CHAPTER FOUR

A FEARSOME WEAPON

The Ark of the Cov
enant was the thing that brought me out of mainstream
journalism. I thought, “What could this thing be?”

—Graham Hancock

The Ark of the Covenant must be thought of as two or even three separate things. First of all it is a box with a cavity in the middle of it that can contain a medium-sized object, such as an electrical device of some kind. Secondly, the “Ark” can be that object inside of the box, something powerful and destructive. Thirdly, there is the Mercy Seat and Shekinah Glory that rest between the golden statues of two angels facing each other on a slab of gold, which is also the lid of the box. All three of these things have their function but each is separate from the other. There is a further description of the Ark as a flying vehicle, which seems to be something completely different again.

The other famous “ark” of the Bible is Noah’s ark, which was a gigantic ship with a closed top and many levels or decks to accommodate people, animals and supplies. This ark is a different kind of wooden box, in this case a very large vessel in which to ride out the catastrophic biblical flood.

Normally an ark was a chest of wood and metal that held a statue of a god, or other sacred objects, and was carried by four to six men in front of a marching army. The Egyptian army was well known to have an ark containing a statue of the god Amun which was carried in front a troop of Egyptian soldiers to the many forts at the edges of the Egyptian realm.

One such fort was the military garrison of Megiddo in northern Israel. This fortress, while physically in Israel, was manned by Egyptian soldiers for hundreds of years because of the special relationship between the two countries. This arrangement would be similar to joint military bases today, such as the NATO bases in Turkey.

So, typically an ark was a chest that contained an important object. What object did the Ark of the Covenant contain? A similar wood and metal box was discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. This chest is described as his hunting chest and is decorated with scenes of the young king hunting from a chariot. The lid is not hinged and simply lifts off. This chest apparently contained about a dozen boomerangs. The chest and boomerangs are on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It is a known fact, though little-discussed, that ancient Egyptians hunted with boomerangs that are identical to those used by Australian Aboriginals.

Exodus describes the Ark of the Covenant as a vehicle for Yahweh to communicate with Moses. As a vehicle for Yaweh, we know this about the Ark of the Covenant:

1.Yahweh is a talking cloud of energy on Mount Sinai.

2.Yahweh is also a cloud of energy between the golden angels on the Ark lid.

3.Moses (and others) can hear this cloud talk to him.

4.This cloud of energy can light up the room.

5.This cloud of energy can zap people with energy and cause skin problems.

6.This cloud of energy can zap people and kill them.

7.The Ark can levitate and fly through the air.

8.The Ark can part rivers and make thick city walls fall down.

9.The Ark is the power and will of Yaweh, the Lord.

Given the construction of the Ark, layered with gold and carried on gilded poles, it is possible that it could act as a simple electrical capacitor that would, over time, generate static electricity and focus it in a ball of light similar to St. Elmo’s fire in the central gold dish area between the two golden cherubim statues. As we are about to see, the Ark has more powers than a normal electrical capacitor. Remember, gold is a very good conductor of electricity. A soft metallic element, gold is indestructible and all gold from ancient times still exists today. It will not rust or oxidize like most other metals. However, gold is too soft to make machines with moving parts but is used instead for the highest quality electrical devices.

As for the voice of Yahweh coming through the Ark, we might theorize that some sort of radio or cell phone transmission was being received, and this was therefore part of the electrical device carried inside the chest. On the other hand, the supposed communication between Moses and Yahweh through the Ark may well have been fabricated by Moses to impose the will of “YHWH” on the great host of the Israelites, a de facto army marching around the Sinai and northwestern Arabia for decades. It would seem that the Ark was more of an energy device than a communication device, so we will focus on this aspect of the puzzle that is the Ark of the Covenant.

St. Elmo’s Fire and Ball Lightning

St. Elmo’s Fire is the phenomenon that occurs when ionized air, a plasma—or electrically charged gas—emits a coronal discharge or glow. We get a good definition of the electrical science behind St. Elmo’s fire from Wikipedia:

St. Elmo’s fire is a form of matter called plasma, which is also produced in stars, high temperature flame, and by lightning. The electric field around the object in question causes ionization of the air molecules, producing a faint glow easily visible in low-light conditions. Roughly 1000 volts per centimeter induces St. Elmo’s fire; the number depends greatly on the geometry of the object. Sharp points lower the required voltage because electric fields are more concentrated in areas of high curvature, so discharges are more intense at the ends of pointed objects.

