WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Electric Ark 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.760 Hey, welcome to Stuff to blow your mind. My name 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:10.799 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:12.880 Time to go into the vault. This time we're gonna 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:16.120 be looking at part two of our exploration from December 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.680 of the Ark of the Covenant myth and uh and 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:23.480 some strange historical hypotheses people have had about that. Yeah. 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.000 In particular, this episode focuses mostly on the idea that, 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:30.440 uh that what if the Ark of the Covenant wasn't 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.159 so much a holy box of divine wrath it was 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:36.240 more just a giant battery. This was I remember, I 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.879 had some of the weirdest stuff we've ever read proposed 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:43.800 by Nicola tesla Um. So yeah, anyway, we hope you enjoy. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.480 And Nate ab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:51.239 either of them his censer and put fire therein, and 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:55.360 put incense there on, and offered strange fire before the Lord, 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.920 which he commended them not. And there went out fire 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.320 from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.399 the Lord. Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.360 death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.800 approached the presence of the Lord and died. The Lord 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.000 said to Moses, tell your brother Aaron that he shall 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:18.679 not enter at any time into the Holy Place inside 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.920 the veil before the mercy seat, which is on the Ark, 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:24.840 or he will die, or I will appear in the 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:33.480 cloud over the mercy seat. Welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:42.360 your Mind from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, welcome 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:44.200 to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.200 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back for Arc 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.440 too Electric Boogaloo, our second exploration of a bunch of 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:55.520 weird sort of bronze punk, takes on the stories of 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:58.360 the Ark of the Covenant from the Hebrew Bible. Right, 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:00.640 It's it's kind of perfect because is this is a 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.520 kind of this is kind of Hanaka content for Stuff 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.320 to Blow your mind. Oh, I didn't think about the timing. Yeah, 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.800 we're publishing these episodes the week of Hanaka almost entirely 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.320 by by by accident, but but a pleasant accident, I 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:15.640 would say. So. Last time we talked about the stories 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.200 about say, the Philistine captivity of the Ark of the 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:20.800 Covenant and the immrods and what all that meant. But 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.720 there is another aspect to the ark of God's story 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:29.359 that tends to tempt people into the techno mythology realm. 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.160 Not only was the Arc said to bring vast destructions 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.359 and plagues of m rods, there are also these Bible 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.799 stories that tell of the Arc lashing out with blasts 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.160 of power that kill offenders in an instant. Uh. And 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:45.280 so there are a couple of examples. One is the 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.040 story we just told about Erin's two sons. We don't 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.000 get a whole lot of details, but it seems like 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.840 Erin's two sons entered the presence of the Arc with 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.720 some kind of strange fire. Essentially that it sounds like 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:00.280 they were not doing the rituals of the tavern ackle 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.320 as they had been commanded. They were doing something incorrect. 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.040 Fun fact I I actually traveled home and attended a 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:12.320 Sunday School class at my mom's church recently, and this 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.239 was the passage they were discussing really well in the 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.360 last episode. I thought we were talking about how they 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:20.840 almost never bring these stories up in Sunday School, at 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:22.600 least when we were kidding. I saw a great example 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:25.720 of why. Because it's it's kind of difficult for folks 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:30.520 to have a like a casual, real life oriented conversation 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:32.959 about a passage like this about the strange fire of 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.520 the Lord, which apparently sometimes translated is alien fire. Yeah, 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.560 alien fire. They brought alien fire and the sensors before 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:41.400 the Lord, and the Lord did not like it, and 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.840 he lashed out and struck them dead, consumed them with 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.160 fire from the mercy seat. Now, before we get into 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.680 the bronze punk discussions today, we should tell at least 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.440 one more story of this kind. How about the story 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.680 of Uza. So remember how the arc was taken to 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.840 the land of the Philistines. That's one of the stories 0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:02.960 and Bible about it. The Philistines. Uh, there's a battle 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.440 and Philistines take the arc and they put it in 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.640 the temple of Dagon until the arc messes them up 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.320 and it topples the statue of the god Dagon. And 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.240 eventually the Philistines repenteth and the Israelites get the arc back. 