Speaker 1: Ooh, this one, this classic episode is for anyone in
Speaker 1: the audience tonight who is like us, a fan of
Speaker 1: Indiana Jones. The Arc of the Covenant? Where is it?
Speaker 1: Can you look at it? Et cetera, et cetera? Will
Speaker 1: it melt your face off? Right? Or is that the
Speaker 1: other thing?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: That was that was this one? Now? That was the one? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: According to according to multiple sources, for quite some time,
Speaker 1: the Arc of the Covenant is around still today, and
Speaker 1: it is in a specific location, just maybe not where
Speaker 1: you might think if you're the West.
Speaker 2: Is this the one about Oxen or something else?
Speaker 1: This is the idea that the Church of Our Lady
Speaker 1: Mary of Zion in Ethiopia is home to the Ark
Speaker 1: of the Covenant. This is where we learn about the
Speaker 1: priestly class or cast. They're the only folks who are
Speaker 1: allowed to enter in view the art. Yes, but they'll
Speaker 1: talk to you in detail about it as long as
Speaker 1: you don't try to go in. It's all coming back
Speaker 1: to me now and soon it'll be coming back to
Speaker 1: you right in your ears.
Speaker 3: Here we go from UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies.
Speaker 3: History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back
Speaker 3: now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt Nol.
Speaker 2: He's on an inventor somewhere.
Speaker 1: That's true. They call me Ben. We are joined as
Speaker 1: always with our super producer Paul Decant. Most importantly, you
Speaker 1: are you, and you are here, and that makes this
Speaker 1: stuff they don't want you to know. Let's get right
Speaker 1: into it.
Speaker 2: You want to, Yeah, Paul?
Speaker 1: Could we get some sweeping Spielberg esque music?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Have for a certain you know, character that likes
Speaker 2: to go spilunking sometimes and other forms of treasure hunting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess we should, uh, for legal reasons, call
Speaker 1: him Illinois smith Yep. Yeah, okay, it's we're We're obviously
Speaker 1: huge fans of the Indiana Jones series has a bunch
Speaker 1: of problems. You know, the thuggy cult in Temple of
Speaker 1: Doom is vastly misrepresented.
Speaker 2: You know. I feel like you could listen to that
Speaker 2: music and watch someone search for their keys in a
Speaker 2: couch or something and it would feel just as epic. Yes,
Speaker 2: searching for treasure?
Speaker 1: Do you ever do that, Matt? When when you're doing
Speaker 1: a mundane task, do you ever put on sweeping cinematic music.
Speaker 2: No, I just to myself, I'm like, oh, where did
Speaker 2: I put writer's water bottle? Oh don't see us.
Speaker 1: Oh that's that's a great idea. I guilty of playing
Speaker 1: soundtracks when I am on a mundane task to make
Speaker 1: it feel more like a mission something righteous, you know, Oh, totally.
Speaker 1: And today's episode concerns one of the biggest religious questions
Speaker 1: in modern history, the fate of something called the Arc
Speaker 1: of the Covenant.
Speaker 2: Yes, relic, an artifact, a highly important fixture, physical fixture
Speaker 2: within the Christian and several other faiths.
Speaker 1: Yes, and older obviously than Christianity, but yes, older than
Speaker 1: we initially suspected.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: And a long time ago, you and I did a
Speaker 1: video together, a video episode on this. It was part
Speaker 1: of a series called Secret Places.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: Wherein we explored North Sentinel Island, which yeah, I stand
Speaker 1: by that one, which we have an update on that
Speaker 1: we'll save for the end of the show. And wherein
Speaker 1: we explore the fate or the current location of the
Speaker 1: Ark of the Covenant. But maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Speaker 1: Let's start at the beginning. Here are the facts, right,
Speaker 1: the facts about the Arc of the Covenant, We've mentioned
Speaker 1: that it is ancient, and I'm sure it's familiar to
Speaker 1: all of us, right, conspiracy realists listening to this. Regardless
Speaker 1: of what your spiritual or religious orientation is, you are
Speaker 1: familiar with the concept of the Arc of the Covenant
Speaker 1: due to the circumstances of my early days. I learned
Speaker 1: about the Ark of the Covenant through the Spielberg film
Speaker 1: Indiana Jones Raiders of Lost Ark.
Speaker 2: That's how you learned about it, That's how I learned
Speaker 2: about it. You know, I bet that's true for a
Speaker 2: lot of people because it's hidden away kind of not
Speaker 2: really but a little bit within popular culture until that
Speaker 2: movie comes out. There are a couple of things that
Speaker 2: you could maybe point to. And it's also not a
Speaker 2: major part of this one book of the Bible Exodus.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I defer to your knowledge of biblical text.
Speaker 1: You and Joe McCormick from Stuff to Blow Your Mind
Speaker 1: are my favorite people to quiz about this literature. So
Speaker 1: what exactly is the Ark of the Covenant the actual thing,
Speaker 1: not the Spielberg thing.
Speaker 2: Well, the Ark of the Covenant is it's a couple
Speaker 2: of things. The first thing is a container, this gilded
Speaker 2: or kind of golden not kind of golden container that
Speaker 2: has a couple of attributes to it that holds within
Speaker 2: it something very very precious, and that is stone tablets
Speaker 2: that Moses held forth that you might remember from some
Speaker 2: film or television series where he's standing on top of
Speaker 2: Mount Sinai and he's proclaiming that these this is the
Speaker 2: word of God. These are the commandments that we must follow.
Speaker 1: Right. Thou shalt not kill, that's a big one, right.
Speaker 1: The sins, yeah, the dos and don'ts of how to
Speaker 1: be a righteous person.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 1: The real thing, yeah, not a metaphor not a some
Speaker 1: sort of strange analogy. This is a physical container that
Speaker 1: holds within it the tables of the law, the stone
Speaker 1: tablets that bear the word of God.
Speaker 2: Yes, some of the oldest maintained word of God on stone.
Speaker 1: Right. And you can read various translations of these tablets
Speaker 1: and their construction in Exodus thirty four to one. Correct.
Speaker 1: So a year after Israelites leave Egypt, the Eod after
Speaker 1: the Exodus. Yes, the arc is created according to the legend,
Speaker 1: following the guidelines of a pattern that God gives to
Speaker 1: Moses when the Israelites are living at the foot of
Speaker 1: Mount Sinai and thereafter this this chest it is it
Speaker 1: is gilded, as you said, Matt, it is gold plated.