Conditions that can generate St. Elmo’s fire are present during thunderstorms, when high voltage differentials are present between clouds and the ground underneath. Air molecules glow owing to the effects of such voltage, producing St. Elmo’s fire. The nitrogen and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere cause St. Elmo’s fire to fluoresce with blue or violet light; this is similar to the mechanism that causes neon lights to glow.

An old print of St. Elmo’s Fire emanating from a ship’s masts during a storm.

It was a phenomenon noticed primarily by sailors, and such figures as Columbus, Magellan, Caesar and Pliny the Elder wrote about St. Elmo’s Fire. Pliny the Elder documented in the first century AD the blue flames that appeared out of nowhere during or just after thunderstorms. Sailors attributed the glow to the patron saint of Mediterranean seamen, “St. Elmo,” a mispronunciation of St. Ermo or St. Erasmus. They were not afraid of the bluish glow and believed it was a sign of salvation from the saint, as the phenomenon typically occurred toward the end of a storm.

For St. Elmo’s Fire there need only be atmospheric conditions of a certain kind to generate the fire, but with the Ark of the Covenant there was another source of electrical buildup and that was the box itself with its sandwiched layers of conductor walls and nonconductor walls (the wood).

A similar, but more mysterious phenomenon is ball lightning. The scientific community can’t agree on what ball lightning is, but it’s definitely not St. Elmo’s Fire. Ball lightning can float around in the air, while St. Elmo’s Fire stays put, glowing around a ship’s mast, mountain peak, tower, etc.

An old print of ball ligntning coming through a window.

Ball lightning suddenly appearing and hitting a wall in South Africa, 1920.

Ball lightning is an as yet unexplained electrical atmospheric phenomenon. Because of the many reports of various-sized luminous, spherical balls coming inside of houses, like down a chimney or even through a window, this phenomenon began to be studied by scientists. Sometimes the ball just dissipates, while at other times the ball explodes—sometimes with fatal consequences. Reports often associate ball lightning with thunderstorms, however a flash of lightning lasts but a few seconds while ball lightning can go on for a considerable time.

Archivist William Corliss has a large section on ball lightning in his book Remarkable Luminous Phenomena in Nature.³² Among the chapters are: “Ordinary” Ball Lightning; Ball Lightning with Projections or Spikes; Ball Lightning with Divergent Rays; Rod-Shaped Ball Lightning; Double and Triple Ball Lightning; Miniature Ball Lightning; Giant Ball Lightning; Black Ball Lightning; Ball Lightning’s Electromagnetic Effects; Artificial Ball Lightning; Repeating Ball Lightning; and a dozen more. His book leaves no doubt that ball lightning is an extremely variable phenomenon. It is a relatively common but little-understood marvel that has piqued the interest of many top scientists.

A theoretical diagram of ball lightning by D.J. Turner.

In his book Ball Lightning Explanation Leading to Clean Energy,³⁴ Clint Seward proposes that ball lightning is a spinning plasma ring or toroid. He built a lab to produce lightning arcs and by modifying the conditions he produced small, bright, electrical balls that mimic ball lightning and persist in the atmosphere after the arc ends. By using a high speed camera he was able to show that the bright balls were spinning plasma toroids.

Seward published images of the results of his experiments, along with his method. Included is a report by a farmer of observing a ball lightning event forming in a kitchen, and the effects it caused as it moved around the kitchen. This is the only eyewitness account of ball lightning forming, then staying in one area, then ending, that the author had heard of.³⁴

Ball lightning witnessed as having a glowing ribbon tail. (Corliss)

American Tesla researchers James and Kenneth Corum produced and photographed a form of ball lightning using a Tesla coil that they had specially built. This Tesla coil produced intermodulation effects and spewed out electric fireballs that varied in diameter between the size of a ping pong ball and a tennis ball. These fireballs could also explode when hitting an object, producing a sudden shock.³⁴

Was the Ark of the Covenant a modified Tesla coil that spewed out deadly fireballs in every direction around the device? It is an interesting thought and it would explain why falling face-first onto the ground, as Moses and Aaron did, could save a person’s life, as the fireballs would be flying over their heads.

