Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/144

106 — "

A.rk of the

Ark

of the

Covenant

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Law

Babylonia, while according to others (ib.) it was not taken into captivity, but was hidden away in the Temple, in the apartment where the wood for fuel was kept and it is mate Fate, related thatacertainpriest,whiledoing his work in that apartment, noticed that some of the stones in the paved floor projected above the others. He no sooner began to tell the story to a fellow-priest than he expired. That was regarded as a sure sign that the Ark had been buried in that place (Yer. Shek. vi. 49c). Another tradition records that it was King Josiah who hid the Ark and other sacred vessels, for fear that if they were

Its Ulti-



taken to Babylonia they would never be brought

back

(ib.

).

"Why was

a distance of 2,000 cubits always maintained between the Ark and the people? In order that when the march was stopped upon eacli Sabbath day, all the people might travel as far as the Ark to offer their prayers " (Num. R. ii. 9). " One son of Obed-edom betokens by his name, Peulthai, for God blessed him (I Chron. xxvi. 5), the blessing brought upon his father's house; he honored the Ark by placing a new candle before it every morning and evening" (Num. R. iv. 20.). Ark is used figuratively for a teacher of the Law '

'

in a farewell address; "If Obed-edom was blessed greatly for keeping the Ark in his house, how much

more should he be blessed who shows hospitality students of the j.

Law?

Hu. In the Koran I.

Mohammedan

Literature

they stood and were at ease, and victory came. By the " remnant " in it is meant the fragments of the broken tables, the staff and clothes Composi- of Moses, and the turban of Aaron. After Moses died, God took it up to tion of "Rem- Himself, and the angels now brought

nant."



the Ark of the Covenant and Moses' ark of bulrushes are both indicated by the one word " tabut, which term certainly comes from the Hebrew "tebah," through the Jewish- Aramaic "tebuta." The reference in the Koran to the Ark of the Covenant occurs in the middle of the story of the choice There the people demand a sign of Saul to be king. that God has chosen him, and the narrative continues " and their prophet said unto them, Lo, (ii. 249) the sign of his kingship will be that the ark [tabut] will come unto you with a " Sakinah " in it from your Lord, and with a remnant of that which the family of Moses and the family of Aaron left angels bearing it. Lo, in that is verily a sign for you if ye are believers " Baidawi (ad loc. ) explains " tabut " as derived from the root tub (return), and as thus meaning a chest to which a thing taken from it was sure to reTabut, Sakinah, turn. It was the chest in which the Law (Tauraf) was kept, and was about and Remnant, three cubits by two, and made of "Sakinah," he gilded box-wood. says, means "rest," "tranquillity"; and it came to the Israelites in the coming of the Ark to them, or it was the Taurat itself, brought in the Ark and calming them by its presence (see Shekinah). Moses was wont to make it go on before in battle, and it would steady the Israelites and prevent them '



!

'

it

down

again.

But others

said that

remained with the prophets that succeeded Moses, and that they gained victories by means of it until they acted corruptly and the So it remained in unbelievers took it from them. the country of Goliath until God made Saul king. He then brought calamity upon the Philistines and destroyed five cities. Perceiving that this was through the Ark, they placed it on two bulls, and it

the angels led it to Saul. Al-Tha'labi, in his "Kisas al-Anbiyya" (p. 150 of cd. of Cairo, A. H. 1314), gives details as to the He brings it earlier and later history of the Ark. into connection with the important Moslem doctrine

of the Light of Mohammed, the first of all created things, for the sake of which God created the worlds. The Ark was sent down by God from parIn it, adise with Adam when he fell. cut out of a ruby, were figures of all the prophets that were to come, especially of Mohammed and his first four califs and immediate followers. At the death of Adam it passed to Seth, and so

History of the Ark.

down

sh.

In

to

" (Ber. 63J.)

106

to

Prom Abraham, Ishmael

Abraham.

re-

ceived it as the eldest of his sons. It passed then to Ishmael's son, Kedar, but was claimed from him by Jacob. Kedar refused to relinquish it, but was divinely commanded to give it up, as it must remain in the line of the prophets of God, which was now On the other hand, the Light of that of Israel. Mohammed, which shone on the forehead of every lineal ancestor of his, remained in the Arab line of Kedar. So the Ark passed down to Moses. How and when it was lost, the Moslem historians do not According to Ibn 'Abbas, a cousin of Mostate. hammed and the founder of Koranic exegesis, it, with the rod of Moses, is now lying in the Lake of Tiberias, and will be brought forth at the last day. The story of the image with the cat's head and tail is traced back to Wahb ibn Munabbih, who was of Jewish birth. It has probably some Midrashic origin. What is apparently an earlier Earlier form of this latter legend is given in Form the " Hhamis " of Al-Diyarbakri (i. 24

of Legend,

et seq.



compare

ed. of Cairo, 1302).

In it the chest with images of the prophets is not connected with the Ark of the CovThe chest, called also tabut, which had been enant. given to Adam as above stated, was in the possession of the emperor Heraclius,

and was shown by him

ambassadors from Abu Bakr, the first calif. It had been brought from the extreme West (Maghreb) by Alexander, and so had passed to the Roman emperors. D. B. M. to

fleeing.

Others said that there was in the Ark a figure of chrysolite or ruby with the head and tail of a sheIt would utter a moaning cat and with two wings. sound, and the Ark would rush toward the enemy with the Israelites following it. When it stayed,

Critical in

View

which the Ark

is



A classification of the passages

mentioned (compare Seyring, in

Stade's "Zeitschrift," xi. 115), shows that in the older sources (J., E., and Samuel) the Ark is called simply "the ark," "the ark of Yhwh," or "the