The Ark of the Old Covenant & The Ark of the New Covenant (the Deipara)

[Antonius_Lupus]

According to the written Word of God (cf. 2 Maccabees 2:4-8), the Holy Prophet, Jeremiah, hid the ark of the old covenant in Mt. Nebo shortly before the Babylonian Conquest. He stated further that it would not be revealed until God’s People are brought together again. My question: is this account a historical fact or a story by the sacred writer? If it is a historical account, then how does this reconcile with the fact that the Virgin Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant? Thoughts?

 

[Spencerian]

According to the written Word of God (cf. 2 Maccabees 2:4-8), the Holy Prophet, Jeremiah, hid the ark of the old covenant in Mt. Nebo shortly before the Babylonian Conquest. He stated further that it would not be revealed until God’s People are brought together again. My question: is this account a historical fact or a story by the sacred writer? If it is a historical account, then how does this reconcile with the fact that the Virgin Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant? Thoughts?

Answer: These are two different Arks and two different Covenants.

The Ark of the Old Covenant was believed to have carried the tablets of the Ten Commandments written by the Lord, as well as Aaron’s rod and a jar of manna. It was used by the Israelites in times of travel and as a very potent weapon of war.

The Ark of the New Covenant is the Blessed Virgin Mary. She carried the Word of God as well–the Christ. Her image often decorates our churches and homes as a sign of peace, rather than war.

Many groups today have claimed that they are the keepers of the Ark of the Old Covenant. None of them care to prove their claims. There appears to be no credible extra-biblical information on the Ark or its whereabouts.

But there were many witnesses to the existence of Mary and her son.

That doesn’t mean that the original Ark doesn’t exist. You may want to read this old thread that discussed the Ark’s composition and possible locations for some insight.

 

[TimothyH]

Answer: These are two different Arks and two different Covenants.

Correct. The Ark of the Old Covenant is a forshadowing of Mary. Mary is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prefigurment. But they are two and distinct. One did not morph or change into the other.

My thougts are that the Ark of the Old covenant has passed away, along with the convenant it contained. The new and more perfect convenant will not pass away and so the Ark of that covenant, Mary, has been assumed into Heaven.

-Tim-

 

[patrick457]

According to the written Word of God (cf. 2 Maccabees 2:4-8), the Holy Prophet, Jeremiah, hid the ark of the old covenant in Mt. Nebo shortly before the Babylonian Conquest. He stated further that it would not be revealed until God’s People are brought together again. My question: is this account a historical fact or a story by the sacred writer? If it is a historical account, then how does this reconcile with the fact that the Virgin Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant? Thoughts?

The story recorded in 2 Maccabees occurs in a second-hand reference dating a few centuries after Jeremiah lived (a long private letter merely tacked on to the main body of the book, an abridgement of a Jason of Cyrene’s five-volume work; 1:10-2:18), where it is attributed ambiguously to “the records”. The legend is somewhat suspicious since has an agenda: it so openly addresses a point which so concerned people at the time the letter was penned - that the new Temple is somehow less holy compared to the old one or probably even illegitimate in the absence of sacred furnishings that were present in the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple such as the Ark and the Altar.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

According to the written Word of God (cf. 2 Maccabees 2:4-8), the Holy Prophet, Jeremiah, hid the ark of the old covenant in Mt. Nebo shortly before the Babylonian Conquest. He stated further that it would not be revealed until God’s People are brought together again. My question: is this account a historical fact or a story by the sacred writer? If it is a historical account, then how does this reconcile with the fact that the Virgin Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant? Thoughts?

Technically, in this particular case 2 Maccabees seems to only definitively assert that this story is recorded somewhere else. One could claim that it implies that the story is historically true, or question why it would have been written if it were not historically true, but the fact that it literally is only asserting that this is what “you will find in the records” seems to perhaps give some wiggle-room about the accuracy of the account.

 

[centurionguard]

Answer: These are two different Arks and two different Covenants.

The Ark of the Old Covenant was believed to have carried the tablets of the Ten Commandments written by the Lord, as well as Aaron’s rod and a jar of manna. It was used by the Israelites in times of travel and as a very potent weapon of war.

The Ark of the New Covenant is the Blessed Virgin Mary. She carried the Word of God as well–the Christ. Her image often decorates our churches and homes as a sign of peace, rather than war.

Many groups today have claimed that they are the keepers of the Ark of the Old Covenant. None of them care to prove their claims. There appears to be no credible extra-biblical information on the Ark or its whereabouts.

But there were many witnesses to the existence of Mary and her son.

