Abstract
This essay explores depictions of the ark of the covenant in late antique Jewish and Christian texts, as well as ancient art. It explores the interrelationships between the arks of the covenant from the wilderness tabernacle and the first Jerusalem temple, and the ark for Torah scrolls in late antique synagogues. The inaccessibility or invisibility of the arks of the covenant in the tabernacle and temple is contrasted against the visibility and symbolic depictions of the Torah arks in late antique synagogues. Moreover, the author demonstrates how early rabbinic texts depicted Torah scrolls within or alongside the arks of the covenant, fusing all three arks into one. In doing so, the rabbis draw a connection between the late antique present and the biblical past, which can be juxtaposed against claims of discontinuity by other sources from late antiquity.
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