Many archaeologists have spent their lives searching for the Ark of the Covenant, but a prophecy in a banned book of the Bible may reveal when it will be found.

The Apocalypse of Baruch, a two-part book written between the late first and early second centuries BC, is framed as Baruch receiving visions and revelations from God. Its themes include the fate of Israel, the end of times, and the coming of the Messiah. 

The Book of Baruch 2, Chapter 6, states that he saw an angel remove the Ark from the Second Temple, allowing it to be ‘swallowed by the Earth’ before the Babylonian invasion, where it would remain hidden until Israel is restored. 

Baruch ben Neriah, scribe to the prophet Jeremiah, has traditionally been credited as the author. Still, scholars believe he did not write the book as he lived centuries before the text was written.

Because the text is a pseudepigraphal work it was not considered canonical by the Jewish and Christian communities and omitted from the Bible.

Holy scripture describes the Ark of the Covenant as a sacred gold chest built by the Israelites shortly after they fled Egypt around the 13th century BC and holds Moses’ Ten Commandments tablets.

The mystery of the Biblical relic was renewed this week after a DailyMail.com article detailed how the CIA may have located it in the Middle East.

While the CIA never announced the finding, the omitted book of the Bible may provide details about why the artifact has remained lost for nearly 1,440 years.

According to the Bible, the Ark of he Covenant was a sacred, gold-covered wooden chest was constructed sometime around 1445 BCE to hold the Ten Commandments. The covenant was featured in the 1981 film ‘Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark

The Apocalypse of Baruch was discovered in Milan in 1886.

The book, written after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, focuses on whether or not God’s relationship with man is just. 

It is framed as Baruch receiving visions and revelations from God following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

The key passage about the Ark of the Covenant appears in Chapter 6, where Baruch describes how the Temple vessels and sacred items, including the Ark, were preserved before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. 

With the Babylonians surrounding Jerusalem, Baruch fled to the outskirts of the city, the text reads. 

Suddenly, he was lifted high above the city walls by a ‘strong spirit,’ and he saw four angels ‘standing at the four corners of the city’ holding burning torches.

A fifth angel descended from the heavens and told the others: ‘Hold your lamps, and do not light them till I tell you. For I am first sent to speak a word to the earth, and to place in it what the Lord the Most High has commanded me.’ 

The angel entered the Holy of Holies and took the Ark and several other sacred objects.

According to the Bible, Baruch ben Neriah (L) was the scribe of prophet Jeremiah (R). These religious figures are said to have lived during the sixth century and witnessed the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem

When he emerged, issued a booming command to the Earth, saying: ‘Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the mighty God and receive what I commit to you, and guard them until the last times so that, when you are ordered, you may restore them, so that strangers may not get possession of them.

‘For the time comes when Jerusalem also will be delivered for a time, until it is said that it is again restored for ever.’

The Earth then opened up and ‘swallowed’ the Ark and the rest of the artifacts whole.  

The story prophecies that the sacred chest will be found when Israel is restored. In a Biblical context, this refers to the return of the Israelites to their holy land and the establishment of a messianic kingdom. 

But there is no historical or archaeological evidence to suggest these events actually took place, and they are not recognized as legitimate parts of Biblical history. 

The Ark of the Covenant, according to traditional scripture, is a sacred gold chest built by the Israelites shortly after they fled Egypt around the 13th century BC, and Moses placed the Ten Commandments tablets inside it 

What’s more, there is no evidence outside of the Bible to suggest the Ark ever really  existed.  

But scholars who subscribe to the Ark’s existence have long pondered its whereabouts.  

Some historians believe the Ark of the Covenant was originally kept inside the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, before it disappeared during the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

No person alive today has ever laid eyes on it, and the Bible states that only the high priest of the temple of Jerusalem could see it once a year on Yom Kippur, the holiest Jewish holiday. 

Theories about what became of the Ark are limited, but a long-standing religious legend in Ethiopia claims it was brought there by a man named Menelik, who was supposedly the son of the Queen of Sheba and Israel’s King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba was from Ethiopia, but ruled over a kingdom in modern-day Yemen. According to legend, she gave birth to Menelik in her country of origin, but he later traveled to Jerusalem to study with his father.

While there, he supposedly stole the Ark and brought it back to Aksum, Ethiopia. Locals say it has resided in the Church of Out Lady Mary of Zion ever since.

British scholar of Semitic languages and Ethiopian studies Edward Ullendorff claimed he saw the Ark inside the church during World War II, but a source close to Ullendorff later revealed that the ‘artifact’ he saw was nothing more than a replica.

‘What he saw was what you find in any Ethiopian church, which is a model of the Ark of the Covenant,’ Tudor Parfitt, a British historian, writer and former colleague of Ullendorff, told Live Science in 2018.

Apparently, Ullendorff said that ‘it didn’t differ in any way from many arks he had seen in other churches in Ethiopia,’ Parfitt said. ‘It wasn’t ancient and certainly wasn’t the original ark.’ 

Therefore, the location of the ark — and whether or not it ever existed — remain a mystery waiting to be solved.