‘You seem almost to be implying that finding the Ark is a possibility,’ I said.
‘Perhaps I am. Well, you know, theoretically,’ he murmured, smiling in a conspiratorial way. ‘As you know, serious scholars don’t pay much attention to it. It is rather a topic for a certain kind of adventurer. Along the lines of the film, that popular American confection, Raiders of the Lost Ark.’ Again he pursed his lips.
‘But perhaps, briefly, we could put our scholarly reservations to one side and for a moment enjoy a bit of speculation.’ He sat back in his chair and smiled, not unkindly.
Rabin’s main argument for the possible continued existence of the Ark was that it would never have been allowed to fall into enemy hands. The priests would have removed it long before a besieging army was knocking at the gates of Jerusalem. Both in 587 BC, when the Babylonians took Jerusalem, and in AD 70, when the Romans destroyed the city, there was adequate warning before the city eventually fell.
‘In those days,’ he said, ‘armies travelled slowly and noisily. And in any case, before the Roman attack there were horrifying warnings and portents: the most prescient being that a swordshaped star hung over the Temple, which it did in a way in the form of a Roman sword - the gladius.’
‘So you think it would have been taken?’
‘Yes, no doubt. They would never have just left it in the Temple to be defiled by the enemy.’
‘Who do you think could have removed it?’
‘Certainly priests. A possible line would be to follow the trace of the priests. If they left a trace.’
Rabin took a sip of his tea and looked out onto the busy street. He reflected for a moment and said, ‘It could be that the prophet Jeremiah, who was of a priestly family, had it taken out just before the Babylonians came, as later Jewish tradition suggests. After Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 587,’ he continued, raising his hand to attract the waiter, ‘we hear nothing more of the Ark. If it was hidden somewhere, it was probably hidden just before the destruction of the city. Alternatively, possibly some time before. But probably not later.’
Rabin seemed to pause for breath and briefly regarded his gnarled hands. Then, thoughtfully, he continued. ‘No Jew would ever have destroyed the Ark, and if the Egyptians or Babylonians or Romans had destroyed it or stolen it or taken it away, there would be a record of it. They would have boasted about it. For the Jews it would have been the greatest possible national disaster - a calamity even greater than the destruction of the Temple - and they would have chronicled it and would still be writing about it and lamenting it! How we Jews love to lament! We have a whole three-week period of lamentation from the 17th of Tammuz to the 9th of Av - but there are plenty of other days of lamentation throughout the year. However, we have no festival of lamentation for the Ark. Instead, history provides us with total silence.’
I felt embarrassed about asking the next question. How could anyone really have any idea at all where it was after so much time? But I asked it anyway.
‘Mmm…’ he replied, smiling enigmatically and rubbing his hands together. ‘Somewhere in the Middle East or Africa, I suppose. There is some outside chance it was taken to Egypt in the ninth century BC by a certain Pharaoh who is called Shishak in the Bible. Or it could have been taken later. And if it were hidden somewhere in Egypt there is some chance it might have survived because of the hot, dry conditions. However, if you want further precision there are a number of serious possibilities. Even one or two, well, let us call them clues.’
In spite of himself, I could see that Rabin was enjoying the conversation. Over my protests, he paid for our tea, took my elbow in a firm grip, and ushered me across the bustling Rehavia street to the apartment where he lived.
In his book-lined study, he took out a dusty volume from a shabby wooden cupboard. ‘You know the Hebrew word for cupboard?’
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘Aron.’
‘That’s right. Aron means chest or cupboard, anything that stores things. It is a very simple word, nothing very fancy or spiritual about it. It is the same word we use for the Ark - aron ha-brit - Chest of the Covenant. In English, “Ark” - which ultimately comes from the Latin arca - sounds, how would one say it, rather romantic or mysterious, does it not? In Hebrew it’s just a good old word for “chest” or, even more prosaically, “box”.’
‘Could it have any other meaning?’ I asked. ‘Is it connected with cognate words in other Semitic languages?’ As I asked the question the word ngoma flitted briefly through my mind but I dismissed it instantly. There was no connection between Semitic languages and Bantu languages that I knew of.
‘The cognate word means coffin in Phoenician and second millennium Akkadian, and could be a wooden box in first millennium Akkadian if I remember correctly.’
‘The meaning “coffin” seems a long way from the dwelling place of the living God,’ I remarked. ‘On the face of it, it even seems a little absurd.’
‘I don’t know,’ he said, wrinkling his nose, in the charming way he had. ‘No I think we can be fairly sure that in the classical Hebrew of the Jewish Scriptures the word means what it appears to mean, which is to say, well, yes, something like coffin - it does actually and literally mean coffin once or twice in the Bible - but more generally box or chest. Now where could that good old box be? What clues do we have?’ he asked with a boyish smile.
He told me that in the writing of the Jewish Sages and even in the Bible there were a number of clues as to the Ark’s whereabouts. In early rabbinic works, for instance, it was thought that King Josiah, who came to the throne of Israel in around 639 BC - the precise date is debatable - hid it somewhere in the Temple under the instructions of the Prophetess Huldah. This was probably the standard Jewish belief over time. The Sages wrote that the Ark was hidden ‘in its place’. This presumably meant somewhere in the Temple. Specifically it is suggested that it was buried under the floor of the part of the Temple where the wood used for sacrificial fires was stored.
‘Putting aside political problems, is the Temple where you would search if you were looking for it?’
‘If I were looking for it, I would always start with texts. That’s what I always advise my students: Go to the text. There’s more to be found in dusty old tomes than people imagine. In this case, I think, the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls could provide us with some enlightenment.’
The story of the discovery of these remarkable documents started on a rugged Palestinian hillside in 1947, as the violent conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine grew out of control and the British, who had governed Palestine for the previous twenty years, were preparing to pack their bags for good. A lean, unkempt Bedouin goatherd was searching the rocky hills along the Dead Sea for a lost goat. He threw a stone into a cave. Instead of the bleating of a frightened animal, he heard the unmistakable sound of breaking pottery.
Further investigation revealed a number of terracotta jars filled with manuscripts. Seven of these manuscripts were sold to a Jerusalem antique dealer and cobbler called Kando, who in turn - and at some profit - sold them to clients in the Holy City: three to a scholar at the Hebrew University and four to the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Monastery of St Mark.
Between 1947 and 1956, a total of more than 800 manuscripts or parts of manuscripts were found in 11 different caves.
Once the press found out about them, the scrolls became a sensation. What would they reveal about the origins of Christianity, the person of Jesus and the authenticity of the Bible? Scholars soon established a collective view that the Jewish Essene sect, which lived in this desolate place but about which very little was known, had hidden the scrolls as the Roman army was advancing towards them in search of Jews involved in the First Jewish Revolt (AD 66-70) against the Empire.
One of the most remarkable finds was the Copper Scroll. Discovered in the third of the Qumran caves to yield its treasures, this scroll records