Forgotten Ages Research

Enigmas of the Ark of the Covenant—An Ancient Technology Once Out of Control?

Report Topics:

• The Egyptian origins of the lost Ark and its energy link with the Stone Box inside the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid
• Details of the Ark’s construction and static charge potential
• The Ark’s energy amplified by the Tabernacle and the Mosaic Tablets
• Biblical accounts of the fickle nature of the Ark’s operation—an advanced technology barely understood by its keepers?
• Enigmas of the Ark’s history, its disappearance and present hidden whereabouts—was there more than one Ark?
• Report Update—Focus on the Powers of the Ark

Full Report:

One of the most enigmatic objects depicted in Hebrew history is the Ark of the Covenant, recorded to have possessed tremendous power. For a long time the Old Testament story concerning the Ark had been considered to be pure fantasy by modern scholars, until 1915 when early electronics genius Nikolas Tesla, the inventor of alternating current, proposed that the sacred box of the Hebrews may have actually been a giant capacitor. It had precisely the same design as a Leyden jar, invented in 1745, a simple instrument that can store an electric charge and release it as a single flash or a prolonged glow—just the way the Ark was described to be able to do. If a pint-sized Leyden jar can hold a charge large enough the kill a man, so a chest-sized box covered inside and out with conductive gold would have been able to store a far more massive electrical potential.

Moses was supposedly given the specifications for its construction by Yahweh. Yet its design and description matches that of many sacred barks dedicated to the various gods and goddesses, kept in the holy of holies of most temples in ancient Egypt, as they can still be seen portrayed in detail in wall engravings throughout the Nile Valley.

The claim is made in the story in Exodus that the Ark of the Covenant was made by Hebrew craftsmen during their Wilderness experience. But as explorer-researcher David H. Childress noted:

“This seems unlikely. Rather, it is more likely that the Holy of Holies and the Ark were relics from an earlier time, and were taken out of Egypt by the fleeing Israelites. The Ark is said to have once been kept in the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid. The famous ‘lidless’ coffin of Cheops was in actuality the receptacle for the Ark of the Covanant.”

The capacity of the Ark, based on its Biblical measurements, was 71,282 cubic inches, while the measure for the granite container in the King’s Chamber is 71,290 cublic inches. In 1955, Dr. Alfred Rutherford of the Institute of Pyramidology in Illinois performed an experiment in which he re-assembled the pieces of an exact replica of the Ark inside the King’s Chamber and lowered it into the Chamber’s stone box. It fit remarkably well, with a relatively uniform half-inch clearance on all four sides of the replica. Not without significance is the fact that the dimensions of the King’s Chamber itself form a double-cube—precisely the same dimensional configuration of the Hebrew Tabernacle Holy of Holies.

Was it here, inside the Great Pyramid, that the original Ark was first energized?

In the Book of Exodus chapter 25, verses 10 through 21, appears these descriptions of the Ark: it was a lidless rectangular box made of shittim wood (probably acacia) measuring two and a half cubits long by one and a half cubits wide and high—in terms of the Egyptian royal cubit, about 4 feet 4 inches by 2 feet 7 inches. The box was covered in gold over its inner and outer surfaces, with a gold crown or border around the top rim. Gold rings were added to each corner through which were inserted two carrying poles also made of gold-covered wood, that were designated never to be removed. On top of the box was placed a lid or “mercy seat” that matched the length and breadth dimensions of the box and was also covered with gold. On the lid were two sold gold statues of angelic beings called cherubim, with a winged figure place at either end of the lid and facing each other, with their four wings outstretched to form a canopy or arch.

In terms of its static electric charge potential, the gold coverings of the Ark form the positive and negative conductive layers, and the wood forms the insulator separating the two. The cherubim statues on the lid, with one figure connected with the outer gold layer and the other figure connected to the inner gold layer would have served as positive and negative terminals.

While a Leyden jar the size of a modern coffee jar can store a charge of approximately 200 volts, something the size of the Ark would have held a charge potential of several thousands of volts. Particularly in the hot dry air of the Sinai, the Ark could have stored enough static electricity to have been fatal to anyone even coming close to it. This is precisely what happened as portrayed in Hebrew literature on two occasions. In Leviticus 10: 1-2, two priests, Nadab and Abihu, failed to approach the Ark in a prescribed manner, “And there went out a fire, and devoured them.” In Second Samuel 6: 6-7, while the Ark was being transported to Jerusalem by oxen, and was being shaken badly, another priest named Uzzah tried to steady the box by placing his hands on it. “And God smote him there for his error, and there he died by the Ark of God.”