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.720 And so when the Israelites under King David are they're 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.320 bringing the arc back to their land that we get 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.719 to this passage quote. They placed the Ark of God 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.000 on a new cart that they might bring it from 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.400 the house of a ben a Dab, which was on 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.440 the hill, and Usa and Ahio, the sons of a 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.640 ben Adab, were leading the new cart, so they brought 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:38.599 it with the Ark of God from the house of 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:40.839 a ben Adab, which was on the hill, and Ahio 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.040 was walking ahead of the arc. Meanwhile, David and all 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.920 the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:53.000 all kinds of instruments made of fir wood, with liars, harps, tambourines, castanets, 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.960 and symbols. But when they came to the threshing floor 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:59.760 of Nakon, Usa reached out toward the Ark of God 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.919 and took hold of it. For the oxen nearly upset it, 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.080 and the anger of the Lord burned against Usa, and 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:09.320 God struck him down there for this irreverence, and he 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.240 died there by the Ark of God. And then there's 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.640 a story that apparently this place comes to be named 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:19.200 what roughly translates to the breakthrough of Usa or the 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:22.800 bursting out at Usa, as we discussed at length in 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:26.000 the last episode. Uh, if you look at any of 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:27.920 these stories of the Ark of the Covenant, or if 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:31.160 you look at, of course, in the classic film Raiders 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.640 of the Lost Arc, you see great depictions of this 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:36.360 general fact that the Ark of the Covenant is considered 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.440 a dangerous item in the stories about it. It is 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:42.520 it is a thing that that manifests the presence in 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.080 the voice of God and uh, and therefore there are 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:49.680 a lot of dangers associated with misuse um even even 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.000 touching it, well, even even well meaning touching. Like the 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.760 idea here is that Usa wasn't trying to do, you know, 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.080 a blasphemy to the ark. He just reached out to 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.520 keep it from falling over because the oxen we're getting 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.240 all tipped around and so the arc might have fallen 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.440 on the ground. He reached out to steady it, and 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.720 that was enough that got him struck dead. So anyway, 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.440 I think, as with the arc stories that we discussed 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.920 last time, the most fruitful way of understanding these stories 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.160 is that they are legendary narratives, not based on actual events, 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.599 but rather to communicate values by telling a story. And 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.080 in this case, I think one of the values that's 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:28.640 primary here is that the commands of the Lord are 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:32.280 to be taken very seriously, and that even deviating from 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:35.880 God's commands in an accidental or well meaning way can 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.960 be met with extremely harsh consequences. Like Aaron's sons, they 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.159 screw up the rights of the tabernacle by offering alien fire. 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:45.280 They burned something in the sensor in a way they 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.920 weren't supposed to, and they get burned up themselves. USA 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.440 touches the arc even meaning well, just to prevent it 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:53.960 from falling over, and he gets blasted dead. I think 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.720 the lesson is pretty clear, right, Yeah, It's like it's 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.320 a basic Dungeons and Dragon's lesson as well. There is 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.920 a high, high level magical item in your presence, don't 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.720 touch it, don't don't, don't, don't do anything until you've 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.479 at least cast a few, you know, provisional spells, just 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.280 to see what's happening. Right is be very careful with 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.200 the commands of God to do everything you're told. But 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.320 in the last episode we discussed the concept of this 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:22.400 historical hermoneutic we were calling bronze punk, the desire to 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.400 for of modern interpreters with a little knowledge about science 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.400 and technology under their belt to look back at legends 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:33.000 like this assume that maybe they're based on some kind 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:37.320 of actual event, whether directly or in some exaggerated form, 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.840 and instead of assuming a magical explanation for the event 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.560 behind the story postulates some kind of lost world of 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:48.400 advanced technology hidden in the dust storms of history, which 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.320 again is of course risky because this is the place 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:55.320 where history and mythology can converge. So it's difficult to 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:59.240 really lean too heavily on anything that is described in 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:01.520 these stories. But at the same time we can't help 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:03.400 but do it right with the great example from the 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.480 last episode was was looking at the the plague of 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.520 mice and uh and tumors or emads and trying to 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.000 figure out, well, as this bubonic plague is that, what 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.000 is that? What's being described here? That's one of the 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:19.880 ways in which the Bronze punk hereameneutic, while not usually 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.200 a good method of explaining the origins of these legendary 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.760 tales and myths, does open up some interesting things to 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:29.880 consider about the ancient world. Like one of the things 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.200 we talked about in the last episode was, Okay, it 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.120 probably does not make sense to say that the legends 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.000 of the arc are caused by it actually being some 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:42.920 ancient bioweapon, But could there have been bioweapons in the 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.280 ancient world? Was their germ warfare before people had a 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.720 germ theory of disease, and we decided, you know, it 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:51.840 does seem like it's possible that that happened, and there's 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.320 even some evidence of specific cases where it looks like 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:56.679 