Early Christian Beliefs About the Ark of the Covenant

Methodius, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna Direct teaching

...moved at the voice of him that cried." By this is signified the veil of the temple drawn before the Ark of the Covenant, which was a type of you. This was so that the truth might be opened to me, and also so that I might be taught, by the types and figures that went before, to approach with reverence and trembling and honor the sacred mystery connected with you. It was also so that, by this earlier shadow-picture of the law, I might be kept from boldly and irreverently gazing with a fixed stare at Him who, in His incomprehensibility, is seated far above all. For if such honor was given by God to the ark, which was the image and type of your sanctity, that no one but the priestly order had access to it or was allowed to enter and see it, since the veil set it apart and kept the vestibule like that of a queen, then what great veneration is due from us, who are the least in creation, to you, who truly are a queen? To you, the living ark of God, the Lawgiver; to you, the heaven that contains Him whom nothing can contain? For since you, O holy virgin, have dawned on the world like a bright day and have brought forth the Sun of Righteousness, that hateful terror of darkness has been d

Origen, Commentary on John Direct teaching

... mind. But the place of the more blessed stones seems to be that called Dabir, where the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord was, and, if I may say so, the handwriting of God, the tables written with His own finger. And the whole house is overlaid with gold. The whole house, we read in 1 Kings 6:21, "he overlaid with gold until all the house was finished." But there were two cherubim in Dabir, a word that the translators of the Hebrew Bible into Greek did not translate satisfactorily. Some, since they did not do justice to the language, translate it as the temple; but it is more sacred than the temple. Now everything about the house was made golden as a sign that the mind, when it has been made completely perfect, judges accurately the things perceived by the intellect. But it is not given to all to come near and know them; and therefore the veil of the court is set up, since to most of the priests and Levites the things in the innermost part of the temple are not revealed.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Direct teaching

...amples were found in things more precisely corresponding and more sacred; especially concerning the Ark of the Covenant, for which the entire tabernacle of witness was made. It was built with these dimensions: its length was two and a half cubits, its width one and a half cubits, its height one and a half cubits; but such a number of cubits does not correspond in their system, yet this design should have been, beyond everything else, clearly presented. Likewise, the mercy-seat does not align with their explanations at all. Moreover, the table of the shew-bread was two cubits long, while its height was one and a half cubits. These stood before the holy of holies, yet not a single number within them indicates the Tetrad, or the Ogdoad, or the rest of their Pleroma. What about the candlestick, which had seven branches and seven lamps? If these were crafted according to the example, it should have had eight branches and an equal number of lamps, following the pattern of the primary Ogdoad, which shines prominently among the Æons, and illuminates the whole Pleroma. They meticulously counted the curtains as ten, declaring these as a symbol of the ten Æons; but they overlooked the cove

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Direct teaching

Moses also enjoined and charged them to place the book of the law again within the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, that it might remain there for a testimony forever.

Methodius, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna Direct teaching

...k again to Nazareth, so that the hope of life might be made known to the world. For this reason the ark of God moved from the inn at Bethlehem. For there He paid to the law that debt of the forty days, due not to justice but to grace, and rested on the mountains of Zion. There, receiving into her pure bosom, as on a lofty throne and one beyond the nature of man, the Monarch of all, she presented Him there to God the Father as the joint-partner of His throne and inseparable from His nature, together with that pure and undefiled flesh which He had assumed from her substance. The holy mother goes up to the temple to show to the law a new and strange wonder, that child long expected, who opened the virgin's womb and yet did not break the barriers of virginity; that child who was above the law and yet fulfilled the law; that child who was at once before the law and yet after it; that child, in short, who was incarnate from her beyond the law of nature. For in other cases, every womb is first opened by union with a man and, being made pregnant by his seed, receives the beginning of conception. Then, through the pains that complete childbirth, it finally brings forth to the light its o

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness

And let the testimony of geometry be the tabernacle that was constructed, and the ark that was fashioned — constructed in most regular proportions, and through divine ideas, by the gift of understanding, which leads us from things of sense to intellectual objects, or rather from these to holy things, and to the holy of holies.

Methodius, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna Direct teaching

And sitting on a living and not inanimate ark, as upon the mercy-seat, He comes forth in solemn procession upon the earth.

Irenaeus, Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus Direct teaching

so is that ark declared a type of the body of Christ, which is both pure and immaculate.

Hebrews 9:4 Direct teaching

having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.

2 Chronicles 5:7 Direct teaching

Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim.

1 Kings 8:6 Supporting witness

Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim.

1 Chronicles 28:18 Direct teaching

And he showed him the weight of the utensils of the altar of incense, which was of pure gold, and the plan of the chariot of the cherubs that spread out their wings, and overshadowed the ark of the covenant of the Lord.

Exodus 27:21 Direct teaching

in the tabernacle of the testimony, without the veil that is before the ark of the covenant, shall Aaron and his sons burn it from evening until morning, before the Lord: it is a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations of the children of Israel.

1 Chronicles 15:28 Direct teaching

And all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of a horn, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, playing loudly on lutes and harps.

Joshua 3:6 Direct teaching

And Joshua said to the priests, Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and go before the people: and the priests took up the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and went before the people.

Numbers 10:33 Direct teaching

And they departed from the mount of the Lord a three days’ journey; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them a three days’ journey to provide rest for them.

Deuteronomy 31:26 Direct teaching

Take the book of this law, and ye shall put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; and it shall be there among you for a testimony.

1 Kings 8:9 Supporting witness

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

2 Chronicles 5:10 Supporting witness

There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.