Speaker 1: But it is a wooden chest, which is the kind
Speaker 1: of wood it's made out of is typically translated as
Speaker 1: acacia wood. And it is carried like a palanquin like
Speaker 1: on staves.
Speaker 2: Like exactly, there are two staves, staffs whatever you want
Speaker 2: to call them. Staves is probably the correct word, but
Speaker 2: their wooden sticks essentially, and they're they're very long, and
Speaker 2: so you can have at least two people on either
Speaker 2: side of it on their shoulders carrying the thing. And
Speaker 2: it's usually portrayed as having cherubs on top of it, yes,
Speaker 2: or some kind of small winged angel creature that looks
Speaker 2: like a young child, yeah, exactly. And there's you know,
Speaker 2: there are so many depictions of it, of what it
Speaker 2: possibly could look like. We can't really give you an
Speaker 2: exact picture, but if you you know, if you go online,
Speaker 2: you can see some of the circular stuff that a
Speaker 2: lot of times is depicted as being on the sides
Speaker 2: of it, right, and just it's basically it would basically
Speaker 2: be gold finishing work.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah. And these these two figures which we will
Speaker 1: examine in detail later in today's episode. They have their
Speaker 1: wings reach out toward one another such that the wings
Speaker 1: form a seat of sorts, and this is called the
Speaker 1: Mercy seat. And the belief is that God Yahweh itself
Speaker 1: sits at this seat. And the arc is sort of
Speaker 1: functioning as a footstool. Yeah. And after its construction, when
Speaker 1: the Israelites are moving or when there is a war occurring,
Speaker 1: this chest is carried two thousand cubits, which today translates
Speaker 1: to about twenty six hundred feet or eight hundred meters
Speaker 1: for the entire rest of the world, in advance of
Speaker 1: the population.
Speaker 2: Yeah, with a mass Okay, don't want to use the
Speaker 2: word exos. When there's mass migration with this group of people,
Speaker 2: this thing goes at the front. It's almost like it's
Speaker 2: the word of God carrying them and taking them on
Speaker 2: the path.
Speaker 1: Yes, And it is a powerful artifact that it's not
Speaker 1: a passive thing. In the stories. The arc is so
Speaker 1: powerful in fact, that it is always carried under a
Speaker 1: veil of skins and cloth. It can never touch the ground. Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much, no one can ever look at it. And
Speaker 1: God speaks directly to Moses in that space created by
Speaker 1: the two cherubim or angels that we mentioned earlier.
Speaker 2: It's like a portal basically, kind of. I don't mean to,
Speaker 2: you know, secularize it too much, but that's what it
Speaker 2: kind of functions as God's little portal.
Speaker 1: And you're I don't think you're being dismissive at all,
Speaker 1: because a lot of the things that we see today
Speaker 1: in secular fiction descend from these ancient religious traditions. And
Speaker 1: we're probably going to ruin several sci fi films for
Speaker 1: you along the way here, because many of the depictions
Speaker 1: of artifacts in science fiction are essentially just retellings of
Speaker 1: this original story. So no one can look at it.
Speaker 1: God speaks to Moses directly through it. It can never
Speaker 1: touch the ground, and it is incredibly important. It is
Speaker 1: credited with parting the sea right, Moses uses it to
Speaker 1: part the Red Sea. It creates other miracles for the tribe,
Speaker 1: for the Israelite community. It also brings woe and misfortune
Speaker 1: upon those who do not treat it respectfully, or who
Speaker 1: wrong it or attempt to use it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely don't try.
Speaker 1: To use it for ungodly purposes. And according to the
Speaker 1: written tradition, the arc is lost in a terrible, terrible
Speaker 1: battle with the Philistines, and the Philistines take it from
Speaker 1: the Israelites, and God punishes the Philistines with plagues, with sickness, illness, terrible, terrible,
Speaker 1: terrible stuff.
Speaker 2: And you know, you're looking for a reason, why is
Speaker 2: this happening. Maybe it's that thing you went and put
Speaker 2: in the treasure room.
Speaker 1: Maybe the Israelites were correct, they say so. Eventually they
Speaker 1: returned the Ark to its original owners, and the Israelites
Speaker 1: keep it at a place called Kiriath Jerem for about
Speaker 1: twenty years, and then King David, again, according to the story,
Speaker 1: takes the Ark to Jerusalem. At first it is housed
Speaker 1: in a tent, and then later it is housed in
Speaker 1: King Solomon's temple.
Speaker 2: Solomon's Temple, Yes, that's the big one. That's the one
Speaker 2: that Freemasonry models all of its buildings after.
Speaker 1: And it is one of the most important buildings in history.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: From that point until Jerusalem's destruction by the Battle Bologians,
Speaker 1: the Arc disappears from the story.
Speaker 2: Yeah. From the Bible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, poo vanished gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it says here in the notes kaiser SoSE style.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were talking about that off air A little bit.
Speaker 1: So that's a spoiler for Usual Suspects, which is a
Speaker 1: great film. I don't I don't think we spoiled that.
Speaker 2: I think we have in the past. Unfortunately, Ah well,
Speaker 2: it's worth a rewatch. The hint is he's no longer
Speaker 2: employed by Netflix.
Speaker 1: Shots fired, Matt. It's it's true on all these accounts,
Speaker 1: this mystery person is no longer employed by Netflix, and
Speaker 1: the arc vanishes from the narrative, and it's it's a
Speaker 1: strange it's a strange absence because it plays such an
Speaker 1: important role, this artifact in the story of the people
Speaker 1: of Israel. So like many physical things, places and artifacts
Speaker 1: and people even described in ancient text, experts today are
Speaker 1: still debating over whether or not it's real. And this
Speaker 1: is a thing that pops up pretty often. Is King
Speaker 1: Arthur Reel tell us about its caliber? What happened to
Speaker 1: Noah's Arc? Is it really in Turkey? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean?
Speaker 2: And one of the things that we find as we
Speaker 2: look into subjects such as this is that there usually
Speaker 2: is something genuine there. Perhaps the stories around it have
Speaker 2: been embellished and grown beyond, well beyond themselves over time,
Speaker 2: but usually there is something there. If it's recorded in
Speaker 2: at least two or three places.