Other tell-tale electrical elements can be seen in these additional features:

1. The purpose of the crown around the rim of the box was to hold the lid in such a manner to prevent any energy leakage that might escape through the joints.

2. The four rings were attached to the outer gold layer only, so that the Ark could then be safely transported, with the priests carrying it acting as the earthing connection. This also explains the specific instructions that the poles should never be removed.

3. With the two cherubim serving as positive and negative terminals, their outstretched wings almost touching each other would have formed a spark gap whereby a static charge could have become visible as a glowing ball of light—what the Hebrew writings describe as the Shekinah or Spirit of Yahweh.

In Exodus 25:20 the text states that “the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high.” The Hebrew word for “stretch” is derived from paras, meaning “to disperse,” while “wing” is derived from kanaph which means “edge or extremity.” This indicates the wording has a double connotation, with a deeper translation referring to the nature of the electrostatic discharge.

Later, when the Ark was finally housed in Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, the king commissioned two additional cherubim figures made of gold, each standing nearly twenty feet high, to serve as a protective canopy over the Ark. What kind of energy amplification these giant conductive statues created we can only guess at.

Going a step further, researchers Michael Blackburn and Mark Bennett are of the opinion that the energy of the Ark was greatly enhanced by the design of the Hebrew Tabernacle in which it was housed during its sojourn in the Sinai. The Holy of Holies in particular was surrounded by coverings of linen, goat hair and leather, all of which would have generated a massive amount of static electricity. As the two describe it:

“The generation of static electricity is totally dependent upon atmospheric conditions and friction. When the Temple was first built, the various layers of the covers would have been dragged across each other to build up the outer coverings. The goat’s hair, being the more abrasive, would have become positively charged with static, which would then have spread to every conductive surface. The walls, the furniture, the Ark—everything was charged with positive static electricity. The initial charge of static would have been very weak, but it would have retained its potential. And under certain atmospheric conditions, the initial charge would be dramatically increased and maintained.”

As to the relationship between the coverings and the Ark:

“The charge would slowly build up over the interior surfaces and inside the box. When the charge in the box became strong enough to overcome the air resistance between the two cherubim, it would jump the gap between the wings and discharge. The effect would be an intense burst of brilliant light of considerable duration and power, accompanied by noise and heat. The initial discharge from the Ark would be fed and maintained by the surrounding positive charge stored in the walls and covers. The corona would slowly diminish as the stored charge was exhausted and the cycle, depending on conditions, would begin again.”

As the two researchers conclude:

“Both the Ark and Temple are superbly designed pieces of organic technology that utilize the power of the natural elements, simply and efficiently for a specific purpose. Everything about the construction and use of this technology is entirely in keeping with what we know and understand about the concepts and realities of the ancient world.

“The existence of such technology over 3,500 years ago, and the obviously intelligent way in which it was harnessed and used, might well indicate that the ancient world has not offered up all of its secrets.”

While the inherent design features of the Ark were enough to simply hold an electrical charge and release it, there may have been an additional item that sustained its power and even directed if for specific purposes. Inside the golden chest, according to the Torah, were kept the Tablets of Moses upon which were written the Ten Commandments. The traditional portrayal of these Tablets—as so wonderfully visualized in Michelangelo’s Renaissance statue of Moses, and as seen in modern epic movies of the Exodus—was of two large flat stones made of limestone or granite, rounded at their tops, with some form of ancient script covering one side of each stone.

They would have been very similar to Egyptian commemorative stelae that were once set up in various places along the Nile as boundary markers or royal declarations. The famous Rosetta Stone, by which hieroglyphs were finally deciphered, and today can be seen in the British Museum, is a good example of such an ancient stela.

But the Hebrew Talmud offers a very different imagery. The Mosaic Tablets were instead described to be not two but one, a single double-sided stone inscribed on both sides and said to be made of “sapphire” or some other “gemstone” or jewel. It was recorded to have measured “not more than six hands in length and as much in width”—about two feet by two feet—and “transparent” yet remarkably heavy. In modern terms, what was interpreted to be “script” may have actually been some form of printed circuitry purposely placed on the gem surfaces that allowed the device to have a wide range of functions. Ancient mysteries researcher-author Frank Joseph believes the Ark’s “sapphire” was “a specimen of incomprehensibly sophisticated technology crafted thousands of years ago.” He wrote further:

“The ’stone’ in question was, I am convinced, a kind of ultra-sensitive capacitor able to receive, store, magnify and discharge various forms of energy directed at it. When, for example, Joshua instructed his fellow Israelites to shout on his command and blare their trumpets as reported in Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant resonated with their audio input, directing its amplification in an ultra-high frequency that pulverized the fortified walls of Jericho.

