posted
The Most Holy Place also known as the Holiest of Holies, or Holy of Holies, in Hebrew: Qodesh HaQodashim (Biblical: קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים Qṓḏeš HaqQŏḏāšîm), is a location within the inner Tabernacle in the time of Moses. In the Book of Exodus it is referred to as the most holy (Exodus 26:33), and the most holy place (Exodus 26:34), (and as the holiest of all in (Hebrews 9:3).)
The Most Holy Place is said to be the place where the presence of God dwelt. In the wilderness, on the day that the tabernacle was first raised up, the cloud of the Lord covered the tabernacle. There are other times that this was recorded, and instructions were given that the Lord would appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat, and at that time the priests should not enter into the tabernacle (Leviticus 16:2).
In terms of ancient temple architecture, the Most Holy Place corresponded with the Greek Naos or the Roman Cella: the house for the deity and the center of the religious structure.
posted
The Temple Mount (Hebrew: הַר הַבַּיִת (without niqqud: הר הבית), translit. Har haBáyit) or Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, al-Ḥaram aš-Šarīf (help·info)) is a hotly contested religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem.
A plan of the Haram al-Sharif in 1890.It was the site of the first and second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and according to Judaism is to be the site of the third and final Temple in the time of the Messiah. It is also the site of two major Muslim religious shrines, the Dome of the Rock (c. 690) and Al-Aqsa Mosque (c. 710). It is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest site in Islam. It is thus one of the most contested religious sites in the world.
Ariel Sharon's controversial September 28, 2000, visit to the Temple Mount is cited by some people as the event that precipitated the Second Intifada, although others, including Palestinian representatives, dismiss this and instead feel that the catalyst for the violence was the breakdown of the Camp David negotiations on July 25, 2000. (See Prior events)
Utilization
The Most Holy Place was a place where the high priest would go in, once a year, on the Yom Kippur, to sprinkle the blood of an animal upon the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat which sat on top of the ark. The animal was sacrificed on the Brazen Altar and the blood was carried into the most holy place. The golden censers were also found in the Most Holy Place.
According to the Talmud, it was from here that God gathered the earth that was formed into Adam (some Christians say it was Golgotha), and it was here that Adam - and later Cain, Abel, and Noah - offered sacrifices to God. According to the Bible, the place where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac was Mount Moriah, which the Talmud says was another name for the Temple Mount.
Muslim accounts also point to this as the location that Abraham was to sacrifice his son Ishmael, and the traditional location believed to be the spot ("the furthest mosque") where in 621, Mohammed briefly passed by on a miraculous journey aboard the winged steed Buraq, on his way to take a brief tour of heaven with the Archangel Gabriel.
The Bible recounts that Jacob dreamt about angels ascending and descending a ladder while sleeping on a stone. The Talmud says that this took place on the Temple Mount, and Jewish tradition has it that the rock in the Dome of the Rock was the one on which he slept. According to the Bible, King David purchased a threshing floor owned by Aravnah the Jebusite (2 Samuel, 24:18-25) overlooking Jerusalem upon the cessation of a plague, to erect an altar. He wanted to construct a permanent temple there, but as his hands were "bloodied," he was forbidden to do so himself, so this task was left to his son Solomon, who completed the task c. 950 BCE. After standing for 410 years, the First Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
A stone (2.43x1 m) with Hebrew inscription "To the Trumpeting Place" excavated by Benjamin Mazar at the southern foot of the Temple Mount is believed to be a part of the Second Temple A drawing of Herod's TempleReconstruction of the Temple (see the Second Temple) began after the 70 year exile to Babylonia, but was destroyed by Titus 420 years later, in 70 CE. The Romans were, however, unable to topple the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. Upon the destruction of the Temple, the Rabbis revised prayers, and introduced new ones to request the speedy rebuilding of the Temple. They also instituted the saying of the portions of the Torah commanding the bringing of the sacrifices in place of the sacrifices themselves.
Islamic tradition holds that when Muslims first entered the city of Jerusalem under the leadership of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (also known as Umar or Omar) in 637, the ruins of the Temple were being used as a rubbish dump by the Christian inhabitants, perhaps in order to humiliate the Jews and fulfill Jesus' prophecy that not a stone would be left standing on another there; Caliph Omar (contemporary of Muhammad, who had died a few years earlier), ordered it cleaned and performed prayer there. According to some sources, he also ordered a mosque to be constructed at the spot, upon which site the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built several decades later. Most medieval historians - notably the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes Confessor and the Jewish Secrets of Rabbi Simon ben Yohai - indicate that Omar's action was hailed by the Jews of the time as a restoration of the Temple of Jerusalem.[1]
After the Muslim conquest of this region, the Temple Mount became known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif الحرم الشريف (the Noble Sanctuary); it is traditionally regarded by Muslims as the third most important Islamic holy site, after Mecca and Medina. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Islam respects David and Solomon as prophets, and regards the Temple (mentioned in Qur'an 17:7, and described in much more detail in the noncanonical Qisas al-Anbiya) as one of the earliest and most noteworthy places of worship of God. (The Kaaba's sanctity has a similar basis in the Islamic tradition that it was built, or rebuilt, by Abraham.) In addition to this, the "farthest Mosque" (al-masjid al-Aqṣa) in verse (17:1) of the Qur'an is traditionally interpreted by Muslims as referring to the site at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on which the mosque of that name now stands; see Al-Aqsa Mosque regarding this interpretation.
Dome of the RockIn 690 CE, after the Islamic conquest of Palestine, an octagonal Muslim shrine (but not a mosque) was built around the rock, which became known as the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat as-Sakhra قبة الصخرة). In 715 CE the Umayyads rebuilt the Temple's nearby Chanuyos into a mosque (see illustrations and detailed drawing) which they named al-Masjid al-Aqsa المسجد الأقصى, the Al-Aqsa Mosque or in translation "the furthest mosque", after the legend about Mohammed's journey (see Isra and Mi'raj).