Speaker 1: True true, and especially if they are independent written yes,
Speaker 1: by which we mean those two or three sources are
Speaker 1: not rephrasings of the original source. And now we get
Speaker 1: to the question with the Arc of the Covenant. This
Speaker 1: is fascinating because unlike some other ancient artifacts, there does
Speaker 1: appear to be a genuine physical thing. And ah man,
Speaker 1: I can't wait until we get into the really cool stuff.
Speaker 1: We have to do the background first. But let's talk
Speaker 1: about what could be proven about the arc as a
Speaker 1: physical artifact. So we'll put to the side the claims
Speaker 1: of the extraordinary power of the arc just as a
Speaker 1: physical artifact. Is there an actual thing? According to Baruch Halpern,
Speaker 1: who is a professor of ancient history, classics in ancient
Speaker 1: Mediterranean studies a penn State, as well as religious studies.
Speaker 1: According to him, there is a thing because from his
Speaker 1: perspective he is a very well read expert, the references
Speaker 1: to the arc throughout the religious text are consistent and
Speaker 1: do not change or vary over translation. And this means
Speaker 1: that whatever the original purpose of this artifact was, whatever
Speaker 1: its actual origin story is, he believes there is a
Speaker 1: genuine real physical thing, not a metaphor. Yeah, not some
Speaker 1: sort of symbol that people talk about. You can't look
Speaker 1: inside yourself and find your own arc of the covenant.
Speaker 1: You can't have that young adult novel moment where you're like, ah,
Speaker 1: it was me the whole time. No, this is a
Speaker 1: real thing, this real thing you can hold and you
Speaker 1: shouldn't look at Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, whatever it is, it was genuinely taken by the
Speaker 2: Philistines and then genuinely given back, and it was it
Speaker 2: genuinely had something in it probably, and it exists, it existed.
Speaker 2: And yet here's one of the biggest problems. Ben it
Speaker 2: is so stinkin old, and it was made of wood,
Speaker 2: well gold plated wood.
Speaker 1: Right, right, Yes, that's a question that incorporates some hard science.
Speaker 1: How long does a wooden construct last. It's that's dependent
Speaker 1: upon numerous environmental factors.
Speaker 2: Exactly where's this thing.
Speaker 1: Been, right, and where is it now if it's still around,
Speaker 1: and how old is it? Actually? Because according to various scholars,
Speaker 1: this physical thing, again, this very real container, this artifact
Speaker 1: is so ancient that it may predate Judaism entirely, which sounds.
Speaker 2: Crazy, older than Abraham himself.
Speaker 1: Right, that's that's the idea, because the various biblical stories
Speaker 1: of the Arc may all contain echoes of pre judaic
Speaker 1: religious practices. Holy Moly, you'll see some people calling them
Speaker 1: ancient cults. And it's very difficult to untangle the layers
Speaker 1: of history and myth that have been added to this
Speaker 1: story in the great millennia old game of telephone that
Speaker 1: has written in oral tradition. But we don't want to
Speaker 1: let anybody feel as if it is impossible to find
Speaker 1: the Arc. We hunted down some rumored locations, places where,
Speaker 1: according to various people, you can find the arc today
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen. Again, don't look.
Speaker 2: At it, and don't look at it when we come
Speaker 2: right back from a word for our sponsors.
Speaker 1: And we're back, Matt. You found a number of play
Speaker 1: where people claim the arc exists.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this, I got some information from IO nine that
Speaker 2: had an article that just kind of had a list
Speaker 2: is a list article. But then there are a couple
Speaker 2: other places that have been mentioned just throughout time and
Speaker 2: rumors that have existed. So let's just go through a
Speaker 2: couple of these really quickly, and then later on we
Speaker 2: can expound a lot further on these.
Speaker 1: You know, the one I'm excited about.
Speaker 2: Oh a, I do so one of the first places,
Speaker 2: and this one's a bit of a softball. It's a
Speaker 2: Catholic church. It's the Cathedral of Our Lady of Shot
Speaker 2: in France, and that's in Shot, France, Ar t r.
Speaker 2: E s. It's a really interesting place. It's a World
Speaker 2: Heritage Site. It's it's a very Gothic church, like a
Speaker 2: in this case French Gothic church. So it's got those
Speaker 2: jagged lines with the steeples heading up into the sky.
Speaker 2: It's it's got you know, it's the things that you
Speaker 2: would see if you're looking at a very old cathedral.
Speaker 2: It's got the flying buttresses and it's really I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's very cool. Is built in like eleven hundred eleven
Speaker 2: night No. Eleven ninety four is when it was constructed.
Speaker 2: That's when it began. So you know, perhaps this is
Speaker 2: one of the places where the arc ended.
Speaker 1: Up due to the cathedral's association with the Knights Templar.
Speaker 2: Correct another group that we have we done in Knights
Speaker 2: of Templar episode.
Speaker 1: We are far overdue for the see okay, absolutely should
Speaker 1: that's happening. It's another chance to reference Indiana Jones to
Speaker 1: be completely candid. So the one of the reasons that
Speaker 1: people historically believed that the actual arc could be located
Speaker 1: this cathedral is because of the Knights Templar involvement and
Speaker 1: a carving at the cathedral depicting the arc itself.
Speaker 2: But you know, that's kind of shaky ground to go on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the story here comes from a twentieth century French
Speaker 1: author that said the original nine members of the Night
Speaker 1: Templart discovered the arc early on in the Templar's history
Speaker 1: while they were digging under the Temple mount in search
Speaker 1: of treasure and secret things.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: This is during the Crusades too, where there's lots of
Speaker 2: slaughter and lots of plundering.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, absolutely, And that's not the only place. There's
Speaker 1: also a pretty strong tradition or folkloric narrative that argues
Speaker 1: the Arc of the Covenant, or an arc of the Covenant.
Speaker 1: We'll explain that later exists with the Lemba tribe in
Speaker 1: Southern Africa in Zimbabwe. The Limba tribe may sound familiar
Speaker 1: to some of us because this tribe has Jewish roots.