Another possible device would be a Van de Graaff generator that uses a moving belt to accumulate electric charge on a hollow metal globe on the top of an insulated column. This creates very high electric potentials and a visible spark can be seen to jump to other objects. Invented in 1929 by American physicist Robert Van de Graaff, the potential difference achieved in modern Van de Graaff generators can reach five megavolts.

Electric fireballs generated with a Tesla coil at the James & Kenneth Corum laboratory.

A simple Van de Graaff generator consists of a belt of silk, or a similar flexible dielectric material, running over two metal pulleys, one of which is surrounded by a hollow metal sphere. Two electrodes in the form of comb-shaped rows of sharp metal points, are positioned respectively near the bottom of the lower pulley and inside the sphere, over the upper pulley. As the belt passes in front of the lower comb, it receives a negative charge which escapes from the points that are now ionized. As the belt touches the lower roller, it transfers some electrons, leaving the roller with a negative charge.

Electrons then leak from the belt to the upper comb and to the terminal, leaving the belt positively charged as it returns down and the terminal negatively charged. The sphere accumulates charge at the outer surface until there is a an electrical discharge and a change of polarity of the belt. These generators do not have a high voltage but are easy to make and work surprising well.

Was a simple machine similar to a Tesla coil or Van de Graaff generator kept inside the box and used to send out showers of electric fireballs in every direction, causing panic and shocking deaths to those in the vicinity of the fearsome device? Many of the descriptions of the Ark in action sound a lot like this scenario. There are also the curious electrical devices depicted on temple walls in Egypt (to be discussed in the next chapter).

So the golden statue could have easily had a glowing St. Elmo’s Fire in its center dish, but this golden dish probably couldn’t shoot fireballs at people. This would be a separate device kept inside the box.

However, another device is indicated in the Bible and this device is something that flies through the air. It is described essentially as an airship with smoke and lights.

Death and Destruction Ark of the Covenant Style

After building the Ark Moses reminds the people of their covenant and shows them Yahweh himself who has become a pillar of fire guiding the people at night and a pillar of smoke (cloud) in the day. It is something like an airship with smoke and lights, which are either integral parts of the airship’s operation or perhaps for special effects.

When the Lord threatens to strike down the Israelites because they do not believe in him “despite all the signs I have performed in their midst,” Moses pleads for them, saying it has been well noticed what the Lord has done. According to Numbers 14:13-14:

But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people from their midst, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Yahweh art among this people, that thou Yahweh art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.”

Just before this (Numbers 12: 1-16) there is a drama over Moses’ Ethiopian wife, where Aaron’s wife Miriam (both Moses and Aaron had a number of wives) “speaks against her.” Then Yahweh comes down as a pillar of cloud to the tabernacle to set things straight (Numbers 12: 5-10):

And the Yahweh came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Yahweh will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Yahweh shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Yahweh was kindled against them; and he departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.

Aaron pleads with Moses to cure her and after speaking with Yahweh Moses says that she will be healed. Miriam goes into her tent for seven days and then emerges healed. The Israelites then left the spot where they had been camped, a place named Hazeroth, and moved into the wilderness of Paran.

Aaron’s family was further afflicted when his two eldest sons, born of his wife Elisheba, were consumed by fire emanating from the presence of the Lord. These sons, Nadab and Alihu, had been part of the select retinue who were allowed to climb Mount Sinai and have a feast in the presence of the Lord. They emerged unscathed from that, but were to eventually commit a fatal error.

In Leviticus 8, Aaron and his sons are ordained as the first priests. In a ceremony conducted by Moses following orders given him by Yahweh, Aaron is clothed in the full priestly regalia, including the breastplate containing the Urim and Thummim. The men are anointed with oil, perform sacrifices, are fed offerings and told to stay at the entrance to the tent of meeting for seven days and “…do what the Lord requires, so you will not die.”

On the eighth day, Aaron and his sons performed sacrifices, placing them on the altar. Says Leviticus 9:23-24:

Moses and Aaron then went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.

In the very next verses, Leviticus 10:1-4, we are told:

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said: ‘Among those who approach me I will be proved holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’”

This seems a little harsh. Two newly-minted priests go up in flames because they fail to take the fire to light their censers from the altar, and use “profane” fire instead. The religious take on this is that the priests were willful and presumptive in taking the step to light the censers at all, because Yahweh was commanding (in a very detailed way) what they should have been doing, and he hadn’t told them to do this yet. This “presence of the Lord” is not to be taken lightly!