The structures have been destroyed several times in earthquakes; the current version dates from the first half of the 11th century. Both buildings, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, are considered holy to Muslims and make Jerusalem the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. The mosque and shrine are currently administered by a Waqf (an Islamic trust) that enjoys total autonomy. The Western Wall of the Temple Mount remains standing until today and due to its proximity to where the Temples once stood has, for practical purposes, became the holiest site for Jews to pray. Many Jews often leave written prayers addressed to God in the cracks of the wall.
posted
The Temple in Jerusalem or the Holy Temple (Hebrew: בית המקדש, transliterated Bet HaMikdash) was built in ancient Jerusalem in c. 10th century BCE and subsequently rebuilt several times. It was the center of Israelite Jewish worship, primarily for the offering of sacrifices known as the korbanot. It was located on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. It was the center of ancient Judaism and has remained as a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Temple was built by Solomon. It replaced the Tabernacle of Moses.
Etymology
The English language word Temple is derived from the Latin word for place of worship, templum. The name given in Scripture for the building was Beit Adonai or "House of God" (although this name was also often used for other temples, or metaphorically). Because of the prohibition against pronouncing the holy name, the common Hebrew name for the Temple is Beit HaMikdash or "The Holy House", and only the Temple in Jerusalem is referred to by this name.
A model of Herod's(2nd) Temple at the Holyland Hotel in Jerusalem.As many as five distinct temples stood in succession on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem:
King David's Altar was the first construction on the site of the temple. Second Samuel 24:18-24 only describes a sacrificial altar on the temple site, but it is possible that some preliminary version of a temple was already functioning at the time of David's death, before Solomon's construction began. Solomon's Temple, was built in approximately the 10th century BCE to replace the Tabernacle. It was destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE. The Second Temple was built after the return from the Babylonian Captivity, around 536 BCE (completed on March 12, 515 BCE). This Temple was desecrated by the Roman general Pompey, when he entered it after taking Jerusalem in 63 BCE. According to Josephus, Pompey did not remove anything from the temple or its treasury. Herod's Temple was a massive rebuilding of the Second Temple including turning the entire Temple Mount into a giant square platform. Herod the Great began his expansion project around 19 BCE, dismantling the Second Temple in order to build a larger, grander version. Herod's Temple was destroyed by Roman troops under general Titus in 70 CE. During the Bar Kochba revolt in the c.135 CE, and during the early part of the Sassanid Persian occupation of most of the Byzantine empire from 610 to 620 the Kohanim priesthood began anew the temple service, including animal sacrifice, and small buildings were erected. However, these two temples are hypothetical, and their existence is contested. By custom, Herod's Temple is not called the "Third Temple" because the Kohanim priesthood kept the animal sacrifices and other ceremonials (korbanot) going without interruption during the entire reconstruction project.
While Herod's temple itself was subsequently destroyed, the mammoth Temple Mount platform complex still exists and currently supports the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques.
Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, by Francesco HayezEver since its destruction in 70 CE, Jews have prayed that God will allow for the rebuilding of the Temple. This prayer is a formal part of the thrice daily Jewish prayer services.
Not all rabbis agree on what would happen in a rebuilt Temple. It has traditionally been assumed that some sort of animal sacrifices would be reinstituted, in accord with the rules in Leviticus and the Talmud. However there are some modern opinions, that sacrifices would not take place in a rebuilt Temple. Sometimes these opinions are mistakenly based on the scholar Maimonides's book "A Guide for The Perplexed", where he states "that God deliberately has moved Jews away from sacrifices towards prayer, as prayer is a higher form of worship". However, this must be understood as purely a philosophical idea, in light of the fact that he not only clearly states in his book "The Mishnah Torah" that animal sacrifices will take place in the third temple, but also goes into great detail explaining how they will be carried out.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first chief rabbi of the Jewish community in pre-state Israel, holds that animal sacrifices will not be reinstituted. However, this is a view not shared by most Haredi rabbis. Rav Kook's views on the Temple service are sometimes misconstrued. A superficial reading of a passage in Olat Ri'iah indicates that only grain offerings will be offered in the reinstated Temple service. To properly understand Rav Kook's position on the matter, it is necessary to read a related essay from Otzarot Hari'iah.
A few, very small, Jewish groups support constructing a Third Temple today, but most Jews oppose this, for a variety of reasons. Most religious Jews feel that the Temple should only be rebuilt in the messianic era, and that it would be presumptuous of people to force God's hand, as it were. Furthermore, there are many ritual impurity constraints that are difficult to resolve, making the building's construction a practical impossibility.
Additionally, many Jews are against rebuilding the Temple due to the enormously hostile reaction from Muslims that would likely result— even were the building to be complementary to those holy to Islam currently present on the Temple Mount site, there would be high suspicion that such a building project would ultimately end with the destruction of these and the rebuilding of the Temple on its original spot.
According to the Gospels, Jesus came with his followers to Jerusalem during the Passover festival, and created a disturbance in the Temple by overturning the tables of the moneychangers and driving them out.
Protestant view
The dominant view within Protestant Christianity is that animal sacrifices within the Temple were a foreshadowing of the sacrifice Jesus made for the sins of the world, through his death. As such they believe there is no longer a need for the physical temple and its rituals.
Those Protestants who do believe in the importance of a future rebuilt temple (viz.,some dispensationalists) hold that the importance of the sacrificial system shifts to a Memorial of the Cross, given the text of Ezekiel Chapters 39 and following (in addition to Millennial references to the Temple in other OT passages); since Ezekiel explains at length the construction and nature of the Millennial temple, in which Jews will once again hold the priesthood; some others perhaps hold that it was not completely eliminated with Jesus' sacrifice for sin, but is a ceremonial object lesson for confession and forgiveness (somewhat like water baptism and Communion are today); and that such animal sacrifices would still be appropriate for ritual cleansing and for acts of celebration and thanksgiving toward God. Some dispensationalists believe this will be the case with the Second Coming of Christ when Jesus reigns over earth from the city of Jerusalem.
