3656 — The Ark and the Temple
Was the ark in the temple when Jesus was here on earth? A. K. No, it was not. There was missing from Herod's temple the ark, and some other things. The candlestick was there, and the table of showbread. These are shown on the arch of Titus in Rome, among the trophies of his triumph over Jerusalem. We are told in 2 Maccabees 2 (a book of the Apocrypha), verses 4-8, that when the temple was destroyed Jeremiah, as he was commanded of God, took the tabernacle and the ark and went forth into the mountain where Moses went up and beheld the heritage of God, found there a chamber in the rock, and there deposited the ark and the altar of incense. Some of them who went with him sought to find it, but could not, and Jeremiah reproved them, and told them that it should not be again known until God gather the people again together, and mercy come.