Original subtitles

A sacred golden chest that contained the power of God.

A lost chalice that held the blood of Jesus Christ.

And a spear that makes its wielder unbeatable on the battlefield.

We've all heard stories from the Bible that include powerful spiritual objects,

such as the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail.

Is it possible that these objects were not merely fictional creations, but

rather actual pieces of history that have been lost for centuries? And if so,

could some of these artifacts really possess incredible powers, as the Bible

tells us?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

In eastern Turkey, some 200 miles southeast of the Black Sea, there's a

volcano that is known as Mount Ararat.

At a height of nearly 17 ,000 feet, Mount Ararat is the highest point in

For centuries, this peak has been considered sacred, because according to

Bible, after God sent the great flood to cleanse the earth, Mount Ararat is the

location. where Noah's Ark finally came to rest.

The story of the great flood and Noah's Ark is one of the most famous stories in

the Bible. The story goes that God is so disappointed at the

sinfulness of all of humankind that he's going to flood the earth.

He's basically going to destroy everything.

And he finds one righteous human, Noah.

And what God wants Noah to do is build this massive 450 -foot -long ark

with three levels on it and fill it with all of the animals of the earth and his

family, and those will be the only survivors of the flood.

As the story goes...

Noah loaded his family and two of every kind of animal onto the ark.

And then God made it rain for 40 days and 40 nights, flooding the earth so

even the highest mountains were covered with water.

After the water subsided, Noah, his sons, and their wives left the ark

and proceeded to repopulate the earth.

The newest flood story.

is this really powerful story, because here's this transcendent God who loves

us, who's created human beings, but also has a way for us to behave in the

world. And when we don't behave in the right way, this God will punish us.

That's the power of God, sometimes doing extraordinarily horrific kinds of

things, sometimes doing wonderful things.

Historians have long debated whether the story of Noah, the ark, and the great

flood, is only a myth, or if it was based on real events.

There are some scholars who believe it's possible that a massive deluge did in

fact take place.

And as evidence, they point to the fact that the Bible isn't the only ancient

text that contains an account of a great flood.

The flood story in the Bible isn't the oldest flood story.

The oldest flood story that we have in the Western tradition is in the

story, in which there's this old man, Utnapishtim, who has survived a flood,

where it's rained for 40 days and 40 nights. And this happens also in the

of Noah. So for many of us looking at these stories across cultures, there's

idea that, yeah, clearly this happened at some point in human history, this

flood that people remember, and they write about in different ways.

In addition to historical accounts, might there also be geological evidence

suggest that the Great Flood actually happened?

In 1997, geologists William Ryan and Walter Pittman published a study which

concluded that the biblical story may have been describing a massive

of the Black Sea that took place in the 6th century BC.

The idea that Noah's Flood was triggered when the Black Sea flooded, It's rooted

in the basic geological observation that at the end of the last ice age, when

the ice melted off the poles, it raised sea level.

And what happened when sea level rose? The Mediterranean overtopped the

and spilled into the Black Sea.

That event raised the level of the water in what's now the Black Sea by about

150 feet within weeks to months.

It would have been catastrophic to the peoples at that time. It would have

literally flooded the world known to them.

Perhaps it actually stated the story of Noah's flood.

Was the biblical flood based on the actual deluge of the Black Sea?

It's an intriguing notion.

But if the flood really took place, then is it possible that we might be able to

find Noah's Ark?

Well, some researchers argue that the Ark may have actually been rediscovered

a number of aerial photographs that have been taken at the foot of Mount Ararat.

The photos reveal a boat -shaped formation embedded in the surface of the

mountain.

There are those who believe that this rocky structure was once Noah's Ark, and

that the wood hardened and turned to stone over time, a process that is known

petrification.

It's a streamlined, boat -shaped object that's sitting there, and there's

nothing else in the region that matches that, so this is a very distinct object.

According to the Bible, the Ark landed in the mountains of Ararat. And Genesis

chapter 6, the Ark was 300 cubits long.

Now, if you do the conversion, 300 cubits equals 515 feet. And that is

the length of this boat formation.

Does the remarkable similarity between this rocky structure and what's written

in the Bible suggest that it is the remains of Noah's Ark?