It should be noted, however, that the book of Daniel states that the end of the world will occur shortly after sacrifices are ended in the newly rebuilt temple. (Daniel 12:11)
However, in contrast to both the dominant Protestant view and the view of many dispensationalists just mentioned, many evangelicals (especially those who call themselves Messianic) believe that there will be a full restoration of the sacrificial system in Ezekiel's temple and that it will be more than just a memorial of the cross. These sacrifices, according to this Messianic view, will be just as expiatory as those under the Mosaic Law. According to that view, while the so-called Antichrist will put an end to the sacrificial system during the Tribulation (Dan. 9:27, 11:31, 12:11), the arrival of the true Messiah will inaugurate the building of Ezekiel's Temple (see Ezekiel 40-44). This view holds that the Prince of Israel (the human descendant of David who will rule in the Kingdom) will provide the regular sacrifices (Ezek. 45:17), including sin offerings for himself and the people (Ezek. 45:22). In this view the Prince of Israel is parallel in many ways to the hoped-for messiah of traditional Judaism. Also, this view (like Orthodox Judaism) looks for and encourages both the rebuilding of the Third Temple and the resumption of animal sacrifices. It sees no conflict between claiming Christ as the final sacrifice for sin and at the same time participating in animal sacrifices for sin in the temple of the Messianic Kingdom, since the sacrifice of Christ brings spiritual cleansing, while animal sacrifices have dealt and will deal only with the cleansing of the flesh. While this view shares much in common with dispensationalism, it is at its core not dispensationalist.
-------------------- "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand fail..." - King David, Psalms 137:5
In order that God may dwell permanently among the Israelites, they are given instructions for erecting a sanctuary. The directions provide for:
A wooden ark, gilded inside and outside, for the Tablets of the Covenant, with a cover similarly gilded as the "mercy seat" for the Divine Presence;
A gilt table for the so-called "Table of Showbread";
A golden candlestick for a light never to be extinguished;
The dwelling, including the curtains for the roof, the walls made of boards resting on silver feet and held together by wooden bolts, the purple curtain veiling the Holy of Holies, the table and candlestick, and the outer curtain;
A sacrificial altar made of bronzed boards for its korban;
The outer court formed by pillars resting on bronze pedestals and connected by hooks and crossbars of silver, with embroidered curtains;
Archaeological excavations have found one hundred mikvaot (ritual immersion pools) surrounding the area known as the Temple Mount or Haram as-Sharif. This is strong evidence that this area was considered of the utmost holiness in ancient times and could not possibly have been a secular area. However, it does not establish where exactly within the area was the Temple located.
Solomon's Temple (Hebrew: בית המקדש, transliterated Beit HaMikdash), also known as the First Temple, was, according to the Bible, the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. It functioned as a religious focal point for worship and the sacrifices known as the korbanot in ancient Judaism. Completed in the 10th century BCE, it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
Biblical account of the Temple's construction
Building materials
Before his death King David had provided materials in great abundance for the building of the temple on the summit of Mount Moriah (1 Chronicles 22:14; 29:4; 2 Chronicles 3:1), where he had purchased a threshing floor from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Sam. 24:21 et seq.), on which he offered sacrifice.
The Bible states that in the beginning of his reign, King Solomon of the united Kingdom of Israel, set about giving effect to the ideas of his father, and prepared additional materials for the building. From subterranean quarries at Jerusalem he obtained huge blocks of stone for the foundations and walls of the temple. These stones were prepared for their places in the building under the eye of Tyrian master-builders.
According to this account, Solomon also entered into a pact with Hiram I, king of Tyre, for the supply of whatever else was needed for the work, particularly timber from the forests of Lebanon, which was brought in great rafts by the sea to Joppa, whence it was dragged to Jerusalem (1 Kings 5).
According to tradition, Solomon also provided for a sufficient water supply for the temple by hewing in the rocky hill vast cisterns, into which water was conveyed by channels from the "pools" near Bethlehem. One of these cisterns, the "great sea," was capable of containing three million gallons. The overflow was led off by a conduit to the Kidron.
These accounts in the Bible are also the basis for much of the legend and lore of Freemasonry, which uses the construction of the Temple as a backdrop and metaphor for moral instruction.
Construction
A sketch of Solomon's Temple based on descriptions in the Tanakh.According to 1 Chronicles 22:14, David had bequeathed to Solomon an accumlated wealth of 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver as financial resources towards the construction of the temple.
The construction of the temple is described in the Book of Kings: The preparatory undertakings for the construction took about three years. The process of the erection of the great building began, under the direction of skilled Phoenician builders and workmen, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign. The building followed the Phoenician model, which makes the Bible's description an important source for historians regarding the layout of Phoenician temples, and vice versa. Many thousands of labourers and skilled artisans were employed in the work. Some of them were non-Israelite slaves—survivors of the wars of conquest in Canaan:
This was the purpose of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed: It was to build the House of the Lord ... All the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were not of the Israelite stock—those of their descendants who remained in the land and whom the Israelites were not able to annihilate—of these Solomon made a slave force, as is still the case. But he did not reduce any Israelites to slavery ... –I Kings 9:15-22a (1985 Jewish Publication Society Tanakh translation) Stones prepared in the quarries underneath the city (1 Kings 5:17, 18) of huge dimension were gradually placed on the massive walls, and closely fitted together without any mortar between, till the whole structure was completed. The building was most likely 60 cubits (27 m) long, 20 cubits (9 m) wide, and 25 (in the Greek text) or 30 (in the Hebrew) cubits (14 m) high. According to another account, however, the temple was about 120 cubits high. This would have placed the structure at about 20 stories.
