All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

Moses and Joshua bowing before the Ark, by James Tissot, (c. 1900) (Public Domain)

Was the Ark of the Covenant an Instrument of Anachronistic Technological Knowledge?

Print

Somewhere in the Negev Desert, Mount Sinai, at dawn on a day of the 13th century BC:  "Moses, go and speak to the children of Israel! Tell them that they must make a wooden Ark of Acacia, its length of two and a half cubits and its width of a cubit and a half “, spoke Yahweh to Moses and Moses instructed Bezalel and his people in the plain of Refidim:  "This Ark made of the same precious wood of Setim, but inside and outside dressed in fine gold...A solid gold carving made of a crown rose, and ran around all its lip. Serravala a flat lid all in gold, on which two Cherubim of the same metal against each other on two ends of the length were placed."

Replica of the Ark of the Covenant in George Washington Masonic National Memorial (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Replica of the Ark of the Covenant in George Washington Masonic National Memorial (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Besides  the description of the Ark of the Covenant in the Bible, a volume dating to 1780,  The Holy History of the Old Testament, provides interesting material for research on instruments, devices and cultural objects belonging to the Jewish tradition that, seen from a more modern perspective, would seem to suggest the existence of 'anachronistic technical knowledge'. For the description of the Ark can't help but remind one of a large capacity electric capacitor - made up of two conductors (the gold foils inside and outside) separated by a dielectric (the Setim wood, i.e. Acacia wood) - which can therefore be assimilated to be capable of accumulating large, and sometimes dangerous, quantities of static electricity. A dielectric material is a substance that is a poor conductor of electricity, but an efficient supporter of electrostatic fields. If the flow of current between opposite electric charge poles is kept to a minimum while the electrostatic lines of flux are not impeded or interrupted, an electrostatic field can store energy.

In fact: " Uzzah now stretched out his hand towards the Ark of the true God and grabbed it...then Yahweh's wrath flashed against Uzzah and the true God knocked him down there for the irreverent act so that he died there near the Ark..." ( Samuel II VI,7). The unsuspecting Uzzah had, in fact, involuntarily tried to support the Ark, that was about to topple from the cart in which David, with the help of the unfortunate Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, was transporting it to the house of Obed-Edom.

READ MORE… 

Like this Preview and want to read on? You can! JOIN US THERE with easy, instant access ) and see what you’re missing!! All Premium articles are available in full, with immediate access.

For the price of a cup of coffee, you get this and all the other great benefits at Ancient Origins Premium. And - each time you support AO Premium, you support independent thought and writing. 

Dr Roberto Volterri is the author of 40 books including Manuale di Psicontronica

Top Image: Moses and Joshua bowing before the Ark, by James Tissot, (c. 1900) (Public Domain)

By Dr Roberto Volterri

 

Dr Roberto

Born in Rome, Dr Roberto Volterri graduated in archaeology with an experimental thesis in archaeometry in the mid-'80s after previous university studies in Biology.  As an academic, he worked in university research (Archaeometallurgy) for more than 40 years, after he... Read More

Next article