Revelation 11:19 Direct teaching

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

Origen, Commentary on John Direct teaching

...rlier one, since religion had by this time become clearer and had taken on a fitting order. For the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord our God is carried in procession by the priests and Levites, and the people follow the ministers of God, it also accepting the law of holiness. For Joshua says to the people in Joshua 3:5, “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; the Lord will do wonders among you.” And he commands the priests to go before the people with the Ark of the Covenant, in which the mystery of the Father’s divine arrangement concerning the Son is plainly shown, and that arrangement is highly exalted by Him who gave the Son this office: “That at the name of Jesus,” as Philippians 2:9-11 says, “every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” This is pointed out by what we find in the book called Joshua: “In that day I will begin to exalt you before the children of Israel.” And we hear our Lord Jesus saying to the children of Israel in Joshua 3:9-10, “Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God. By this you shall know that the living God

Origen, Commentary on John Direct teaching

For the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord our God is carried in procession by the priests and levites, the people following the ministers of God, it, also, accepting the law of holiness.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Supporting witness

and, above all, in the case of the Ark of the Covenant, on account of which the whole tabernacle of witness was formed.

Methodius, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna Direct teaching

...the Lord, according to 2 Corinthians 3:18, and the majesty of the divine ark itself. Today the most holy assembly, carrying on its shoulders the heavenly joy that generations had awaited, shares it with the human race. Old things have passed away, according to 2 Corinthians 5:17. New things have burst into flower, and they do not fade away. No longer does the stern decree of the law rule, but the grace of the Lord reigns, drawing all men to itself by saving long-suffering. No second Uzziah is invisibly punished for daring to touch what may not be touched, as in 2 Samuel 6:7, for God Himself invites us, and who will stand back in fear? He says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,” in Matthew 11:28. Who, then, will not run to Him? Let no Jew oppose the truth by looking at the type that went before in the house of Obededom, as in 2 Samuel 6:10. The Lord has plainly come to His own. And seated on a living ark, not an inanimate one, as on the mercy seat, He comes forth in solemn procession upon the earth. The tax collector, when he touches this ark, goes away justified. The harlot, when she comes near it, is reshaped, so to speak, and becomes chaste. The leper, when h

Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness

But the place of the happier stones appears to be that called Dabir, where the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord was, and, as I may say, the handwriting of God, the tables written with His own finger.

Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness

One will be a stone of the inmost parts, where the ark is, and the cherubim, and the mercy-seat;

Irenaeus, Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus Direct teaching

For as the ark [of the covenant] was gilded within and without with pure gold, so was also the body of Christ pure and resplendent;

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

...ng lava from the fountain which is enclosed within, and sealed with a divine seal? And since Noah's ark was nothing else than the sacrament of the Church of Christ, which at that time, when all outside were perishing, kept safe only those who were within the ark, we are plainly taught to look to the unity of the Church. As the Apostle Peter also laid down, saying, "Thus also shall baptism in like manner make you safe" (1 Peter 3:21). This shows that those who were not in the ark with Noah not only were not cleansed and saved by water, but at once perished in that deluge. So now also, whoever are not in the Church with Christ will perish outside, unless they are converted by penitence to the only and saving lava of the Church.

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Supporting witness

Noah came out of the ark on the twenty-seventh day of the month Jiar, in the second year. The ark kept sailing for five whole months, and it moved back and forth on the waters. Then, over a period of fifty-one days, it came near the land. After that, it did not keep floating around any longer. Instead, it moved in turn toward the four main directions of the earth, and at last it came to rest facing east. We also say that this was a sign of the cross. And the ark was a symbol of the Christ who was expected. For that ark was the means of salvation for Noah and his sons, and also for the cattle, the wild animals, and the birds. And Christ too, when He suffered on the cross, delivered us from accusations and sins, and washed us in His own most pure blood.

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Supporting witness

...he world, born of the Virgin. She was the ark overlaid with pure gold, with the Word within and the Holy Spirit without. So the truth is demonstrated, and the ark made manifest. From the birth of Christ, then, we must reckon the 500 years that remain to make up the 6000, and thus the end shall be. And John declares that the Savior appeared in the world, bearing the imperishable ark, His own body, at a time that was the fifth and half. "Now it was the sixth hour," he says, intimating by that one-half of the day. But a day with the Lord is 10000 years. Therefore the half of that is 500 years. For it was not fitting that He should appear earlier, because the burden of the law still endured, nor yet when the sixth day was fulfilled, for the baptism is changed, but on the fifth and half, in order that in the remaining half time the gospel might be preached to the whole world, and that when the sixth day was completed He might end the present life.

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Supporting witness

...out sin, made of imperishable wood as regards His humanity; that is, inwardly of the virgin and the Holy Ghost, and outwardly of the word of God, like an ark overlaid with the purest gold.

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

And as the Ark of Noah was nothing else than the sacrament of the Church of Christ, which then, when all without were perishing, kept those only safe who were within the ark, we are manifestly instructed to look to the unity of the Church.

Irenaeus, Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus Supporting witness

For as that ark was gilded with pure gold both within and without, so also is the body of Christ pure and resplendent, being adorned within by the Word, and shielded on the outside by the Spirit, in order that from both [materials] the splendour of the natures might be exhibited together.

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Supporting witness

And, moreover, the ark made of imperishable wood was the Saviour Himself.

Anonymous, Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian Supporting witness

5. That ark bore the figure of the Church, as we have said above, which was stricken here and there to such a degree by the tumultuous waters.

Anonymous, Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian Supporting witness

which ark was saved alone, with those who were in it, whereas the other things which were not found therein perished in the deluge.

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

1 Peter 3:20-21 proving and attesting that the one Ark of Noah was a type of the one Church.