it happened. Maybe not in this case, And for our 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.600 purposes here on the show, it's also just a great 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.079 excuse to talk about some of these things at the 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:03.080 end of the episode, and at the end of this 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.480 episode as well, we're probably gonna say, you know, I 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.840 don't think we should really um put a lot of 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.440 faith in this particular idea, but it does forces to 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:15.440 ask questions about about the inner workings of the world 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.760 in ancient times, applying what we know about science today 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:22.480 and sort of unwrapping it through an analysis of the past. Well, 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:24.480 there's an interesting question that's going to come out of 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:29.440 today's episode about what what causes major breakthroughs in the 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:31.680 progress of science in history. So we'll get back to 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:33.720 that towards the end of the episode. So last time, 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:35.680 we talked about the idea who could have been a 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.920 weapon of germ warfare. That's unlikely, but it's fun to consider. Um, 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.560 we talked about the pretty much impossible idea that it 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:44.959 was a bearer of some sort of radiation hazard. And 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:47.640 this has been popular with people like Eric von Danikin 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:49.719 and I don't know about him specifically, but some of 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.120 those ancient aliens. Yeah, anytime where you're like, oh, there's 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.600 some sort of of of crazy piece of technology. It's 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.920 a nuclear reactor or something. Uh. And then we of 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.280 course talked about the psychology of artifacts, like the arc 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:02.840 being a focal point for worship and how that affects 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:05.640 the altered states of consciousness, the mind and so forth. 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:09.400 But today we wanted to explore another very strange bronze 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.719 punk rabbit trail that many many authors have taken over 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:15.920 the years to explain stories like Errand's two Sons in 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.720 the Story of Uza, these people who are struck dead 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:20.560 in the presence of the arc, and that is the 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.640 idea of the electric arc. Yes, this is this is 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.560 a pretty fabulous notion because it doesn't really it doesn't 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.800 depend on aliens, it doesn't depend on any um, you know, 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:35.600 the alternative view of the evolution of consciousness or anything. 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:40.160 It basically just depends it basically asked questions about like 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.160 what were the what was the knowledge of electricity at 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.880 the time, and what were the capabilities and material capabilities 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:51.319 in many cases to construct a primitive device? I would 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:55.680 like to read with some abridgements, from an article published 0:10:55.679 --> 0:11:00.200 in the Chicago Daily Tribune March five, ninety three by 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:04.880 the Reverend John Evans, called Scientists, says Sacred Box was 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:08.160 a condenser. Robert, will you help me read some sections 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.160 from this? Certainly, would you like to take the beginning here? 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.400 I shall It was a charge of some ten thousand 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.600 volts of static electricity, and not the wrath of God 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.320 that killed Uza when he touched the Ark of the Covenant. Such, 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:25.200 at least is the scientific conjecture of Dean Frederick Rogers 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.880 of the Department of Engineering at Lewis Institute of Technology, 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.840 concerning the mysterious powers of the Arc, which was not 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.200 only an object of reverence to the Israelites, but also 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.240 a troublesome possession. Right. So the article then goes on 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:41.480 to tell the story of Usa. As we told before, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.839 the arc goes unsteady. Oxen were about to knock it over. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.720 He touches it, he gets struck dead. Uh, And Evans writes, 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.040 quote Professor Rogers made a study of the construction of 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:55.559 the arc and discovered. Its design called for a perfectly 0:11:55.640 --> 0:12:00.800 constructed simple electric condenser or Leiden john Are. And then 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:02.880 the article also goes on to tell the story of 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.400 the construction of the Ark of the Covenant. We talked 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.680 about that in the last episode. But basically the design 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:11.800 specifications are it's a big wooden box with gold on 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.120 the inside and the outside, and not just any wood 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.520 at shipham would right, Yeah, it's which I believe is 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:20.080 supposed to be the Acacia tree Acacia would uh. They 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:22.679 called it ship him wood and it's got gold on 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.160 the inside, gold on the outside, and then these gold 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.640 representative figures of Cherubim on the top. So going back 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:33.120 to the article, the scientific interest in the construction pointed 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.440 out by Professor Rogers was that the Acacia would box, 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.600 about forty inches long and slightly less than thirty inches 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.480 in width and depth, not only was lined with gold 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.199 leaf on the inside, but overlaid with the same metal without. This, 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.400 according to Professor Rodgers, is the first step that any 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:53.200 modern boy with a flare for electrical experimentation will take 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.480 to create a light in jar, and girls don't be 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.599 discouraged there. You can create ldon jars too. Also, I 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.120 don't never created a light in jar. I did the 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:04.679 potato battery, and that's about as far as I went 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.640 towards creating the arc. I never even made a potato battery. 