The Lord may have felt bad about this incident, because Leviticus 16:1-2 reports:

The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.”

After these verses, the Lord sets out the rules for the Day of Atonement, which would involve Aaron going into the Holy of Holies only once per year.

It is hard to tell in these stories whether the presence of the Lord that is burning things up is always coming from the Mercy Seat of Ark of the Covenant. In fact, the presence seems to move about, showing itself to the people, marching ahead as a pillar of cloud, etc. It is odd that “strange fire,” as the old King James version of the Bible called it, would upset Yahweh so much that he could not control himself, killing innocents who were only trying to do his bidding and please him.

Did something in the incense burners, like the hot coals, react with the electrical device that was standing in the Ark and cause fire to come out and consume them? Perhaps it was just one of many discharges from the Ark that came from time to time; the Ark just happened to discharge at this time and Yahweh didn’t really care about strange fire from the incense. The perception at the time was that this was the obvious cause of the sudden fiery discharge from the Ark, when it was merely a coincidence. The Ark was clearly a powerful device and was not to be messed with.

Chapter 16 in the book of Numbers is chock full of danger and doom from the volatile forces of the Lord. Korah, a descendent of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, lead a revolt against Moses and Aaron, unhappy about the way things are going on the long and arduous trek to the Promised Land. They want to know why those two leaders should have all the decision-making power when the Lord is among the entire congregation, which is full of good people. Indeed, they bring 250 “princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown” with them to protest. Says Numbers 16:4-7:

And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face; and he spoke unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, “Even tomorrow the Lord will show who are His and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto Him. Even him whom He hath chosen will He cause to come near unto Him.

This do: Take you censers, Korah and all his company, and put fire therein and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow. And it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy. Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.”

Moses points out to the Levites that God had given them the honor of being the guardians of the tabernacle and ministers to the congregation, so they shouldn’t also covet the role of Aaron and the priesthood. He exhorts Dathan and Abiram to stand with him, but they are bitter about being taken from a land of milk and honey and made to wander in the wilderness. Angry, Moses tells the Lord not to honor any of their offerings, as he has never hurt any of them. Says Numbers 16:16-21:

And Moses said unto Korah, “Be thou and all thy company before the Lord, thou and they and Aaron, tomorrow. And take every man his censer and put incense in them, and bring ye before the Lord every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers, thou also and Aaron, each of you his censer.”

And they took every man his censer and put fire in them and laid incense thereon, and stood in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation with Moses and Aaron. And Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and the glory of Yahweh appeared unto all the congregation.

And Yahweh spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.”

Aaron and Moses prostrate themselves and entreat the Lord not to punish everyone for one man’s sins. So the Lord tells Moses to go tell the people to get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Moses, followed by the Elders, goes to their tents, where they meet him at the doors with their wives and children. Moses warns the others to get away and touch nothing of theirs, “lest ye be consumed in all their sins.” Many people clear the tents. Numbers 16:28-35 relates:

Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: If these men die a natural death and suffer the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the realm of the dead, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.”

As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!”

And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

The Lord then instructs Moses to have Aaron’s son extract the censers from the charred remains and scatter the coals away from camp. The censers are to be hammered into an overlay for the altar.

The next day, the whole congregation is upset, accusing Moses and Aaron of killing the Lord’s people. The end of Numbers 16 goes like this (verses 42 to 50):

But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the tent of meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the tent of meeting, and the Lord said to Moses, “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” And they fell facedown.

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started.” So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the tent of meeting, for the plague had stopped.

So here we have the Ark killing people with a sudden flash of light plus with the plague or some radiation sickness. The Bible also indicates that it caused an earthquake. We might think that this earthquake (if it ever happened at all) may just have been a coincidence and was probably a large exaggeration of the actual event—we just have no way of really knowing.

Still, it seems clear that there is some sort of energy machine in the box that can build up a powerful charge of electricity. That there is some hint of radiation coming from the device is indicated by Moses telling the people, “…and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.” Perhaps there was some harmful residue—like radiation—still lingering on their clothes and jewelry. While all of their property became taboo, only the things they were wearing at the time of their death really mattered.

