I picked
this book up at a time, years ago, when I was enthralled by the idea of the
Templars and the many secrets that have followed them through the ages. Although many of those secrets are more conspiracy
then truth, I find the stories of the Templars endlessly intriguing and can’t
help but wonder what the truth is behind many of the tales. Books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail left me with a huge thirst for more stories
about this mysterious group of soldiers for God. Unfortunately, this book has very little to
do with the history of the Templars or any secrets they may have carried with them. Although the Ark of the Covenant comes second
in the title, this book deals solely with the author’s quest to find the
illusive relic of Old Testament lore.
The book is
very much split into two parts. The
first is a study of the Old Testament and what may have actually happened that
the authors confused for acts of God, and a search for the Ark of the Covenant
and the real site of Mount Sini. The second is the description of a treasure
hunt in England
for what may be actual relics from the Ark. It is only in this second part that we get a
mention of the Templars and as much as their history leads Phillips to the
hunt, it is really only a few pages that contain any real tales of the
Templars. Most of the hunt is led by
clues from a more modern English man who seems to have found the relics first,
yet nobody believed him so he hid them again.
Just
because the book has a misleading title doesn’t mean it lacked interesting
subject matter. Graham Phillips has
spelled out a wonderful breakdown of Old Testament stories and what may have
really happened. His theories on the
Plagues of Egypt are incredible interesting and plausible and his search for Mount
Sini is nothing short of
exciting. His arguments are easy to
follow and well constructed. I don’t
have enough of a background in ancient history to say that there is validity to
his findings, but one can’t help but find them interesting none the less. The hunt for the relics is exciting in its
own way, with some of the events of the hunt mystifying.
Though the book lacks
much of a satisfying conclusion, and as I stated earlier, has an extremely
misleading title, it was still a very enjoyable read. With any of these types of books it’s hard to
know how valid the research is, but that really doesn’t take away from their
fun. Even as theories the ideas brought
up are crazy interesting and highly enjoyable.
If you’re interested at all in ancient history, this is an easy and
interesting read that opens up tons of questions and hours of thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment