Jerusalem temple

The relationship between the ancient Jewish Temple and the existing Haram al-Sharif, the enclosure housing the Dome of the Rock and Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is explored and identified using topographic and
documentary evidence, also taking into account relevant material remains.

Classical and Oriental sources tell of a precious metal called Corinthian bronze. They agree that it was an alloy of copper, gold, and silver. Together they describe various stages in its manufacture-heat treatment, quenching, leaching, and burnishing. In addition, the Leiden papyrus X attests to a process of depletion gilding, whereby an alloy containing gold could acquire a golden surface hue. The process that can be pieced together from all these sources turns out to be essentially identical with that re- constructed by H. Lechtman and D.A. Scott for the tum- baga of the pre-Columbian cultures of South America. Experimental reconstruction produced a golden hue even in an alloy containing as little as 15% (by volume) of gold. Silver was found to be a necessary constituent for the gilding process. Some recent scholarship has suspected the accuracy of the ancient accounts, supposing instead that Corinthian bronze simply meant all bronze from Corinth, or alternatively a high-tin bronze invented in Corinth. In fact, however, Corinthian bronze was characterized by the admixture of precious metals and a special process of manufacture, exactly as specified in the ancient sources.

Finally, and that will be my own personal conclusion, Paul appears to be an extremely intelligent opportunist who understood that the Roman Empire would be eventually confronted to the need of a unifying ideology or religion, an ideology or religion that could appear universal, and that the mythology that was in the process of being born (James seems to be one who advocated the permanent virginity of Mary, his own mother) could become the basis of a new religion that could satisfy that demand, be it only offered. Paul was going in the way history was going, though he does not appear to be very « kosher » about his means of action, but of course « kosher » does not apply any more to him who drinks wine, dinks blood, eats everything that is on the market including animals sacrificed to idols, etc.

An intriguing point of disagreement is evident among recent commentators on Mark 12:41-44 as to how we should understand the poor widow’s offering, whether as a positive or negative image. The crucial issue, raised for the first time by A.G. Wright, is a proper grasp of the immediate narrative context of the poor widow’s story, which in his case produced the lamentable reading of widow’s “deed.” Nevertheless, by widening the immediate narrative context and reading the account within the larger Markan framework, the interpretative ambiguity disappears. The widow is presented to Jesus’ disciples, and to the readers of the Markan story, as a positive example of self-denial motivated by faith, love and devotion toward God. Thus, she not only stands as a symbol of the faithful remnant of Israel, but, most importantly, presents a picture of Jesus’ own self-offering on the cross.

Per quando Gesù ha predetto il suo ritorno nella gloria e la piena realizzazione del regno di Dio? A breve distanza dalla sua morte o dopo molto tempo? Un’analisi rigorosa di tutte le affermazioni di Gesù che sembrano annunciare il suo ritorno per l’immediato.

A lo largo de su historia el Imperio romano tuvo que hacer frente a numerosas revueltas, debido al enorme territorio que controlaba. De entre los pueblos que las protagonizaron, los hebreos se contaban entre los que con mayor insistencia lucharon por recuperar su independencia. En cuanto a los diversos conflictos que enfrentaron a judíos y romanos, la que, a la postre, seria recordada como la Primera Guerra Judeo-romana (66-73 d.C.) pasó a la historia como el más importante de todos. Ello se debe tanto a que requirió de la participación de dos futuros emperadores al mando de las tropas romanas que debían restablecer la paz en la provincia de Judea, Vespasiano y su hijo Tito, como al hecho de que la ciudad de Jerusalén y el Gran Templo que albergaba acabaron completamente destruidos.