There is also the curious incident of the creation of manna to feed the Israelites during a time of famine. This was credited to the Ark of the Covenant, and if the manna was created by the machine, this would make the device very multi-functional. It would have to have been some sort of super 3D printing device and at this point probably controlled by ancient aliens or some other ultra-high tech source.

In the Ancient Aliens television show it was suggested that this “Manna Machine” had atomic power and the ability to create manna and destroy people as well, depending on where you turned the dial, so to speak.

It seems unlikely that the high-tech device inside the Ark was using atomic power—but some sort of sophisticated battery? Yes. This battery was possibly being charged by the slow accumulation of static power by the condenser gold and wood box.

The Power of Yahweh and the Battle of Jericho

The Israelites continued through the deserts of Sinai and eastern Arabia (Midian) and at the end of the book of Deuteronomy we learn how Moses and his huge troop of men, women, children and animals arrived at Mount Pisgah on the east side of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. Most Bible historians think Mount Pisgah is a portion of the range of Abarim, and that Mount Nebo was the highest peak of Mount Pisgah; it was this that Moses climbed. Here he saw the Promised Land and the walled city of Jericho in the distance but he was not to cross over the Jordan. Says Deuteronomy 34:

Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over. Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses.

An old print of the destruction of Jericho.

Moses, at 120 years old, was now dead. Joshua was in control of the great host of Hebrews and he would need the power of the Ark to cross the River Jordan and then attack and destroy the ancient walled city of Jericho. In Joshua chapter 2 we are told how Joshua sent spies across the Jordan to Jericho to check on the defenses of the city. They are given the name of a prostitute named Rahab who shelters them. In a sense, she runs an inn and brothel in Jericho, and probably knows that the Israelites desired to destroy the city and kill everyone, but she doesn’t seem to care. She tells the spies that everyone in the neighborhood is afraid of the great host of Israel— literally a gigantic army—on the eastern side of the Jordan.

In Joshua 3 we are told how the Ark of the Covenant is capable of parting the waters of the Jordan River which are at flood stage:

Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from a place called Shittim and went to the Jordan River, where they camped for some days before crossing over. After three days the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between you and the ark; do not go near it.” Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.

And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”

…Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”

So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah [Dead Sea] was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

Having now crossed the Jordan, we learn in Joshua 4 that Yahweh supposedly instructs Joshua to have one man from each of the 12 tribes collect a stone each from the dry riverbed and bring it to the camp as a sign of the power of God. At the end of Joshua 4 the new leader commands the priests to come out of the Jordan with the Ark, and when they do so the water rushes back and the normal flow of the river is restored. The Israelites camp at a place called Gilgal on the eastern border of the land of Jericho.

In the next chapter, Joshua 5, we learn that Amorite kings on the western side of the Jordan and the Canaanite kings on the coast hear about this event and they no longer have the courage to fight the Israelites and are afraid of them. They have essentially given up Jericho to the Israelites. The Israelites camp at Gilgal for some time and observe Passover. Also, since the Israelites had left Egypt they had not performed circumcision on the young men, so these men are all circumcised and remain in the camp. Circumcision was a common practice in ancient Egypt and one of Yahweh’s commands.

Then at the end of Joshua 5 a strange encounter takes place between Joshua and a man with a sword in the vicinity of Jericho. The encounter carries on into Joshua 6. In Joshua 5:13-15 we are told:

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Who is this strange man, some kind of angel, such as those described in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, who is waiting for Joshua on the outskirts of Jericho? Then we are told that the city of Jericho has simply sealed itself up and locked its gates because of the huge army of Israelites camped nearby:

Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.” (Joshua 6:1-5)

Joshua takes the advice of the man with the sword—the Lord (Yahweh) he is called later—and instructs his army to do as the man has told him. Says Joshua 6:11-21:

So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there. Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army,

“Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”

When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

After the destruction of Jericho, Joshua had the remains of the city burned and cursed any man who would rebuild the city that he would do so at the cost of his firstborn son. Large ruins of the outer walls still exist today. It was once thought to have been the oldest city in the world.

The destruction of Jericho is a famous story from Bible, yet it is not really clear just how the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. The Ark seems to have something to do with it, and the blowing of the trumpets and shouting give the impression of some sort of sonic weapon—a sound canon type device—that would shake the walls of Jericho like an earthquake and make them crumble. Indeed, it almost sounds like the destruction of the walls happened in an earthquake, perhaps one that was artificially created or was predicted to occur at a specific time.