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:09.720 But I should also say, boys and girls alike, if 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:11.959 you are actually constructing a light in jar, do some 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.880 with with proper safety precautions and adult supervision, because they 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.199 can actually be dangerous depending on their capacity. But anyway, 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.719 moving on, except that in a light in jar, a 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:25.760 glass receptacle is coated on the inside and the outside 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.480 with tinfoil instead of gold. Then with the aid of 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.199 a rod and a small knob at the top, and 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.800 a short chain at the bottom, which is inserted through 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.719 the cork so that the chain may make contact with 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.600 the bottom of the jar, a young experimenter is ready 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:44.640 to collect small charges of bottled lightning. Robert, would you 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.559 like to take over? In the section subtitled a condenser 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.000 of electricity? But the Ark of the Covenant was a 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.439 much larger condenser and thought by Professor Rogers to have 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:57.839 been capable of collecting death dealing charges. They divined erections 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.640 called for the creation of two chair, of them pure gold, 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:03.720 to be placed on a gold slab or mercy seat 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:08.000 atop the arc. These chairbim Professor Rodgers explained what he 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.079 believes to have been the positive pole of the circuit, 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:13.839 similar to the knob on the top of the light 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.600 and jar. When he was asked how the static charge 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.960 of electricity got into the arc, Professor Rogers admitted that 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:23.480 there was very little accepted authority among scientists concerning the 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:27.920 action and control of atmospheric electricity. He explained, however, that 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.960 it is known among physicists that a difference of potential 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.840 exists between the Earth and the air, which may be 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:38.480 collected in electrical charges under certain favorable conditions. The design 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.800 of the arc, at least as described in Exodus. Undoubtedly, 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:45.600 I love this certainty of people writing about these kinds 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.480 of kind of hair brained interpretations. Clearly there's no room 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:52.680 for for discussion here. That's what it was. Yeah. So 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.400 the article goes on to state that Rogers believes the 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:59.040 arc could have been electrically charged by air currents created 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:03.280 by smoke from the burning of incense and sacrifices, which 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.800 the Bible says often happened close to the arc. He 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.360 also says this could charge the light in arc enough 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:11.880 to allow it to deal fatal bolts of electricity, and 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:15.280 he cites a Hebrew commentary tradition that states that quote, 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:18.640 the wings of the golden Cherubim not only emitted fire, 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.720 but also an aura known among electricians as brush glow. 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.720 The fire emitted by the Cherubim could have been well 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:30.280 known electrical arc resulting from overcharge. Professor Rogers beliefs that 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.280 a number of accounts of destruction attributed by the scriptures 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.280 to the arc might be explained as being results of 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.640 purely natural phenomena, and he gives some examples that like 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.240 we talked about last time, the destruction of the Philistine 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.680 idol of Dagon quote a divinity supposed to be half 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.120 fish and half man. And just a side note, apparently 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:54.400 that association of the Canaanite god Dagon with fish that 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.400 I think that is supposed to be exonymic in origin, 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.280 meaning that the the ancient Hebrews related the name of 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.680 this god to the Hebrew word for fish. The original 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.400 Philistine Dagon appears to be more likely some kind of 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:10.680 grain and fertility gods. Sorry Lovecraft fans, Oh yeah, that 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:12.880 is kind of disappointment, because Dagon, of course is a 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:16.680 part of the Lovecraft mythos and uh and and then 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:18.640 it's one of those cool gods where you read about 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:20.080 it there, then you read about it in the Bible. 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:22.440 And if you, like I was, if you were a 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.880 you know, a high schooler who's who suddenly discovered Lovecraft 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.440 and then found one of these deities in the Bible 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:30.560 as well, it was a pretty awesome moment. Oh. I 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.040 can't help but think of the creatures of the sea 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.080 as the children of Dagon. I'm always going to go there, 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.520 even knowing what I know now that he probably wasn't 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:40.800 actually a fish god, right, But at the same time, 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.359 we do have a lot of We've discussed some tremendous 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.920 ancient fish gods on the show before, right. But anyway, 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.080 So they tell the story in the article of this 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:53.240 philistine idol repeatedly getting knocked over or off of the arc, 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.320 and Roger says, quote, if the idol had been constructed 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.160 out of some poorer metal in combination with wood, an 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:01.960 electrical charge arched far below the capacity of the arc 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.760 would have been enough to have accomplished the destruction. So 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.440 I think they're saying that the arc could have knocked 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.680 over the the idol just by discharging electricity. I'm I'm 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.280 not sure about that, but okay, yeah, I'm gonna try 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.280 