# "Raiders of the Lost Ark". What was happening when it opened? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748 "2012-05-13T02:32:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/141 "2014-09-01T21:03:12Z")
I don’t know what anyone could do with it, save give it to Rebbe Schnerson. No, wait, he was still in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/142 "2014-09-01T22:36:19Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > I always assumed the “Don’t look at it!” was a direct reference to Exodus, the second book in both the Bible and the Torah, and the one in which God gives the Israelites the Ten Commandments. I thought there were 15 Commandments. What happened to the other 5? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/143 "2014-09-01T22:57:27Z")
> [@Mince](#): > > I thought there were 15 Commandments. What happened to the other 5? 613 Mitzvah at last count. I believe the ten are the most important. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/144 "2014-09-01T23:57:21Z")
Ah, sort of like the Bill of Rights. 10 must be a convenient, round number. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/145 "2014-09-02T00:04:30Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > . . . I also wonder if the other crates in the warehouse are also “Ark-like” items, or just old airplane parts and surplus typewriters. I guess it depends on the answer to the first question. This was in a panel in an old “Cutey Bunny” comic book. (Okay, I have low tastes.) The warehouse was full of things like the 500 mpg carburetor, the original formula to Coca Cola, Amelia Earhart’s whereabouts, the Area 51 UFO, the missing 18 1/2 minutes of secret White House tapes, etc. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/146 "2014-09-02T00:27:00Z")
> [@Mince](#): > > Ah, sort of like the Bill of Rights. 10 must be a convenient, round number. Probably. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/147 "2014-09-02T00:34:14Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > This was in a panel in an old “Cutey Bunny” comic book. (Okay, I have low tastes.) The warehouse was full of things like the 500 mpg carburetor, the original formula to Coca Cola, Amelia Earhart’s whereabouts, the Area 51 UFO, **the missing 18 1/2 minutes of secret White House tapes** , etc. \*emphasis added In _X-Men: Days of Future Past_, there is a scene where an entourage (military members, Secret Service, cabinet members [presumably], members of Congress) assembled in Nixon’s Oval Office. Nixon says he wants to discuss the mutant problem “off the record.” Someone reaches into a drawer in Nixon’s desk and switches off a tape recorder. I laughed my ass off at the reference, but was disheartened when no one else laughed. It was a typically younger crowd and I wondered if recent generations have mostly abandoned learning history that is not contemporary or “forced” on them through education (sad, given the now relative ease of learning such things through technology), or if I was laughing at something that generally just wasn’t funny. I thought it was. Sorry for the hijack, it was just bothering me. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/148 "2014-09-02T01:30:37Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Thematically, the sand represents the folly of the Nazis efforts. They viewed the ark as a tool they could use to bend god to their will. They expected the box to be filled with riches, but wealth, like all things mortal, is transitory. Only faith is eternal. The Nazis put their faith in the things of this world, and in the end, all they had was dust. That was kind of my take as well, with one more twist. I figured that if you’re not of the anointed priesthood, you don’t even get to see the tablets- you just see sand. Had Jerusalem’s Chief Rabbi (or whoever) opened it, he would probably have seen the tablets, but not the Nazis for sure. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/149 "2014-09-02T01:54:46Z")
> [@Mince](#): > > Ah, sort of like the Bill of Rights. 10 must be a convenient, round number. More like, “Even Goyim can manage this.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/150 "2014-09-02T03:24:32Z")
I thought that “even goyim can manage this” was the Seven Commandments, not the Ten. And the Ten are viewed more as categories of commandments, into which the others can be sorted. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/151 "2014-09-02T11:47:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I thought that “even goyim can manage this” was the Seven Commandments, not the Ten. And the Ten are viewed more as categories of commandments, into which the others can be sorted. Dammit, I’ll have to talk to Rabbi… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/152 "2014-09-02T11:52:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I thought that “even goyim can manage this” was the Seven Commandments, not the Ten. And the Ten are viewed more as categories of commandments, into which the others can be sorted. Correct, the seven commandments given to Noah are assumed to apply to all peoples (even pagans.) Christianity took the Ten as applicable to them, as the supposed heirs of the covenant with Israel. Judaism takes the whole mass (613) of commandments. The Ten specifically are actually counted differently by Jews and Christians (and even within some sects of Christianity.) ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/153 "2014-09-02T13:40:46Z")
> [@Mince](#): > > I thought there were 15 Commandments. What happened to the other 5? Moses [dropped the third tablet](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I48hr8HhDv0). Wait, wrong movie… ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/154 "2014-09-02T13:53:52Z")
> [@bump](#): > > That was kind of my take as well, with one more twist. I figured that if you’re not of the anointed priesthood, you don’t even get to see the tablets- you just see sand. There’s a [church in Ethiopia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_Mary_of_Zion) that claims to house the Ark and supposedly only one monk is allowed to see the Ark. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/155 "2014-09-02T17:18:03Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > the Ark didn’t do much against the Romans, because it had been lost some 500 years earlier. Back in 587 BCE is when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and spirited away the Ark to an unknown fate. There is no mention of the Ark in biblical literature after the Babylonian Exile, and it is presumed to have been lost then. > > See: [What happened to the Ark of the Covenant? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1401/what-happened-to-the-ark-of-the-covenant) I don’t know if any present Jewish community has any regard for the Books of the Maccabees, but without looking up chapter & verse, I know they claim that the prophet Jeremiah took it from the Temple & stashed it in a cave. Then again, some Anglo-Israelites claim he took it & various other relics such as David’s harp & Jacob’s stone pillow to Ireland, and most importantly the Judean princesses who married into the Royal line there. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/156 "2014-09-02T17:38:37Z")
I kinda wished Spielberg would have read 1 Samuel 5:9 and applied the fine print. There has to be one person out there that wanted to see Marion apply Preparation H and that guy got robbed. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/157 "2014-09-02T17:51:42Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Dammit! :mad: > > 😛 Yes. That’s just what the Hebrews thought. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/158 "2014-09-02T23:01:18Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I don’t know if any present Jewish community has any regard for the Books of the Maccabees, but without looking up chapter & verse, I know they claim that the prophet Jeremiah took it from the Temple & stashed it in a cave. I think I covered that in the Staff Report already referenced, but basically the Book of Maccabees was written in the years after 165 BCE, and Jeremiah died around 400 years earlier, so it’s not like an eye-witness account. Jews do NOT include that book in their bible, it’s regarded as an interesting historical document but certainly not infallibobble. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/159 "2014-09-03T02:11:40Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > I think I covered that in the Staff Report already referenced, but basically the Book of Maccabees was written in the years after 165 BCE, and Jeremiah died around 400 years earlier, so it’s not like an eye-witness account. Jews do NOT include that book in their bible, it’s regarded as an interesting historical document but certainly not infallibobble. Is the book of Maccabees in the Catholic Bible? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748/160 "2014-09-03T07:24:40Z")
I always thought the business of Indy and Marian not looking was a reference to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at the destruction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark-what-was-happening-when-it-opened/621748.md?page=9)