An old print of the destruction of Jericho.

And who was the man with a sword, commander of the army of Yahweh, that Joshua met? He seemed to know something about the power of the Ark of the Covenant that Joshua did not know. Had he also assisted in some way in the destruction of the walls of Jericho? Perhaps he and his holy army had the sonic canons that needed to be used to breach the thick walls.

Indeed, was this mysterious man perhaps someone in possession of a vimana airship and various technology and weapons that a vimana might have? As I describe in my book Vimana: Flying Machines of the Ancients³⁷ ancient texts in India and elsewhere describe flying vehicles that are used by kings and princes to travel great distances and to wage war on their neighbors and enemies.

Might this mysterious stranger with advice on how to take a fortified city have been from ancient India, Tibet, or elsewhere and be in possession of some fairly sophisticated equipment, including an airship? Or similarly, perhaps he was some sort of ancient astronaut who wanted to guide the Israelites to victory, as ancient astronaut theorists would easily suggest.

It is quite possible that the marching and blowing of horns around the city of Jericho was a signal for a larger power, such as a vimana or two, to unleash a devastating sonic wave against the city walls that would cause portions of the walls to crack and break similar to a localized earthquake—this one artificially created by man, as the Bible states. These airships would not even have to have been in sight of the people, using long-range weapons to accomplish their objectives.

I conclude that the Ark was not completely responsible for the collapse of the walls of Jericho, but rather a second destructive energy source, more powerful than the energy machine inside the Ark, was used. That weapon was probably unleashed from some sort of airship, the same one that was guiding Moses and the Israelites through the desert and landing on Mount Sinai with a great deal of fire and light.

The Ark is Moved to Shiloh

After the destruction of Jericho, Joshua takes the Israelite host to a location called Shiloh in the hills west of Jericho. Though archeologists are not completely certain, Shiloh is thought to have been located near modern Khirbet Seilun in the West Bank. Shiloh became the first capital of Israel; here Joshua set up the ancient wilderness tent shrine called the tent of meeting, or tabernacle, and inside this enclosure Joshua divided the land among the 12 tribes.

The Holy of Holies was also set up at Shiloh and the Ark of the Covenant was placed inside it. Supposedly it remained in this enclosure for 369 years (“Talmudic sources” —Wikipedia) until it was taken into the battle camp at Eben-ezer when the Israelites went to war with the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:3–5).

Subsequently, Shiloh became one of the leading religious shrines in ancient Israel, a status it held until shortly before David’s elevation of Jerusalem.

After the defeat at the hands of the Philistines at Ai (to be discussed shortly), Joshua lamented before the Ark (Joshua 7:6-9). When Joshua read the Law to the people between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, they stood on each side of the Ark. The Ark was again set up by Joshua at Shiloh, but when the Israelites fought against Benjamin at Gibeah, they had the Ark with them and consulted it after their defeat.

Capture of the Ark and Mass Destruction

In the two books of Samuel we are told more tales of the fearsome power of the Ark. In 1 Samuel we learn that a childless woman, Hannah, vows to Yahweh that if she has a son, he will be dedicated to him and the Ark. Eli, the priest of the tabernacle at Shiloh, blesses her, and a child named Samuel is born. Samuel is dedicated to the Lord and becomes a servant of Eli at the tabernacle.

Samuel becomes the second-in-charge priest of the tabernacle, after Eli, who is custodian of the Ark. We are then told at the beginning of 1 Samuel 4 that the Israelites are going to war with the Philistines who live just north of Israel:

And Samuel’s word came to all Israel. Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.” So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. When the ark of the Lord’s covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook.

Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, “What’s all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?” When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid. “A god has come into the camp,” they said. “Oh no! Nothing like this has happened before. We’re doomed! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!” So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died. (1 Samuel 4:1-11)

The news of the capture of the Ark and the death of Eli’s sons is immediately taken to Shiloh by a messenger “with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head.” The old priest, Eli, falls off his chair and dies when he hears the news.

The Philistines take the Ark back to the temple of their god Dagon, who recognizes the supremacy of Yahweh. The Philistines are afflicted with plagues and decide to return the Ark to the Israelites. Says 1 Samuel 5:1-8:

After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.

The Lord’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors. When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god.” So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, “What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?”