Speaker 1: Genetic testing infirms the traditional beliefs of this community they've
Speaker 1: always said that they have these roots, that they are
Speaker 1: of the people of Israel, and for a long time
Speaker 1: there were various other forces and institutions that felt this
Speaker 1: was entirely a legend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's really interesting because there is an arc
Speaker 2: of the Covenant that exists that the Limba tribe has
Speaker 2: and they're just a place called the Museum of Human
Speaker 2: Science in Zimbabwe. And the group claims that this arc
Speaker 2: that they have is a replica, like it's not the
Speaker 2: actual arc, except that it's built from the remnants of
Speaker 2: what the arc became after all of these thousands of.
Speaker 1: Years and the forces of decay upon the wood. And
Speaker 1: the argument is that this arc does contain again those
Speaker 1: physical stone tablets.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just the wooden part as a rec creation essentially.
Speaker 1: And then people say, no, you fools. Of course it
Speaker 1: is located in modern day Israel.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's the thing that's been a rumor for
Speaker 2: a long time, and it's essentially, well, there are a
Speaker 2: couple of places where it might be. One of them
Speaker 2: is deep within tunnels underground basically of Jerusalem, that there's
Speaker 2: some secret chambers that exist where artifacts such as the
Speaker 2: Ark of the Covenant are kept.
Speaker 1: Right, And I believe you were telling me off air
Speaker 1: that one of the locations is beneath a lake.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one is. It's a slightly different version of
Speaker 2: this because it's very close. It's Israel's largest freshwater lake,
Speaker 2: Lake Tiberius, and it's supposedly just at the bottom of
Speaker 2: this lake, and it's inaccessible at this point.
Speaker 1: Right, which we see as a common theme for a
Speaker 1: lot of these rumored locations. There's another rumored location, subterranean
Speaker 1: location rather in modern day Jordan, a secret cave or
Speaker 1: mountain known to a select few, right people, people who
Speaker 1: are tasked to guard the Ark. That's another thing we see.
Speaker 1: It's a very consistent thing throughout the narratives, from the
Speaker 1: first mention of the arc to the modern day mentions.
Speaker 1: It always has an elite guard of some sort.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, speaking of an elite guard, sometimes
Speaker 2: it's not a physical elite guard. It's a curse of
Speaker 2: some sort. Because for a long time it was thought
Speaker 2: that perhaps King Tut's tomb, for some reason, not sure why,
Speaker 2: contained in one of these secret chambers that was purported
Speaker 2: to exist the Ark of the Covenant. Yeah, yeah, that
Speaker 2: is up until around this year I think May of
Speaker 2: this year or a little before that, there was some
Speaker 2: extensive scientific testing of King Tut and Commons tomb that
Speaker 2: essentially proved no, there are no super secret, hidden awesome
Speaker 2: treasure chambers.
Speaker 1: Sadly in that particular tomb. Yes, I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because the stories about the tomb and the
Speaker 1: legends of the curse, and the idea that it is
Speaker 1: a repository for arcane, secret valuable things, A lot, a
Speaker 1: lot of these legends spring up when Egyptology is experiencing
Speaker 1: its Western Renaissance. Yeah, you know, and there are a
Speaker 1: ton of British people saying, ah, yeah, it's there, whatever
Speaker 1: it is. What did you just did you say? You
Speaker 1: say the arc of the Covenant. Yeah, yeah, totally that yeah,
Speaker 1: King Tut Man, Oh.
Speaker 2: King Tut's it is?
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, boy, King is We get all the stuff.
Speaker 1: And that has been our completely accurate reenactment of Egyptology
Speaker 1: in Britain, So that one has been disproven primarily through
Speaker 1: the use of modern technology.
Speaker 2: Yes, at least, as you're saying, in that particular King
Speaker 2: Tut's tomb, if there may be, King Tut had multiple tombs.
Speaker 2: You know, he was an enterprising guy. You never know.
Speaker 1: Well, the Valley of the Kings is home to many
Speaker 1: mysteries still, and it would be wonderful to visit one day,
Speaker 1: can we? I think you know what, if Paul is in,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go.
Speaker 2: Okay, Oh he said no, he said no, Yeah, he
Speaker 2: said no.
Speaker 1: Hang on, let me.
Speaker 2: I just got daggers. Oh okay, shrugs a little better.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, write to us and let us know
Speaker 1: if you have explored this area of Egypt. Who want
Speaker 1: to hear your experiences. And while we were waiting to
Speaker 1: hear from you, we're getting to the crux of today's question.
Speaker 1: We've done a very high level look at the history
Speaker 1: of the Ark of the Covenant, the various claims by
Speaker 1: differing experts about what it actually was, and the various
Speaker 1: claims about where it might be. And that leads us
Speaker 1: to the question where is the Ark of the Covenant today?
Speaker 2: And we'll take a different trip, this time to Ethiopia.
Speaker 2: After a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1: Yere's where it gets crazy.
Speaker 2: Oh that's the stuff.
Speaker 1: Oh, watching the video has really brought it back. We
Speaker 1: are traveling to northern Ethiopia, come with us on this
Speaker 1: journey of the mind. We are going to Aksum. Some
Speaker 1: of some of us who have researched ancient African history
Speaker 1: in the past will be familiar with this name spelled
Speaker 1: a x M. It's something that was written out of
Speaker 1: a lot of Western history books. But Axum was a
Speaker 1: very powerful kingdom that was founded around four hundred BCE.
Speaker 1: And the city in modern day Ethiopia Aksum is the
Speaker 1: former capital of this ancient kingdom and it is replete
Speaker 1: with cultural and architectural history and along with that come legends.
Speaker 1: One legend is that the Queen of Sheba herself lived
Speaker 1: in this city. And while you can go back and
Speaker 1: forth about the historosity or that's the fancy word for
Speaker 1: the accuracy of these claims, we can say that in
Speaker 1: the modern day UNESCO recognizes these locations, these sites, these
Speaker 1: constructs and buildings as World Heritage Sites. Whether or not
Speaker 1: all the legends are true, everyone can agree that this
Speaker 1: is Eldridge stuff.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And there are some incredible ruins that you
Speaker 2: can find in an Oxom in modern day Oxom, and
Speaker 2: it's just I mean, it's so cool. Everything from obelisks
Speaker 2: to entire just I don't know what you would call it.
Speaker 2: Just a lot of standing stones, a lot of places
Speaker 2: where there are large parts of stone walls and buildings
Speaker 2: that are that remain. But it's just it is ruins.