At length, in the Autumn of the eleventh year of his reign, seven and a half years after it had been begun, the temple was completed. For thirteen years there it stood, on the summit of Moriah, silent and unused. The reasons for this strange delay in its consecration are unknown. At the close of these thirteen years preparations for the dedication of the temple were made. The Temple remained empty for only eleven months, until the month of Tishri in the year following its completion. Thus the Temple was dedicated at the autumnal new-year festival.[1]
Ark of the Covenant
According to biblical tradition, the Ark of the Covenant was solemnly brought from the tent in which David had deposited it to the place prepared for it in the temple. Then Solomon ascended a platform which had been erected for him, in the sight of all the people, and lifting up his hands to heaven poured out his heart to God in prayer (1 Kings 8; 2 Chr. 6, 7). The feast of dedication, which lasted seven days, followed by the feast of tabernacles, marked a new era in the history of Israel. On the eighth day of the feast of tabernacles, Solomon dismissed the vast assemblage of the people.
Description
Due to the extensive rebuilding of the Second Temple in later centuries, few remains of the First Temple are extant. (Only recently discovered remains in the refuse from an extensive construction project performed on the Temple Mount by the Islamic Wakf in November of 1999 are known. [1][2]) The detailed descriptions provided in the Tanakh and educated guesses based on the remains of other temples in the region are the sources for reconstructions of its appearance. Technical details are lacking, since the scribes who wrote down the books were not architects or engineers[2]. Reconstructions differ; the following enumeration is largely based on Easton's Bible Dictionary and the Jewish Encyclopedia: 1. The Debir: the oracle or Most Holy Place (1 Kings 6:19; 8:6), called also the "inner house" (6:27), and the "Holy of Holies" (Heb. 9:3). It was 20 cubits in length, breadth, and height. The usual explanation for the discrepancy between its height and the 30-cubit height of the temple is that its floor was elevated, like the cella of other ancient temples[3]. It was floored and wainscotted with cedar (1 Kings 6:16), and its walls and floor were overlaid with gold (6:20, 21, 30). It contained two cherubim of olive-wood, each 10 cubits high (1 Kings 6:16, 20, 21, 23-28) and each having outspread wings 10 cubits from tip to tip, so that, since they stood side by side, the wings touched the wall on either side and met in the center of the room. There was a two-leaved door between it and the holy place overlaid with gold (2 Chr. 4:22); also a veil of blue purple and crimson and fine linen (2 Chr. 3:14; compare Exodus 26:33). It had no windows (1 Kings 8:12). It was considered the dwelling-place of God. 2. The Hekal: the holy place, 1 Kings 8:8-10, called also the "greater house" (2 Chr. 3:5) and the "temple" (1 Kings 6:17); the word also means "palace"[4]. It was of the same width and height as the Holy of Holies, but 40 cubits in length. Its walls were lined with cedar, on which were carved figures of cherubim, palm-trees, and open flowers, which were overlaid with gold. Chains of gold further marked it off from the Holy of Holies. The floor of the Temple was of fir-wood overlaid with gold. The door-posts, of olive-wood, supported folding-doors of fir. The doors of the Holy of Holies were of olive-wood. On both sets of doors were carved cherubim, palm-trees, and flowers, all being overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:15 et seq.) 3. The Ulam: the porch or entrance before the temple on the east (1 Kings 6:3; 2 Chr. 3:4; 9:7). This was 20 cubits long (corresponding to the width of the Temple) and 10 cubits deep (1 Kings 6:3). 2 Chr. 3:4 adds the curious statement (probably corrupted from the statement of the depth of the porch) that this porch was 120 cubits high, which would make it a regular tower. The description does not specify whether a wall separated it from the next chamber. In the porch stood the two pillars Jachin and Boaz (1 Kings 7:21; 2 Kings 11:14; 23:3), which were 18 cubits in height and surmounted by capitals of carved lilies, 5 cubits high. 4. The chambers, which were built about the temple on the southern, western, and northern sides (1 Kings 6:5-10). These formed a part of the building and were used for storage. They were probably one story high at first; two more may have been added later[5]. According to biblical tradition, round about the building were: 1. The court of the priests (2 Chr. 4:9), called the "inner court" (1 Kings 6:36), which was separated from the space beyond by a wall of three courses of hewn stone, surmounted by cedar beams (1 Kings 4:36). 2. The great court, which surrounded the whole temple (2 Chr. 4:9). Here the people assembled to worship God (Jeremiah 19:14; 26:2).
The inner court of the priests contained the altar of burnt-offering (2 Chr. 15:8), the brazen sea (4:2-5, 10), and ten lavers (1 Kings 7:38, 39).
From 2 Kings 16:14 it is learned that a brazen altar stood before the Temple; 2 Chr. 4:1 gives its dimensions as 20 cubits square and 10 cubits high.
The brazen sea, 10 cubits wide and 5 deep, rested on the backs of twelve oxen (1 Kings 7:23-26). The Book of Kings gives its capacity as "two thousand baths"; the Chronicler inflates this to three thousand (2 Chr. 4:5-6) and states that its purpose was to afford opportunity for the ablutions of the priests.
The lavers, each of which held "forty baths" (1 Kings 7:38), rested on portable holders made of bronze, provided with wheels, and ornamented with figures of lions, cherubim, and palm-trees. These vessels especially excited the admiration of the Jews. The author of the books of the Kings describes their minute details with great interest (1 Kings 7:27-37).
Josephus reported that the vessels in the temple were composed of Orichalcum in the Antiquities of the Jews.
According to 1 Kings 7:48 there stood before the Holy of Holies a golden altar of incense and a table for showbread. This table was of gold, as were also the five candlesticks on each side of it. The implements for the care of the candles—tongs, basins, snuffers, and fire-pans—were of gold; and so were the hinges of the doors.