to include some art that I found on the landing 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:19.800 page for this episode a stuff to blow your mind 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:21.920 dot com, because they are a number of wonderful depictions 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.679 of like the glowing arc and a top old uh 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:30.080 statue of the deity Dagon sometimes with a fish tail 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:32.680 that of course is now broken because it fell over 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:35.560 and uh and of course this is uh. This kind 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.480 of thing was was also referenced in Rages of the 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:40.879 Lost Arc. Again, that's scene where the Ark of the 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.000 Covenant burns through the swastika on the crate that contains it. Yeah, 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.680 like like destroying another false idle. Yeah. Uh. So to continue, 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.480 and we're getting close to the end of this article, 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:54.320 but there's some other good stuff here. So Evans talks 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:56.800 about how all these kinds of miracles could be attributed 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.480 to electricity, and he talks about the tendency of people 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:05.040 to attribute, you know, processes they don't understand, to divine intervention. 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.879 And then he says, thus, if Moses accidentally stumbled upon 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.040 the principle of the leiden Jar, the device would instantly 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:16.240 be accepted as the conveying medium of divine favor or disfavor. 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.399 Sounds again like a little bit too much certainty in 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.639 this interpretation here, but the author tells a bunch more 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:24.720 stories of the arc, and then also points out that 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.120 the ark of the Covenant was not the only arc 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.680 given sacred significance in the ancient world, and he discusses 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:35.000 ancient Egyptian arcs, speculating that Moses could have learned about 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:38.639 the creation of electrical arcs from the Egyptians when he 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.240 was growing up in the pharaoh's court. Again, that's that's 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.080 a nice story, but I think once again the problem 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:46.480 is just that it's taking the biblical source at face value. 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:48.959 And what's more likely is that the biography of Moses 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.280 is a legend. But but yeah, there there. He does 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:54.760 point out that there are other arc like things in 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:57.920 other cultures around the ancient Near East, and and and 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:02.240 the Egyptians are a great example, right. But then again 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:04.879 we have to come back to perhaps the simpler explanation 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:08.879 that an arc like thing is a box. Yeah, and 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.600 and therefore, yes, the technology of box making was very 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:17.480 much in effect at the time, right uh. And so finally, 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.080 Robert do you want to read this very last paragraph here? Certainly, 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.480 while no historian would engage in such speculation, yet it 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:26.840 is the right of any man to fancy that it 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.320 was in Egypt that the properties of the gold coated 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.159 box were discovered by some hapless craftsman. He paid for 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.119 his discovery with his life, but gave his kinsmen a 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.920 home for a new and powerful god. Okay, so they've 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:44.439 got a theory here. Some Egyptian craftsman accidentally discovered how 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:48.119 to build alidon Jar by building boxes and covering them 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:52.200 with gold, and then that information was transmitted to Moses, 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:54.720 and then Moses carried the secret of how to build 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.160 alidon Jar, and that became the Ark of the Covenant, 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:59.159 and thus it gives us all these stories of like 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.560 people touching it and getting struck dead. Now, I think 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.640 it would be ridiculous to say that if the arc 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.560 actually existed, we're assuming something like it may have if 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:12.399 it existed, that it was best explained in these terms. 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:14.960 But well, I don't think we need to resort to 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:18.200 this to explain the Arc legend. I don't find it 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.680 implausible at all that someone in the ancient world and 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.760 someone in the ancient Mediterranean could have at some point 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.560 accidentally created a capacitor, which is what alidon jar is, 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.920 and that it could have injured or killed people. And 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.240 that is a really interesting thing to consider, right because 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:37.440 not I mean, not only, of course, the the accidental 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.480 creation of such a thing, but then the recreation such 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:42.280 a thing and the utilization of such a thing, either 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.680 as essentially a tool of divination, like what's going to 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:48.800 happen when I touch it? Like a fatal shock, as 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.280 a no, not dying as yes, you know that that 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:53.960 sort of thing, which which a lot of ancient practices 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.760 of religion and even modern practices of religion really boiled 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:00.359 down to that give me something to provide an answer 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.240 for some question I have, or or provide some sort 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.240 of a random answer to something that I am incapable 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.200 of generating my own random answer too. Yeah, and again 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.280 I think it's not hard to believe that that someone 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:17.600 could have accidentally discovered how to build something like this. Again, 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:21.119 like the discovery of the actual liden Jar was also 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:25.399 accidental somewhat and frightening someone. Maybe we should explore that 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:30.359 after a break. Thank alright, we're back. Okay, So we 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.840