“As such, I believe, it could have been used as a sonic-cannon, a virtual biblical ’weapon of mass destruction’ that could have allowed a numerically out-numbered tribe of shepherds to overpower other peoples far more traditionally accustomed to military campaigning than themselves.”

The Biblical accounts offer a wide spectrum of deadly powers to the Ark, including bursts of consuming fire, paralysis, cardiac arrests, bodily swelling and tumors, plagues of mice, the collapse of statues and structures, and earth tremors over wide areas. Today we recognize all these can be directly or indirectly caused by sudden or prolonged exposure to high frequency electromagnetic fields.

The array of fatal effects was not only directed against such antagonists as the Philistines, but were also suffered by the Isrealites themselves on many recorded occasions. Very often individuals or whole groups—up to 50,000 at a time—were indiscriminately “smitten” and “consumed” for no apparent reason other than because they simply happened to be too close to the Ark when it discharged. At other times, when it was used as a weapon in battle, the Ark refused to operate at all, allowing the Israelites to be severely defeated and even the golden box itself captured by the enemy.

There appears to have been an obviously uncontrollable and unpredictable element about the sacred chest, and one gets the impression that the Hebrew priests were in possession of a form of advanced technology they knew little about or understood, but were willing to endure the unknown consequences and “side effects” every time they used it. Eventually they gave up, placing the Ark in its safe haven in the Jerusalem Temple and leaving it there.

One of the major enigmas associated with the Ark is what happened to it. The last mention of its existence is in Second Chronicles of the Torah, when King Josiah ordered it brought back to the Temple in Jerusalem circa 623 B.C.E. There is no record of it being moved again, so that it had to have remained in the Temple until 586 B.C.E. when the Babylonians sacked the city. Though the Bible lists large amounts of gold treasure and ornamentation carried off by the conquerors, the Ark was not included as being among them.

Only one work, the “Apocalypse of Ezra,” now part of the Catholic Apocrypha, specifically tells of the Ark being stolen away to Babylon, but that chronicle was written five centuries after the event, and its authenticity is highly suspect. Given its tremendous powers and the disastrous results when previous foreign nations had had it in their possession, if the Ark was carted off to Babylon there would have been some account preserved about the destructive consequences. And later, when the Israelites were allowed to return from their Exile to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple a century and a half later, they were given back all their taken treasures. Yet the Ark was not described as being a part of the cache.

In later desecrations of the Temple site—by Syrian Antiochus Epiphanes in the second century B.C.E. and by Roman Titus in A.D. 70—no reference was made to a box-like golden object being among the prize tributes. The triumphal Arch of Titus in Rome depicts the candelabra Menorah and other treasures carted off from the destroyed Temple, but the image of the Ark is conspicuously absent.

According to the Jewish Talmud, Solomon was supposed to have constructed a hiding place for the Ark somewhere on Temple Mount, the height upon which he built his sanctuary. Past and present investigators confirm that the area where the Holy of Holies once stood is riddled with secret subterranean tunnels and passages. This is especially true under the Dome of the Rock, one of Islam’s most sacred shrines, which is today forbidden from being further explored. Talmudic tradition also asserts that King Josiah, just before the Babylonian assault, removed the Ark from the Temple and hid it in Solomon’s secret chamber, where it remains even now.

However, a number of other researchers point to evidence the sacred chest was buried elsewhere. Among the Dead Sea scrolls found at Qumran in 1952 was uncovered the now famous Copper Scroll which in cryptic words describes various treasures saved from Solomon’s sanctuary, including the Ark itself, said to be hidden in an unnamed desolate valley beneath a prominent hill. This is confirmed by the writings of the Mishnah, a collection of Jewish oral traditions, which also spoke of the sacred chest sitting in a nondescript valley under a hill “on its east side forty stones deep.”

Another Jewish source, the Books of the Maccabees, records how the prophet Jeremiah, at the time of the Babylonian invasion, took the Ark to a cave in Mount Nebo, a summit on the eastern side of the Dead Sea where Moses is also said to be buried. The location of the cave was subsequently lost, and even the identity of the Mount itself is in question.