Speaker 2: But it is just so cool to see. I've used
Speaker 2: so many pictures of this place over the course of
Speaker 2: stuff they don't want you to know, as as like
Speaker 2: stock footage, just because it is fascinating looking. It's it's
Speaker 2: very very cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And in this city there is is a church.
Speaker 1: It's called the Chapel of the Tablet. It's part of
Speaker 1: the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. The Chapel
Speaker 1: of the Tablet, just if you're a casual passer by,
Speaker 1: looks like an old building. It's not huge, it's clearly,
Speaker 1: clearly ancient, but it's something that you might not look
Speaker 1: at twice as you're strolling through this city that is
Speaker 1: filled to the brim with ancient wonders. Absolutely, but this
Speaker 1: church has a particular claim to fame and importance in Ethiopia,
Speaker 1: in the world at large, and across the Abramaic religions.
Speaker 1: It is the home of the actual arc of the Covenant,
Speaker 1: or so they claim.
Speaker 2: Well, here's the deal. There is only one human being
Speaker 2: that can see this, and it's not unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Well it might be it might be one of us.
Speaker 1: If you happen to be listening, if you're this one
Speaker 1: person and you happen to be a fam stuff. They
Speaker 1: don't want you to know.
Speaker 2: You lonely, one person with such a burden to bear.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the show and for taking
Speaker 2: care of the Ark of the Covenant.
Speaker 1: That's right. There is a single guardian, yeah, appointed for
Speaker 1: life to protect the Ark of the Covenant, and they
Speaker 1: are not allowed to leave the bounds of the temple.
Speaker 1: They're also always male. They are the only person allowed
Speaker 1: to view this artifact.
Speaker 2: And it's a lineal thing too. There's a lineage to
Speaker 2: it because you, as the guardian, you continue protecting and
Speaker 2: protecting and staying in this place and protecting and protecting,
Speaker 2: and then you eventually start to die, and when you're
Speaker 2: on your deathbed and you're laying there taking your last breaths,
Speaker 2: you have to choose somebody or maybe not in that moment,
Speaker 2: but you have to choose the next guardian, and then
Speaker 2: that person has to stay in that place forever, yes.
Speaker 1: Until their death. They have to stay so according to
Speaker 1: the story, this is where the Ark of the Covenant
Speaker 1: ends up due to the actions of an Ethiopian prince.
Speaker 1: According to the Axonite Christians, the Ark of the Covenant
Speaker 1: is first brought to Ethiopia during the reign of King Solomon,
Speaker 1: and the Queen of Sheba travels to meet Solomon and
Speaker 1: has a child with him named Menlik, and this is
Speaker 1: the guy who reputedly takes the ark. So that's according
Speaker 1: to this version of events, that's how it ends up here.
Speaker 1: And it's still around, it hasn't decayed.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The story is essentially that because they had this child,
Speaker 2: at some point the Queen of Sheba travels to meet
Speaker 2: or for travels to see Solomon with the child so
Speaker 2: that they can actually meet the father and the son.
Speaker 2: And then when they return back to where they are
Speaker 2: in Ethiopia, they take.
Speaker 1: It with them. Ah I see. Which is an interesting
Speaker 1: story plot wise, because this is one of the most
Speaker 1: powerful artifacts that Solomon possesses, right.
Speaker 2: And perhaps it's keep it hidden, keep it safe kind
Speaker 2: of thing.
Speaker 1: Maybe it is. Maybe it is. It's just strange that
Speaker 1: he would give this away. If he consentually gave it away, it's.
Speaker 2: A gift to his son.
Speaker 1: There we go. Maybe maybe. Despite the official stance that
Speaker 1: only the guardian of the ark may gaze upon this artifact,
Speaker 1: over the years, several other people have claimed that they
Speaker 1: also happened to see it, one of whom was a
Speaker 1: former administrator of the church. Here's the thing, though, so
Speaker 1: it's it's one person typically looking at it, and a
Speaker 1: couple of other people, for one reason or another, have
Speaker 1: been able to gaze upon it or glance at it.
Speaker 1: Their descriptions all match, just like the descriptions in ancient
Speaker 1: Judaic text. Everyone is looking at the same physical thing,
Speaker 1: and the description furthermore of this arc based in Ethiopia,
Speaker 1: largely jibe with the descriptions of the container mentioned in
Speaker 1: Exodus Exodus twenty five versus ten through twenty two.
Speaker 2: Do you mind if I just go through here and
Speaker 2: read the NIB version?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Please do, please do? And could we bring back
Speaker 1: the music? Oh?
Speaker 2: Okay ooh that sounds so all right. Here we go.
Speaker 2: So this is Exodus twenty five to ten through twenty two,
Speaker 2: New International Version of the Bible. Have them make an
Speaker 2: arc of a kaisha would two and a half half
Speaker 2: cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a
Speaker 2: cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold,
Speaker 2: both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it.
Speaker 2: Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to
Speaker 2: its four feet, with two rings on one side and
Speaker 2: two rings on the other. Then make poles of acacia
Speaker 2: wood and overlay them with gold. Insert the poles into
Speaker 2: the rings on the sides of the arc to carry it.
Speaker 2: Feels very putting together a piece of furniture kind of thing.
Speaker 2: I guess that's kind of what it is. The poles
Speaker 2: are to remain in the rings of this arc. They
Speaker 2: are not to be removed. Then put in the ark
Speaker 2: the tablets of the Covenant Law, which I will give
Speaker 2: you Ben.
Speaker 1: Do you want to continue, well, think you bet. I
Speaker 1: would love to make an atonement cover of pure gold
Speaker 1: two and a half cubits long and a cubit and
Speaker 1: a half wide, and make two cherublem out of hammered
Speaker 1: gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub
Speaker 1: on one end and the second cherub on the other.
Speaker 1: Make the cherubim of one piece with the cover at
Speaker 1: the two ends. The cherubim are to have their wings
Speaker 1: spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The Cherubim are
Speaker 1: to face each other looking toward the cover. Place the
Speaker 1: cover on top of the ark, and put in the
Speaker 1: ark the tablets of the Covenant Law that I will
Speaker 1: give you there above the cover, between the two Cherubim
Speaker 1: that are over the ark of the Covenant Law, I
Speaker 1: will meet with you and give you all my commands
Speaker 1: for the Israelites. Oh, you know, it's very specific, so specific.
