Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Lost Ark of The Covenant
    The Lost Ark of The Covenant
    The Lost Ark of The Covenant
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Lost Ark of The Covenant

    Written by Tudor Parfitt

    Narrated by Graeme Malcolm

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The Lost Ark of the Covenant is the real-life account of Professor Tudor Parfitt's effort to recover the revered artifact that contained the Ten Commandments sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This holy object disappeared from the Temple in Jerusalem when the Babylonians invaded in 586 BCE and was lost—apparently forever.

    With painstaking historical scholarship, groundbreaking genetic science, and hair-raising fieldwork, Parfitt debunks the previous myths and reveals the shocking history of the Ark and its keepers. From Israel to Egypt, Ethiopia, and the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, the journey leads to places Parfitt could never have imagined.

    The Lost Ark of the Covenant is a vivid and page-turning account of the culmination of two decades of research by an acclaimed scholar and adventurer. In the end, legend becomes reality as an unknown history comes to light, and with it our understanding of this lost treasure is changed forever.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 26, 2008
    ISBN9780061629617
    The Lost Ark of The Covenant
    Author

    Tudor Parfitt

    Tudor Parfitt's life's work has been tracking down the lost tribes of Israel in Africa and Asia. As professor of Jewish studies at London's prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies and Fellow of the Oxford Centre of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, he has written widely on the history of the Jews of Africa and Asia. In 2006, he was appointed Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. He has traveled widely through remote areas of Africa and Asia and divides his time between London and the Templar region of the South Aveyron.

    Related to The Lost Ark of The Covenant

    Related audiobooks

    Religion & Spirituality For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Herero

      Nov 29, 2022

      The Herero
      5 min read

    • Article

      Wild Routes

      Aug 13, 2021

      Wild Routes
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Women Of The Palace

      Sep 19, 2022

      At Georgia’s ragged edge stands a causeway made of earth piled by hand atop bricks and tires, long grown over with grass and sandspur and sea oxeye. It is a tenuous ribbon of stability cutting through mud and salt and spartina, connecting land and ri

      11 min read

    • Article

      Ursula K. Le Guin

      Jun 15, 2018

      He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor. Little of her would be left by now, a plank or two down in the sand maybe, a bit of driftwood on the western sea. As he drifted near sleep he began to remember sailing t

      15 min read

    • Article

      A Journey Upriver

      Sep 9, 2021

      A Journey Upriver
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Realm Of Real Men

      Dec 23, 2022

      The Realm Of Real Men
      5 min read

    • Article

      Eastwards Down The Zambezi

      Feb 17, 2020

      At Algoa Bay in 1841 a young man disembarked unnoticed among the traders and immigrants. He had recently qualified as a doctor and held a diploma in divinity. He loaded an ox wagon with the few provisions his meagre missionary salary would allow and

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Gift of Doukhoborism

      Mar 15, 2024

      The Gift of Doukhoborism
      6 min read

    • Article

      In The Balance

      Dec 15, 2019

      In The Balance
      7 min read

    • Article

      Connecting in Kenya

      Oct 15, 2019

      Connecting in Kenya
      4 min read

    • Article

      What Africa Means To You

      Jul 15, 2022

      One evening at Chikoko in Zambia, we were presented with a trifle for pudding. It was rectangular, with fruit and green jelly underneath, custard and cream on top and it was decorated with cherries and blobs of green jelly. “Is

      4 min read

    • Article

      Is this Land Your Land?

      Mar 25, 2022

      Is this Land Your Land?
      18 min read

    • Article

      Where Ghosts Linger

      May 28, 2021

      Where Ghosts Linger
      10 min read

    • Article

      Beside The Seaside

      Nov 25, 2021

      Beside The Seaside
      5 min read

    • Article

      How The World Turns A Blind Eye To African Slavery

      Oct 27, 2022

      SINCE I WAS OLD ENOUGH TO READ ABOUT Africa, I have been fascinated by the Tuareg. For more than a thousand years they were the fierce, veiled, camel-riding, sword-wielding warlords of the Sahara until they were ruthlessly conquered in the late ninet

      18 min read

    • Article

      Wild Things

      Jun 3, 2018

      The ground was spongy and green, the accents Irish, the light atmospheric and ‘soft’ (in other words, it was raining); the scene was set for a storytelling session about epic battles and strange worlds, good versus evil. Especially as we were standin

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Kiwi Welcome

      Oct 15, 2019

      A Kiwi Welcome
      4 min read

    • Article

      Timeless Movement

      Jan 30, 2018

      Timeless Movement
      10 min read

    • Article

      Like Last Year’s Snow

      May 31, 2020

      Like Last Year’s Snow
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Lost Ark of The Covenant

