The Templars and the Ark of the Covenant, by Graham Phillips

This story turned in a direction I did NOT see coming. Wild ending in Warwickshire. Totally unique among the several “personal journeys chasing the Ark” that I’ve read so far. In fact, I think pretty much anyone would think the wrap up of Phillips’ investigation is interesting.

I was pretty bored at the start of the book. I’m pretty much over the perceived need to demonstrate the Bible’s reliability before we can “really” investigate. Spoiler alert: the Bible has proved its historicity for millennia. Just believe it and research accordingly. Phillips also pursued the standard path of seeking the last reference to the Ark in the OT. He talks about the extensive list of items plundered by Babylon, contained both in Ezra and in Kings, then he asked the same old question–“The Ark isn’t listed, so where did it go?”

But what if?

What if!!!

What if “where?” isn’t the right question? What if that list, included in both the plunder and the return of the Temple items is so detailed precisely to communicate that the Babylonians did NOT carry off the Ark? To show future generations that it had been protected from the plundering pagans.

Assuming this is true, I agree with Phillips’ conclusion that Jeremiah spearheaded the hiding of the Ark. I’ll even buy his theory that Jeremiah and the priests took it to Mt. Sinai. I just don’t know if the mountain he chose (in the heart of Edom) is the same mountain that Jeremiah chose.

But this is where Phillips’ journey explores new paths and gets interesting.

While Phillips bogged down the biblical examination, he did not belabor the Templar background, just their presence in following a specific set of clues. He notes that the Crusaders explored and plundered various sites in the mountains he was considering to be the Mount of God. In particular, a Templar knight was documented to return to England with unspecified valuable religious artifacts. He set up and funded a Templar training facility on his property, which was ultimately purchased centuries later (during the 19th century) by a historian who claimed to have found these artifacts and hidden them around the countryside. He left clues in a stained-glass window of his church. Phillips checked out this window with some friends, and within days . . .

They found stuff.

Crazy!!!!!!

Best of all, multiple coincidences guided them–specific birds showing up; a mysterious, knowledgable church warden, and having to scurry out of a graveyard because of a policeman on patrol. The details of this story alone are worth reading for the sheer fun of discovery. The connection to the Ark just gives an extra layer of goosebumps.