The site
The Temple was probably situated upon the more easterly of the two hills which form the site of the present-day Noble Sanctuary, in the center of which area is the Dome of the Rock. Under the Jebusites the site was used as a threshing floor. 2 Sam. 24 describes its consecration during David's reign.
Two slightly different sites for the Temple have been proposed: one places the bronze altar on the rock which is now beneath the gilded dome, with the rest of the temple to the west; the Well of Souls was, in this theory, a pit for the remnants of the korbanot. The slope of the terrain in this area would require massive supporting structures for the Temple, what Easton's Bible Dictionary describes as "a huge wall of solid masonry of great height, in some places more than 200 ft (60 m) high. . .raised across the south of the hill, and a similar wall on the eastern side, and in the spaces between. . .many arches and pillars. . . ." The other places the Holy of Holies atop this rock, thus explaining its elevation. The traditions of this rock were sacred; probably the site was the same as that of the temple which Hadrian erected to Jupiter, which in turn was on the site of Herod's temple, which would naturally be on that of Solomon's—an example of the persistency of sacred sites in the East.
According to the Bible, the temple was pillaged many times during the course of its history:
1. by king Shishak of Egypt (1 Kings 14:25, 26); 2. by king Jehoash of Israel (2 Kings 14:14); 3. by king Ahaz of Judah (2 Kings 16:8, 17, 18); 4. by king Hezekiah of Judah to pay king Sennacherib of Assyria (2 Kings 18:15, 16). 5. by king Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon who pillaged and destroyed it (2 Kings 24:13; 2 Chr. 36:7). He burned the temple, and carried all its treasures with him to Babylon (2 Kings 25:9-17; 2 Chr. 36:19; Isaiah 64:11). These sacred vessels were, at the end of the Babylonian Captivity, restored to the Jews by Cyrus (Ezra 1:7-11).
-------------------- "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand fail..." - King David, Psalms 137:5
I was curious have you researched Ezekiels Temple or more specificaly the dimensions/layout of the temple he saw in his vision? If you have I was wandering which temple do you think he describes?
posted
an aweful lot of bloodshed has occured on the steps of this "Holy Place" in jerusalem.
Much ado about nothing...God doesn't care about temples and such. I think He really cares about spritual progression, but i digress. regardless of what He wants us to learn or do here, it would seem that bickering over real estate is a waste of time, and enough time has been wasted. Thousands of years have gone by and we still quibble over a scrap of land. meanwhile, the clock ticks on and reality leaves us behind.
-------------------- Think outside the flock Posts: 3738 | From: West Texas | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
We don't know what God wants, we can only imagine what God wants or not. For God not caring anything about temples, he sure put a lot of prophecy stuff in the Bible about what would happen if this particular temple was rebuilt.
The Da Vinci Code seems to suggest that the Templars found some artifact beneath the temple/
But it couldn't really have been an artifact to do with Christ, could it? The Jews and then the Muslmis were the ones to control the temple. The Christians never seemed to have much to do with it.
Posts: 946 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
On this afternoon the Master distinctly taught a new concept of the double nature of the kingdom in that he portrayed the following two phases:
"First. The kingdom of God in this world, the supreme desire to do the will of God, the unselfish love of man which yields the good fruits of improved ethical and moral conduct.
Page 1861
"Second. The kingdom of God in heaven, the goal of mortal believers, the estate wherein the love for God is perfected, and wherein the will of God is done more divinely."
Jesus taught that, by faith, the believer enters the kingdom now. In the various discourses he taught that two things are essential to faith-entrance into the kingdom:
1. Faith, sincerity. To come as a little child, to receive the bestowal of sonship as a gift; to submit to the doing of the Father's will without questioning and in the full confidence and genuine trustfulness of the Father's wisdom; to come into the kingdom free from prejudice and preconception; to be open-minded and teachable like an unspoiled child.
2. Truth hunger. The thirst for righteousness, a change of mind, the acquirement of the motive to be like God and to find God.
Jesus taught that sin is not the child of a defective nature but rather the offspring of a knowing mind dominated by an unsubmissive will.
Regarding sin, he taught that God has forgiven; that we make such forgiveness personally available by the act of forgiving our fellows.
When you forgive your brother in the flesh, you thereby create the capacity in your own soul for the reception of the reality of God's forgiveness of your own misdeeds. end
posted
The Whole City is a Temple* What would you say if you were told that the Western (or Wailing) Wall is not a remnant of the Jewish Temple, but of a temple built by the emperor Hadrian for Jupiter, the sun god, and in fact that the whole Old City is a kind of great Temple, One ot its main focuses apparently at the site of the existing Holy Sepulcher – the burial site of Jesus? Recent research outlines new and exciting possibilities for contemplating Jerusalem and its role as a City of Peace. * this article was originally written by Dr. Yitzhak Hayut-Ma’n as “The Real Revelation of the Temple in our Times” then re-written in the current version by Rabbi Ohad Ezrahi and published in the July 99 issue of Hayim Aherim (Living Alternatives) – the leading Israeli magazine of Natural Health, Mysticism and Alternative Thinking. This Internet version of it does not (yet) contain the copious illustrations that came with it in the magazine.