Muddling the historical picture further is the real possibility that there was more than one Ark. Biblical translators have pointed out that at times when the sacred box was transported from place to place before its final resting in the Temple, it was described as being in more than one location at a time. Also, according to the accounts in the Books of Exodus, Numbers and Hebrews, besides the Tablets of Moses the Ark likewise also housed a golden pot containing manna, the budding rod of Aaron, the High Priest’s garments, gold peace offerings from the Philistines, a number of scepters and rods, pots of anointing oil and holy water, plus other tablets with the names of the Twelve Tribes, and a complete set of the Torah as well as several volumes on the priestly duties.

Plainly, it would be impossible to fit all these items into the single small chest of the Ark. However, it would have been more than possible if these artifacts had instead been stored in numerous Ark replicas.

There is no reason why other golden electrostatic chests could not have been made based on the original design that were just as potentially powerful, complete with their own versions of the “tablets” or energy-jewel inside. Realistically, the stories of more than one hiding place for the Ark may have been generated from the fact that there was more than one Ark.

What this brings into question is whether or not the Biblical record of the Ark being present in the Jerusalem Temple referred to the original sacred box of Moses or a later duplicate. This in turn opens the possibility that the original Ark may have been removed from Jerusalem at a far earlier time.

Four centuries before the Babylonian incursion, in fact, an Egyptian army under Pharaoh Sheshonk I (945 – 924 B.C.E.) invaded the Holy Land and briefly held Jerusalem before withdrawing. Since the Ark was originally of Egyptian design, did the Pharaoh take this opportunity to return this power device stolen from them back to the land of Nile where it belonged? Will the Ark of Moses one day be found in that location where it probably was once kept safe—the Hall of Records beneath the Giza plateau?

In the meantime, the other duplicate Arks appear to have been scattered to the four winds, for legends and evidence suggest that one is located in a holy shrine in Aksum in Ethiopia, another is underneath sacred Tara Hill in Ireland, yet another was once housed in a Jewish synagogue on Elephantine Island in southern Egypt, still another is below the holy Kaba in Mecca, and another yet resides somewhere in Utah in America. Still other more esoteric sources say there are Arks or their energy equivalents situated in strategic sacred places throughout the world—in Tibet, Peu, the Sahara, Southeast Asia, Australia, Mexico and the Pacific.

There is an occult prophecy that one day, when the original Ark will again see the light of day for every member of humanity to look upon, then all the secondary Arks will also re-emerge, together forming a network of spiritual electrical energy to encompass the globe.

Hopefully by that time we will have a better idea of how it works and how we may better control it.

Report Update—Focus on the Powers of the Ark

Exodus 25:10 - 21—The Ark of the Covenant is decribed as 1.5 by 1.5 by 2.5 cubits, which is very close to being a double cube in size. This is the same geometric configuration of the King’s Chamber and its Stone Box inside the Great Pyramid, as well as the Hebrew Tabernacle Holy of Holies. The Ark also happens to have the exact same cubit dimensions as the Laver or Basin used by the Hebrew priests for washing themselves before entering the sacred precincts. Likewise, the Holy of Holies had the identical volume as the Molten Sea in the later Solomon’s Temple, equivalent to the Laver in the original Tabernacle. And both capacities—the Molten Sea and Holy of Holies—matched that of the King’s Chamber.

Historically, the Ark and the Holy of Holies in all its forms were designed thousands of years after the Great Pyramid was constructed—and yet the two as powerful sacred places were linked together by such identical dimensions. We may well ask, is there something about this specific geometry and dimensions that helped to augment their inherent energies, both that of the Ark and the King’s Chamber or Holy of Holies that acted as surrounding amplifiers? Would constructing modern solar and other experimental batteries using the same commensurate dimensions, as well as the housing units in which they are contained, help in boosting their energy output?

We also find in the same Exodus verses given above the claim that Moses built the Ark himself based on the command of Yaweh that the patriarch received on Mount Sinai. Yet only a few verses later, in Exodus 35:10 - 12, this is contradicted by the statement that the Ark was made by two craftsmen, Bezalel and Aholiab, who directed the work of others, and that Moses later approved of their labors. From this, the writings of Rashi and the Midrashim suggested that, from the very beginning, there had actually been two Arks, one made by Moses and the later one by Bezalel.

