Did the Ark of the Covenant house pagan gods?

ARCHAEOLOGISTS SPOIL EVERYTHING: The Real Ark of the Covenant May Have Housed Pagan Gods. The holy ark was likely kept in Jerusalem for much less time than the Bible tells us. And it may have contained something other than the Ten Commandments (Ariel David, Haaretz).

The last time the Ark of the Covenant was supposedly seen was in Jerusalem, some 2,600 years ago.

Now archaeologists are exploring the ancient town of Kiriath Jearim, where the Bible says the ark was kept for 20 years before being taken to Jerusalem. Even if the excavators don’t expect to find the ark itself, and they don't, they have made discoveries that shed new light on the history of the ancient Israelites and the birth of Judaism itself. Their finds also support theories that King David may not have been the one who moved the ark to Jerusalem.

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Seriously, there is some very interesting work going on at Kiriath Jearim. But any connection between it and the real Ark of the Covenant (assuming there was such a thing) relies on a great deal of inference and imagination. Still, inference and imagination are most of what we have for the Ark, so we may as well put then to good use.

For many past PaleoJudaica posts involving the Ark of the Covenant, both "real" and imagined, start here and here and just keep following the links.

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