Tisha b'Av and The Coming Temple

From the July 02, 2013 eNews issue
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The Hebrew month of Av begins Sunday night, July 7th, and Jews will mourn through the final nine day of The Three Weeks of grief that began with the Fast of Tammuz and end with Tisha b’Av—the day commemorating the destruction of the Jewish temples.

All public transportation will be silenced, all restaurants will remain closed in Jerusalem the evening of July 15th as the sun sets. The Hebrew day of great tragedies, Tisha b’Av, will begin at sundown. In remembrance of the destruction of both the First and Second Temple on the 9th of Av hundreds of years apart, tens of thousands of Jews will gather at the Western Wall to pray and petition the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Jewish hearts around the world will long in unison for the future Temple, the one to be established when the Messiah comes.


The Temple Mount
These next weeks, Jews look toward the Temple Mount with even more longing than normal. Israel has technically controlled the Temple Mount since the Six-Day War in 1967, but the Waqf, a Muslim council, manages the site. The Temple Mount is noticeably dominated by the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Israeli law is supposed to protect free access to the site, but the Israeli government enforces a ban on any non-Muslim prayer on the site in order to avoid Muslim riots.

Many Jews look forward to the day when the Messiah will come, when the Temple will once again rise up on the Temple Mount. A video by The Temple Institute shows a little boy and girl playing on the beach and building a replica of the Temple in the sand. The end caption reads, “The Children Are Ready.” The video had more than 400,000 views on YouTube after it was released last year.

Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute has long promoted this as a time of expectation for the Temple, rather than a time of mourning.

This year in an article on the Fast of Tammuz and the beginning of the Three Weeks of mourning, Rabbi Richman wrote recently in The Jerusalem Post:

The fabricated tears of Tamuz are the romanticization of pain; being comfortable with the pain because it is what we are used to. This is what Maimonides alludes to. We can become so stuck in a place, so part of the cycle, that there is no way out of it.

But the whole idea of Tamuz is for us to confront those idolatrous forces within our own psyche. Parts of the Jewish mindset have been taken over. We have been lobotomized by the pagan mindset of weeping over Tamuz. The verse in Ezekiel [8:14] alludes to the weeping over our own lives, the tragic aspects of our lives, because self-pity feels so good. So we do it again and again, year after year.

Mourning for the Temple is not about crying over the past, or obsessing about something we cannot change; it is about becoming motivated to rise up from mourning, to transform this world into a place for the Divine Presence.

Holy Ground
While many patiently anticipate the coming Temple, not all Jews want worshipers, Jewish or Muslim, flooding the Temple Mount. Nobody is certain exactly where the Holy of Holies in the Temple was located, and these faithful Jews do not want the unwitting visitor to tread on that spot. Worshipers must first be cleansed with the ashes of the red heifer as required in Numbers 19 before Jews can worship freely in the Temple area.

East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount have been points of major contention in past efforts to negotiate a two-state agreement. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, and the Jews do not want to give up this location that is so precious to Judaism. The world would never expect the Muslims to hand over control of the Kaaba in Mecca in order to keep peace, but the Jews are not free to worship on their holiest site because they fear Muslim violence.

Tisha b’Av
Many disasters have befallen the Jews on the 9th of Av throughout history. According to Jewish tradition, this was the day that God told the Children of Israel they were prohibited from entering the Promised Land because of disbelief. They were forced to wander in the desert forty more years until that adult generation had died out. That tragic day was just the beginning…

On the 9th of Av in:

586 BC, Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the Babylonian captivity began;

AD 70, the Second Temple, which stood during Christ’s ministry, was destroyed by the Romans precisely as Jesus predicted in Luke 19;

AD 135, the famous Bar Kokhba revolt was squelched when Bethar, the last Jewish stronghold, fell to the Romans;

AD 136, the Roman Emperor Hadrian established a heathen temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish Temple. Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city, and renamed the land as Palestina, to distance its Jewish heritage. The date when the Temple area was plowed under by the Romans was the 9th of Av.

The day has continued to be associated with grief for the Jewish people throughout history. For example, Pope Urban II declared the Crusades on the 9th of Av in 1242. According to the Alhambra Decree, the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 on this day (the same day that Columbus left on his westward route to the Indies). On the 9th of Av in 1942, the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were mass deported to the Treblinka extermination camp in Poland. Thus the 9th of Av, Tisha B’Av, has become a symbol of all the persecutions and misfortunes of the Jewish people, for the loss of their national independence and their sufferings in exile. Above all, it is a day of intense mourning for the destruction of the Temple.

A Day of Mourning… And Future Joy
Tisha b’Av is marked with sadness and fasting from food and drink. Observant Jews avoid bathing or washing clothes or enjoying entertainment like music or movies. On this day the Jews are reminded of their tragic history.

