Ancient History/Religion Pot Pourri
Here a few items of antiquarian interest from the last week or so:
“When you live in a quiet place, like a cell, and you are not busy with anything but God, you start to hear yourself and to see yourself,” Father Maximous said during a recent tour of the unearthed cells. “We only want to be busy with God, to hear God, to see God.”
Jerusalem Holy of Holies? North of the Dome of the Rock, apparently.
The building of the Third Temple, [Kaufman] says, will be “something wonderful for the Jewish People, and for the world as a whole” – although he does not believe that ritual sacrifice will be reinstated.
Since he locates the Holy of Holies north of the Dome of the Rock, he believes the whole area of the Temple Mount could be divided into a Jewish and Muslim area, Al-Aksa Mosque being within the Moslem area.
The Dome of the Rock would be within the court of the Temple. “In ancient times, strangers other than of the Jewish faith were permitted entry into this court…. This means that there would be free access to the Dome of the Rock. It could be administered by the Muslims without any change.”
rejected Jesus Christ as Messiah?”
One of [the author's] most significant arguments for the non-acceptance of Jesus Christ as the messiah is that the Hebrew Bible describes who the Messiah is—and Christ is nothing like him. Jewish scriptures especially in the Book of Ezekiel, list what the messiah is supposed to accomplish when he comes to earth: be monarch of the world, the person who will bring back the Jewish exiles to Israel, re-build the Temple in Jerusalem, drive out the oppressors of the Jewish people, and bring about a reign of peace.
From the Jewish point of view, none of this has happened, so how could Jesus possibly be the Messiah?
David is by turns pious, loving, brutal, coldly calculating. In Pinsky’s hands, the world in which David flourished is revealed as full of “violence and swagger,” with David the master of that world. Although Pinsky never tries to whitewash David’s character–on the contrary, he revels in the contradictions that David presents –the king remains exemplary. Despite dealing with a character who could be thuggish in his dealings with friends and foes alike, Pinsky accepts the Bible’s attitude toward him, resulting in the outline of a man to be admired more than condemned.
The site’s revival was welcome news for Khodakhost Homayoon, a ticket agent at Persepolis, who worked inside the shah’s tent during the celebration. “It was a great day,” he said. “People were here from all over the world and the message was peaceful. It made me proud to be Iranian. Ancient history is always a reason to be proud. No human being can be against it.”
Amen.
With respect to the Why Jews Rejected Jesus book, although I didnt read it, I have considerable contact with Jews of various stripes, and the general premise quoted by Ronan is correct and widely held. I dont understand why this would be considered something new or informative.
Naturally, Christians see the Second Advent (as told by John’s Revelation), as the ultimate fulfilment of these various OT prophecies, filling in all the stuff that was left unfulfilled. Jews, although most are too polite to say it, see John’s Revelation as effectively a confession that Jesus wasnt the Messiah because he didnt do all those things the OT said he would do, but that he was still going to do it at some future time.
Comment by Kurt — October 3, 2005 @ 7:22 am
Good points, Kurt. Indeed, the Jewish reasons for not accepting Jesus do seem to make sense from their point iof view.
Comment by Ronan — October 3, 2005 @ 9:14 am