The Lost Ark of the Covenant, by Tudor Parfitt

Well, he found it. Found something. Not the Ark.

Parfitt cleverly recounts his 20-year process of pursuing the Ark of the Covenant in various forms, by telling it as a personal journey, backed by excellent research. Kind of like Graham Hancock. (Even though Parfitt rolls his eyes at Graham Hancock.) His story is really cool, beginning by studying a tribe in Africa who claims to be descended from Jews, adopting Jewish practices, and claiming to possess artifacts that their ancestors brought with them from a now-lost city. Parfitt’s research began purely academically, then, years later, took a turn when he worked with another friend who was determined to find the Ark to bring peace to the Middle East. Parfitt becomes enchanted with the notion of the Ark and connects many of the biblical accounts to tales from Africa. And the chase begins.

Told in an extremely engaging and accessible conversational style, the author brings the reader with him around the world as he seeks for answers about the mysterious object that Moses built. The biggest takeaway I had from the book is that everyone in the world wants a piece of this Ark; everyone has a claim that they are connected with it—even a tribe in Papua New Guinea was convinced that the Ark was submerged in their lagoon! Fascinating, the universal draw to the Ark. Mostly, people want to be able to utilize “its” power for themselves, but many peoples want it as a sign to prove that they are the people of God they claim they are. Parfitt’s deep understanding of the peoples with whom he interacted gave me a whole new appreciation of this appeal.

Ultimately, he finds a very old box/drum, which he believes is a copy of a copy of a copy . . . of the second ark that Moses made when he had to remake the stone tablets. I do believe Parfit finds the same artifact that is pictured in a particular archaeologist’s book; that trail was solid and really interesting. I just wasn’t convinced that it had connections to the biblical Ark. However, it was an exciting quest that came to a satisfying end, following crazy, researched trails into parts of the world I know very little about. An exciting journey for all.