Since 2019, a group of archaeologists leading the NOAA's ARC scientific

have used new technology to learn more about this mysterious formation.

We hired an American ground penetrating radar team to create 3D images of what

is below the ground.

About 20 feet down, they found what looked to be three different layers.

In the Bible, the ARC had three decks.

And according to these scans, you can see the three decks that the Bible says

that the giant boat had.

We are hoping what will happen next year is the Turkish government would then

proceed on with a small -scale excavation of the site to show what

at below the surface.

This would be a very exciting worldwide headline discovery if this is proven to

be Noah's Ark.

If you could find evidence for this story, that would actually improve the

biblical account and maybe get people more interested in what is written in

these holy books.

For the faithful, the search for definitive evidence of either Noah's Ark

Great Flood is not only about archaeology.

It's also a quest to understand how the power of God works in our world.

An act of God is precisely something that we cannot explain in rational,

scientific terms.

The Bible tells us that Noah was a righteous man. It tells us God orders

build the ark, but doesn't tell anyone else.

It's this miraculous act of God that, by definition, goes beyond the flooding of

the earth, where God allows God's chosen people to live.

And so there are these astonishing kinds of things where God intervenes in your

ministry. So it's that balance of the divine favor with the divine wrath.

Cleveland, Texas.

In this small town, located on the outskirts of Houston, stands the King of

Saints Church.

On the surface, it looks like any number of churches scattered throughout the

region.

But inside, there's something that makes it stand out from the rest.

Within this church is a remarkably accurate reproduction of the Ark of the

Covenant.

My father and I built this replica of the Ark of the Covenant because it makes

the Scripture come alive in a new and unique way because you're not just

a description in a book or seeing a picture. This is 3D built according to

specifications in the Scripture.

Exodus chapter 25, Moses gives the blueprint or the detailed instructions

to build the Ark.

And that's the instructions he used to build this with all the dimensions.

The Bible describes two...

which are winged sphinxes.

And they're facing each other, as we see here according to the scriptures.

And the cherubim had the body of a lion, the face of men, the wings of an eagle.

In other depictions of the Ark of the Covenant, you see humanoid angels with

wings, or cherubs.

But this reflects the description of cherubim as we find in the book of

And they look upon their mercy seat, which is the cover of the Ark of the

Covenant.

Our congregation sees this Ark as a unique way to show that God is King and

through the Ark, which represents the kingship of God and also represents a

that God spoke spiritually into his written word. We have this replica of

Ark of the Covenant as a symbol of that importance.

Throughout history, the Ark of the Covenant has been one of the most sacred

artifacts in the Judeo -Christian tradition.

But just what exactly is the Ark?

The Ark of the Covenant is fascinating because it's the most important ritual

object that Judaism has ever had.

The Ark is first introduced scripturally in the Book of Exodus, where God gives

Moses instructions to build an ark for carrying the Ten Commandments.

It has very detailed instructions.

It should be two and a half cubits long, like one and a half cubits tall, and

one and a half cubits wide, and it's plated with gold inside and out.

The Ark was covered by this gold lid called the Mercy Seat.

Now, it's also known as the Throne of God, mainly because we have a passage in

Samuel 4 .4 that mentions how God is enthroned between the cherubim.

So this indicates to us that this mercy seat was in fact understood as the

throne of God.

The Ark of the Covenant for a time was the center of the Israelite religion.

It represented the presence of the Hebrew God, Yahweh, on earth.

Meaning, if there was a question that needed to be answered.

The Ark was the place that you would go and petition God.

If you went into battle, the Ark would be taken, marched into battle.

As long as the presence of God represented by the Ark was with Israel,

they couldn't be conquered.

The Ark of the Covenant was God in the midst of the Israelites.

The presence of God himself held within a golden chest?

Certainly a profound notion, which is perhaps the reason why the Ark has long

inspired worldwide fascination and reverence.

The Ark of Covenant is arguably the most important and intriguing artifact in

human history because we're talking about something made by human hands that

contains the power of God.

In fact, the word Ark means sacred container.

So this is fascinating, this idea that humans could build something that could

contain or create this kind of extraordinary divine connection.

It was an extremely powerful thing. When the Israelites were wandering through

the desert for 40 years, they not only carried the Ark with them, the Ark kind

of led the way. It was their ancient navigational device, the Israelite

GPS, that showed them where to go.