En el año 66 d.C. numerosos factores se unieron al odio que sectores radicales hebreos sentían hacia sus conquistadores romanos, provocando la caída del procurador de Judea, Gesio Floro, y la derrota del Legado de Siria, Cestio Galo, en Beth Horón, quien acudió con sus tropas a pacificar la región sin conseguirlo. El movimiento fue cobrando fuerza tras estos éxitos, y Jerusalén se convirtió en el epicentro del independentismo judío. Roma no podía permanecer pasiva ante estos acontecimientos y Nerón envió allí a Vespasiano, un general experimentado, para acabar de una vez por todas con el problema. La resistencia implacable que demostraron los rebeldes y los problemas políticos que, durante ese tiempo, se produjeron en Roma, provocaron que la conquista final quedara en manos de su capaz hijo Tito quien, a la postre, consiguió conquistar Jerusalén y acabar con la revuelta. El gran triunfo que se celebró en Roma para conmemorar la victoria era lo que la nueva dinastía Flavia necesitaba para afianzar su poder. Sin embargo, la campaña no finalizó hasta el año 73 d.C., tras la toma de la fortaleza de Masada, donde los últimos insurrectos prefirieron suicidarse antes de ser derrotados. El enfrentamiento se saldaría con una enorme pérdida de vidas, tanto entre los soldados romanos como entre los insurrectos judíos y la población civil. Gracias a la obra de Flavio Josefo, podemos reconstruir lo sucedido para poder así conocer con detalle uno de los grandes episodios de la Historia Antigua.

Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah express a different approach to the future of Israel to that given in the Former Prophets. First, the nature and the dating of this part of the Hebrew Bible are discussed, suggesting the end of the 5th and the very beginning of the 4th century B.C. as the time of its origins. Then the retrospection of the past in the two Books of Chronicles is presented, with its very specific attitude towards the Exile. The article focuses its attention on the detailed analysis of Ezra 4,1-5, that represents the very core of this book. Having in mind the identity of the delegation coming to Jerusalem as seen by the author of Ezra and the completely different self-presentation of the delegates from the north, the serious conflict that ensues is described, this bearing analogies with the former antagonisms and tensions between the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel. On the basis of this conflict a new reality emerges, namely Judaism. The religion of the pre-exilic Israel was deeply transformed, limiting itself only to those Judeans who came back from the Exile. As a result of this separation, the question of the “true Israel” started to be more crucial, giving new direction to the project of the national and religious identity of biblical Israel.

Desde la Antigüedad las monedas han servido, no sólo como un medio para el intercambio
de bienes, sino también como un vehículo de propaganda política en el que las autoridades
responsables de su acuñación y garantes de su valor expresaban, por medio de los tipos1 que en
ellas se representaban y las leyendas que en ellas se leían, los conceptos de nación que
preconizaban y que querían comunicar a quienes las iban a usar en su vida cotidiana. De esta
forma, las monedas, que eran manejadas por todos los estratos de la población, desde los más
humildes hasta los más favorecidos, adquirieron una capacidad propagandística que permitía
conocer el aspecto físico de los gobernantes, los símbolos de las naciones, sus logros militares, e
incluso su fidelidad de los pueblos a los grandes imperios o su deseo de independencia.
Las monedas hebreas de Palestina de la época del Segundo Templo2 no fueron ajenas a este
fenómeno, sobre todo las acuñadas por los asmoneos y por los rebeldes de las guerras judías del
70 y de Bar Kojba, que tuvieron una significación político-religiosa relacionada con la religión
judía, el sentimiento de pertenencia al pueblo hebreo y el apego de este pueblo a la tierra de
Judea, especialmente a Jerusalén, donde estaba enclavado el Templo de Yavé. Esta significación
se refleja en los tipos que se representaron en las monedas, que en muchos de los casos eran
símbolos que estaban relacionados con la tradición bíblica y con el culto a Yavé y el Templo de
Jerusalén. A los últimos tipos está dedicado este artículo.
Estos tipos se pueden dividir en tres grupos según lo que representan: el edificio del
Templo de Jerusalén, objetos que se utilizaban en el culto a Yavé y los símbolos de las fiestas
para las que había que peregrinar al Templo.

