Dex says : “In Exodus 16:33-34, Moses instructs Aaron to place the jar of manna “before the Lord, to be kept throughout the ages.” Aaron follows instructions, and places the jar “before the Pact, to be kept.” The Hebrew is very clear–the preposition is “before” (L-P-N-Y) not “in” (B-) … and you are correct that this is shorthand for “before the Ark that contains the Pact.” The Pact is the covenant, the Ten Commandments. So the jar of manna was put in front of the Ark, not in it.”
Could not the term “before” indicate before the Pact, but still inside the Ark? In other words, the Tablets would be at the back of the Ark, and the manna in the front?
That Staff Report was a lonnnnng time ago, and I don’t want to revisit the issue. Your translation seems inconsistent with the notion that it was to be on display. Inside the Ark wouldn’t have been visible. And note that the references in Kings and Chronicles say that the ONLY thing inside the Ark were the two tablets. So, if the text is to be viewed as internally consistent, one must assume that the jar of manna and Aaron’s staff were not IN the Ark… at least, not as of the time of the writing of the book of Kings.
Obviously, if one doesn’t think that the biblical texts need to be internally consistent, one is free to suppose just about anything.
BTW, the assumption of consistency does not imply a single author, whether divine or human. Books were accepted or rejected for inclusion in the bible based on whether they were consistent with the other books, with the accepted theology, etc.
