In the 4/4/2003 column on the Holy Grail, Cecil says “the Grail-as-mystical-object doesn’t appear in ancient Christian texts–unlike, say, the Ark of the Covenant.”
Um, Cecil, I’m not 100% sure about this, but I believe that the latter is an artifact from the Old Testament – which would make it an ancient Hebrew text.
A trivial point, perhaps, but the Ark is part of Judaic tradition, not Christian.
Link to Cecil’s column: What is the Holy Grail? – CKDH
Yes but the old testiment is part of the Christian tradition too.
Read carefully: it is not derived from an “ancient Christian text”. It is derived – as in “its ultimate source is” – texts that predate Christ by some thousands of years (and I’m not going to commit to how many thousands – ask Cecil).
The Old Testament is ancient, and it is a Christian text. It was not originally a Christian text, to be sure, but it is now.
First, welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board, japastor, glad to have you with us.
When you start a new thread, it’s helpful to others if you provide a link to the column upon which you are commenting. Yeah, it’s obvious today, when it’s on the front page, but in a few weeks, it will be buried amongst the thousands of other columns. So the link helps keep future readers on the same page, so to speak. I have edited your post to add that link. No biggie, you’ll know for next time.
OK, to your point. Cecil says: “…the Grail-as-mystical-object doesn’t appear in ancient Christian texts–unlike, say, the Ark of the Covenant.” I don’t see your problem. He’s not discussing the origin of the Ark of the Covenant, he’s describing the origin of the GRAIL. The Grail could not appear in pre-Christian texts, not under any remote fantasy, for obvious reasons. Thus, the earliest texts in which the Grail could appear would be “ancient Christian texts.” And Cecil is saying that the Grail doesn’t appear there.
However, ancient Christian texts DO mention the Ark of the Covenant – Letter to the Hebrews, specifically, is a Christian text that mentions the Ark of the Covenant. True enough, the Ark is mentioned in pre-Christian texts, such as the Hebrew Bible. But that’s not what Cecil is talking about. Cecil is saying that there are ancient “sacred objects” mentioned in ancient Christian texts, that the Ark of the Covenant is one such, and that the Grail isn’t.
In short, Cecil does NOT say what you’ve accused him of saying – he does NOT say that the Ark is “derived from” ancient Christian texts. He says it “appears” in ancient Christian texts, and there is a difference between “appears in” and “is derived from.”
Meanwhile, if you’d like to see the Straight Dope report on the Ark of the Covenant, its What happened to the Ark of the Covenant?. If you go to the part of our website called ARCHIVES and search on “Covenant”, you’ll find about four follow-up staff reports – a record to this day – and more than you’d ever want to know about the Ark of the Covenant.