Moses and Joshua in the Tabernacle, James Tissot
"Jones, do you realize what the Ark is? It's a transmitter. It's a radio for speaking to God!"
— René Belloq, Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Ark of the Covenant — sometimes known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God — is a legendary item from Biblical lore said to represent the covenant made between God and the Tribes of Israel, and assigned a variety of holy powers.
The Ark is usually described as a wooden chest coated in gold, with side staves for carrying it, and with a lid bearing two kneeling angels. It contains the original tablets on which the Ten Commandments were first written*, as well as possibly a few other items such as Aaron's rod and a jar of manna. Biblical passages describe many magical effects caused by the Ark, such as cursing or striking dead those who take it without permission and guiding armies to victory. It was also said to house the spirit of God, who spoke from within it, and was carried during the Exodus and thereafter placed in the Temple at Jerusalem. However, after the city’s sacking by the Chaldeans, who took all temple spoils to Babylon, it vanished from history.
In fiction, the Ark is a popular MacGuffin or plot artifact in stories dealing with ancient conspiracies, archeology, and Biblical times. Its most common narrative role is as a legendary lost item that both heroes and villains are trying to track down and retrieve. Bad guys are usually attracted to its potential as a devastating weapon, while more heroic characters are usually more interested in its historic or spiritual significance or are trying to keep it out of malicious hands. However, the Ark is also often capable of defending itself, and ambitious thugs and generals trying to harness it as a weapon of empire are liable to find themselves smote down where they stand. (This is in line with the source material - for example, on one occasion, Israel's enemies capture the Ark, only to send it back with a request for God to please stop smiting them.) It may also be found among the items squirreled away in a Secret Government Warehouse.
Subtrope of Public Domain Artifact and Ancient Artifact.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Lady Pendragon: After the fall of Camelot, the survivors such as Guinevere and Bedivere gather and transport all their sacred relics to a safer location, the Ark of the Covenant among them.
- A Letter from Home: The Ark is one of the treasures in the chamber underneath the old castle, where the Knights Templar hid away their many treasures including the ones taken from the Temple of Solomon.
Films — Live-Action
- Honey, I Blew Up the Kid: In an Easter Egg nod to Indiana Jones, while the Szalinskis are searching the Sterling Labs warehouse for Wayne's original shrinking machine, Diane is briefly seen standing in front of a crate labeled "ARK OF THE COVENANT/TOP SECRET/ARMY INTEL 9906753/DO NOT OPEN" (aside from the first line, verbatim what was printed on the crate the Ark was sealed in at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark).
- Indiana Jones: The Ark is the very first Ancient Artifact that Indy comes across, and is referenced at various points in the series:
- Raiders of the Lost Ark: The plot centers around the heroes' attempt to keep the Ark out of Nazi hands, as Hitler believes that it will make his armies invincible. In the end, the Nazi agents seize the Ark and prepare to use it — but, when they open it, it releases a torrent of flame and energy that kills them all. You didn't think God was going to just let the Nazis use His Ark to take over the world, did you?
- The idea of using the Ark of the Covenant as the film's MacGuffin was first suggested by Philip Kaufman, whom George Lucas briefly collaborated with on an early version of the script in 1975. Lucas hoped Kaufman would direct the movie, but Kaufman was already committed to The Outlaw Josey Wales, so Lucas put the project on hold until after Star Wars. Ultimately, the film would be directed by Steven Spielberg, with Kaufman given a co-writer credit.
- The film's portrayal of the Ark takes some liberties with the Bible. Although the Bible does attribute miracles to the Ark, it makes no claims of "the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions." The film's backstory features the Ark being carried off by the Egyptians instead of the Babylonians, presumably because Egypt is a more exotic locale in which to discover it. The Bible also does not support the notion that the Ark will confer victory on anyone who uses it, meaning the Nazis getting smited at the end is probably the most Biblically accurate part of the movie.
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Ark is depicted as an engraving under Venice alongside other legendary artifacts.
Elsa: What's that one?Indy: The Ark of the Covenant.Elsa: Are you sure?Indy: Pretty sure.
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The Ark shows up again, and is revealed as the contents of one of the other crates in the Secret Government Warehouse that the titular skull is taken from.
- Raiders of the Lost Ark: The plot centers around the heroes' attempt to keep the Ark out of Nazi hands, as Hitler believes that it will make his armies invincible. In the end, the Nazi agents seize the Ark and prepare to use it — but, when they open it, it releases a torrent of flame and energy that kills them all. You didn't think God was going to just let the Nazis use His Ark to take over the world, did you?
- The Librarian: Quest for the Spear: It is one of the first artifacts that Flynn sees in the Library. He's more than a little amazed when he's told it's not a replica.
- The Ten Commandments (1956): At the end, Moses orders that the five books of the Torah be placed in the Ark alongside the Ten Commandments. The Ark is not actually seen onscreen, however.
Literature
- Alpha and Omega: The plot is kicked off by the discovery of the Ark beneath the Temple Mount. Its discovery and proven supernatural nature — a journalist drops dead on touching it — kick off the main plot of the story, which sees the characters grappling with the proven existence of God as the Last Days loom.
- Area 51: Like most everything else, the Ark of the Covenant is an Airlia device. It primarily acts as a vault for the Grail, with the golden statuettes on top using their laser eyes to kill anyone who approaches and isn't dressed like a priest of the appropriate order so long as the Grail is inside. Even after the Grail is removed, it turns out to also contain a memory alteration and recovery device.
