Dome of the Rock
Art Neuendorffer
http://www.thekingiscoming.com/Tbs/2005/200502/the_bible_says.html
<<The Dome of the Rock, a strikingly beautiful, golden-domed, octagonal
mosque, was built between AD 687 and 691. The building is 180 feet in
diameter, with each side measuring 63 feet in length. The Dome rises
108 feet from the ground, and has a diameter of 78 feet. The interior
of the Dome is decorated with stained glass windows, stones of marble,
and columns which were taken from different Byzantine churches.
(Some of these columns still have the Christian crosses
which were carved on them.)
Despite thirteen centuries of time, and the ravages of the Crusades,
this elegant building remains standing just as it was built. Sometimes
it is erroneously called the Mosque of Omar; however, another caliph,
Abd-al-Marik, was responsible for its construction.
The Dome of the Rock is built over a huge rough-hewn rock which
measures about 40 by 52 feet, and rises about 7 feet above the
level of the floor. This rock is actually the summit of Mount Moriah.
According to Jewish legend, the rock marks the exact center of the
Earth, and was often marked as such on their maps. The Jews believe it
was the base of the altar of burnt offering. To verify this view, there
is a hole in the rock through which blood would drain to a cave under
the rock. This cave was called "the well of the souls" because the souls
of the dead supposedly met there every week. Jewish tradition says that
this was the cave where Elijah, Abraham, David, and Solomon prayed,
though there is no specific reference to this in the Old Testament.
This rock has significance to the Muslims as well. Muslims believe
that they trace their origin to Abraham. They teach that Abraham took
his son Ishmael (not Isaac) to offer as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah,
on this very rock.
They also believe that it was from this rock that Muhammad went to
Heaven on his winged horse. Tradition says that when he went up, this
huge rock began to rise with him, but an angel appeared and held the
rock down. The fingerprints of the angel are said to be visible on the
side of the rock, as supposedly are also the footprints of Muhammad.
For these reasons, the Muslims tenaciously hold possession
of the Temple Mount, site of the Dome of the Rock, although
the Jews desire to secure it for their new temple.>>
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http://www.mawlid.net/Panorama%20of%20the%20Prophets/palestine.htm
<<The 120-foot-high dome constructed by the Ummayyad Khalif 'Abdul Malik
in 691 C.E. (69 A.H.) is an engineering masterpiece, one of Islam's
oldest works of devotional architecture. To stand at the railing that
surrounds the hallowed rock, to look at the spot where the Mi'raj
actually took place, to see a footprint of the Prophet (S) and
to cast one's gaze into the dome is an amazing sensation.
Another fascinating aspect of the granite rock, the tip of Mount Moriah,
is that there is a cave or crypt underneath it. But that is not all.
A man-sized hole is in its roof, apparently an effect of the Mi'raj
when the Rock trembled and an Angel had to hold it up on its east side.
Traditions (through Jalal ud-Din as-Suyuti) speak of the second
Righteous Khalifah, 'Umar, rediscovering the Sacred Rock as a sewer
and rubbish dump sixteen years after the Hijrah (migration from Mecca
to Madina). Therefore, the hole in the rock could also have been
a result of the many desecrations by the Greeks, the Romans,
the Byzantines, or even the Babylonians.
The cave, which can house thirty or more people, is another fascinating
feature. I was told that it was called "The Well of the Souls," a
venue where the spirits of the dead came to make salah.
The dome glowed in the dawn light, silhouetted against a pink and purple
sky heralding the rising of the sun. I thought of Nabi Sulaiman, a
prophet who chose knowledge over dominion, but who was blessed with
dominion, knowledge, reason and perfect temper. A Prophet who was given
Adam's special ring from Paradise, a prophet whose control over the
winds, the Jinn and animals, saw him building a magnificent
temple of some 1,000 marble pillars on this very spot.
Not much remains of this noble Prophet's legacy today, except
for perhaps speculation that the eastern section of the al-Aqsa once
housed his stables. Its ancient arches, massive cellars and underground
passages have recently been converted into an extension of the mosque.
Called the Marwani masjid, it can house several thousand worshippers.>>
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"The WELL OF THE SOULS"
Jones (excitedly interpreting): The Nazis have discovered Tanis...Tanis
is one of the possible resting places of the Lost Ark...yeah, the Ark
of the Covenant, the chest the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten
Commandments in...the original stone tablets that Moses brought down out
of Mt. Heron and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing...The
Hebrews took the broken pieces and put them in the Ark. When they
settled in Canaan, they put the Ark in a place called the Temple of
Solomon...[in Jerusalem]...where it stayed for many years, until,
all of a sudden, whoosh, it was gone...Nobody knows where or when.