The end of the Millennium is approaching, and with it is amplified the hopes and fears of all humankind. Fears and hopes that existed all along and that underly our daily routine are waiting for the opportune time to burst into consciousness, if not even into actual reality. One of the loci around which is gathered many fears, precisely because it is also the focus of many hopes, is the subject of Jerusalem in general and particularly the Temple within it. Many apocalyptic visions are connected to the hope for the restoration of the Temple, some of them frightful enough to cause the larger public to seek refuge and remove the subject of the Temple from the public agenda. But to my point of view, it is precisely these things that demand of us a creative effort in order to focus alternative thinking upon this loaded issue that is lurking all the time around the corner for the State of Israel and threatens to blow up like a gunpowder keg, if not much worse. A creative effort relating to the Temple is required from whoever is sensitive to the question of the concept of the Temple and to the answer hidden within: how can humankind connect with the divine dimensions that seem beyond understanding and nevertheless be renewed through them. Can we find ways that fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah “For My House shall be called a House of Prayer for All the Nations”? To a large extent, this depends on us, on those who desire a vision in which the redemption of Israel is not connected with the oppression of other people. If we leave the focus of the problem in the hands of the seekers of the apocalyptic end, lovers of bloody visions, then we shall not be able to come and say on a day of reckoning “our hands did not shed this blood and our eyes have not seen”. The Secrets of Ancient Architecture For years I have been dedicating concentrated effort to researching the futuristic aspects of Jerusalem as a temple for all the nations. As part of this preparation I have invited the veteran English researcher, John Michell, to visit Jerusalem and research its secrets as a member of the research entity I’ve established – “The Academy of Jerusalem”. John Michell is famous since the 60’s as a prestigious researcher. He wrote many books, some of them became best-sellers, in which he studied the secrets embedded in the archeological remnants of ancient temples all around the world. In his researches, John discovered a basic system of measuring units, which unifies human thinking about the Holy in different cultures. These sacred units are related to natural measures, based on cosmological dimensions and on the human body. The English foot is the last remnant of this ancient mode of thinking that is still current in the Western World. The outcome of this is that the majority of researchers, who are habituated to a metric system that has no relation to natural measures, cannot uncover the important holistic relations among the dimensions that fashion the spaces of ancient temples. When we expose the ancient sacred measures with which these temples were built – from Stonehenge in Britain to the Great Pyramid in Africa – fascinating secrets are revealed. Such research exposes the story that lies beneath the archeological remnants. Until the invention of print, architecture served as a real language by which the priests, rulers and city planners expressed the messages they wanted to convey to the public, and at times even an orientation towards more esoteric phenomena. As part of his work in these areas, John Michell has raised world consciousness regarding the ancient methods for space design, such as Feng Shui, which was quite unknown till then. John claimed that in order to understand the mysteries of these unknown sites, we must follow the ways of thought of the ancients. The relations among the objects that produce the architectural space – walls, stairways, streets and gates – encode in them secret insights that are rooted deep in the human psyche. Another discovery reported and elaborated upon by John Michell (precisely because he has not limited himself to a narrow speciality and has wandered upon continents to study well the shrines around the world) is that there exist certain axes, straight lines, along which the founders of ancient temples chose to place them. Many sacred sites in England, he discovered, are located along a single straight line (the “Saint Michael Ley Line” that goes across the widest stretch of England and is oriented towards the sunrise of the summer solstice). Other axes draw interesting straight lines that connect ancient sites across various continents. What lies beneath the Heavenly Jerusalem Jerusalem comprises a great mystery. Many cultures have ruled over it, and each one regarded it as a very sacred site, built monuments and changed its appearance. The current political and religious situation prohibits archeological digs in many places so that many questions remain without an unequivocal answer. One of these is the question of the location of the Hebrew Temple. Ostensibly, this is a question that would interest only archeologists and members of the Chief Rabbinate, but, as I hope to show in the following, herein is hidden the key for the development of an alternative approach to the whole issue of the Temple, the key, in fact, to the whole great subject of the coveted peace among the major religions of the modern world. It is quite the convention to think that the Holy of Holies, the most sacred place of the Temple, stood where the Islamic Dome of the Rock stands today. But this is not the only view. There are those today who are pursuing different lines of research. In his second visit I introduced John to Professor Asher Kaufman, who claims that the Holy of Holies was situated at a place called “The Dome of the Spirits”, about a hundred yards North-Northwest of the Dome of the Rock, and John has made several discoveries based on this assumption. On his third visit I introduced him to another one of them – architect Tuviah Sagiv – whom I first met when he was my student at the Israel Institute of Technology, and was already then distinguished as an original thinker. Tuviah, who has invested many years in research of the sacred sites, has reached some most interesting conclusions. Even though he is an observant Jew and dresses like one, Tuviah claims, on the basis of finds he obtained from painstaking examinations of the Temple Mount including use of infra-red aerial photography and radar surveys, that the Western Wall is not a remnant of the Jewish Temple but a remnant of the Temple built by the Roman emperor Hadrian for the Sun God Jupiter in order to obliterate the memory of the Jewish Jerusalem. Sagiv demonstrates that the Solomonic Temple was built at a place between the current Dome of the Rock and the El-Aksa Mosque. The place is currently bereft of a Moslem building (it has a washing fountain, called El-Cas). It is interesting that the greatest of the Kabbalah masters of the 16th century – Rabbi Hayim Vital, the student and scribe of the Holy ARI of Safed – wrote in his diary that the place of the Jewish Temple remained unoccupied, and the gentile nations have not built an edifice upon it. Also the Lubawitcher Rabbi has supported this notion about the location of the Temple. Sagiv has also discovered that the Dome of the Rock is not just a Moslem edifice. The Moslems found an ancient structure, erected and covered it with gold and fantastic mosaic arabesques. But its base was a Roman structure, part of a pattern of shrines that the Roman emperor Hadrian built for the Sun god Jupiter. Yet the Romans did not invent the location of this shrine, and they too have followed the remnants of what was there before. Sagiv discovered that the rock upon which the Dome of the Rock is located is a giant rock with only its tip above ground. The survey of the whole area by novel electronic means reveals that it is chiseled in a very interesting form that is characteristic of ancient temples built for the Phoenician