Der Beitrag fragt einleitend im Anschluss an Ernst Cassirer nach der Logik mythischen Denkens (S. 117–125), bietet sodann einen Überblick über die Geschichte symmetrischer Breit- und Langraumtempel der Levante (S. 125–140), rekonstruiert den »Salomonischen Tempel« von Jerusalem und ordnet diesen baugeschichtlich ein (S. 140–146). Anschließend verfolgt er die sich wandelnden Bedeutungen des Tempels (S. 146–154), die Verortungen Gottes und des Tempels auf Erden und im Himmel (S. 154–157) sowie die Fortschreibung der Traditionen des Tempels im frühislamischen Felsendom (S. 157–163) und die Metamorphosen dieser Traditionen in den letzten 200 Jahren.

Following Ernst Cassirer, the article begins by asking about the logic of mythical thinking (pp. 117-125), then offers an overview of the history of symmetrical broad and long room temples in the Levant (pp. 125-140), reconstructs the "Solomonic Temple" of Jerusalem and classifies it in terms of architectural history (pp. 140-146). Afterwards it follows the changing meanings of the temple (pp. 146-154), the location of God and the temple on earth and in heaven (pp. 154-157) as well as the continuation of the traditions of the Temple in the Early Islamic Dome of the Rock (pp. 157-163) and the metamorphoses of these traditions in the last 200 years.

La Primera Guerra Judeo-romana se convirtió en uno de los conflictos más importantes que Roma tuvo que afrontar en el siglo I d.C. Su inicio propició la llegada de la Dinastía flavia al poder y su fin la consolidó. La amenaza rebelde hizo peligrar la estabilidad de la frontera oriental del Imperio romano. En este contexto, si bien, la batalla de Beth Horon no ha sido tan conocida y estudiada, su importancia fue capital pues proporcionó a los judíos su principal victoria frente a Roma y propició que la insurrección se generalizara, pues se vio como una señal del apoyo divino.

1-2 Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah express a different approach to the future of Israel to that provided in the Earlier Prophets. Firstly, the nature and the dating of this part of the Hebrew Bible are discussed, suggesting the end of the fifth and the very beginning of the fourth century B.C. as the time of its origins. Secondly, the retrospect of the past in 1-2 Chronicles is presented with a very specific attitude towards the Exile. The article focuses on the detailed analysis of Ezra 4:1-5, a passage representing the very core of this book. Against the backdrop of the identity of the deputation visiting Jerusalem as seen by the author of Ezra and the completely different self-presentation of the envoys from the north, the serious conflict that ensues is described. It bears analogies with the former antagonisms and tensions between the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. On the basis of this conflict, a new reality emerges, namely Judaism. The religion of the preexilic Israel was profoundly transformed, having been exclusively limited to those Judeans who had come back from the Exile. As a result of this separation, the question of the "true Israel" became more crucial, setting new direction for the project of the national and religious identity of biblical Israel.

This is my transcription of Psalm 114, following the masoretic cantillation of the Aleppo text, and leaning on the interpretive system of Haik-Vantoura. An earlier version of this transcription appeared in my 2012 JSOT article, 'Resinging the Temple Psalmody', where comments on the psalm and its key role in decoding the masoretic cantillation will also be found.

The paper demonstrates that not only is the 1594 Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle the first complete Renaissance place of worship built in the British Isles, but is also a copy of Solomon's Temple, designed by the founder of modern Freemasonry, William Schaw.

This article presents the detailed exegesis of the text of Esd 4,1-5. First, the place of this text in the structure of the Book of Esdra is described and the translation into Polish is given. Then, detailed remarks follow regarding all the verses included. Verse 1 gives the identity of the delegation coming to Jerusalem as seen by the author of the Book of Esdra. Verse 2 preserves the self-presentation of the delegates from the north, and the article stresses the fact that they were believers in YHWH. The answer given in v. 3 by the Jerusalem authorities is analysed in detail. Verses 4-5 describe the conflict with “the people of the land”, in many respects having analogies with similar antagonisms between Jerusalem and Judah and the population of the former Kingdom of Israel. By the end of the article some important conclusions are proposed, among them the question as to whether the Jerusalem authorities would accept the proposal of collaboration in the cult existing in Jerusalem presented immediately after 539 by the delegates coming from the north. The crucial question regards the long-lasting and still valid issue of the identity of the “true Israel”.