Brody: However, an Egyptian pharaoh Shishak invaded the city of
Jerusalem around about 980 BC and he may have taken the Ark back to the
city of Tanis and hidden it in a secret chamber called the Well of
Souls...However, about a year after the pharaoh had returned to Egypt,
the city of Tanis was consumed by the desert in a sandstorm which
lasted a whole year, wiped clean by the wrath of God....
Jones: Ravenwood is the real expert. Abner did the first serious work
on Tanis, collected some of its relics. It was his obsession really.
But he never found the city...
Agent: Frankly, we're somewhat suspicious of Mr. Ravenwood.
An American being mentioned so prominently in a secret Nazi cable.
Brody: Oh rubbish! Ravenwood's no Nazi.
Agent: Well, what do they want him for, then?
Jones (describing and sketching his ideas visually on a blackboard):
Obviously, the Nazis are looking for the headpiece to the Staff of Ra
and they think Abner's got it...Well, the Staff is just a stick...(he
indicates about six feet), nobody really knows for sure how high...it's
capped by an elaborate headpiece in the shape of a sun with a crystal in
the center. And what you did was you take this Staff to a special room
in Tanis, a map room, a miniature of the city all laid out on the floor.
And if you put the Staff in a certain place at a certain time of day,
the sun shone through here [a hole in the headpiece] and made a beam
that came down on the floor here, and gave you the exact location
of the Well of the Souls...
Agent: Where the Ark of the Covenant was kept right?
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http://www.toymania.com/334archives/indy/well.htm
Kenner released this very cool Well of the Souls playset in 1982
Gold Ark
Break-through wall
Two sets of columns
Mummy
Cover for Ark
Poles for carrying Ark
Hook and string
12 unique snakes
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Legends of the Dome of the Rock:
http://www.thehope.org/DomeLegends.html
1 / THE FOUNDATION STONE AND PARADISE
"Paradise longs for Jerusalem, And Jerusalem longs for Paradise."
The Foundation Stone is known in Arabic as el-Sakhra -? the Rock; hence
the shrine over it is called Kubbat el-Sakhra ? the Dome of the Rock.
On the western facade of the Dome of the Rock is the following Arabic
inscription on a slab of porcelain:
"The Rock of the Temple ? from the Garden of Eden."
The northern gate of the mosque, facing the Foundation Stone,
is named the Gate of Paradise; in Arabic Bab ej-Jinah.
A Moslem sage relates: "The Rock of the Temple is of the stones of the
Garden of Eden. At resurrection day, the Ka?aba Stone, which is in holy
Mecca, will go to the Foundation Stone in holy Jerusalem, bringing
with it the inhabitants of Mecca, and it shall become joined to the
Foundation Stone. When the Foundation Stone shall see the Ka?aba
Stone approaching, it shall cry out: 'Peace be to the great guest!'".
11 / THE STONE OF EDEN
In the floor of the Dome of the Rock, at the side of the Foundation
Stone, a square green slab of jasper was inserted. The Arabs call it the
Stone of Eden, because it rests above one of the gates to the Garden of
Eden. The entrance to the mosque facing the stone is therefore called
the Gate of the Garden of Eden ? in Arabic, Bab ej-Jinah.
There are nineteen holes in the stone, which apparently once served as a
place to nail a plaque to. The nails still remain in several holes. The
stone possibly dates back to the Crusades in the twelfth century and
held a plaque sanctified in Christian tradition.
When Muhammad appeared in Jerusalem and entered the Temple, he put
nineteen gold nails into the Stone of Eden as a memorial of his visit
and set the angel Gabriel to guard them, saying to him: "Remember that
should all these nails be removed, the world would return to
nothingness. Guard them well!"
But the accursed Satan, desiring the destruction of the world, would
steal in from time to time and remove a nail. At length he succeeded, by
his cunning, in removing many of them. But when he came to remove the
sixteenth nail, the angel Gabriel felt his presence, attacked him, and
drove him away. In his bewilderment and haste, Satan withdrew only
half a nail ? and three and a half nails remained in the stone.
Others say that Satan withdrew the nails while attempting
to raise the stone in order to enter the Garden of Eden.
The Arab judge Mujir ed-Din, who lived in Jerusalem at the end
of the fifteenth century, gives the Stone of Eden the Arabic
name Balattat es-Saudah ? the Black Slab. He says that
the grave of Solomon lies beneath this slab.