- The Fourth Realm: The Ark of the Covenant is kept in a church in Ethiopia (as has been speculated in real life) and contains a gateway that non-Travelers can use to journey to the other Realms.
- The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn: The titular treasure is actually a small golden statue, one of the two golden cherubim on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant, which Alpheus Winterborn brought home with him after finding the Ark itself — the rest of the Ark was buried in a cave-in soon after its discovery (a previous cave-in had opened a path that led to its resting place).
Live-Action TV
- MythBusters: One episode has the team investigate the "Baghdad Batteries", supposed ancient batteries used by the Babylonians. One of the tests uses a recreation of the Ark as a means of testing spiritual resolve. It's assumed plausible, although they believe that the batteries have too weak of a charge to actually do anything and, if they did feel it, they would think it to be a divine action because of the lack of understanding of electricity.
- Supernatural: In season 6, Sam convinces Castiel to come down to Earth by claiming they found a gold box that Nazis were after and it melted someone's face off, then calls him an idiot for falling for the plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark. However, in season 11 a piece of the Ark actually appears as a "Hand of God" — an object touched by God himself which possesses a portion of His power.
- Xena: Warrior Princess: "The Royal Couple of Thieves": While never actually referred to as such, the Ark appears. After a weapons dealer steals it, Xena and company go undercover as warlords to infiltrate the auction for the Ark and retrieve it for the Israelites.
Tabletop Games
- GURPS Warehouse 23: The Ark, the golden vessel symbolizing God's covenant with the Israelites, is one of the occult items stored within the Warehouse. It certainly contains the stone slabs on which the Commandments were written; it might also hold Aaron's rod, a jar of manna, the original draft of the Torah written by Moses' hand, and potentially other items. Its powers are various and poorly known, ranging from bolstering armies and stopping rivers to zapping noxious insects. Handling it is risky because only members of the now-extinct Tribe of Levi were permitted to do so without suffering harm.
Video Games
- Assassin's Creed I: The Ark of the Covenant is the first Public Domain Artifact shown in the entire series. However, unlike other artifacts, the chest itself has no power, but what's inside it does — an Apple of Eden.
- Broken Sword: The Angel of Death: George Stobbart gets mixed up again in ancient conspiracies and forbidden artefacts as he is hired to find clues to a missing object: one of the golden cherubs of the Ark of the Covenant. The reassembled Ark appears in the catacombs of the Vatican, where a rogue, secretive religious Vatican faction intends to use it as a weapon to convert the non-faithful.
- Crusader Kings II: The Ark shows up in the Monks and Mystics DLC, in the possession of the Jewish Duke of Axum.note
- Dominions: Available in-game as the Ark, a high-level magic item that spreads dominion and diseases to those not holy.
- Fate/Grand Order: The Ark is one of the Noble Phantasms of David (as in the David). It can One-Hit Kill anyone who touches it without permission and is potent enough to bypass Heracles' God Hand, instantly taking all twelve of his lives. Getting that to work requires David to get someone to actually touch the Ark though, so it's generally pretty useless as a weapon and can't be used against enemies in gameplay. The Ark does however become David's Bond Level 10 Craft Essence, and equipping it gives him a 10% chance to instantly kill a target on hit.
- Evil Genius: The Ark shows up as stealable loot and can be used to decorate your lair. Seemingly as a nod to the famous movie scene, the radio announcement of its theft warns whoever finds it not to open it. Since you play the villain, that's probably good advice.
- Persona 5 Strikers: At the end of the game, it is revealed that EMMA, a smartphone AI (similar to Siri or Hey Google) had grown so powerful that it gained sentience and believed itself to be a god that leads Japan's unconscious minds to a better Promised Land where people don't need the burden of thinking for themselves, dubbing itself the Ark of the Covenant. Taking the form of a giant box, it ultimately provides a darker take on humans relying on an Ark with a much less pleasant paradise than the original Biblical one, fitting with the 5 games commonly using Gnostic mythology as a symbol for rebellion. That being said, compared to the Holy Grail of the previous game, it is more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist than a malicious dictator. Later on, it evolves into its combat form, the Demiurge.
- RuneScape: In the Pyramid Plunder minigame, the Grand Golden Chest bears a resemblance to classical depictions of the Ark, with its flavor text reading "Anyone lost an ark?"
- Serious Sam 4: The Holy Grail is said to be contained within the Ark of the Covenant, which itself turns out to be hidden inside a small church in Carcassonne, France. Revealing the ark requires Father Mikhail to solve a few riddles, like inverting a cross and blinding an angel statue. Unfortunately, Father Mikhail's hunch that the ark was really sealing away something evil turns out to be correct.
- Tomb Raider I: The tutorial level takes place in Croft Manor. Lara asks the player to pardon all the crates she has strewn about the place. Sitting in front of the crates is the Ark.
Western Animation
- Family Guy: In one episode, bullies put the Ark of the Covenant in Meg's locker. When she opens it, the flesh on her face is burned away, leaving behind her skull.
- Futurama: In "Bender's Big Score", the Planet Express crew discovers a time travel code, and Bender uses it to travel back in time to steal every valuable treasure in history, including the Ark of the Covenant (which appears incidentally among all the other treasure he's accumulated in the Planet Express building).