Posted on 09/26/2006 6:26:26 AM PDT by NYer
A COLLECTION of sacred artefacts looted by the Romans from the Temple of Jerusalem and long suspected of being hidden in the vaults of the Vatican are actually in the Holy Land, according to a British archaeologist.
Sean Kingsley, a specialist in the Holy Land, claims to have discovered what became of the collection, which is widely regarded as the greatest of biblical treasures and includes silver trumpets that would have heralded the Coming of the Messiah.
The trumpets, gold candelabra and the bejewelled Table of the Divine Presence were among pieces shipped to Rome after the looting in AD70 of the Temple, the most sacred building in the ancient Jewish faith.
After a decade of research into previously untapped ancient texts and archaeological sources, Dr Kingsley has reconstructed the treasure’s route for the first time in 2,000 years to provide evidence that it left Rome in the 5th century.
He has discovered that it was taken to Carthage, Constantinople and Algeria before being hidden in the Judaean wilderness, beneath the Monastery of Theodosius.
Dr Kingsley said: “The treasure resonates fiercely across modern politics. Since the mid-1990s, a heated political wrangle has been simmering between the Vatican and Israel, which has accused the papacy of imprisoning the treasure.
“The Temple treasure remains a deadly political tool in the volatile Arab-Israeli conflict centred on the Temple Mount [the site of the Jewish Temple and the Muslim Dome of the Rock].
“The treasure’s final hiding place – in the modern West Bank . . . deep in Hamas territory – will rock world religions.”
Emperor Vespasian ordered the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem after a Jewish revolt and Roman forces took about 50 tons of gold, silver and precious art to Rome.
The Arch of Titus, built a decade later, depicts Roman soldiers bearing the sacred spoils on their shoulders. The Jews were expelled from Jerusalem and dispersed throughout the world.
Between AD75 and the early 5th century, the treasure was on public display in the Temple of Peace in the Forum, in Rome.
The Vatican has told Dr Kingsley that there is no evidence in its archives that the treasure resided in Rome from the medieval period onwards.
He said: “One thing is for sure – it is not imprisoned deep in Vatican City. I am the first person to prove that the Temple treasures no longer languish in Rome.”
Dr Kingsley’s sources include Josephus, a 1st-century Jewish historian who sometimes exaggerated but is an authority on Roman and Jewish history. Dr Kingsley also found evidence in, among others, the works of Procopius, a court historian of the Emperor Justinian, who died in AD562, and from Theophanes Confessor (c760-817), a Christian monk from Constantinople.
In Chronographia, which spanned AD284 to 813, Theophanes recorded that Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, loaded the treasures that “Titus had brought to Rome after the capture of Jerusalem” on a boat to Carthage in Tunisia in AD455.
In the first holy crusade in AD533, the Byzantine Belisarius seized the treasure from a royal ship fleeing the Algerian harbour of Hippo Regius. It was then shipped to Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium.In the 7th century, Persians sacked Jerusalem, killing thousands of Christians, and dragging the Patriarch, Zacharias, to Persia. Dr Kingsley believes that his replacement, Modestus, spirited away the treasures to their final hiding place in AD614.
Dr Kingsley will reveal his findings in God’s Gold: The Quest for the Lost Temple Treasure of Jerusalem, to be published by John Murray on October 5.
We do no such thing. This is explicitly forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments.
The worship by chr*stians of statues, icons, holy places, and saints...
We do no such thing. This is explicitly forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments.
I apologize for offending you, but I was trying to point out the irony of a chr*stian accusing Jews of "worshipping the Temple" considering the multiple chr*stian culti of statues, icons, saints, etc. Granted, Protestants tend to know very little about this, this is what chr*stianity consisted of for 1500 years. It's sorta like chr*stians attacking Jews for "working their way into Heaven" in light of masses, rosary beads, confessions, indulgences, etc.
At this point, It's probably best for me to back out and let NYer take the issue.
Shalom.
1Co 1:21-25 MKJV
(21) For since, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom did not know God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.
(22) For the Jews ask for a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom;
(23) but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness.
(24) But to them, the called-out ones, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
(25) Because the foolish thing of God is wiser than men, and the weak thing of God is stronger than men.
The "new testament" of course, has as much credibility as the koran.
Yeah, it has to be my favorite quote.
The Third Temple will be forever. Read what you would call the Old Testament, and in particular the Prophets. If you want to make sure that you are reading the documents in question - all of them and only them - then I'd suggest browsing a copy of the Tanach published by a company called Artscroll. It'll have some things not found in the King James version, and lack others.
Those who converted had a very weak faith (as is the case with all converts of any religion, unless they had a sword to their throat or a gun to their head, as the ROP people tend to do). If they had read their Bible and heeded the warning that Moses gave toward the end of Deuteronomy, they'd have known that if they strayed from G-d's commandments that G-d would withdraw his special protection over the Land of Israel, meaning that the nation would be subject to the normal laws of history. The promise to the Jewish People would remain - in memory of the faith of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of the faith of those at Mt. Sinai - but it would postpone the coming of the Moschiach (Messiah) for a long while, until our behavior as a people was rectified.
Fine - then whichever religion (Greek or Russian Orthodox?) controls that Abbey is in possession of stolen property - IF this article and the book underlying it are correct. If they aren't, then of course the allegation is just as valid.
And never have.
Not 'bearing false witness against thy neighbor' is right up there with 'thou shalt not steal'
It was in Rome until the 5th century - and the official religion of Rome was Christianity from the time of Constantine forward (and there was basically only the Catholic Church at the time), plus it is **according to this article** held in a monastery.
So I, a non-Christian, have assumed that either Christian Rome or a monastery (which is usually full of monks and/or priests and/or nuns, etc. - all Catholic religious figures in my mind) are both associated with the Catholic Church and also had possession of the objects in question. If that's a mistake, so be it - and I'll gladly stand corrected of my ignorance. However, such ignorance (IF I'm completely wrong) does NOT rise to the level of bearing false witness. That (i.e. lying) requires that I know the truth, but purposely don't speak it and/or speak an untruth with the specific intent of deceiving someone.
IOW, please be careful with your own accusations or assumptions.
The "outside" Jews who were too far from the Jerusalem to worship the Temple, became the lynchpin for Judaism. The first became last and the last became first.
Replacement theology is increasingly discredited. You can find an objective and scholarly analysis of Romans here.
huh?
Are you saying that the people who brought monotheism to the world 1) worshipped a building? thought that God could be "caged?"
"The "outside" Jews who were too far from the Jerusalem to worship the Temple, became the lynchpin for Judaism."
No. They lost their Jewish identity.
Your whole post is wrong.
The author seems to be off on some of his facts:
He has discovered that it [the treasure] was taken to Carthage . . .
Not intentionally, IINM: the Vandals carried it off with them after they sacked Rome in 410.
The Arch of Titus, built a decade later, depicts Roman soldiers bearing the sacred spoils on their shoulders. The Jews were expelled from Jerusalem and dispersed throughout the world.
Again, IINM, while many inhabitants of Judah were taken off to Rome, the actual expulsion was ordered in about 132 A.D. by Emperor Hadrian after the Bar Kochba rebellion.
Not exactly correct. There was no ultimatum to repent; the Lord prophecied that the temple would be thrown down, and also that the blessings would be temporarily transfered to another nation (the church).
Yes, without that simple understanding, one might be picking a fight with buildings that are in an area that is given to the "gentiles."
Yup, totally wrong, unless ~ small exception ~ he's encountered one of those Orthodox groups who believe God may be bound by a word.
The followers of the Messiah Yahshua were known as Nazerenes.
How very... Egyptian...
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