ in the hypostatic union (Jesus having human and divine natures). He wrote, "The Ark, wherein were the Law and the manna, signified Christ, who is 'the living bread that came down from Heaven' and 'the fulfillment of the Law'. Moreover, the wood overlaid with gold signifies that Christ was true man and true God."[111]
Saint Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, is credited with writing about the connections between the Ark and the Virgin Mary: "O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place ofGod the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O (Ark of the) Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which Divinity resides" (Homily of thePapyrus of Turin).[107]
Their prophet further told them, “The sign of Saul’s kingship is that the Ark will come to you—containing reassurance from your Lord and relics of the family of Moses and the family of Aaron, which will be carried by the angels. Surely in this is a sign for you, if you ˹truly˺ believe."
The Book of2 Maccabees 2:4–10, written around 100 B.C. claims that the prophetJeremiah, following “being warned by God" before theBabylonian invasion, took the Ark, the Tabernacle, and the Altar of Incense, and buried them in a cave, informing those of his followers who wished to find the place that it should remain unknown "until the time that God should gather His people again together, and receive them unto mercy."[117]
TheKebra Nagast is often said to have been composed to legitimise theSolomonic dynasty, which ruled theEthiopian Empire following its establishment in 1270, but this is not the case. It was originally composed in some other language (Coptic or Greek), then translated into Arabic, and translated intoGeʽez in 1321.[120] It narrates how the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia byMenelik I with divine assistance, while a forgery was left in the Temple in Jerusalem. Although theKebra Nagast is the best-known account of this belief, the belief predates the document.Abu al-Makarim, writing in the last quarter of the twelfth century, makes one early reference to this belief that they possessed the Ark. "The Abyssinians possess also the Ark of the Covenant", he wrote, and, after a description of the object, describes how the liturgy is celebrated upon the Ark four times a year, "on the feast of the great nativity, on the feast of the glorious Baptism, on the feast of the holy Resurrection, and on the feast of the illuminating Cross."[121]
In his controversial 1992 bookThe Sign and the Seal, British writerGraham Hancock reports on the Ethiopian belief that the ark spent several years in Egypt before it came to Ethiopia via theNile River, where it was kept on the islands ofLake Tana for about four hundred years and finally taken to Axum.[122] Archaeologist John Holladay of the University of Toronto called Hancock's theory "garbage and hogwash";Edward Ullendorff, a former professor of Ethiopian Studies at the University of London, said he "wasted a lot of time reading it." In a 1992 interview, Ullendorff says that he examined the ark held in the church in Axum in 1941. Describing the ark there, he says, "They have a wooden box, but it's empty. Middle- to late-medieval construction, when these were fabricated ad hoc."[123][124]
On 25 June 2009, the patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia,Abune Paulos, said he would announce to the world the next day the unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant, which he said had been kept safe and secure in a church in Axum.[125] The following day, he announced that he would not unveil the Ark after all, but that instead he could attest to its current status.[126]
TheLemba people of South Africa andZimbabwe have claimed that their ancestors carried the Ark south, calling it thengoma lungundu "voice of God", eventually hiding it in a deep cave in the Dumghe mountains, their spiritual home.[127][128]
On 14 April 2008, in a UKChannel 4 documentary,Tudor Parfitt, taking a literalist approach to the Biblical story, described his research into this claim. He says that the object described by the Lemba has attributes similar to the Ark. It was of similar size, was carried on poles by priests, was not allowed to touch the ground, was revered as a voice of their God, and was used as a weapon of great power, sweeping enemies aside.[129]
In his bookThe Lost Ark of the Covenant (2008), Parfitt also suggests that the Ark was taken to Arabia following the events depicted in the Second Book of Maccabees, and cites Arabic sources which maintain it was brought in distant times toYemen. GeneticY-DNA analyses in the 2000s have established a partially Middle-Eastern origin for a portion of the male Lemba population but no specific Jewish connection.[130] Lemba tradition maintains that the Ark spent some time in a place called Sena, which might beSena, Yemen. Later, it was taken across the sea toEast Africa and may have been taken inland at the time ofGreat Zimbabwe. According to their oral traditions, it self-destructed sometime after the Lemba's arrival with the Ark. Using a core from the original, the Lemba priests constructed a new one. This replica was discovered in a cave by a Swedish-German missionary namedHarald Philip Hans von Sicard in the 1940s and eventually found its way to theMuseum of Human Sciences inHarare.[128]
The 2nd century RabbiEliezer ben Jose claimed that he saw somewhere in Rome themercy-seat lid of the ark. According to his account, a bloodstain was present and was told that it was a stain from the blood which the Jewish high priest sprinkled thereon on theDay of Atonement."[131][132]