However, we discover hints in the powers exercised by the first Ark that it had not really been made by Moses at all, but instead was transported out of Egypt during the Exodus, secretly accompanying the Hebrews as they fled before Pharaoh’s armies. In Joshua 3:15 - 17; 4:7 - 18 is a description that—as the Hebrew people crossed the Jordan river and the sacred Ark “went before them”—the river waters suddenly “parted“ and “dried up” so that the priestly carriers’ feet did not get wet, nor did the feet of anyone else in the entire entourage following them. Only when the last person had crossed over did the waters return to their normal course. This is precisely the identical miracle that had occurred some time earlier when the same group of Hebrews had passed through the Red Sea. Did Moses, on that occasion, similarly utilize the Ark, only then when it was carefully hidden from view, so as not to arouse the alarm and indignation of the pursuing Egyptians from which he had stolen it?

Other texts make it very clear that the Ark could be deadly in very specific ways, indicative of certain forms of high energy radiation:

Numbers 35:5, Joshua 4:5—The Ark was always carried at least two thousand cubits or paces in front of the Hebrew host or army as it traveled. This would indicate an aura of energy of a specific circumference surrounded the golden chest when it was in motion. Even when carried, the Ark was covered with a veil of tachash skins (an animal of uncertain origins) and a blue cloth—both of which may have acted as a field dampener. Otherwise, the exposed chest would have blinded and killed anyone who looked upon it (see below).

1 Kings 8:8—When at rest, the Ark was placed in its Holy of Holies so that one end of its gold-plated carrying poles touched the veil separating the two compartments of the Tabernacle. This no doubt helped to renew the energy of the chest while inside and connected with its re-charge housing.

Leviticus 16—Moses, Aaron and the attending Levite high priests were warned not to enter into the vicinity of the Ark too often, carrying out specific rituals only once a year on a designated day. This would indicate that over-exposure to the Ark’s radiation was not recommended, and could have lethal accumulative consequences.

Exodus 30:23 - 26—Even so, at the end of each annual ritual, both the Ark and the officiating priests were sprinkled with “the oil of holy anointment,” which probably helped to re-dampen the Ark’s field, as well as served as a healing balm for any signs of high-energy radiation sickness or burns.

Numbers 10:33; Joshua 3:2 - 6—When the Ark was moved, it burnt away thorns and other vegetation obstacles in its path. According to the traditional Jewish writings of the Canticles, sparks issued forth from between the two Cherubim on the Ark’s lid that killed all serpents and scorpions in the regions it passed through. Lower life forms would have been susceptible to the effects of active radiation fields.

Joshua 6:6 - 15—During the famous siege of Jericho, the energy of the Ark—as it was carried seven times around the city accompanied by priests blowing rams’ horns—amplified the infrasound being produced that continually weakened the foundations with each pass around. On the last circuit, the final blast turned its walls to liquefied sand—like seismic waves can convert certain types of ground into quicksand during an earthquake—and all structures quickly disintegrated.

1 Samuel 5:1 - 6; 6:5—While the Philistines captured the Ark and tried to keep it, they were plagued with earthquakes which toppled their sacred statues, by strange diseases that produced boils, and from being overrun with mice. These are all side effects of natural disorders and disrupted animal life cycles caused by large-scale bursts of high energy over a wide area.

1 Samuel 6:19—When the Philistines voluntarily returned the Ark to the Hebrews just to get rid of it, at Beth-shemesh a group of its citizens made the mistake of looking at the chest up close, resulting in 50,000 of their people falling down dead.

Similarly, when the Ark was being transported back to Jerusalem by oxcart, a driver named Uzzah tried to reach out and steady the Ark to keep it from falling, whereupon he was instantly struck dead.

Still later, when Saul’s daughter, Michal, rebuked David for dancing in celebration before the Ark, she was struck with permanent sterility. This verbal confrontation with David probably took place right after his indiscretion, directly in front of the Tabernacle tent only a few feet away from the Ark. At the time, David was wearing an ephod or protective garment, while Michal was not, making her far more vulnerable to the Ark’s unforgiving radiation and its long-term effects.

When we look at the full spectrum of these various effects cause by being in close proximity to the Ark, it becomes clear that we are dealing with a very potent natural energy accumulator and generator, one which the Hebrews had very little control over regarding its operation or its destructive potentials. When this ancient lethal weapon is found again, as has been prophesied by both the Bible and the Quran, the greatest caution should be exercised by its discoverers, because even though it has been lost for thousands of years, its energies may still be very active and very dangerous.

[Copyright 2009. Joseph Robert Jochmans. All Rights Reserved.]