A Moslem pilgrim who visited Jerusalem in the seventeenth century,
Abd al-Ghani al-Nablusi, tells us: "And we stood upon the black slab
and saw silver nails fixed in it. People believe that one nail
disappears yearly, and that when all of them shall have disappeared,
the eternal resurrection shall have come. It is also called
the Stone of the Garden of Eden."
During World War I, in 1916, Jamal Pasha, Turkish high commissioner
and commander of Turkish forces in Palestine, removed the Stone of Eden
from the Dome of the Rock. Its whereabouts are now unknown.>>
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Early History Of The Temple Mount by Lambert Dolphin
http://www.templemount.org/earlytm.html
Before The First Temple
There is an outcropping of starkly bare rough limestone rock in
Jerusalem which for thirty centuries past has gripped the minds and
hearts of sons of men as being the most sacred spot on earth. Known to
the Jews as the Temple Mount and to the Moslems as the Noble Sanctuary.
Tradition and legend blend together where it is difficult to separate
the two. . . Few places in the world have been . . . as sacred as this
city, this flattened mountain and this rock. While the world lasts and
as long as the sons of men believe that one spot on it is more sacred
and hallowed than another, this will remain so. (Ref. 1)
Earliest Legends about the Promised Land
No one knows exactly where the Garden of Eden described in the Bible
was located. The general area is generally thought to be in the
Tigris-Euphrates Valleys. Sedimentary deposits from the flood of Noah
are thousands of feet deep now in the entire area, so the "ruins"
of the Garden of Eden are not likely to turn up by accident.
However, Adam after he was created was placed in the Garden which lay to
the East. Because of this statement Jewish sages have long claimed that
Adam was created in what is now the land of Israel. Adam's footprint in
stone is said by Muslim guides to still exist in the bedrock of the
Macpelah in Hebron. Early Jewish legends state that Adam himself was
buried in the Cave Abraham later purchased for burying his wife.
On Mt. Moriah, the present-day Temple Mount in Jerusalem the exposed
bedrock under the Dome of the Rock is known as "the Foundation Stone"in
Hebrew Even ha-Shetiyah. Although the Jewish Temples were later built
on the same foundation stone, or an extension of this same bedrock
elsewhere on Mt. Moriah, the term "foundation stone" refers
to the creation of the earth by God on the First Day.
And it was called the Foundation Stone because the world was founded on
it. For Isaiah the prophet said, "Thus saith the Lord, 'Behold I lay
in Zion a foundation for a stone...a costly corner-stone of sure
foundation."' The Almighty, blessed be He, dropped a rock
in the waters, and from thence the world expanded.
The Almighty created the world in the same manner as a child is formed
in its mother's womb. Just as a child begins to grow from its navel and
then develops into its full form, so the world began from its central
point and then developed in all direction. (Ref. 2)
The Foundation Stone in known in Arabic es-Sakhra (and the Dome of the
Rock, Kubbat es-Sakhra). On the western facade of the Dome of the Rock
is the following Arabic inscription, The Rock of the Temple from the
garden of Eden. The northern gate of the mosque facing the foundation
stone is named the Gate of Paradise, Bab ej-Jinah. On the floor in
front of this gate is a stone of green jasper about half a meter
square called by the Arabs "the Stone of Eden."
From the Muslim tradition
The Rock of the Temple is of the stones of the Garden of Eden. At
resurrection day, the Kaaba Stone, which is in holy Mecca, will go to
the Foundation Stone in holy Jerusalem, bringing with it the inhabitants
of Mecca, and it shall become joined to the Foundation Stone, When the
Foundation Stone shall see the Kaaba Stone approaching, it shall cry
out, "Peace be to the great guest!" (Ref. 2)
Even more interesting than the legends concerning the Foundation Stones
are the stories about the Abyss which is supposed to lie beneath.
The Zohar relates,
"When the Holy One, blessed be He, was about to create world, He
detached one precious stone from underneath His throne of glory and
plunged it into the abyss; one end of it remained fastened therein,
whilst the other end stood above...out of which the world started,
spreading itself to the right and left and into all directions."
Some of the Jewish sages say that this stone was called Shetiyah, which
in Hebrew also means "drinking" because beneath it is hidden the source
of all the springs and fountains from which the world drinks its water.
An Arab tradition also states that all the fresh waters of the world
have their origin under this rock.