When the rabbis composed the Mishnah in the late second or early third century C.E., the Jerusalem Temple had been destroyed for more then a century. Why, then, do the Temple and its ritual feature so prominently in the Mishnah? Against the view that the rabbis were reacting directly to the destruction and asserting that nothing had changed, Naftali S. Cohn argues that the memory of the Temple served a political function for the rabbis in their own time. They described the Temple and its ritual in a unique way that helped to establish their authority within the context of Roman dominance.

At the time the Mishnah was created, the rabbis were not the only ones talking extensively about the Temple: other Judaeans (including followers of Jesus), Christians, and even Roman emperors produced texts and other cultural artifacts centered on the Jerusalem Temple. Looking back at the procedures of Temple ritual, the rabbis created in the Mishnah a past and a Temple in their own image, which lent legitimacy to their claim to be the only authentic purveyors of Jewish tradition and the traditional Jewish way of life. Seizing on the Temple, they sought to establish and consolidate their own position of importance within the complex social and religious landscape of Jewish society in Roman Palestine.

Articolo presenta in un modo conciso le principali convinzioni degli Ebrei riguardanti il tempio di  Gerusalemme.  Queste  convinzioni  sono  simili  a  quelle  degli  abitanti  dell’antica  Mesopotamia,  Egitto e Siria. Dopo aver spiegato l’architettura del tempio situato a monte Moria, l’autore presenta le prescrizioni cultiche di purità ed impurità rituale. Un po’ di spazio viene dedicato anche alla critica della istituzione del tempio e sopratutto del sacerdozio.

In this book Kenneth Atkinson adds to his already impressive body of work on the Hasmoneans, proposing that the history and theological beliefs of Jews during the period of the Hasmonean state cannot be understood without a close investigation of the histories of the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid Empires, as well as the Roman Republic. By bringing together evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and classical sources, Atkinson offers a new reconstruction of this vital historical period, from the 2nd to the 1st centuries B.C.E., when the Hasmonean family changed the fates of their neighbors, the Roman Republic, the religion of Judaism, and created the foundation for the development of the nascent Christian faith.

The book also contains many new reconstructions of events in classical history, including the most detailed examination of Pompey the Great's assassination in light of Jewish sources. This section on his death uncovers new information that explains the discrepancies in the classical accounts of this pivotal event that shaped Middle Eastern and Roman history, and which helped end the Republic.

Table of contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. Introduction: The Sources and their Limitations
2. The Early Hasmonean Period: New Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls
3. Prophetic Messianism and Hasmonean State Expansion: Dangers from the Seleucid Empire
4. The Creation of the Hasmonean Monarchy: Apocalyptic Expectations and the Dead Sea Scrolls
5. Religious Strife in the Hasmonean State: Foreign Threats, Ptolemaic Messianism, and the True Prophet
6. Military Deterrence and the Hasmonean Golden Age: The End of Days in the Dead Sea Scrolls
7. After the Loss of Sovereignty: New Light on Hasmonean and Roman History from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Classical Texts
8. A Dream Shattered: the End of the Hasmonean State and the Demise of its Neighbors
Bibliography
Index

Preview of Chapter One is available at:  https://bloomsburycp3.codemantra.com/viewer/5ba504de713c090001a40662

Interview: If you would like to learn more about this book's background as well as my background before academia, please click on the "Interview" link at the top of the page (next to  "Books" and "Papers") for T and T Clark's recent profile of my on their blog.

The purpose of the present article is twofold. (1) It analyzes Stephen’s speech, a controversial New Testament passage in the book of Acts chapter 7. In it, Stephen, a Hellenist Christian Jew, criticizes the Jerusalem temple arguing that “the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands (cheiropoiētois)” (Acts 7:48). Calling the temple a cheiropoiētos was considered blasphemy once prior to the New Testament that term was only used for idols/false gods in the Hebrew Bible. (2) As Stephen’s speech seems to recover historical material, the article, then, examines Hellenistic Jewish texts written around 1st century BCE and 1st century CE which present negative references to the Jerusalem Temple in order to reconstruct a plausible Hellenistic Jewish background for Acts 7:48.