At this point, another incident of mass destruction occurs when the Ark is returned to Israel on an oxcart. When it gets to the small village of Beth-shemesh it kills, by some sort of flash of energy, 70 of the village’s men. The bizarre story is told in 1 Samuel 6:1-16:

The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place.” They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.” And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?”

They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land. Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed? Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. And take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.”

The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh. Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it. The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacri-fices on that day to the Lord. And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.

But suddenly things go horribly wrong for the people in the village when the Ark of the Covenant lets loose a giant flash of energy that instantly kills a group of people gathered around it. 1 Samuel 6:17 begins:

These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone beside which they set down the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.

And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow. Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?” So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you.”

Since the Ark had discharged its energy in what might be called a gigantic friendly-fire action that decimated an entire platoon of Israelites, it was now safe to be handled. The Ark would now be taken to a place called Kiriath-jearim, apparently on the outskirts of Shiloh, where it would remain for twenty years without being shown. We learn in 1 Samuel 7:1:

And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the Lord. From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

This terrible destruction at Beth-shemesh seems to be the last time that the Ark of the Covenant kills a large number of people with “a great blow.” What is this great blow? This would be more than just the static accumulation of electricity on the lid of the Ark. The lid was probably lifted and perhaps a button pushed and whoosh! A sudden discharge of awesome power and 70 men were incinerated. Perhaps the whole event is grossly exaggerated in the Bible, but why include this tale if it were not largely true? The Ark is essentially killing innocent people and the Israelites clearly think of it as a dangerous object.

Essentially the people had lost control of the power of the Ark and it was allowed to go into disuse for decades at Kiriath-jearim-Shiloh until it was finally moved to Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. It was occasionally taken into battle, however the Bible does not speak of any more instances of the Ark itself killing anyone or discharging onto a crowd. The faint light in the center of the gold cherubim—the Shekina Glory—would have continued to function, since it needed no battery and had no moving parts.

An Electrical Device from Egypt?

As I have said, I think that the Ark of the Covenant is several objects written about as one object. There is a device kept inside the box and another device that is also electrical in nature—a simple electrical condenser.

The construction of the boxes of the Ark of the Covenant made it a simple electrical condenser, though an expensive one with all of the gold used in the powerful device. The three boxes that made up the Ark of the Covenant were a sandwiching of gold, a conducting metal, and acacia wood, a non-conductor. The chafing of these layers would build up static electricity in certain dry atmospheric conditions.

The golden statue at the top may have acted as a focus for this static DC electricity—similar to a powerful static electricity shock—that could have discharged at times onto people who were standing near it. If these people were wearing metal objects like bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and even armor, the Ark may have been easily disposed to discharge upon them.

If the Ark had not been grounded for some long period of time, the electrical charge built up in it could give a very nasty, even fatal, shock to someone who touched it. If the shock itself was not fatal, then the surprise of the shock could well be. After the Ark had been discharged, however, it would be quite safe to touch as some of the temple priests did.

One might conclude that a powerful static electric charge discharged from the Ark onto a crowd could cause a large number of heart attacks out of sheer terror of the tingling sensation of the wrath of God.

But in some of these cases, it is almost like some neutron-flash grenade is detonated in the air above the Ark when it is activated. This would seem to be a second, more powerful electrical device than the simple condenser of the chest and gold statue. Unless it is all some super-exaggeration, we seem to have a high-voltage death ray device that probably discharged from a battery.

But what was the powerful electric device inside the Ark? Was it an electrical device taken from Egypt, something similar to devices depicted in temples such as djed pillars with globes on top of them? It seems to be that it was the object inside the box that was killing dozens of people in a single super-flash of electrical power. The men of Beth-shemesh may have lifted the lid of the Ark and unleashed (perhaps after pushing some buttons) the tremendous power of God in a scene similar to the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

As we have seen, the Ark was credited with many things, including flying, mass killing, causing disease, parting water, creating manna, and making the walls of cities fall down. It also shone as a brilliant bright light when “turned on.” Perhaps the Ark did not do all of these things, and it would be safe to say that a considerable amount of myth and legend has grown up around this ancient artifact of great power.

That the Ark could also fly or levitate is spoken of in the Bible. Ancient tales of flight are always of interest and the Ark of the Covenant plays into this subject. Let us now examine the stories of flight surrounding the Ark of God.