Monday, October 06, 2025

On the readers of the lost ark

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Imagining the Ark of the Covenant, From Exodus to Indiana Jones ( Kevin McGeough).
For two thousand years, there has been a rich interpretive history of the Ark of the Covenant. In my new book Readers of the Lost Ark: Imagining the Ark of the Covenant from Ancient Times to the Present, I explore how different communities have been inspired to think about the Ark and create new meaning for it within different contexts. While there has been a diversity of readings of the Ark, it is its presentation in the Bible that seems to remain central. That presentation is one in which the physical description of the Ark is offered in detail and most biblical interpreters agree, roughly, as to what the Ark looked like.

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I noted the publication of the book here. For a great many PaleoJudaica posts on the Ark of the Covenent, follow the links from there. For posts on the medieval Ethiopian national epic, the Kebra Negast, see here and here and follow the links.

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