Speaker 1: It reads like assembly instructions. Yeah, which it is, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: But twice it's said, hey, look, seriously, put the tablets
Speaker 2: in there. Okay, we got that, or I'm gonna keep going, Okay,
Speaker 2: put the tablets in there. You got this. But then
Speaker 2: that last bit of I will meet you and give
Speaker 2: you all my commands for the Israelites at the end. Yeah,
Speaker 2: in between those wings.
Speaker 1: And the specificity here is crucial to this story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it gives us in the modern day a very
Speaker 1: very good profile of what to look for, what is
Speaker 1: the arc.
Speaker 2: But it also gives anyone who is anyone instructions on
Speaker 2: how to make an arc. Yes, so if you want
Speaker 2: to make a recreation, you could make it to a
Speaker 2: t like seriously, at any point in history, you could
Speaker 2: age it let's say you made it in the sixteen hundreds.
Speaker 2: You could make an arc then, and then it would
Speaker 2: look so aged at this point, unless you had someone
Speaker 2: come in and actually do testing on the wood, it
Speaker 2: would be difficult to prove you know, that it's some
Speaker 2: not some miraculous ancient thing.
Speaker 1: Right. That's that's a really good point. You got me.
Speaker 1: It's not gotcha, man, come on, I go my hands
Speaker 1: up about that one, because it is it is true.
Speaker 1: The specificity is a sword that swings both ways cognitively
Speaker 1: and makes it difficult for people who are attempting to
Speaker 1: track down the actual location of the physical arc. This
Speaker 1: is the stuff they don't want you to know about it.
Speaker 1: Which which of the claimed arcs is replica? Which is
Speaker 1: the real deal? And the most important aspect of the
Speaker 1: arc that would separate it from a replica is going
Speaker 1: to be that it can the true arc contains these
Speaker 1: two tablets.
Speaker 2: Yes, two tablets made of stone. Yeah, that are stone
Speaker 2: cold chisel if you really wanted.
Speaker 1: To oh man, yeah, you're on fire today. That's just
Speaker 1: it's a really good point. It's a really good point.
Speaker 1: So then if that doesn't work as the indicator of
Speaker 1: the true arc, the last thing we are left with
Speaker 1: is the God or the ability of the arc to
Speaker 1: do extraordin supernatural things. Miraculous things will probably be a
Speaker 1: better word in this context, so accept no substitutions. The
Speaker 1: true arc of the Covenant is occupied by God right
Speaker 1: sitting there on the mercy seat. The arc is a
Speaker 1: footstool talking to Moses, or in this case, talking to
Speaker 1: the single guardian there at that church in Axham.
Speaker 2: And you get to ask yourself, what is this guardian
Speaker 2: doing with all the information that he's getting, right? Is
Speaker 2: he like one of the most powerful men on earth
Speaker 2: or perhaps of the most.
Speaker 1: Or does the guardian only guard it and never really
Speaker 1: upon it.
Speaker 2: See, this is what we need. We need to have
Speaker 2: a team of people who are willing to look into
Speaker 2: the arc and try and use it to see whether
Speaker 2: or not faces melt and you know, anything bad happens
Speaker 2: to those people. That's how we begin testing all of
Speaker 2: these various arcs.
Speaker 1: And we have I think we have yet to talk
Speaker 1: about the idea that the arc is a piece of
Speaker 1: anachronistically sophisticated technology. The oh man, that's almost a different episode.
Speaker 1: It maybe we should do that for a different episode.
Speaker 2: But let me just tell you right now. My favorite one,
Speaker 2: personally is that it was some form of radioactive either
Speaker 2: material or weapon, or something that was very, very bad
Speaker 2: that you should not ever open because there's nuclear or
Speaker 2: radioactive energy in there.
Speaker 1: Right, which sounds as if it would be something straight
Speaker 1: out of science fiction. However, I believe a few years
Speaker 1: ago you and I were both startled to discover that
Speaker 1: ancient nuclear reactors did exist.
Speaker 2: In a technical.
Speaker 1: You got it. It's okay, they're not as far as
Speaker 1: we know, they're not man made, but there are on
Speaker 1: the African continent. In modern day Gabon. I want to say,
Speaker 1: there are clear indications that there were three naturally occurring
Speaker 1: nuclear reactors.
Speaker 2: But if you look at ancient Indian texts, perhaps you
Speaker 2: may believe that there was an ancient war of some
Speaker 2: kind with flying machines and weapons that could light up
Speaker 2: the sky and turn deserts to glass, and maybe it's
Speaker 2: a remnant of that war.
Speaker 1: Right. And furthermore, as insane as some of this sounds,
Speaker 1: we're going down a rabbit hole. Please come with us
Speaker 1: or send help. As insane as this stuff sounds, the
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is that human beings are extraordinarily bad.
Speaker 1: At holding on to stuff over time. We've lost people
Speaker 1: and thought they were fictional, to find out they were real.
Speaker 1: We've lost cities and thought they were legends or pure
Speaker 1: acts of symbolism, only to the or find out they
Speaker 1: are real. And we have lost entire civilizations. We have
Speaker 1: done that.
Speaker 2: Humans.
Speaker 1: Now, is it probable that there is ancient sophisticated technology
Speaker 1: that was somehow lost? Yeah, it's only probable because we
Speaker 1: have found or rediscovered ancient technologies, But we haven't found
Speaker 1: anything like a spaceship. They're usually going to be something
Speaker 1: like Greek fire or Damascus steel, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: They're more techniques and the unique mixes of chemicals. But
Speaker 1: it would be really cool to find an ancient aircraft
Speaker 1: please please see. And one of the arguments against that
Speaker 1: is that if something like that. First off, the argument
Speaker 1: is no, you're crazy, that would never happen because we
Speaker 1: would have heard more about it. And then the second
Speaker 1: argument is, oh, even if someone somehow did something like that,
Speaker 1: it would have decayed due to the vast span of
Speaker 1: time and the chasm between the ancient world and the
Speaker 1: modern day. But that brings us back to your original point,
Speaker 1: which I love about a gilded wooden artifact. How could
Speaker 1: it be intact for so long? This question leads many
Speaker 1: scholars to assume that the object within the church in
Speaker 1: Ethiopia is itself a replica. You can call it a
Speaker 1: forgery and call it a replica. I think forgery has
Speaker 1: some negative connotations, so let's just say replica. But they
Speaker 1: think the arc or the artifact in that church, while
Speaker 1: being a replica, is a very old one. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: wasn't made in nineteen seventy or something, right, And this
Speaker 1: is a believable claim because the forgery of holy objects,
Speaker 1: relics of saints, pieces of the True Cross, and so
Speaker 1: on are historically quite common. Yeah there. I cannot remember
Speaker 1: who said it, but there is a great quotation wherein
Speaker 1: someone says They're shown a piece of the quote unquote true.