Yet, this day is also expressly linked with Israel’s glorious destiny. The Jews also look forward to the ultimate rebuilding of the Temple, to a time when Tisha b’Av will become a day of joy and gladness (as it was foretold in Zechariah 8:19).

We do know that the Temple will be rebuilt because Jesus, John, and Paul all make reference to it (Matt 24:15; Rev 11:1, 2; 2 Thess 2:4). We also know that a future Temple will be desecrated by the Coming World Leader when he sets himself up to be worshiped (2 Thess 2:3–4). It is possible this prophetic event will also take place on Tisha b’Av—and may happen in the not-too-distant future.

Related References
• Temple Institute Tisha B’Av Video - Arutz Sheva
• The Nine Days - Laws and Customs - Chabad.org
• A Day Like Any Other? Tisha b’Av - Koinonia House
• The Coming Temple Update: MP3 Download - Koinonia House Store
• Pedigree of the Coming World Leader? The Genealogy of the Antichrist - Koinonia House
• Tisha b’Av - Judaism 101
• The Cult of Tragedy - The Jerusalem Post

A Piece of the "True Cross" Unearthed in Turkey?

From the August 06, 2013 eNews issue
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Turkish archaeologists have announced that they have found a stone chest in a 1,350-year-old church that may have implications for the Christian Church. The archaeologists claim that inside the chest is a relic that may contain a piece of the Cross of Jesus.

The artifacts were unearthed under the Balatlar Church in the Sinop Province in north-central Turkey. Excavation team leader Gülgün Köroğlu said, “We have found a holy thing in a chest. It is a piece of a cross,” the Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News quoted her as saying.

Köroğlu, an archaeologist at Turkey’s Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, said the chest is typical of other artifacts of its type. Chests at one time not only contained the bones of a person, but also items closely associated with that person’s life. In this case, the artifacts contained in this chest were believed to be associated with Jesus’ crucifixion.

The chest has been taken to a laboratory for further examination. Köroğlu said her team has been working at the Byzantine-era church for the last four years. She said that besides the chest, they have foundthe ruins of an ancient Roman bath as well as more than 1,000 human skeletons.

According to tradition, in 325 A.D., Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, believed she discovered the true cross of Jesus at a site outside of Jerusalem. Three crosses were found at the site, including the cross that Jesus supposedly was crucified on along with the crosses of the two thieves. A healing of a crippled woman attributed to stretching her out on the cross was said to reveal the identity of Jesus’ Cross.

The main part of the cross was deposited by Helena in a church erected over the spot. Of the remainder, one portion was sent to Byzantium and inserted into the head of a statue of Constantine, and another was placed in a new church in Rome, specially erected and named for it, Santa Croce (“Holy Cross”).

Pieces linked to Jesus’ cross were spread around the world and can be found in as diverse places outside of the Holy Land as Italy, India, France, and even the Shrine of the True Cross in Dickerson, TX.

Small fragments of the wood of the cross were also encrusted with gold and jewels and sold as souvenirs. Later in the 4th century, Cyril of Jerusalem said the whole world “has been filled with pieces of the wood of the cross.”

Since many early Christian churches and wealthy believers wanted to have a piece of the cross, the miracle of the “multiplication of the cross” was devised so that any relic of the cross was “preserved,” even though pieces were taken from it.

Pundits have commented that there are so many pieces of the cross housed in churches and private collections that one could build a threebedroom house from all the fragments. In fact, in the 1,500s John Calvin was to have said “if all the pieces linked to the ‘true cross’ were assembled in one place, they would make a big shipload.”

The legend of Helena’s find of the cross was widely accepted as true, but the discovery of a 5th-century apocryphal work titled Doctrina Addai has made it evident that the entire story of Helena’s discovery is only a version of an old Mesopotamian legend.

[The Doctrina Addai tells of an identical discovery of the cross, under the very same circumstances, during the reign of Tiberius, by Protonice (wife of Claudius, who became emperor), who had been converted to Christianity by the preaching of Peter.]

Throughout time, many artifacts have been sought after or claimed to be found. The Shroud of Turin, the Ark of the Covenant, the True Cross…. All these items could easily turn into a modern-day variant of the Brazen Serpent. (In many cases they have.)

During Israel’s flight from Egypt, the Israelites began to murmur against God (Number 21:4–5). For this, they were punished by fiery serpents (Numbers 21:6–7). Moses was instructed to make a brass serpent and hang it on a pole, to which the people bitten were to look and become healed. That serpent prefigures Christ “made … sin for us” (John 3:14–15; 2 Corinthians 5:21), hanging on the tree the judgment of our sin (Romans 8:3).