goddess Ashtoret! The Bible actually relates that King Solomon built in Jerusalem not only a temple for the God of Israel, but also followed the council of his foreighn wives and built an altar for Ashtoret (who was later identified with Venus or Aphrodite) as well as altars for two Middle Eastern idols. Could it be that the rock upon which Hadrian built the Temple of Jupiter and his wife Hera, and the Moslem structure built upon that to mark the place of the heavenly ascention of the prophet Mohamad, are actually remnants of a temple for the goddess Ashtoret, which was built by our wise King Solomon alongside the Jewish Temple? The meetings between John Michell and Asher Kaufman and later with Tuvia Sagiv led John to examine the street map of the Roman Jerusalem and to examine the axes that connect the sites in the Old City that are sacred to Christianity, Islam and Judaism. To our surprise John discovered that the summary of these axes, North-South and East-West, gives a new picture, which resembles a sixfold increase of the form of the Temple! Take the form of the Temple (e.g. from Kaufman’s rendering of Tractate Midot in the Talmud), multiply it by six, lay it over the whole Old City, and you get a map of a giant temple, hidden in the secret ley lines of the ancient city. It seems that the old streets of Jerusalem (in which we still roam) reproduce the connecting axes of the sacred sites, and in actuality the whole Old City is a kind of a giant Temple, with alternate foci at the Dome of the Spirits and at the Rock of Golgotha within the present Church of the Holy Sepulcher – the burial place of Jesus. The other sites sacred to the various religions, including the ancient pagan religions, occupy key points in this amazing plan. Jerusalem comes revealed as the extended Temple of Solomon (Shlomoh). The Temple of Interfaith Reconciliation (Hashlamah) is manifest; we walk inside it and do not know that we are walking within it. It should be noted that already in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel (ch. 40-45) the future Temple is described as a giant Temple, about the size discussed here. Also the descriptions of the future Temple in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the description of “The New Jerusalem” in the Revelation of John in the New Testament describes an entire city as the Temple of God, which is destined to be revealed at the End of Days – a giant cosmopolitan Temple designed to serve all humankind. The more the mysterious possibilities unfolded, the caprices of history started falling into place: what happened here? It turned out that the plan built by the Romans in order to obliterate the memory of the Jewish Temple actually forms a hidden harmony with it. The mother of Constantine, the Roman emperor who converted to Christianity, chose the Rock of Golgotha as the site to worship Jesus, a site formerly dedicated to another ancient pagan worship. The Moslems who built the shrines of the Mosque of El-Aksa and (rebuilt) the Dome of the Rock opposite the shrine of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher did so within the ancient outlines of the Temple of Jupiter in Elia Capitolina. Four inimical cultures competed on the site of the Temple of Jerusalem, and each one has built upon it and added an aspect to it. The Jewish Temple was orientated Eastwards, The Roman Temple turned 90 degrees to the axis of the Polar Star. The Christians conquered Rome from within, and turned the axis by another 90 degrees westwards, towards their main shrine in Rome. Along the continuation of the Temple axis they built their shrine at Golgotha over the ruins of another ancient pagan shrine. John Michell shows the placement on this axis by a distance of 864 Temple cubits (12x12x12/2, a number associated systematically with the Temple) extending from Kaufman’s original foci at the Dome of the Spirit. Then, when the hand of Ishmael prevailed, the structures over the Temple Mount were rebuilt and the orientation was turned by another 90 degrees, southwards, towards the schematic direction of their temple at Mecca. “How the Wheel keeps turning”! Now we are here in the new State of Israel and we draw the pattern of the Temple upon the East-West Axis. Surprisingly enough, the continuation of this axis goes right to the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), and it seems that its designers had no conscious conception that they were adding another feature within the whole pattern of the Temple. Moved to the depth of his soul, John wrote in his summary that he sees no explanation for this amazing turn of events but in the realm of the miraculous: “that the wonderful pattern over the Holy City was a product of divine providence, working through each generation of various different peoples to create an active symbol of the Holy Spirit that is ever the same for everyone, everywhere. The revelation of that pattern was to come about when it was needed, in response to a generations’s desire for the ‘healing of nations’, and in God’s good time. It seems likely that the time has come”. What is written here is supported by many drawings along with historical, archeological, mathematical and theological discoveries. Additional details can be found at the Internet site of the Academy of Jerusalem at www.thehope.org, where the full text of John Michell’s monograph can be found at . What should be done about it? This is the big question. As long as we thought that the question of the Temple is a national-Jewish question, and that its erection necessarily entails some World War, we had a good excuse to postpone it for another time. But if there is any truth in what is being discovered through the esoteric research of Jerusalem, then the focus of human consecration is not limited to the few square yards on which the Jewish-Arab conflict is centered. The Future Temple is not intended to become another place for the slaughter of sacrifices, but a place of the formation of a great Peace upon Earth – as described by the prophets – a place where all humankind will meet to sacrifice what divides us and find what draws us near. What are the forms of worship appropriate for such a Temple of Reconciliation? Here it is facing us. The whole Old City with its catacombs and alleys is the place where the Temple is hidden and waiting for all those who are willing to uncover it. Is it possible to create, in the streets of Jerusalem and its labyrinth of rooms, new kinds of religious ritual? (The chambers of the Academy of Jerusalem that overlooks the Dome of the Rock can be the first place to be dedicated to this purpose). Will the New Millenium bring together peace seekers to sanctify, through song and prayer and spiritual exercise, the interfaith Temple that is already virtually here? In order to promote this, the associates of the Academy of Jerusalem are seeking to create a virtual model of the Temple of Reconciliation, which could be extended as a Tabernacle of Peace “built” from laser Light Beams over the Old City. Likewise there are attempts to design exemplary rituals, psychological and esoteric, in which groups of people may gather together to seek ways to get closer, to sacrifice their animal and divisive nature for the sake of what is divine and complementary. Each such group would add a Leaf of Light in the Light Vine Tabernacle that will extend in delicate lines over the city. When many groups are engaged in these practices, the common weave of the leaves of the Light Vine will form fascinating patterns of reconciliation via which all the tribes of humankind will unify through the ever renewing Temple, as we reach novel insights about our own identity and discover new ways to contribute to the sanctification of the whole world. (See also my article on “The Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon”). The Academy of Jerusalem invites whoever feels that “God has touched in his heart” to suggest ideas and to share in the work of the Temple that is being revealed at present in Jerusalem – the City of God.