Accordingly, another tale claims that the Ark was kept within theBasilica of Saint John Lateran, surviving the pillages of Rome by King of the VisigothsAlaric I and King of the VandalsGaiseric but was eventually lost when the basilica burned in the fifth century.[133][134]
Between 1899 and 1902, theBritish-Israel Association of London carried out limited excavations of theHill of Tara in Ireland looking for the Ark of the Covenant.Irish nationalists, includingMaud Gonne and theRoyal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (RSAI), campaigned successfully to have them stopped before they destroyed the hill.[135][136][137] A non-invasive survey by archaeologist Conor Newman carried out from 1992 until 1995 found no evidence of the Ark.[137]
The British Israelites believed that the Ark was located at the grave of the Egyptian princessTea Tephi, who according to Irish legend came to Ireland in the 6th century BC and married Irish KingÉrimón. Because of the historical importance of Tara, Irish nationalists likeDouglas Hyde andW. B. Yeats voiced their protests in newspapers, and in 1902 Maud Gonne led a campaign against the excavations at the site.[138]
ManyMalaitans claim that the ark of covenant is buried somewhere deep in the jungle of their island. They have a family tradition that they are a lost Jewish tribe from Zedekiah the high priest of Israel. And that he came there in the year 66 AD to bury it. This idea has been recently presented in the article “Ark of Covenant Location Discovered!” by Mike Edery. In the article, he argues that a Torah code from the Baal Shem Tov reveals its current location on Malaita island.[139]
Additionally in the year 2013, a journalist by the name of Mathew Fishbane had visited the island in the hopes of finding the ark on Malaita island. He interviewed several Malaitans who gave the story of how the ark ended up there. Although he was unable to find it, the legend still lives on today.[140]
In the Danish family filmThe Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar from 2006, the main part of the treasure found in the end is the Ark of the Covenant. The power of the Ark comes from static electricity stored in separated metal plates like a giantLeyden jar.[144]
InHarry Turtledove's novelAlpha and Omega (2019) the ark is found by archeologists, and the characters have to deal with the proven existence of God.[145]
The Ark has been depicted many times in art for two thousand years, some examples are in the article above, a few more are here.
Yom HaAliyah (Aliyah Day) (Hebrew:יום העלייה) is an Israeli national holiday celebrated annually on the tenth of theHebrew month ofNisan to commemorate the Israelites crossing the Jordan River into the Land of Israel while carrying the Ark of the Covenant.[146][147]
^abThomas Römer,The Invention of God (Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 92.
^abcdScott Noegel, "The Egyptian Origin of the Ark of the Covenant" in Thomas E. Levy, Thomas Schneider, and William H. C. Propp (eds.),Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective (Springer, 2015), pp. 223–242.
^K. L. Sparks, "Ark of the Covenant" in Bill T. Arnold and H. G. M. Williamson (eds.),Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books (InterVarsity Press, 2005), p. 91.
^Yigal Levin, “One Ark, Two Arks, Three Arks, More? The Many Arks of Ancient Israel,” inEpigraphy, Iconography and the Bible, ed., Meir and Edith Lubetski (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2021).
^Eichler, Raanan (2021).The Ark and the Cherubim. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 4–5.ISBN978-3-16-155432-2.
^Clifford Mark McCormick. Palace and Temple: A Study of Architectural and Verbal Icons (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 313). pp. 169-190. De Gruyter. 2002.
^Falk, David A. (2020).The Ark of the Covenant in Its Egyptian Context: An Illustrated Journey. Hendrickson Publishers.ISBN978-1-68307-267-6.
^Eichler, Raanan (2021).The Ark and the Cherubim. Forschungen zum Alten Testament. Vol. 146. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 302–304.ISBN978-3-16-155432-2.
^Bezold, Carl. 1905. Kebra Nagast, die Kerrlichkeit der Könige: Nach den Handschriften in Berlin, London, Oxford und Paris. München: K.B. Akademie der Wissenschaften.
^B. T. A. Evetts (translator),The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighboring Countries attributed to Abu Salih, the Armenian, with added notes by Alfred J. Butler (Oxford, 1895), p. 287f.
^Spurdle, A. B.; Jenkins, T. (November 1996), "The origins of the Lemba "Black Jews" of southern Africa: evidence from p12F2 and other Y-chromosome markers.",Am. J. Hum. Genet.,59 (5):1126–33,PMC1914832,PMID8900243.
Carew, Mairead,Tara and the Ark of the Covenant: A Search for the Ark of the Covenant by British Israelites on the Hill of Tara, 1899–1902. Royal Irish Academy, 2003.ISBN0-9543855-2-7
Haran, M.,The Disappearance of the Ark,IEJ 13 (1963), pp. 46–58
Hertz, J. H.,The Pentateuch and Haftoras. Deuteronomy. Oxford University Press, 1936.
Hubbard, David (1956) The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast Ph.D. dissertation, St. Andrews University, Scotland
Munro-Hay, Stuart,The Quest For The Ark of The Covenant: The True History of The Tablets of Moses. L. B. Tauris & Co Ltd., 2006.ISBN1-84511-248-2
Ritmeyer, L.,The Ark of the Covenant: Where It Stood in Solomon's Temple. Biblical Archaeology Review 22/1: 46–55, 70–73, 1996
Stolz, Fritz. "Ark of the Covenant." InThe Encyclopedia of Christianity, edited by Erwin Fahlbusch and Geoffrey William Bromiley, 125. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999.ISBN0-8028-2413-7
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