And the legend says it would zoom up into the sky, move three days ahead, and

then the people would follow along behind it.

Many people are familiar with the famous story of the parting of the Red Sea

during the Exodus narrative when the Israelites were escaping Egypt.

A lot of people aren't familiar with the story in Joshua 3 of the parting of the

Jordan River.

The priests who are carrying the Ark of the Covenant just touched their toes

into the Jordan River, and the Jordan River itself parted.

And the Israelites are able to march into the Promised Land.

So the whole story is designed to tell the reader, this is God at work here.

What's interesting is that there's this great debate. Was the Ark of the

Covenant real, or was it just made up? I actually think it was very real, and

the reason I think it's real

is that it's such a central part of the Israelite religion.

Did the Ark of the Covenant actually exist?

Perhaps the answer can be found by examining an archaeological discovery

was made in the heart of the Holy Land.

Central Israel, 15 miles west of Jerusalem, here on a small,

rocky mound.

lie the ruins of an ancient Hebrew city known as Beth Shemesh.

According to archaeologists, Beth Shemesh has a profound connection to the

of the Covenant.

Beth Shemesh has a long history of being a religious center. According to the

story that we have in the Bible, when the Ark of the Covenant was taken to

Shemesh, the Israelites take the Ark and they put it on a stone table.

The understanding was that it was venerated by all Israelites. We have

one object, the Ark of the Covenant, that represents God on earth.

Could the Ark of the Covenant have actually been kept at Shemesh?

Well, recently archaeologists have uncovered evidence which suggests that

biblical story is, in fact, true.

In 2019, a team led by archaeologists from Tel Aviv University made a

startling discovery.

They found a room in which it seems to have evidence of where the Ark of the

Covenant was kept when it was brought here at Beit Shemesh.

There's a big flat slab of stone that is exactly the same dimension, proportion.

It's the Ark of the Covenant.

This slab of stone is not some column that fell on its side. It was

placed here and its dimensions, its dimensions fit what the book of Exodus

tells us were the dimensions of the Ark of the Covenant.

It says it was a cubit and a half on two cubits and a half.

A cubit is the size of a human arm.

Watch.

A cubit and a half on two

cubits and a half. Just a bit bigger, maybe by 10,

20%. So the Ark would be placed on it in the most possible stable way.

And everything dates to the time frame of when the Ark was placed at Beth

Shemesh. Everything falls into place.

Not only does this discovery indicate that the Ark was kept here, it's much

more. It actually indicates the Ark existed.

This discovery is possibly the most significant find ever made in the

the quest of the Ark of the Covenant.

By the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon, which was once the capital of

Babylonian Empire.

At its height in 600 BC, Babylon was estimated to have been the largest city

the world, with a population of more than 200 ,000 inhabitants.

Perhaps the most intriguing ruin that remains in Babylon is the foundation of

ancient crumbled brick tower that was known as...

The Etemananki Ziggurat.

And there are those who believe that the giant ziggurat may have actually been

the Tower of Babel.

The real Tower of Babel, from which the account in the Bible derives, was built

by King Nebuchadnezzar II at the beginning of the 6th century BC.

If you go to Babylon today...

You can easily see on the ground where the ziggurat was because it is a

rectangular ditch with a kind of black square full of mud and oily

water which delineates the entire profile of this great tower of which

else is left.

The tower was made of mud brick.

The building was seven storeys.

with a little temple at the top.

And there was a brick staircase without banisters so that King Nebuchadnezzar II

could mount the staircase and go up and up to the very top.

So it was definitely the national monument of the greatest amount of

Historians have estimated that the ziggurat stood nearly 300 feet high, or

roughly as tall as the Statue of Liberty.

But is it possible?

that this Babylonian structure was in fact the real Tower of Babel?

Perhaps the answer can be found by examining the story that is recorded in

Bible. In Genesis chapter 11, you have the story of the Tower of Babel. Human

beings are united. They speak the same language. They build this tower

to go up into the heavens.

But then you have God saying, wait a minute, what are these people doing?

They're going to build this and they're going to come up to where I am.

And so God basically confounds these people by having them speak different

languages. So they're not able to understand each other.

