On the Fourth of July, the New York Post published a feature asking whether new technology — cosmic-ray "muon detectors" developed at Tel Aviv University — might finally locate the Ark of the Covenant beneath Jerusalem. Indiana Jones references and all.
I was honored to be interviewed for the piece. But here is what you may not know about how national media works: reporters receive far more than they can print. The Post ran two paragraphs of my answers. I gave them two pages.
So today, you get what was left on the cutting room floor — the evidence, the verses, and the verdict. Real places. Real people. Real events. Let’s think like Christians about the most famous missing object in history.
FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR — NO. 1
The Verse That Settles It: Ezra’s Missing Inventory Line
When Cyrus the Great released the exiles, Scripture records a meticulous inventory of the Temple vessels he returned — gold dishes, silver bowls, item by item, counted and named (Ezra 1:7–11).
The Ark of the Covenant is conspicuously absent.
That omission is significant, because the Ark was the holiest object in Israel’s entire worship system. If it had survived the Babylonian conquest of 587 BC, it would head that list. The most probable conclusion? The Ark was destroyed or plundered when Nebuchadnezzar II carried away the treasures from the Temple of Yahweh. The idea that priests hid the treasures first is historically plausible — but if they tried, they were not successful.
FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR — NO. 2
The Rorschach Test of Biblical Archaeology
Muon detectors and ground-penetrating radar are excellent developments in specialized fields of archaeology. I welcome them. But I told the Post plainly: I do not think they will find the Ark — and having been on archaeological digs myself, I know why.
Every geophysical survey requires human interpretation, and when researchers expect to find a something, they often begin seeing one. The “right angles,” “corridors,” and “openings” featured in viral graphics are interpretive overlays — not definitive structural readings. The limestone of the region naturally produces fractures, joints, and channels that can appear remarkably architectural on a screen.
“Resemblance is not evidence. Sometimes it is simply pareidolia with a press release.”
FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR — NO. 3
7,957 Verses. Two Mentions. One Reason Why.
As a historical Jesus scholar, I major on what the New Testament weighs with importance. So consider this: Jesus never mentions the Ark. Neither does Paul. Of the 7,957 verses in the New Testament, the Ark appears exactly twice (Hebrews 9:4; Revelation 11:19).
Why the silence? Because the cut and thrust of the New Testament is that Jesus — in His physical crucifixion and bodily resurrection, events I regard as historically unimpeachable — fulfilled and superseded everything the Ark symbolized. The mercy seat where blood was sprinkled once a year has been replaced by the cross, where blood was shed once for all.
The Ark now holds no spiritual significance because the Ark as a symbol was completely fulfilled in Christ. Jesus is the way to God now — not the Ark. I do not believe the Ark will be found, and here is the good news: it does not need to be. The God who once dwelled between the cherubim now dwells with us, and His name is Jesus.
GO DEEPER
Want the discoveries that were found — ten of them — each bringing us face-to-face with Jesus? My #1 New York Times bestseller walks through the evidence, from the Shroud of Turin to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
GET THE JESUS DISCOVERIES
Keep thinking like a Christian — because Christianity can stand up to any question, even the ones Hollywood asks.
Chasing evidence, finding Jesus
— JJJ
