A biblical tale

As a child at school one learned of the tales in the Hebrew bible . In the story of Moses maybe more fact that fiction .Having walked across the same Red Sea as he and saw the sea bed risen as almost a walk way under my feet on low tide . I saw a man such as Moses a crafty leader of Jewish slaves to escape the wrath of his great Egyptian master .

Moses was of Jewish descent born on the tide of the Nile river and found by Royal children floating in a woven basket . I am not really concerned with the story other than Moses day alone up a mountain. Did God really give him 10 laws? Perhaps not but he wrote 10 rules and came down with the tale.

This starts my story.

10 laws he wrote and was said to be laws from God set in stone. It did not mean he carved each letter into rock tablets .It meant in all detail he made them forever to be adhered to.

Now a box was made said my friend Simion who worked then in the 70s in Jerusalem museum across from the orchards called the gardens of Jesus capture .

I visited twice the so called holy land and agree that he was right.Simion told me that in bible it says a box on acacia wood was made to hold the scroll of 10 commandments . Now that makes more sense. It was to be carried by camel saddles across the deserts to each camp the Arab stopped . Jews lived same way. So the box had to be made of light wood and was thus thrown about and often repaired .Even replaced as all else wears out. The word for this box was same as cupboard in Hebrew so scribes later came up with the word Arc to help describe it.

It was covered with gold is a rash guess as who had the means to do this then. Acacia wood wrapped in gold no one would do that.

When Romans tore through the treasure found under the temple of Herod it was paraded through Rome and sold as soon as it parade was over.The funds helped build the Roman Coliseum and the party after opening. All items taken from Jerusalem are listed in stone on Romes walls and columns. Not a mention of this so called Arc of the Covenant is mentioned or depicted.

Being so holy one would think it would be included in the treasure haul. To say it vanished is rather a guess too far from the reality of facts related .Do the monks in Addis Ababa who say they have the arc and 10 commandments but cannot show it to anyone is another way of saying we do not have it. A rotten worm holed acacia wood box and a vellum scroll with magical powers is a fairy story I would say.

In the old Museum of Jerusalem there was a display of many types of camel saddle box and the scroll of Moses came to be in a box of type on a camel saddle . How else was it carried down to that flat lands of Palestine any other way?

Would a record of it say it was made on Acacia wood if it was not? Think of it rather like balsa wood thin easy worked and glued to make planes when we had fun as kids painting them as fighter world war two aircraft . Would any one waste gold on a box made of it? Was it remade ? If so the Bible is mute on the subject

Family of camels near pyramids of Giza in desert, Egypt

It is like the hunt for the grail and other silly waste of time as Monty Python cast told us in spoof movies of pure comedy .Yet many will search in vane forever looking for that glint of gold that will make their fortune.

My surprise is that so many who have studied history have fallen under the spell of wandering off the pages into the realms of fantasy. If one reads facts and stop imagination or putting words into dead peoples mouths which is work of the none historian who twists the truth into ways that suit the writers pockets. .Trouble is people will believe any thing they are told if its is said in a movie or book by one famous as a writer. When one spent years to gain degree in history it comes as a shock when some can change a record of past to make their own version to what was said or done.

Thank you all for your time I am grateful of your support my friends. God be with us all.

copyright Kevin Parr Bt 2022

Advertisement