What if Indy had destroyed the Ark?

The Drifter

New member
Agent Spalko said:
Doesn't Christ, in the NT and for Christians, metaphorically supplant the Ark as the divine temple?

To tell you the truth, I am not sure.
I do know that the bible says the Ark stayed in the lands that the Isrealites conquered when God led them on the sojourn to the promised land.

To my knowledge the last the Bible speaks of the Ark was when Solomon had it in his temple.
Don't quote me on that.

I was raised as a christian, and Jesus taught that one's body is now the temple of the Lord.
For when one gets saved, that is God's dwelling place now.

Please, don't let my bible talk make anyone hate me. I have read it alot and am interested in the whole aspect of it.
 

The Drifter

New member
Agent Spalko said:
I took Bible Lit in college so I have always been fascinated by its literary narrative and symbolisms.

I also wonder why the Rod of Aaron and the manna from heaven were not in the Ark when the nazi's opened it?
 
I think I read another theory somewhere that suggested that it was not the real Ark but was a decoy that was booby-trapped with the damnation of God upon those who dare to defile it from its resting place. Don't know if I buy that but it was an interesting idea.
 

The Drifter

New member
Agent Spalko said:
I think I read another theory somewhere that suggested that it was not the real Ark but was a decoy that was booby-trapped with the damnation of God upon those who dare to defile it from its resting place. Don't know if I buy that but it was an interesting idea.

That does sound interesting.
You seem to know your bible stuff. I would love to talk with you more about this, but I am afraid of me being off-topic to the post.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Lonsome_Drifter, leaving aside the past couple of posts, I think you can continue the conversation without it going too off-topic. We'll let you know if that changes.
 

Lao_Che

Active member
Lonsome_Drifter said:
I also wonder why the Rod of Aaron and the manna from heaven were not in the Ark when the nazi's opened it?

Continuity answer? Because the Staff of Aaron was stolen from the Temple of Solomon and later buried by the River Nile in Egypt per Secret of the Sphinx novel. :whip:
 
I think I know where the idea of the decoy Ark came from. It suggests the real Ark was a wooden box not covered with ornate gold.

Rashi and some Midrashim suggest that there were two arks - a temporary one made by Moses, and a later one made by Bezalel (Hertz 1936)

the Jewish exegete Rashi (Rashi's commentary of Deteronomy) suggest that there were two Arks: one was the original simple wooden Ark of Moses described in the Book of Deuteronomy, the other was the later golden Ark made by Bezalel as described in the Book of Exodus. Rabbinic opinion maintains that the first of these Arks was the Ark of War and the second was a ceremonial object which stayed in the Temple. Parfitt suggests that the Ark he found was the descendant of the Ark of War. He Parfitt suggests that the Ark, being wooden, and being used as a weapon, was replicated at least once, and possibly many times.

According to the Bible, the two tablets of stone constituting the "testimony" or evidence of God's covenant with the people (i.e. The Ten Commandments) were kept within the Ark itself. A golden jar containing some of the manna from the Israelites' trek in the wilderness, and the rod of Aaron that budded, were added to the contents of the Ark (Ex. 16:32-34; Heb. 9:4), but apparently were later removed at some point prior to the building of Solomon's temple, as the Tanakh states in I Kings 8:9 that there "was nothing in the Ark save the two tablets of stone." While Heb. 9:4 states these items were placed "inside" the Ark, Ex. 16:33-34 and Num. 17:10 use the expression "before" the Ark; some see a contradiction here, as the correct meaning of these phrases is open to interpretation. A Rabbinic tradition states that Moses also put the broken fragments of the first tablets of the Law into the Ark (Hertz 1936).
.

The Ark is mentioned in one passage in the deuterocanonical 2 Maccabees 2:4-10, which contains a reference to a document saying that the prophet Jeremiah, "being warned of God," took the Ark, and the tabernacle, and the altar of incense, and buried them in a cave on Mount Nebo (Deut. 34:1), informing those of his followers who wished to find the place that it should remain unknown "until the time that God should gather His people again together, and receive them unto mercy." Hebrews 9:4 states that the Ark contained "the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant." Finally, in the Book of Revelation the Ark is described as being in the 'temple' of God in heaven (Rev. 11:19). The Ark is last seen in God's 'temple' just before a woman gives birth to the man child (Rev. 12:1-2), both stalked by a dragon and his angels cast to earth (Rev. 12:3-17).
 
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Raiders of Clay

New member
I do believe God wouldn't have been to happy, but it would have definetly have not fallen into the hands of the Nazis. So I don't know. Those are my two theories.
 

WillKill4Food

New member
Agent Spalko said:
Doesn't Christ, in the NT and for Christians, metaphorically supplant the Ark as the divine temple?
Yes, in a sense.

Personally, I think that the Ark would have been protected if Indy had fired at it. The fire would have deflected and destroyed anyone around it, in my little world. And, like you said earlier, I have always thought that the Nazis should have died when they touched it and moved it. And, also, the Ark should have already had its poles that it was carried by, instead of Indy placing them there, because the Biblical Ark has gold-covered poles, just like the rest of the artifact.
 

Burke

New member
Agent Spalko said:
So the Nazi soldiers who lift the lid off the Ark should have been destroyed the second they even touched it.

I'm pretty sure that Belloq's incantations while wearing the priestly attire "deactivated" the Ark's external doomfinger.
 

WillKill4Food

New member
Burke said:
I'm pretty sure that Belloq's incantations while wearing the priestly attire "deactivated" the Ark's external doomfinger.
Haha, no.
The Levites were the only ones allowed to touch the Ark without getting killed, and even then they had to be pure. Or at least that's what the Bible says...
 

Burke

New member
WillKill4Food said:
Haha, no.
The Levites were the only ones allowed to touch the Ark without getting killed, and even then they had to be pure. Or at least that's what the Bible says...

In terms of what we see depicted in Raiders, it seems that's the purpose of it; otherwise, why not just open it and skip the pageantry?
 

WillKill4Food

New member
Burke said:
In terms of what we see depicted in Raiders, it seems that's the purpose of it; otherwise, why not just open it and skip the pageantry?
Because Belloq didn't know the power of what he was dealing with. He underestimated it and thought he could fool God with the pageantry. Incidentally, when Dietrich shows his distaste for the "Jewish ceremony'', I laughed out loud.
 

Burke

New member
WillKill4Food said:
Because Belloq didn't know the power of what he was dealing with. He underestimated it and thought he could fool God with the pageantry. Incidentally, when Dietrich shows his distaste for the "Jewish ceremony'', I laughed out loud.

Perhaps, but it did work, if only because God allowed it to in order to punish the impudence of Belloq and the Nazis.

:D
 

WillKill4Food

New member
Burke said:
Perhaps, but it did work, if only because God allowed it to in order to punish the impudence of Belloq and the Nazis.
Well, actually, I think that originally there was a subplot that the Ark was supposed to be fatal to the touch, but it was deleted. Remember the line "Look it's a warning not to disturb the Ark!" and then he skips to the part about the height, leaving the warning out. I read this at TheRaider.net, I believe.
 

The Drifter

New member
WillKill4Food said:
Well, actually, I think that originally there was a subplot that the Ark was supposed to be fatal to the touch, but it was deleted. Remember the line "Look it's a warning not to disturb the Ark!" and then he skips to the part about the height, leaving the warning out. I read this at TheRaider.net, I believe.


It would have been more in tune to what's in the Old Testement.
 
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