don’t look at the light

Huh:

The patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia says he will announce to the world Friday the unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant, perhaps the world’s most prized archaeological and spiritual artifact, which he says has been hidden away in a church in his country for millennia, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.

Abuna Pauolos, in Italy for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this week, told the news agency, “Soon the world will be able to admire the Ark of the Covenant described in the Bible as the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses and the center of searches and studies for centuries.”

You will have to excuse my lack of faith, Patriarch, but I will believe it when I see it, and possibly not even then. Given that all written records of the Ark, and all depictions of the Ark, all disagree on some level concerning its construction, design, and just about everything else, fabricating a convincing duplicate would not be terribly difficult, and, in fact, the Patriarch admits just that:

“The Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia for many centuries,” said Pauolos. “As a patriarch I have seen it with my own eyes and only few highly qualified persons could do the same, until now.”

According to Pauolos, the actual Ark has been kept in one church, but to defend the treasure, a copy was placed in every single church in Ethiopia.

Also, why now? Sitting on the Ark is kind of like sitting on an acccurate Universal Field Theory, but apart from that, why release it now?
Lastly, I sincerely hope Ethiopia has far better military and private security forces than I think they do… That hunk of finely-crafted gold has significance in both Christian and Muslim religions, not to mention the value it has to private collectors around the world…
(Courtesy of Pax Parabellum.)