"TELL ME" SHE BEGGED
Kirsty was bubbling. "I only just heard!" she exclaimed."But
I'm told you already know about this."
She crashed onto a chair and looked me straight in the eye.
"Well, what do you know about them - about those six Israelis
dressed as Levitical priests who tried to get into the chamber?"
I just looked at her. But she was not going to let go. "You've
got to tell me," she pressed. "You know, the chamber that
contains the Ark... the Ark of the Covenant. Well... what
happened to them? Were they rabbis?"
I paused for a few moments, studying her wide eyes, and wondering
how much should be revealed.
"We don’t know if they were rabbis or not," I replied. "However,
we were in Jerusalem at the time. And we had direct inter-action
with one person involved.
"The Ark of the Covenant is calculated to be 370 feet north of the
old city wall of Jerusalem - which would locate it in occupied Arab
territory.
"As you may be aware, the late Yasser Arafat had every intention
of getting Jerusalem back, including this area. And the U.N. and
the United States seemed to be intent on forcing Israel to
accept that situation.
Well, it seems the Israeli authorities wanted to move the Ark of
the Covenant out of occupied territory, into their own territory.
So, reportedly, they allowed or arranged for six men, who were
dressed in the ancient Levitical garb, to go in and move the Ark."
YOU DON'T ASK TOO MANY QUESTIONS
This is a rather sensitive issue, I explained to Kirsty.
In fact, in matters like this you don't ask too many questions.
One learns from experience that it's best not to get too nosey.
To put you, as well as Kirsty, in the picture, my wife Josephine
and I had arranged to meet our archaeologist friend Ron in
Jerusalem.
However, on this occasion he was delayed in Nashville, Tennesseee,
due to a minor operation. Our schedule demanded that we fly out
before he arrived.
On visits to Israel, Ron has quite often stopped by the
Antiquities office and asked if there was anything he could help
them with.
He had some electronic equipment and some experience using it,
so our team was able to help find things that they sometimes had
problems locating.
With electronics, one can, for example, see if there is something
in a cave, before going to the bother of opening it. So the
Antiquities guys have had the team do some of this.
On this particular occasion they just said, “Well, yes, we do
have a problem you can help us with.”
So that night Ron was to meet them down at Zedekiah’s Cave.
They went in. Once inside the cave, at the entrance to the tunnel
that goes north, they stopped.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM?
The Antiquities men announced: “Six men went down this tunnel to
move the Ark to a safer place. And they didn’t come out. Would you
go see what happened to them?”
Well, the Israelis are not cowards, by any stretch of the
imagination.
As it was, the six missing men who entered the tunnel had
walkie-talkies (two-way radios). Undoubtedly they were in contact
with others at the entrance to the tunnel.
We can only surmise that they must have made some horrifying
noises as they died. Otherwise some people would have gone in to
see what happened to them. Nobody would go in.
Well, when Ron went in, there were the six men, all dead.
From the beginning of the tunnel in Zedekiah’s Cave to the
actual chamber containing the Ark of the Covenant is an estimated
370 feet (about 114 meters).
The six men had progressed approximately 70 feet (21 meters)
along the tunnel when they died. All of them died of stroke.
In my subsequent investigation of the event, I was informed that
every one of them was found with both eyes crossed – which a
medical doctor assured me was evidence of a bilateral stroke (
a stroke occurring on both sides of the body).
This allegedly befell all six of them.
Anyway, when Ron saw what had happened, he went back out and told
the Antiquities guys.
They had brought along some rescue baskets made of light-weight
alloy, with ropes tied to them, in case Ron was able to go in.
So he took a basket, and picked up the bodies one at a time, and
put them in the basket, holding it upright, as the men at the
tunnel entrance pulled the basket out.
When they got one to the entrance of the tunnel, Ron took another
one, then went back and did another, until they got all six of the
bodies out.
Ron didn’t ask what they did with them. He didn’t ask anything. He
was asked not to say anything.
But this did appear in a couple of newspapers – that there had been
six Israelis who had died in an effort to retrieve a national
artefact.
Because it was in the papers, some folk have asked if we knew
about it. The answer, of course, is yes. For this reason I have
shared the above information.
This incident may remind you of some Old Testament accounts in
which unauthorised men who approached, touched or looked into
the Ark dropped dead.
So apparently, nothing has changed. The Ark remains a very sacred
object. And if you ask me, it will remain where it is and no one
will move it.
WALKING ON A KNIFE EDGE
Of course, as you are aware, Israel today is on tenterhooks. The
government is nervous. It does not want war. Neither do most of
the people, whether Israeli or Arab.
But it is against this background that we must view the current
official attitude toward the reported Ark of the Covenant
discovery. You won't get them to admit much.
Whatever way you view it, that ancient golden chest from Solomon's
Temple is potentially the most explosive object on earth…
archaeologically, politically and religiously.
The barrier of silence should not surprise us. In virtually every
country, official denials of numerous matters are standard
procedure. And in such cases, almost all personnel even in the
department concerned are kept in the dark.
CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE
A classic example of the denials policy in action was seen in
April, 1995, after Channel 7 radio in Israel broke the news
that Foreign Minister Shimon Peres had met with the Pope with
a proposal to place the Old City of Jerusalem under Vatican
control.
Israel's ambassador in Rome, Shmuel Hadas, and Peres himself,
denied such a plan.
However, a copy of a telegram sent by Miriam Ziv to the Foreign
Ministry in Jerusalem, outlining Peres' planes, surfaced and
was printed in the "Hatzofe" newspaper.
Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir told the "Jewish Press"
that:
"This is similar to Peres' denial that there was ever a letter
with promises to Arafat about Jerusalem and later the letter
surfaced. Now this telegram was revealed. Who knows what else
they are concealing from the public?" (Issue of April 14-20,
1995)
IT'S TIME TO SPEAK UP
Anyway, Ronnie, something has to be told. So, after much
consideration, I'm about to rip apart a curtain of silence about
the Ark.
Yes, yes... I know. The Ark's been reported in Ethiopia...
in Jordan... in Egypt... and a dozen other places.
Indeed, there have to be replicas. But originals? There can be
only one. And that's what we're talking about.
You won't want to miss this incredible true story.
Here are revealed the down-to-earth inside secrets about a lost
treasure... a dangerous search... and an almost unbelievable
discovery claim.
And yet, when you face all the strands of evidence, what else
could it be?
I'll take you along a trail of archaeological surprises, through
forgotten history and right up until now.
Why did an Israeli ex-Secret service agent say to me, "you have
just filled in the missing gaps in what I already knew"?
What sinister secret associated with the Ark is being covered
up?
