In a heavily hyped new book,  British scholar Tudor Parfitt claims to have found “The Lost Ark of the Covenant” after a twenty year search. Actually, the artifact he discovered in Zimbabwe is a “sacred drum” worshipped by the Lemba tribe, which claims descent from ancient Israelites. It's true that DNA testing shows these remote Africans as geneologically related to the Kohanim (or priestly families) among the Jews, but unfortunately, carbon dating shows their “ark” as less than 700 years old, so it can’t be a Biblical relic. Parfitt (who was a guest on my radio show last week) claims it may be a “replacement ark,” an argument that gives reason to respect, rather than doubt, religious tradition. Ancient Jewish sources say the original ark, containing the tablets of the law, was hidden as a precautionary measure before the Babylonians destroyed the first Temple in the sixth century B.C. It was never found, so the Second Temple functioned more than 500 years with no sacred ark, no revered tablets of the law. The priests easily could have fabricated their own “replacement ark,” but their failure to do so indicates that the original existed and exuded, as reported, an incomparable spiritual power. Parfitt's long search also suggests that this lost ark won't be found any time soon -- and will remain hidden from both saints and scholars.