    4/5

    4 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Great story, although the "action" doesn't start until halfway through, after much background material and trip cogitating. Graeme Malcolm is terrific for the narration.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Tudor Parfitt's The Lost Ark of the Covenant is an exploration of the history and varied theories surrounding the Ark of the Covenant. Parfitt traced the ark for years, trying to figure out just what exactly it was and where it might have eventually ended up: his travels take him from Jerusalem to Yemen, Egypt to Ethiopia, even Papua New Guinea as he grasps at every straw of ark-tradition presented to him.While it gets ominously close at times to outright silliness, the book mostly keeps just this side of the line, although some of the straws really are extremely flimsy. Eventually Parfitt comes to believe that a wooden chest in a Zimbabwe museum may be not the Ark itself (since it was carbon-dated to 1350 AD) but a "lineal descendant" of the original Ark, created as a successor. I can't say I'm entirely convinced, but the find is certainly notable in any event (the chest was determined to be one of the oldest wooden artifacts from sub-Saharan Africa).What's intriguing about Parfitt's research is the strands of tradition about the Ark's nature and powers, like its ability to shoot fire and destroy its enemies, and how those traditions are espoused by cultures in very different parts of the world. Even at the Papua New Guinea location Parfitt visits, the people have endowed their local "Ark" with similar powers.Parfitt's version of conversations can be slightly grating, and there were definitely a few times that I rolled my eyes at his antics and musings, but I also found much in this book that was interesting.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500-Year-Old Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark by Tudor ParfittEdition: Hardcover Price: $10.38 Availability: In Stock 12 used & new from $7.89 Fascinating Modern Day Quest, June 7, 2010 This review is from: The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500-Year-Old Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark (Hardcover) Tudor Parfitt's epic twenty-year quest for the lost Ark of the Covenant is a real page-turner! According to the Bible, the Ark contained the Ten Commandments given to Moses and possessed a divine, awesome power. It was used by the ancient Israelites in battle and, by Bible accounts, had the devastating powers of a modern-day weapon of mass destruction. Regarded as the holiest object in the world by the Jewish and Islamic faiths, the Ark suddenly disappeared from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem over 2,500 years ago and was, apparently, lost forever. The author embarked on a long, arduous, and often dangerous journey in what became an obsessive quest to track down the truth behind this fabled artefact and discover its whereabout today. I read Graham Hancock's The Sign and the Seal Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant, which claimed to have located the Ark in Ethiopia, it having been taken there by Menelik, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. So, it was with renewed interest that I tackled Mr. Parfitt's account of the link between the holy drum, or ngoma, of the Lemba tribe in Zimbabwe and the Ark. Tudor Parfitt's journey takes him on a trail of ancient documents and codes from Oxford, to Jerusalem, to Africa, and even to Papua, New Guinea. It encompasses not only his obsession with the Ark, but also the dreams and ambitions of friends, helpers, and other interested parties. The author also takes the reader on some astonishing side paths - the discovery that the DNA of the Lemba, an African tribe, links them directly to the Jews of the Middle East and specifically to the priestly tribe that would have been the guardians of the Ark; the vision that they have of their lost city Senna, and their wish to be recognized. In addition, the strange link that the Gogodala tribesmen of Papua, New Guinea have with Judaism and Israel is also fascinating and makes for one of the funniest travel accounts I have ever read, putting me in mind of Gerald Durrell. That section alone is well worth the book because one feels 'in the author's shoes' (covered with Shoosnake) so to speak! I enjoyed the author's theory that there were multiple arks, for multiple reasons. Dealing with ancient, biblical, and tribal history is difficult. Oral traditions become twisted as ancient authors sought to portray their particular traditions or holy objects in the best possible light. One only has to read medieval and older accounts of historical figures and events to realize just how much 'tampering' went on, and that history is surely written by the victors. The book left me with unanswered questions: what happened to the Lemba after their DNA links to Israel were confirmed, and what were the results of the DNA testing on the eager Gogodala who, by all accounts, appear to be more Jewish than the Jews? In dealing with research in Africa, I, as someone living in South Africa, have a special appreciation of what Mr. Parfitt has endured in his search. Africa is a tragic story: a continent riven by corruption, nepotism, wholesale destruction of historical assets, criminality, lawlessness, and tribalism. It's a miracle he managed to find anything in Zimbabwe, given the present state of that country. In all, a fascinating read. With the plethora of investigations into ancient history and secrets, I think readers should enjoy what riveting nuggets authors such as Mr. Parfitt have uncovered.