In the floor of the small cave (measuring about 14 feet square with
a six foot ceiling) under the great foundation stone in the
Dome of the Rock is round marble slab closing a well shaft
known as "the well of the souls" (Bir al Arwah).
A Muslim tradition holds this is the entrance into the bottomless pit,
the abyss. The souls of the dead awaiting judgment are said to be
audible beneath. The Talmud claims that this is the abyss above the
primeval waters of creation and of the Flood. During the illegal Parker
expedition of 1911 the marble cover was lifted and found to cover just a
depression and not a well shaft. However there are other traditions that
suggest this part of Mt. Moriah may once have been a burial place, or
possibly a Canaanite High Place. Either of these stories, if they
proved true would be reasons for the site to have been disqualified
as a location for Solomon's Temple because of the required
Jewish sanctity of the temple site, as discussed below.
The Land: Settled Originally by the Sons of Canaan
The cataclysmic flood of Noah (Gen. 7, 8; 2 Peter 3) destroyed the
entire population of the earth - probably many billions of inhabitants -
leaving only eight survivors. These four couples were all righteous,
that is, all believers in the one true God, all had been "justified by
faith," (as the term is interpreted in the New Testament). Noah's three
sons and their wives were given the opportunity of repopulating the
earth by raising their children in the fear and knowledge of the Lord.
The human family, all three branches, managed to mess things up
very quickly, within one generation in fact.
In the line of Ham a special moral weakness was noted by Ham's father
Noah at the time of Noah's drunkenness, (Gen. 9:20-27). Noah observed
further that this inherited moral weakness in his son Ham was already
present to an even greater degree in the young grandson, Canaan. Noah
thus predicted that moral perversion and lust would especially plague
the descendants of Canaan. This so-called "curse" on one branch of
Ham's family became true in history. We know quite a bit about the
Canaanites from the Biblical records and from archaeology. These
peoples became known for their sexual promiscuity (heterosexual
and homosexual), for their extreme idolatry, for endemic venereal
diseases and for their sensuous, hedonistic life-styles.
Because the earliest known inhabitants of Jerusalem (Jebus) were
Canaanite peoples there are good reasons to believe that pagan shrines
dedicated to Baal and Ashtoreth were to be found in the city in the
earliest period. Traditionally these shrines were located on the higher
peaks and mountains - hence the common name "high places." (Ref. 3)
The Israelites were commanded by God to eradicate the Canaanites
when they entered the land.
And the LORD said to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at
Jericho, "Say to the people of Israel, When you pass over the Jordan
into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants
of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and
destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places;
and you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have
given the land to you to possess it. You shall inherit the land by lot
according to your families; to a large tribe you shall give a large
inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance;
wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his; according to the
tribes of your fathers you shall inherit. But if you do not drive out
the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom
you let remain shall be as pricks in your eyes and thorns in your
sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. And
I will do to you as I thought to do to them." (Numbers 33:50-56)
The incomplete obedience that took place during the conquest of Joshua
left pockets of Canaanites surviving, (see Judges 1:22-2:5). The pagan
influences of these peoples on the Jews was the cause of much later
degradation of the worship of the God of Israel. Some of the kings of
Judah - Solomon was the first - incorporated pagan rites and rituals
into the worship of Yahweh. To their credit, a few kings of Judah
(such as Josiah, about 630 B.C.E.) removed these "high places"
and restored the First Temple to its prescribed furnishings
and forms of service and worship (Ref. 3).
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
thirty-one years in Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the
LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn
aside to the right or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign,
while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father;
and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the
high places, the Asherim, and the graven and the molten images. And
they broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and he hewed
down the incense altars which stood above them; and he broke in pieces
the Asherim and the graven and the molten images, and he made dust of
them and strewed it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to
them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and
purged Judah and Jerusalem. And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim,
and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins round about, he
broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the images into
powder, and hewed down all the incense altars throughout
all the land of Israel... (2 Chronicles 34:1-7)
In considering the possible location of the Temples on Mount Moriah it
will be necessary to raise the possibility that the site of the Dome of
the Rock was, in an earlier period, one of these notorious Canaanite
High Places. Consideration will also be given to the possibility that
very early tombs were located in the caves beneath the "sacred rock."
Either of these considerations would preclude the First Temple being
located on the site of the present Dome of the Rock Islamic Shrine.
Because pagan temples and shrines were traditionally placed on the
tops of the highest hills and mountains, there is also reason to
believe the Jewish First Temple may well have been deliberately
located well below the summit of Mt. Moriah.