God says, let's scramble their languages.

And then they won't be able to communicate with one another.

This is one of the most famous stories of the Bible.

I think that the Tower of Babel is based on a ziggurat.

If you're an ancient Hebrew, an Israelite, and you walk up to one of

large ziggurats, you're going to be overwhelmed, right? You've never seen

anything like this.

It's very possible that the ziggurat of Babylon may be associated with the Tower

of Babel.

A lot of parallels.

One is the location.

Babel is another name for Babylon.

That's more of a Semitic name. So the location is certainly correct, and it

certainly was a very tall tower, as suggested by biblical sources.

Some archaeologists claim that the most intriguing connection between this

structure and the Tower of Babel can be found in the remaining bricks from the

foundation of the Zirat.

Some of the bricks that we have have on the upper or lower surface a thick black

deposit.

And this is the remains of bitumen, which, when the original building was

together, functioned as cement.

And in the account in Genesis, it is pointed out that the Tower of Babel was

built of mud brick with bitumen in between.

So this is a very convincing piece of evidence that the one building is

predicated on the other.

But if this ziggurat was the Tower of Babel, then how is it destroyed?

According to an ancient Hebrew text known as the Book of Jubilees, God was

angry with humans for building the Tower of Babel that he summoned a mighty wind

to knock over the tower.

Is it possible it was brought down by the power of God?

Some experts believe that the story of the Tower of Babel and its destruction

God is based on...

An historical event.

An earthquake in ancient times.

In fact, quite a few ancient towers in the city of Babylon, in what's now Iraq,

were destroyed by earthquakes.

Archaeologists know that that area was and still is prone to earthquakes

in the year 2017, there was the largest magnitude earthquake

in the world.

in that year, and the epicenter was only 100 miles from what was the ancient

city of Babylon.

If an earthquake did destroy the ziggurat, that could lend support to the

that it was the legendary Tower of Babel.

But many experts believe the true power of the Tower of Babel story is that

thousands of years later, its warning about the consequences of challenging

still endures.

The story of the Tower of Babel is absolutely fascinating because you have

basically curse all of humankind by scrambling all of the language.

And the moral to the story being, you're not supposed to show that kind of

arrogance.

You shouldn't try to be like God.

While the Tower of Babel is a monument to humanity's doomed ambition to rival

God, there are other biblical artifacts which many Christians believe offer a

direct connection to the divine, like a lost chalice that is perhaps

the most sought -after relic in history.

Akra, Israel.

Located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, this bustling port

contains remarkable ruins that date back thousands of years.

And there are those who believe that one of the most sought -after treasures in

history may lie hidden within these ancient ruins.

The Holy Grail.

For archaeologists, Acre is hugely significant.

It's one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on Earth, going back 5

,000 years.

There's literally layers of history there still being discovered.

But also, the significance is that it's the last place that the Holy Grail is

believed to have ended up during the Crusades.

The Holy Grail?

the chalice that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper.

For centuries, many have embarked on quests in search of this sacred

not only because it would be priceless, but also because it is thought to

possess divine power.

While many have sought to find the Holy Grail, it's believed that this precious

relic was once in the hands of a group of medieval warrior monks known as...

The Knights Templar The Knights Templar were a very curious order of

monks. They were sworn, in fact, to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land in the

Crusades. They were professional soldiers, the elite fighting force of

and they became immensely wealthy and immensely powerful.

But many believe that the Templars had, if you want, an ulterior secret mission.

And that was to look for the Holy Grail and other sacred relics all over the

Holy Land.

If they did find the Holy Grail, there was nowhere better for the Knights

Templar to bring their treasure securely than to Acre, which was a safe... with

big thick walls around it and 12 towers to defend the citizens from external

attacks.

If it's true that the Knights Templar brought the Holy Grail from Jerusalem to

Acre, could it still be hidden in the ruins that lie within the city?

Eliezer Stern is an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority.

For nearly three decades, he has overseen excavations of a massive

Templar fortress that lies beneath the church of St. Andrew in Accra.

We are now in the old city of Accra and in the premises of the St. Andrew's

church.

This church is very, very interesting.

because it's built in the 18th century, but it's built on foundation and the

ruins from the 13th century, from the Crusader and the Templar periods.

