Puzzled by a passage in the Old Testament implying that the Ark of the Covenant-the most sacred item in monotheistic Judaism-was not only touched by forbidden human hands but that some of its contents had been removed, academician Gene Jinsiong Cho set out to learn the fate of those missing articles. Based on compelling evidence from linguistics, genetics, archaeology, and anthropology, Cho proposes that the sacred regalia of the ancient Hebrews were carried by itinerant tribes through centuries of migration across Central Asia and finally to the Japanese archipelago-where the articles (or...

Puzzled by a passage in the Old Testament implying that the Ark of theCovenant-the most sacred item in monotheistic Judaism-was not onlytouched by forbidden human hands but that some of its contents had beenremoved, academician Gene Jinsiong Cho set out to learn the fate of thosemissing articles.Based on compelling evidence from linguistics, genetics, archaeology, andanthropology, Cho proposes that the sacred regalia of the ancient Hebrews werecarried by itinerant tribes through centuries of migration across Central Asia andfinally to the Japanese archipelago-where the articles (or their...