-------------------- As Above So Below. Posts: 1445 | From: Native forest | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Gaston I am trying to trace it back to it earliest place of importance,and why it is so important.
The earliest traces of human settlement in the Jerusalem area are from the late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (3000 BC). Excavations have shown that a town existed on the south side of Mount Moriah, also called Temple Mount. The name of this town was Urusalim, a word probably of Semitic origin that apparently means 'Foundation of Shalem' or 'Foundation of God'.
Mt. Moriah was already considered highly sacred for several reasons. An ancient Semitic tradition stated that the bare rock atop the mount was held in the mouth of the serpent Tahum, and that this place was the intersection of the underworld and the upper world. It was also considered to be the site where Abraham had built an altar on which he prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. At this same site, the patriarch Jacob gathered stone from the altar upon which his father Isaac was to be sacrificed, and using this stone as a pillow spent the night sleeping upon the rock. Upon waking from a stunning visionary dream, Jacob anointed the stone pillow with oil he had received from heaven and the stone then sank deep into the earth, to become the foundation stone of the great temple that would later be built by Solomon. This hallowed site is known as Bethel, meaning "Gate or House of Heaven."
This site, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite was originally sacred to the harvest deity known as Tammuz (another name for the deity Adonis).
At the point where the Judean desert begins to give way to the more fertile lands of the north, there was a mountain, cradled in a small bowl surrounded by other peaks. It was not particularly tall. But there must have been something special about it. As early as the Bronze Age, it was venerated as home to the local god Shalem, still remembered in the word Jerusalem. Later it was the shrine of the Canaanite deity Baal.
I don't think ancient men just made up all this stuff up, I really believe they saw and spoke to some other form of intelligence, I don't believe they were that stupid or superstitious.
once again, do you see what i see, could it have been a gateway?
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
Macfarlane points out something on a papyrus artifact.Deciphering disintegrated and charred texts used to be a dream to scholars a few years ago, but thanks to BYU professor Roger Macfarlane, NASA technology and antiquity have come together to reveal ancient texts.
Now isn't that special?
I wonder what they are looking for?
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
We have been here in this land long...our tribulations are many — our faith tested. The Temple of Man is this universe of Time and Space...we shall worship him in his All. This, the test of Mankind. All of this is our price for being here.
[ 05-30-2006, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Orion von Koch ]
Posts: 8409 | From: West Texas, Big Bend National Park | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Indeed, Macfarlane has created a great service to humanity.
[ 05-30-2006, 08:27 AM: Message edited by: Orion von Koch ]
Posts: 8409 | From: West Texas, Big Bend National Park | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Of course, Smiley, Huggy Bear and Ishtar...all the same person, have also created a great service to us here.
Posts: 8409 | From: West Texas, Big Bend National Park | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE MOUNT ANTIQUITIES Mark Ami-El
The Pit During October 1999-January 2000, a huge hole -- 50 meters long, 25 meters wide, and 12 meters deep -- was dug in the Temple Mount north of the underground substructure known as Solomon's Stables. This structure is a row of subterranean halls located at the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount and is enclosed by the external wall of the Mount.
This structure was last used by the Crusaders during the medieval era. The system of halls was improved in the twelfth century by the knightly Order of Solomon's Temple (the Templars), whose members, fighting monks, gave them the name of "Solomon's Stables." The Crusader King Baldwin handed the place over to the Knights Templars, and they turned it into stables for their horses. After a major earthquake in 1033 CE, the top of the structure was rebuilt, but no one can confidently date its original construction.
are they looking for something , or trying to hid or destroy something before anyone else gets there hands on it?
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote: Smiley, Huggy Bear and Ishtar...all the same person,
Do you think we are the same person?
No we are not, but thank you I love and respect smiley and huggy
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, you three do a fine job in getting information to this site. Sorry, I admire your research.
[ 05-30-2006, 08:45 AM: Message edited by: Orion von Koch ]
Posts: 8409 | From: West Texas, Big Bend National Park | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
caves israel is like a swiss cheese. no it is top secret. tsahal's headquarter is built on an entry and it is forbidden with a steel door whoever try to go there is repulsed by strange force. informations on the net have been removed.
posted
informations on the net have been removed. darn , maybe we can find some prehistoric info, on caves in that area
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Israel scientists find underground tunnels By Associated Press May 25, 2006
JERUSALEM - Underground chambers and tunnels used during a Jewish revolt against the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago have been uncovered in northern Israel, archaeologists said.
The Jews laid in supplies and were preparing to hide from the Romans during their revolt in A.D. 66-70, the experts said. The pits, which are linked by short tunnels, would have served as a concealed subterranean home.
Yardenna Alexandre of the Israel Antiquities Authority said the find shows the ancient Jews planned and prepared for the uprising, contrary to the common perception that the revolt began spontaneously.
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Posts: 12853 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
These forums are maintained by
Atlantis Rising as a public service. The intent is to give everyone the freedom
to express independent points of view without censure or undue restriction.
However, we ask that you act responsibly in the exercise of your freedoms.
Please keep all comments in good taste and free from insult or the disparagement
of any individual or group (religious, political, racial, ethnic, sexual preference,
etc.).
For the record, the management
of Atlantis Rising wishes to make clear that any and all statements presented
on this forum represent the views of that particular writer ONLY and should
NOT be construed to represent in any way the views, opinions or policies of
Atlantis Rising Magazine or AtlantisRising.com.
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