That doesn’t mean that the original Ark doesn’t exist. You may want to read this old thread that discussed the Ark’s composition and possible locations for some insight.

IMHO The Ark of the Covenant is in God’s safe keeping until an appointed time in future human history.

I also like this explanation here: newadvent.org/cathen/01721a.htm

Where is it now?
Jeremias

As to what became of the Ark at the fall of Jerusalem, in 587 B.C., there exist several traditions, one of which has found admittance in the sacred books. In a letter of the Jews of Jerusalem to them that were in Egypt, the following details are given as copied from a writing of Jeremias:

The prophet, being warned by God, commanded that the tabernacle and the ark should accompany him, till he came forth to the mountain where Moses went up and saw the inheritance of God. And when Jeremias came thither he found a hollow cave and he carried in thither the tabernacle and the ark and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door. Then some of them that followed him, came up to mark the place; but they could not find it. And when Jeremias perceived it, he blamed them saying: the place shall be unknown, till God gather together the congregation of the people and receive them to mercy. And then the Lord will shew these things, and the majesty of the Lord shall appear, and there shall be a cloud as it was also shewed to Moses, and he shewed it when Solomon prayed that the place might be sanctified to the great God. (2 Maccabees 2:4-8)

According to many commentators, the letter from which the above-cited lines are supposed to have been copied cannot be regarded as possessing Divine authority; for, as a rule, a citation remains in the Bible what it was outside of the inspired writing; the impossibility of dating the original document makes it very difficult to pass a judgment on its historical reliability. At any rate the tradition which it embodies, going back at least as far as two centuries before the Christian era, cannot be discarded on mere a priori arguments.

Though the following link below is most probably based on conjecture, the last quest I heard about the whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant was in a well researched documentary last year 2010. sacred-destinations.com/ethiopia/axum-ark-of-covenant

However; I still believe much that is written in the above website link is still up in the air much less still based on conjecture.

 

[PJM]

=Antonius Lupus;8336692]According to the written Word of God (cf. 2 Maccabees 2:4-8), the Holy Prophet, Jeremiah, hid the ark of the old covenant in Mt. Nebo shortly before the Babylonian Conquest. He stated further that it would not be revealed until God’s People are brought together again. My question: is this account a historical fact or a story by the sacred writer? If it is a historical account, then how does this reconcile with the fact that the Virgin Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant? Thoughts?

Jer.31: 31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,”

Luke.22: 20 “And likewise the cup after supper, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood”

2Cor.3: 6 “who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life“.

Heb.8: 8, 13 ” For he finds fault with them when he says: "The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;*** In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” ***

Heb.9: 5 “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant“.

Heb.12” 24 “and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.”

As a Prophet he speaking of the comming of Christ [The Messiah]. The 'comming togeather" referes to the New Covenant [in Christ OWN Blood /Catholic Holy Communion] and the new One God, One set of Faith beliefs [not expaned, explianed and given to the care of Christ RCC], and only ONE Church. Today’s catholic Church.

Jesus is God; Mary IS THE MOTHER of Jesus = Mary is the Mother of God and can accurately and correctly be describes as the “Mother of the New Covenant” WHICH MUST be Christ Himself, it that it is "in HIS own Blood."

God Bless you,
Pat

 

[Antonius_Lupus]

The story recorded in 2 Maccabees occurs in a second-hand reference dating a few centuries after Jeremiah lived (a long private letter merely tacked on to the main body of the book, an abridgement of a Jason of Cyrene’s five-volume work; 1:10-2:18), where it is attributed ambiguously to “the records”. The legend is somewhat suspicious since has an agenda: it so openly addresses a point which so concerned people at the time the letter was penned - that the new Temple is somehow less holy compared to the old one or probably even illegitimate in the absence of sacred furnishings that were present in the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple such as the Ark and the Altar.

So it’s probably not a historical account then?

 

[JonathonofOhio]

“And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail. And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered. And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns: and on his head seven diadems: And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered, he might devour her son. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne.”

Mary is the New Ark of the Covenant. The first Ark contained the Word of God written in stone, the new Ark contained the Word of God in flesh. One was of nonliving materials, and the other was made of living flesh. Here in Rev 11 and 12 John says he saw the Ark in Heaven and then starts to describe a woman. That woman is Mary, who has been revealed as being the Ark to the people of God who Jesus, the Shepard has brought together. Therefore, the prophecy of Jeremiah has been fulfilled, because Jesus brought God’s people together and Mary is the Ark of the Covenant, the Living Ark and eternal Ark, made by God’s hand.