However, people lost sight of the real reason for the Brazen Serpent and began to use it as an object of idolatry (2 Kings 18:4). Because of this perversion, King Hezekiah destroyed it about 700 B.C.

There is a danger that many people will look to other artifacts from the past as they did the brazen serpent and become “snake worshippers” today. To them the power is in believing in a thing rather than in God.

It is faith in God, not faith in things that has power. Without the promises of God’s Word we can have all the faith in the world and not have redemption.

Is that piece of wood part of the cross Jesus hanged from?
Does it really matter?

References
• A piece of Jesus’ cross? Relics unearthed in Turkey - NBC News
• Archeologists claim to have found ‘piece of Jesus’ cross’ at church excavations in Turkey - Hurriyet Daily News

Do Parts of Herod's Temple Still Exist?

From the May 21, 2013 eNews issue
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The Romans destroyed Herod’s Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. Is it possible that some of the wooden beams from his Temple Mount have survived—and may be identified?

Some archeologists believe this may be the case.

In their May/June Edition of Biblical Archaeology Review, archaeologist Peretz Reuven studied beams removed from the Al-Aqsa Mosque and concluded that some of the beams may date back to the Temple.

Wooden beams of the quality that would have been used to build the temple—especially Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) and cypress (Cypressus sempervirens)—were extremely valuable and would have been used and reused, again and again.

Known to archaeologists as “secondary use,” the occurrence of reuse is known to be a widely accepted practice both today and in ancient times. Stone building blocks as well as columns and wood elements of buildings have been found to have been reused from previous building projects.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a prime example. While the Dome of the Rock (the other major building on the Temple Mount) has survived essentially intact since it was built in the 7th Century, the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been rebuilt several times.

Why the difference? In short, the Dome on the Rock was built on a rock foundation while the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built on land fill. The Mosque is located on the southern end of the Temple Mount on dirt fill material.

What happened on the Temple Mount between the Roman destruction in 70 CE and the construction of Al-Aqsa Mosque is a bit unclear. One view is that it remained empty, essentially a garbage dump in fulfillment of Jesus’ prediction that “not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:2; Luke 21:6).

There is some evidence of building on the Temple Mount after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, but nothing definitive. What is definitely known is that there is no report of a building on the Mount when the Muslims erected the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque in the late seventh and early eighth centuries.

Were some wooden beams from Herod’s Temple or other Temple Mount buildings still lying around at this time, and then used and reused in the construction and various reconstructions of Al-Aqsa Mosque?

Examination of the timbers salvaged (and reused) from the Mosque following the 1927 & 1928 earthquakes indicate most of the Mosque’s Cedar of Lebanon and cypress wood was in secondary use after having been used in an earlier construction (or constructions).

The beams often display depressions and protrusions intended to hold them in place from their earlier use.
Carvings of rosettes on the underside of one of the main support beams look very similar to rosettes in the sixth-century Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, indicating that the Al-Aqsa beam probably came from a Byzantine church and its earlier use should be dated to the same period as the church.

Other cypress beams have been carbon-14 dated back to the first century BC and probably came from a nearby structure on the Temple Mount that existed at that time.

Other logs that were removed from Al-Aqsa in the early 1960s were dated to the ninth–second centuries BCE, according to archeologists who have examined the beams.

One beam found was dated back to 884 BC +/- 180 years. Given that there is building material that old on the site and materials of construction were reused on site, it is possible that some of the timbers originally used in the construction of Al-Aqsa Mosque survived from the First Temple Period.

Some of the support beams that had been used in earlier reconstructions of the Al-Aqsa Mosque were often left lying around on the Temple Mount if they were not used in later reconstructions. Gradually they disappeared, being carried away for other projects, probably homes and shops as well as souvenirs. This process sped up in recent years, especially during the recent Muslim excavation of a large stairway leading down to an underground mosque in Solomon’s Stables on the southern end of the Temple Mount.

One of the beams that has survived is carved with decorations common in the Roman period, including a rope pattern, various kinds of leaves and pomegranates. This Roman-period beam could be from Herod’s time.

Another intriguing fact about the beam is that there are markings on the beam that indicate it rested on columns that were spaced at intervals of 10.8 feet. This is a similar interval to the columns in Herod’s Royal Stoa, a basilica that stood on the southern end of the Temple Mount.

Cedar of Lebanon is an extremely valuable wood and durable enough for it to survive and be in use to the present day.

While we may never know for sure if any of these beams came from Herod’s temple, it is a distinct possibility.

References
• What Joins Jews and Muslims? - Archaeology & Arts
• Temple of Herod - JewishEncyclopedia.com
• Ancient Wooden Beams May Be from Herod’s Temple, According to Biblical Archaeology Review - PRLog
• Wooden Beams from Herod’s Temple Mount: Do They Still Exist? - Biblical Archaeology Society