Under the church, Stern has been investigating a sprawling network of

century tunnels and crypts.

These passages may reveal valuable information about the Templars'

Acre.

Now we are 800 years before what we've seen above us.

Here we are in the form of the Templar Quarter.

We understand that they use it as the treasury of the Templars. They used to

bring a lot of money into the treasury out in this tower.

The Knights Templar had this brilliant system. They actually built tunnels to

what they called a treasure tower.

So when there was a siege going on, they would take the treasures that they've

come across throughout their occupation and their fighting down the tunnels and

into the tower.

In addition to excavating the Templar treasury, Cern and his team have

more chambers that are located approximately 10 feet beneath the main

But these monumental discoveries have revealed only a fraction of this

mysterious medieval city.

We find now only two or three percent of the city.

There is another 90 percent of the Crusader building and the Crusader city.

lay beneath the Ottoman that's still waiting for covering in the future.

For grail hunters, any new excavations in Acre is obviously tremendously

exciting. And it's a city that's still yielding up its secrets. And so there is

a very good chance that some of the treasure of the Templars, including the

Grail, are there waiting to be discovered.

Is it possible the Knights Templar chose to hide the Holy Grail within the ruins

of the Templar fortress beneath the church of St. Andrew?

Uncovering the Grail here or wherever else it may be hidden would be a

of profound importance.

Because for Christians around the world, the Holy Grail is much more than just

an ancient chalice.

It is an object touched by God.

Strictly speaking, we talk about the Holy Grail in technical terms as a cup.

But really the Holy Grail is something much more profound, much more sacred,

holy.

There can be no doubt if the Holy Grail was found, this would be hugely

significant for millions of Christians all over the world to have a direct

connection to Jesus Christ.

June 21st, 2015.

Inside the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, the leader of the Roman

Church, Pope Francis, prays before a 14 -foot -long ancient linen cloth.

The occasion attracts media attention because it is the first time that the

cloth has been shown publicly in over five years.

Christian holy relic is referred to as the Shroud of Turin.

The Shroud of Turin is this amazing relic. At bottom, it's a piece of cloth.

It shows a very faint sort of image of a crucified man.

And the crucified man calls us to remember Jesus' death and resurrection.

The Bible talks about the burial cloth.

All four of the Gospels mention that Jesus was taken down from the cross. He

wrapped in linen and then his body was put in the tomb.

According to the legend, the shroud is the cloth that his dead body is wrapped

in.

And because of the contact with the body of Jesus, that

transforms and leaves a lasting mark on the cloth.

And so the shroud is believed to be a holy relic because you don't get much

holy than the actual blood of Jesus.

After the resurrection, the shroud completely disappeared.

The first appearance of the shroud in the written record is 1389 in France.

It was kept in the capital of the Duchy of Savoy.

a place called Shambury.

It had been moved around from time to time, but in 1578, it was brought from

there to Turin.

And so it's a way for people to be in the presence of Jesus.

While people all over the world have been struck by its stunning imprint of

face of Jesus Christ, not everyone's convinced that the shroud is a genuine

relic. Ever since the shroud first really appears in history, there's been

controversy about it, and there have been questions about its authenticity.

In 1988, a group of scientists were able to get permission to get a sample from

the shroud and to subject it to radiocarbon dating.

And then they announced, with a 95 % degree of certainty, that the shroud

was medieval.

Suddenly, there's this carbon -14 dating, and they say that it dates to

13th century.

And, wow, that's a tremendous blow to everybody who thought that the shroud

might be real.

But then, as time went on, experts began to look at it, and it was finally

determined that the test was taken from the very end of the shroud, not...

where the image is, and it really turned out to be a patch

that had been woven by ancient weavers. They weaved it back together on that

particular area.

When those guys came out with their carbon -14, they tested the wrong piece.

Nobody's proved it a fake yet.

Despite the questions about the shroud's credibility, many Christians have faith

in its divine nature.

And as evidence, they point to numerous accounts of the Shroud's supposed

healing powers.

Perhaps the most compelling case is the story of the recovery of a young British

girl named Josie Woolham in 1955.

Josie Willem was a young girl who, at the age of five, developed a

terrible degenerative bone disease.

And after five years of suffering this, she basically was approaching her

final days.