Challenge of communicable comprehension of Jerusalem; Implication for Jerusalem of supraposition versus superposition; Comprehending the nature of a potentially hyperdimensional Jerusalem; Imagining the "architecture" of the temple of Jerusalem; Cognitive implications of "pre-fixing" Jerusalem "solutions": co-, hyper-, super-, meta ?; Artificial intelligence and the Middle East peace process?; Revisiting "death ground" strategy?

This paper examines the importance of the Temple in Jewish tradition and the presence of Jews and their rabbinic leaders in Jerusalem throughout the Middle Ages.

The paper was presented at the 40th International Conference on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University on May 6, 2005.

Marc et Matthieu rapportent que, lors de la comparution de Jésus devant le Sanhédrin, des témoins à charge se présentent, prétendant que le Nazaréen aurait déclaré : « Je peux détruire (Mt) ou je détruirai (Mc) le Temple, et le rebâtirai en trois jours. » (Mt 26/57-61 // Mc 14/55-59-manque chez Luc)

Abstract:Chapter 10 of I Maccabees tells of the competing efforts of Seleucid King Demetrius I Soter and his contender, Alexander I Balas, to win the support of the Jews in Judea. Verses 25b-45 quote a letter, allegedly sent by the king, containing numerous overwhelming promises. Following an accepted view in research, which regards the letter as a fake, this paper raises the possibility that it was written as an ironic text, the irony being at times evident and at others more covert. The article suggests that in the composition of this array of promises, its author consulted, collected, and borrowed elements, even entire clauses from several other, authentic, Seleucid letters sent to the Jews in Judea. Of these letters, the resemblance in content between the text in question and two letters of Antiochus III, quoted by Josephus in book 12 of his Antiquity of the Jews, is especially striking. The apparent reliance on such authentic Seleucid documents, which are not quoted in I Maccabees, indicates that the author of the letter and the author of I Maccabees used the same official Temple archive, and quite likely, are the same person.

Altar and temple house: an interpretation of the cultic institution in Jerusalem of the Persian era. – The altar and temple house, two basic institutions within the Jerusalem temple, differ in their respective purposes, history, and theology. Inherited from the distant past, the open-air altar is an archaic item that reaches back to prehistoric times. Cultic practices enacted at the altar presuppose a distant abode of God – in the Persian period, no doubt a heavenly one. The temple house is different altogether: an institution that reflects an advanced culture that involved building and living in houses, it incorporated the idea of an earthly residence for God. In Persian times, both structures were reformed: the altar through the introduction of a continuously and perpetually burning fire, and the temple house through aniconism, i.e. the absence of any divine image in human form. Owing to the "aspective thinking" of ancient civilizations, the temple house and altar persisted, remaining juxtaposed, and no one questioned the mutual existence within the Jerusalem temple of these structures that represented two different ritual and theological concepts. -- The argument of the paper is further developed in: Bernhard Lang, "Die Leviten. Ihre Anthropologie und die Folgen für Ahnenkult und Bilderverehrung im alten Israel, in: Angelika Berlejung et al. (eds.), Menschenbilder und Körperkonzepte im Alten Israel, in Ägypten und im Alten Orient (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012), 287–319.

In this collection scholars of  biblical texts and rabbinics engage the work of Barry Schwartz, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology at the University of Georgia. Schwartz provides an introductory essay on the study of collective memory. Articles that follow integrate his work into the study of early Jewish and  Christian texts. The volume concludes with a response from Schwartz that continues this warm and fruitful dialogue between fields.

In recent years, notions of space in biblical texts have been analyzed by means of sociological concepts of spatiality, primarily based on the works of Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja. This article explores the heuristic provided by spatial concepts for the understanding of Psalm 73 and the debated understanding of the expression “sanctuaries of God” (מִקְדְּשֵׁי־אֵל) in v. 17. The actions described in this psalm take place in social space that is constituted, endangered and renewed by the actions of the psalm’s protagonists.