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Ark of the Covenant Ark of the Law

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

ark of God. "

In Deuteronomy, and in writers under Deuteronomic influence, it is called " the ark of the covenant of Yhwh"; while the priestly sections call it " the ark of the testimony. " In I Sam. iv. the Ark is taken into battle, and both Israelites and Philistines are affected by it as though Yhwh Himself were there. As the Egyptians, Babylonians, and other nations had similar structures for carrying their idols about (compare Wilkinson, "Ancient Egyptians," iii. 289; Delitzsch, " Handworterbuch, " under " elippu " and

an object in the cult at the time that those codes were combined it appears to represent merely an ideal in the minds of the compilers.

Bibliography W. Lotz, Die Bundetiade, Lelpsic, 1901 J. Meinhold, Die Lade Jahweh's in Theol. Arbetten cms d. Rhemlscnen Wissenschaftlichen Predigerverein, Bonn



1900. J.

JR.

G. A. B.

ARK OF THE LAW —In A



"Isaiah," in "S. B. O. T." p. 78), critical scholars hold that the Ark was in the earliest time a kind of movable sanctuary (see Wellhausen, " Prolegomena, " 5th ed.,

p.

note;

46,

the Synagogue

closet or chest in which are kept (CJHpn piK) the Torah scrolls used in the public worship of the

synagogue.

The Ark

placed in or against the wall of the synagogue, toward which the worshipers turn in the solemn parts of the liturgy— the wall in the direction of Jerusalem. is

Stade,

"Gesch." i. 457; Nowack, "Archaologie," ii. 3; Benzinger, " Archaologie, " 367

Winckler, "Gesch. Israels," 70; Couard, in Stade's

i.

"Zeitschrift,"

xii.

53; and

" Geschichte d e s Guthe, Volkes Israel," p. 31). As the corresponding shrines of other nations contained idols, so late tradition has it that the Ark contained the

Decalogue (I Kings viii. 9, 21). As the two versions of the Decalogue, that of E. in Ex. xx., and that of J. in Ex. xxxiv., tables of the

differ

so radically,

critics

hold also that there could

have been no authoritative version of the

Command-

ments deposited in the Ark, but believe that it contained an aerolite or sacred stone

—similar to the sacred stone of the Kaaba at Mecca which was regarded as a fetish.

(the

The

fact that in J.

Supposed Earliest Representation ol an Ark of the Law, in the Museo Borgiano at Rome.

Judean source) the Ark

(From Garrucci, "Arte Christiana.")

not prominent, Yhwh being consistently represented as dwelling at Sinai while his angel goes before Israel (Ex. xxxiii. 2), and that in E. (the Ephraimitic source) the Ark plays a conspicuous part, led Wellhausen and Stade to believe that it was originally the movable sanctuary of the Joseph tribes, from whom, after the union of the tribes, it was adopted by the nation. This view has been generally adopted by other critics (see references above). In the historical books the Ark plays no part after the time of Solomon, when it was placed in the is

Temple. Couard believes that it was carried from Jerusalem in the days of Rehoboam by the Egyptian king Shishak (Stade's "Zeitschrift," xii. 84). That would adequately explain its disappearance from history. While the Ark figures in Deuteronomy and as

Couard points

was actually

in existence as

in the priestly legislation, there out,

no evidence that

it

is,

placed a few feet above the floor of the nave and is reached by steps. As the Torah is the most sacred and precious possession of the Jew, so is the chest which holds it the most important and ornate part of the synagogue. It is called " Aron ha-Kodesh " (the Holy Ark) after the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle and the Temple (Ex. xxv. 10 etseg., xxxvii. The perpetual lamp(TDn 1J) is usually 1 etseq.). hung in front of it. From the platform near it the priests pronounce their benediction on festivals (compare the expression pnS> rbv< R H. 31* Shab. 118ft), and in modern Ashkenazic synagogues the bimah or almemar the platform from which the prayers are recited and the lessons of the Torah read by the precentor is placed near it (compare in the Talmud the expressions ravin ^sb "13V and mvin 'JE& TV ("Ber. v. 4; R. H. iv. 7, 34ft], for performing the func-



—

—

tion of precentor).

Whenever the Ark is opened the