More Early History After the Flood
The famous "Table of Nations" in Genesis Chapters 10 and 11 gives us an
amazing and accurate account of the first few generations of the human
race after the great flood of Noah. From this table and the root names
listed there, many of which have survived to this day we know that
the descendants of Japheth migrated largely to the North and West,
populating what is now Europe as well as Russia. (One branch of
Japheth's family colonized what is now India). The Shemites, (Semites),
stayed largely in the Fertile Crescent area and Arabia. The Hamites
were the progenitors of the Egyptians, Africans, New World Indians, and
Oriental peoples. Many Hamites moved into Persia, China, and Africa.
Ham's son Canaan's family took up residence in what is now the land of
Israel: The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan...Canaan became
the father of Sidon his first-born, and Heth, and the Jebusites, the
Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the
Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families
of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the territory of the Canaanites
extended from Sidon, in the direction of Gerar, as far as Gaza, and
in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as
Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, by their families, their languages,
their lands, and their nations. (Genesis 10:6-20) (See Ref. 4).
It is difficult to place a firm date on the time of the flood. Based on
a "tight" reading of Old Testament genealogical listings (few gaps) in
the names in the line of promise between the First and Second Adam, the
flood could have occurred as recently as 3500 BC, about a thousand or
twelve hundred years before the birth of Abraham. Little is known about
the Land of Canaan during this time period, but ten or twelve centuries
are more than enough for small families of nomads to build up cities
and tribes numbering many thousands of people in the region.
Since the Hebrew term "son of so-and-so" can mean grandson or even great
grandson it is quite possible that the date of the Flood can be moved
backwards at least several hundred years. This would bring the
Biblical record into closer harmony with what is now fairly
certain about ancient civilizations such as Egypt.
God had plans made much earlier, long before the flood, to give
this plot of land - Canaan - to Abram, son of Terah, son of Nahor,
son of Eber, son of Shem.
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Art Neuendorffer
Art Neuendorffer
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > http://www.thekingiscoming.com/Tbs/2005/200502/the_bible_says.html
> Why do you post such superstitious nonsense here?
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Jul 14 1999, 12:00 am
> Neuendorffer wrote:
> > I just received a nice postcard from Dave Webb in Jerusalem.
> > He's having a wonderful time.
"David L. Webb" wrote:
> I suspect that someone who saw my post about Outremer
> is pulling your leg, Art.
------------------------------------------------------------------
"David L. Webb" wrote:
> ...imagine me at Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem along with a
> group of Knights Templar, gathered for a reVERential observance
> of St. John's Day, the 305th anniVERsary of Oxford's death.
I never believed that Oxford died on June 24, 1604
but I had no idea that he lived until 1694!!!
(144 letters in the Sonnets dedication = 144 years!!!)
> You might ask how we were permitted access to Solomon's Temple
> when a mosque is now on the site
How were you permitted access to Solomon's Temple
when a mosque is now on the site, Dave?
> -- the answer, of course, is that in honor of the old alliance
> between the Templars and Hasan-e Sabbah, Grand Master of the Nizari
> Isma'ilites (the Assassins), the Templars enjoy the privilege on St.
> John's Day eVERy year of secret access to the underground passages of
> Solomon's Temple which our predecessors excavated during the Crusades.
I might have guessed.
> Thus, on St. John's Day I was in a tunnel hewn
> under the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
> (Incidentally, Art, your date of June 24 is a bit off
> -- you don't seriously expect an ancient Order like the
> Templars to adhere to the UPSTART Gregorian calendar, do you?
> The Templars have their own secret lunar calendar;
> the *real* date of importance fell this year on June 26
This, at least, I can corroborate:
the Alexandria Masonic Temple had the dedication of it's
compass & square landscape design on June 26, 1999.
> -- this date, by design, happens to coincide with the date on which
> Mohammed's birthday is celebrated in Jerusalem this year. This gives
> the authorities a pretext for excluding sightseers from the Dome of
> the Rock on the day they permit us secret access
> for our St. John's Day commemoration.)
Is it always on 12 Raby` al-awal?
Art Neuendorffer
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"graham" <stra...@shaw.ca> wrote
> Haven't you anything better to do?
Not really. Have you?
Art Neuendorffer
graham
"Art Neuendorffer" <aneuendor...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:pdedncYE6JR...@comcast.com...
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.thekingiscoming.com/Tbs/2005/200502/the_bible_says.html
>
>
Why do you post such superstitious nonsense here? Haven't you anything
better to do?