Then Josie made a pilgrimage to Turin, and she actually had a chance to put

her hands on the shroud.

There was no immediate reaction, no miracle cure on the spot.

But her health kept improving and kept improving.

Eventually, she actually got better.

The story of Josie Wallen, it's extraordinary.

So you've got this documented miraculous healing in the 20th century, which of

course raises the question, does the shroud cause a miracle? Or is there

something else there?

That's what's really fascinating about this.

While the Shroud of Turin has been venerated by Christians for thousands of

years, it's just one of several holy objects that are believed to be

with the death of the Son of God.

One of these artifacts is a spear that was reportedly wielded by a Roman

during the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The origin of the spear comes from...

The Gospel of John.

Jesus is on the cross.

The Romans are trying to figure out whether he's dead because there's a lot

pressure to get him down and bury him.

There was a Roman soldier who someone told him, stab this guy, finish him off,

make sure he's dead.

The Christian tradition says the name of this Roman soldier who pierces Jesus is

Longinus.

And there's a story that developed that he's blind or he's nearsighted.

And so when he pierces the side of Jesus, the blood and the water comes

That lands on his eyes, and it makes him able to see.

It's this miracle.

Because, of course, the blood of Christ is this miraculous sort of thing.

According to Christian belief, when this ordinary spear touched Jesus, it became

a sacred relic.

and was referred to as either the Holy Lance or the Spear of Destiny.

Because this was the only weapon that is said to have pierced the body

of Christ, the legend got going that if you had the Spear of Destiny, the Holy

Lance, you could not be stopped. You were invincible.

And a whole series of leaders wanted to get their hands on it, perhaps believing

God would then be on their side and they would prevail.

After Jesus' crucifixion, one of the rulers who reportedly came into

of the Spear of Destiny was the 8th century French king, Charlemagne.

Charlemagne, Charles the Great, carried the lance in 47 victorious

campaigns.

and spread his control over much of France and Germany all the way into what

would now be Slovakia and Hungary.

And so Charlemagne at 800, on Christmas Day, is crowned by the Pope as Emperor

of the West.

And there were a lot of people who believed that the Spear of Destiny

his success.

Is it possible that the Spear of Destiny actually gave Charlemagne the power to

vanquish his enemies?

Perhaps.

But if so, then such power apparently came at a heavy price.

Legend says that if you drop the Spear of Destiny or lose it or even really

back from it, all of your great victories are going to be as nothing.

just fall.

And that's what happened, apparently, when Charlemagne carried it into battle

and dropped it.

He lost that battle even though with it he'd won 47 battles.

Was the Spear of Destiny responsible for both the rise and fall of Charlemagne?

Perhaps the answer can be found by examining the fate of two men who

the spear during the 20th century.

March 12th, 1938.

German troops march into Vienna, Austria.

and take control of the capital city.

Hitler orders his soldiers to storm the Royal Hofburg Palace and seize

the Spear of Destiny.

The Spear of Destiny appears in the modern stage in March of 1938 when the

Republic of Austria is annexed to the German Reich.

The Republic of Austria had acquired the Spear some centuries before.

And that spear is taken from there, and it is taken back to Nuremberg in Germany

proper.

And there it remained until 1945.

On April 30, 1945, Allied forces, under the command of U .S. General George S.

Patton, captured the German city of Nuremberg.

In the aftermath of the fighting, American soldiers discovered the Spear

Destiny.

Patton himself took possession of the spear.

He liked to imagine himself being the reincarnation of all kinds of previous

military leaders, some of which might have had the Spear of Destiny with them.

After Patton acquired the spear, events transpired which suggested that the

legends about the sacred relic might be true.

It is said that basically the day before,

Hitler shot himself, the Americans found the Spear of Destiny and General Patton

took it.

And that's what set Hitler off.

And then Patton himself, he put it back into the Hofburg Museum and shortly

after that he died in a car crash.

So all of these things look like, yeah, there's something to this legend.

Did the spear of destiny really sway the fate of nations for centuries, as some

believe? And what about lost relics, like the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy

Grail? Will they ever be found?

Ultimately, it's hard to say.

However, one thing is certain.

People will keep trying to uncover the truth about these mysterious objects

for the moment remain.

Unexplained.