> Zimbabwean “Lost Ark” Redeems Israel?
>
> (Conspiracy Nation, 05/13/08) – What is essentially the Biblical Ark
> of the Covenant may have been found in Zimbabwe in March of 2007. Soon
> thereafter, a bitter political struggle between Robert Mugabe and
> Morgan Tsvangirai reflected a fierce battle in that African land. If
> the purported sacred relic somehow made its way back to Israel, there
> are hopes the fledgling nation might be redeemed.
>
> Tudor Parfitt is not some character having “secret sources” who reveal
> all. The author of “The Lost Ark Of The Covenant” (HarperCollins,
> 2008) is professor of Jewish studies at London's School of Oriental
> and African studies and a fellow of the Oxford Centre of Hebrew and
> Jewish studies. He has spent a lifetime tracking the “Lost Ark.” His
> book makes a strong case the Ark has been found “in the storeroom of
> the Harare Museum of Human Science in March 2007...”
>
> In July of 2004, Conspiracy Nation delved into Graham Hancock's
> pursuit of the Ark. He was convinced it had been removed from the
> Jerusalem Temple during the reign of the Jewish monarch Manasseh (687
> – 642 B.C.). Hancock theorized the Ark went to Egypt, then down the
> Nile River to Ethiopia. (“Israel Wants Ark Back?”http://www.shout.net/~bigred/Ark.htm)
>
> But Professor Parfitt traces a different route, south through Arabia,
> to Yemen eventually, and from there to what is now Zimbabwe. Parfitt
> is no armchair theorist: he has lived and explored in the
> abovementioned regions.
>
> Parfitt began his search by first narrowing down, “What exactly am I
> looking for?” Data concerning the Ark come from different sources and
> periods. It was in form a rectangular box or chest, measuring about 45
> inches by 27 inches by 27 inches, and made of acacia or shittim wood.
> However, “later generations embellished descriptions of it in their
> traditions, seeing it as overlaid with gold both within and
> without.” (Oxford Companion to the Bible)
>
> A key breakthrough in Parfitt's quest came when it was discovered a
> sub-clan within the African Lemba tribe carried a particular
> polymorphism on the Y chromosome known as the Cohen modal haplotype.
> The Buba priestly sub-clan shares this “Cohen modal haplotype” with
> one other group: Jewish priests, descendants of the Biblical Aaron.
> When the Lemba ancestors came to what is now Zimbabwe, bringing with
> them the Ark, they intermarried with local African women. Over time,
> their descendants began to appear indistinguishable from typical
> Africans. However they clung to many of their original Jewish
> traditions.
>
> After years of patient searching, Parfitt at last found what may be,
> essentially, the Ark of the Covenant, in a Zimbabwean museum, on a
> dusty shelf in a storeroom. Radio-carbon dating establishes the
> artifact as having been made circa 1350 A.D. The original Ark, by
> then, had disintegrated and a replacement was made, Parfitt theorizes.
>
> Assisting Parfitt in his search through the years was a close friend,
> “Reuven”, connected in some way with the Mossad. Reuven had said,
> writes Professor Parfitt in the book's Epilogue, “The redemption of
> Israel will be brought ever closer by the discovery of the Ark.” Such
> a discovery might justify rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple, even to
> Muslims. A passage from the Koran suggests that, were the Ark to be
> found, then Israel might be redeemed: “The sign of his kingship is
> that the Ark of the Covenant will be restored to you... this should be
> a convincing sign for you, if you are really believers.” (qtd. in
> Parfitt, op. cit.) If the “symbolic authority [of the Ark] can be used
> to force out [Robert] Mugabe, one of the most cynical dictators the
> world has seen,” concludes Parfitt, it might even presage the coming
> of the Jewish Messiah and the final redemption of the Jewish people.
>
> Conspiracy Nation
>
> http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html