Speaker 2: Cross, the one that held Jesus right.
Speaker 1: Upon which Jesus Christ was crucified, And they say, you know,
Speaker 1: I've seen so many of these, they're enough to make
Speaker 1: a forest. Wow, how big is this cross? Right? And
Speaker 1: while that is true, while counterfeit relics and artifacts are
Speaker 1: ubiquitous in the ancient world, that doesn't prove or disprove
Speaker 1: the Church's claims it's just something that's important for us
Speaker 1: to know. And of course not everyone agrees spoiler alert
Speaker 1: that this is the actual arc. There are people like
Speaker 1: Ron Wyatt who claimed to have discovered the arc for themselves.
Speaker 1: Wyatt specifically claims that he discovered it in Jerusalem. And
Speaker 1: now we get to the case of Zimbabwe, where the
Speaker 1: Lemba people who we mentioned earlier, claimed to have once
Speaker 1: in the past possessed the original arc and reconstructed it.
Speaker 1: According to their traditions, the original container was destroyed and
Speaker 1: so the Limba, following the word of God, created a
Speaker 1: new container called the Ngoma Lungundhu for these holy stone tablets.
Speaker 1: That translates Goma Lungundhu translates to the drum that thunders.
Speaker 1: I know what an amazing name, right, And this container
Speaker 1: fits our criteria for the true arc in that it
Speaker 1: contains those stone tablets and suitedly has extraordinary powers or capabilities. However,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned earlier in the show, Matt, big problem
Speaker 1: is people can look at this. Yeah, you look directly at.
Speaker 2: It, no no consequence whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's I mean, we're being a big clib with this.
Speaker 1: According to the legends, you're not supposed to look at
Speaker 1: the container out of respect. It's opening it that presents
Speaker 1: the problem. Right. So our big buzzkill for this is
Speaker 1: that other people claim the arc was real, did exist,
Speaker 1: and is not around today, is not extant because the
Speaker 1: Babylonians destroyed it. So these are our options. The arc
Speaker 1: does exist, was destroyed, or was destroyed and then recreated
Speaker 1: to contain these tablets, or it exists in any number
Speaker 1: of coincidentally inaccessible.
Speaker 2: Places like the Vatican Archives.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you brought this up. Now.
Speaker 2: This is just I did not read this anywhere. This
Speaker 2: is just something that came to mind. If you were
Speaker 2: going to safely store an ancient artifact such as this
Speaker 2: a relic, you might want to do it at the
Speaker 2: Vatican Archives because they've got some technology going on there
Speaker 2: to really protect things like this. And it would make
Speaker 2: a whole lot of sense if this is where it
Speaker 2: ended up, if you like think about it, it could.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it would be safe for it to
Speaker 2: be there, and it would be relatively unknown because there
Speaker 2: the Vatican Archives are very difficult to gain access to,
Speaker 2: and if you do gain access, you don't get to
Speaker 2: see everything.
Speaker 1: And it's so oh man. The whole process of accessing
Speaker 1: the Vatican Archives is strange. So there are parts of
Speaker 1: there are parts of the archives wherein you have to
Speaker 1: go there in person and you all are allowed to
Speaker 1: read a restricted work or view a sacred object, but
Speaker 1: you're not allowed to say, hey, so what stuff do
Speaker 1: you have here? Yeah? What's the where's the directory? You
Speaker 1: have to know, you have to know exactly what you're
Speaker 1: looking for, which is such an effective way to prevent
Speaker 1: the curious from casually investigating things.
Speaker 2: Hi, excuse me, I'm looking for the ark of the Covenant.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, I come right this way. I'll show you
Speaker 2: what it is. Sorry, that's perfect.
Speaker 1: No, that's perfect. That's perfect. And that was the Pope right.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, he's a papa.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's true. From nine thirty am to about four
Speaker 1: thirty pm Vatican time, you can just swing by and
Speaker 1: speak to His Holiness himself. It's it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a bookstore. We are at absolutely kidding.
Speaker 2: We're joking, so sorry that that is not meant to so.
Speaker 1: I think I think the Pope himself would find it funny.
Speaker 2: I think at any time you have to be able
Speaker 2: to poke phone a little bit at very very powerful
Speaker 2: people just a tiny bit just to make everything else
Speaker 2: feel okay. No matter what your beliefs are. If it's
Speaker 2: super powerful, you just kind of go, you know what,
Speaker 2: it's okay, right, we can be silly.
Speaker 1: Well, the question holds though. The recreation that that you
Speaker 1: depicted met it still holds up because it leads us
Speaker 1: to another question. If this were in the archives, wouldn't
Speaker 1: someone have talked about it at some point? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And wouldn't it wouldn't okay, If you're a
Speaker 2: major institution like that, rather than just protect it, why
Speaker 2: wouldn't you have it in a protected place?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: You know where it can be displayed for tourists. Can
Speaker 2: you imagine the tourism dollars you could get out of
Speaker 2: that Vatican Church and Vatican Bank.
Speaker 1: Or probably more importantly, for that institution. Can you imagine
Speaker 1: the validity? Yes, it gives to adherents, to believers, to practitioners.
Speaker 1: People would come from across the world just version ratio
Speaker 1: for that, Yeah, just for a chance to view it.
