- Mon, 05/07/2012 - 22:24
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(Margot Fernandez, Examiner). This morning the Scripture lessons told the story of Saint Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, who was baptized by Philip when they met on the road. The story goes that Philip overheard the Ethiopian reading aloud from the Old Testament and struck up a conversation in which he interpreted the Scripture as a prophecy of Jesus’ coming.
After hearing Philip’s story of Jesus, the Ethiopian asked to be baptized, after which he went on his way and Philip did the same. This is not an obscure story; it is read at least once every three years in churches that follow the Scripture rotation of weekly readings that we follow at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Tucson.
Now we can cut to a television program that I saw years ago. It dealt with the present-day whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant—if it is still in existence—and the fact that the Ethiopian Church claims to have it in their physical possession in their church in Axum.
The documentary dealt with the time frame during which the Ark disappeared from the Temple in Jerusalem, during the reign of a King Jeroboam, I believe, who permitted idols to be erected in the Temple. It is theorized that a faithful group of Hebrew priests removed the Ark from the Temple and took it to an island called Elephantine, from whence it finally ended up in Ethiopia. The fact that there is a ruin on the island that can be identified as a small temple supports the theory, as does the present-day existence of a sanctuary and a priesthood in Axum that is linked to the residence of the Ark there along with a consecrated priesthood to attend it.
So today we hear the story of an Ethiopian who was reading the Hebrew Scriptures while in Israel. He comes across Philip and this story emerges from the encounter. But ask yourself: why would this African man be reading Hebrew Scripture? Was he Jewish? Was he a descendant of Ethiopians who converted to Judaism after the holy artifact from the Temple came to be housed in their land?
Perhaps the Ethiopian was considering conversion and had come to visit Israel in the process of study. His visit was then complicated by Philip preaching to him of the Rabbi from Nazareth and the present-day (to them) fulfillment of the prophecies as the hope of the Messiah was finally realized.
And why Ethiopia? Why wasn’t this man from some other African nation? But no, he happened to be from Ethiopia, the very country that claims possession of the Ark of the Covenant.
I admit that when viewed alone, in no particular context, the idea that the Ark made its way to Africa is no more or less likely than that it might be in Scotland or North America. Or why wouldn’t it be hidden really well—so well that no one has ever found it—in the labyrinth of caverns under the Temple in Jerusalem? Or why didn’t it go as part of the tribute to the Romans that went to Rome, or to another conqueror of Israel, the Babylonians?
The Temple itself was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C. E., and the Ark was not found at that time. From that time forth—and perhaps before—the Ark has disappeared from recorded history. No documents or clay tablets have ever been found that mention that the Temple Ark of the Covenant has shown up in any other place but Jerusalem—except for Ethiopia, which claims calmly and with certainty that they have the very Ark itself in their sanctuary in Axum. And this Ethiopian man was studying Hebrew Scriptures in the First Century, hundreds of years after the Ark arrived in Axum, if it did.
I have heard the Ethiopian eunuch story before, but this Sunday it hit me like a ton of bricks that the story ties in very explicitly with the fantastical claim that the Ark still exists and that it is in Ethiopia. When I first saw the documentary I believed that the story was credible, but now it seems even more so after this casual mention of an Ethiopian studying Scripture in Israel during the early First Century.
Please watch the following interesting videos from the Discovery Channel
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