Speaker 1: Why would it be a secret. A poor example of
Speaker 1: this would be the constitutions of various countries, many of
Speaker 1: which are on display, and they in a secular sense
Speaker 1: are sacred objects, right, the foundation of various nations. But
Speaker 1: the states that function under these constitutions and these declarations
Speaker 1: and so on, they want people to see them. They
Speaker 1: have lines out the door for people to go look
Speaker 1: at these things. So it's an interesting conundrum because if
Speaker 1: the arc is stored somewhere and someone knows about it,
Speaker 1: then why is it a secret? So a great question.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and nine, the patriarch of the Ethiopian
Speaker 1: Church had planned to publicly display it display the ark
Speaker 1: of the Covenant that is based there in axiom. However,
Speaker 1: this may have been a rumor. The claim was quickly
Speaker 1: withdrawn and the church said the original reports were disinformation,
Speaker 1: attempting who was implied to pressure the church to allow
Speaker 1: at least photographs of the arc to be disseminated. There's
Speaker 1: another question that you may have been wondering about as
Speaker 1: we were exploring this story. Could there be multiple arcs?
Speaker 2: Yeah? At this point we could say there are at
Speaker 2: least two.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, the Limba arc, right, and the Drum that thunders,
Speaker 1: and then this original arc at least too, at least two.
Speaker 1: And that's if all the stories, that's if the Limba
Speaker 1: narrative and the ancient Jedaic narrative are both correct, Yes,
Speaker 1: but it turns out there are references in other ancient
Speaker 1: text of similar containers used to transport sacred relics. There's
Speaker 1: an author named Thomas Roemer who created a book called
Speaker 1: The Invention of God and Roma writes that throughout the Levant,
Speaker 1: it was common for pre Islamic Bedouins and Arab communities
Speaker 1: to carry a holy chest that contained two sacred stones
Speaker 1: or the statues of two gods, and that later after
Speaker 1: the rise of Islam, these statues were replaced by copies
Speaker 1: of the Qur'an. Oh Wow, and even stranger. This is
Speaker 1: something that I don't think either of us expected to find.
Speaker 1: Matt even stranger. The arc may have originally contained two statues,
Speaker 1: one representing yahweh and one representing a Shira.
Speaker 2: I don't know Ashira.
Speaker 1: Ashira, according to this folkloric research, was the divine consort
Speaker 1: of the god yahweh Aha. So if we're trying to
Speaker 1: be buzzfeedy about it and make a headline God's wife,
Speaker 1: pretty strange.
Speaker 2: Stuff, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: So that's where we leave it for now. We are
Speaker 1: going to return with an episode on the claims of
Speaker 1: ancient technology perhaps associated with the arc, to which we
Speaker 1: can add other historical anachronistic objects such as the Antithera mechanism.
Speaker 2: Dude, So it sounds like we need to start just
Speaker 2: traveling the world trying to prove whether or not this
Speaker 2: thing exists, because I don't think we can do it
Speaker 2: from here. We got to actually get in these rooms,
Speaker 2: tackle the guardians. It'd be like I'm opening this.
Speaker 1: Thing and we can only do this with your help.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, no, wait, don't don't tackle any guardians.
Speaker 2: Don't please, don't do that. I'm totally joking. Yes, but
Speaker 2: we do need you to go explore the world for us,
Speaker 2: if that's okay.
Speaker 1: And let us know if you have been to one
Speaker 1: of the places that we mentioned in this episode, let
Speaker 1: us know what your take is on the art. Now,
Speaker 1: we're pretty careful to separate our opinions from our research
Speaker 1: in every episode of every show we do, and in
Speaker 1: this case, I'll put my opinion out there. I believe
Speaker 1: it was a real historical object. Yeah, yeah, the descriptions
Speaker 1: are consistent enough. Now what did it do? What was
Speaker 1: really inside? How many instances or iterations or versions of
Speaker 1: this thing exist. Those are questions that I don't have
Speaker 1: the answers to. However, there clearly was a physical thing
Speaker 1: and may still be a physical thing there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I tend to agree with you. Yeah, I think
Speaker 2: the physical thing though, if it did exist, it would
Speaker 2: go the way of the limbo one, where it was
Speaker 2: broken down into almost nothing and then it was recreated
Speaker 2: into a new version of itself.
Speaker 1: And that also that makes me wonder about the old
Speaker 1: ship of Thesis problem.
Speaker 2: You remember that one ship of thesis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Ship of Thesis. It's a thought experiment and
Speaker 1: it's baffling. So the idea is the idea is this,
Speaker 1: Let's take a ship and say that over the course
Speaker 1: of the ship's existence, it is repaired and pieces of
Speaker 1: it are replaced, and eventually the ship is made of
Speaker 1: entirely new materials. None of the original ship exists. It's
Speaker 1: just been slowly and completely repaired and replaced. Is it
Speaker 1: the same ship in this case? Is the arc? The
Speaker 1: same arc?
Speaker 2: Is any human being the same human as we constantly
Speaker 2: lose and replace ourselves.
Speaker 1: That's true, that's true. These are huge questions. We want
Speaker 1: to hear. We want to hear your take. We hope
Speaker 1: that you enjoyed this episode as always. Thank you to
Speaker 1: our super producer Paul Dekkantt, thank you to the Guardians
Speaker 1: of the Arc, whomever they may be and wherever they
Speaker 1: are located. And thank you Matt for hanging out here.
Speaker 1: I can't believe we went the whole episode and only
Speaker 1: did a few tasteful Indiana Jones references.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got through it. Well, we did some tasteful
Speaker 2: full references. Then we read the Bible Indiana Jones style.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, we did do it all all right. Well,
Speaker 1: that's that's our cue. That's our cue to call it
Speaker 1: a day. This concludes our episode, but not our show.
Speaker 1: We will be back very soon with more strange and
Speaker 1: fascinating stuff they don't want you to know. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: you can find Matt, Nole, Paul, and myself on the internet.
Speaker 1: We're all over the place. We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook,
Speaker 1: we're on Twitter. We'd love to see you over at
Speaker 1: our community page. Here's where it gets crazy, where we're
Speaker 1: getting a lot of stuff and there's actually I don't
Speaker 1: know if you saw this, Matt, there's a guy who
Speaker 1: I've just decided to never reply to. Oh really, with
Speaker 1: anything other than the phrase and all caps, all Hail
Speaker 1: the King of toast.
Speaker 2: Oh. I saw that. I just saw that. It was
Speaker 2: right before we came in here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna take this. I'm gonna run with it.
Speaker 1: We are active on the page and we would like
Speaker 1: to hear from the most important part of every show
Speaker 1: we do, which is you, specifically you.
Speaker 2: If none of that really, and that's the end of
Speaker 2: this classic episode. If you have any thoughts or questions
Speaker 2: about this episode, you can get into contact with us
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