SO JOSEPHUS WAS SPOT ON YET AGAIN

JERUSALEM (AP) — Newly found coins underneath Jerusalem's Western Wall could change the accepted belief about the construction of one of the world's most sacred sites two millennia ago, Israeli archaeologists said Wednesday.

The man usually credited with building the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary is Herod, a Jewish ruler who died in 4 B.C. Herod's monumental compound replaced and expanded a much older Jewish temple complex on the same site.

But archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority now say diggers have found coins underneath the massive foundation stones of the compound's Western Wall that were stamped by a Roman proconsul 20 years after Herod's death. That indicates that Herod did not build the wall — part of which is venerated as Judaism's holiest prayer site — and that construction was not close to being complete when he died.

"The find changes the way we see the construction, and shows it lasted for longer than we originally thought," said the dig's co-director, Eli Shukron.

The four bronze coins were stamped around 17 A.D. by the Roman official Valerius Gratus. He preceded Pontius Pilate of the New Testament story as Rome's representative in Jerusalem, according to Ronny Reich of Haifa University, one of the two archaeologists in charge of the dig.

The coins were found inside a ritual bath that predated construction of the renovated Temple Mount complex and which was filled in to support the new walls, Reich said.

They show that construction of the Western Wall had not even begun at the time of Herod's death. Instead, it was likely completed only generations later by one of his descendants.

The coins confirm a contemporary account by Josephus Flavius, a Jewish general who became a Roman historian. Writing after a Jewish revolt against Rome and the destruction of the Temple by legionnaires in 70 A.D., he recounted that work on the Temple Mount had been completed only by King Agrippa II, Herod's great-grandson, two decades before the entire compound was destroyed.

Scholars have long been familiar with Josephus' account, but the find is nonetheless important because it offers the "first clear-cut archaeological evidence that part of the enclosure wall was not built by Herod," said archaeologist Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, who was not involved in the dig.

Josephus also wrote that the end of construction left 18,000 workmen unemployed in Jerusalem. Some historians have linked this to discontent that eventually erupted in the Jewish revolt.

The compound, controlled since 1967 by Israel, now houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden-capped Muslim shrine known as the Dome of the Rock. The fact that the compound is holy both to Jews and Muslims makes it one of the world's most sensitive religious sites.

The dig in which the coins were discovered cleared a Roman-era drainage tunnel that begins at the biblical Pool of Siloam, one of the city's original water sources, and terminates with a climb up a ladder out onto a 2,000-year-old street inside Jerusalem's Old City. The tunnel runs by the foundation stones of the compound's western wall, where the coins were found.

The drainage tunnel was excavated as part of the dig at the City of David, which is perhaps Israel's richest archaeological excavation and its most contentious.

The dig is being carried out inside the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, and is funded by a group associated with the Israeli settlement movement that opposes any division of the city as part of a future peace deal.

The excavation of the tunnel has also yielded a Roman sword, oil lamps, pots and coins that scholars believe are likely debris from an attempt by Jewish rebels to hide in the underground passage as they fled from the Roman soldiers.

INTERESTING HISTORY ABOUT JERUSALEM

I THOUGHT THE FOLLOWING WAS WORTH POSTING:



REVELATION 12:7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,
8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world ─ he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (ESV)

From Josephus' 1st-century history, we know that the time of this heavenly battle was the spring of 66 CE. The battle where Satan was defeated by Michael took place at this time (about 40 years from the time Yeshua began his earthly ministry in the fall of 26 CE). A portion of this spiritual battle was actually seen in the skies above Jerusalem, as Josephus records:

Also on certain days after the festival [Passover] there appeared a thing so marvelous as to be beyond belief, but that it was related by many that saw it in their own eyes. Before the setting of the sun there were seen chariots driven across the sky, and hosts of armed men setting themselves in order of battle, and surrounding the cities. (Wars of the Jews, 6.5.3)

This vision, which seems to have occurred during the second Passover in the month of Iyar in 66 CE, was a supernatural sign for the Jews to flee from Jerusalem. It had been prophesied by Yeshua just before his crucifixion:

MATTHEW 24:15 "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel ─ let the reader understand ─
16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
17 Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house.
18 Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak.
19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!
20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath." (NIV)

What was the identity of this “abomination that causes desolation”? Many people have the mistaken idea that it will be the Antichrist seating himself in a rebuilt Jewish temple on the Temple Mount. However, the parallel passage in Luke’s Gospel gives us the true understanding of this desolating abomination:

LUKE 21:20 "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near." (NIV)

When this sign of heavenly armies was seen in the skies over Jerusalem, the messianic church in Jerusalem fled to Pella and subsequently was spared when the Romans besieged Jerusalem and eventually destroyed it and the Temple 3½ years later in 70 CE.

Josephus’ account of this heavenly battle is not the only historical mention we have of this incident. About 115 CE, the Roman historian Tacitus described this same supernatural event:

In the sky appeared a vision of armies in conflict, of glittering armor. A sudden lightning flash from the clouds lit up the Temple. The doors of the holy place abruptly opened, a superhuman voice was heard to declare that the gods were leaving it, and in the same instant came the rushing tumult of their departure. Few people placed a sinister interpretation upon this. The majority were convinced that the ancient scriptures of their priests alluded to the present as the very time when the Orient would triumph and from Judaea would go forth men destined to rule the world. (Histories, 5.13)

The early church historian Eusebius of Caesarea also wrote about this heavenly fight around 325 CE:

For before the setting of the sun chariots and armed troops were seen throughout the whole region in mid-air, wheeling through the clouds and encircling the cities. (Ecclesiastical History, 3.8)

FURTHER PROOF OF THE TEMPLE DESTRUCTION - 70 A.D.

THE ONLY REASON I DECIDED TO BLOG THIS IS THAT I HAVE A FASCINATION WITH THE GLOBAL SCALE DECEIT AND COVER-UP BY THE LEFT AND ANTI-JEWISH ELEMENTS OF THE FACT THAT THERE EVER WAS A THIRD TEMPLE ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT. IF THIS FACT CAN BE SWEPT UNDER THE RUG, OR IGNORED, IT WILL BE ALOT EASIER TO DENY THAT THE JEWS HAVE A RIGHT TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT, OR WORSE, OVER TIME, THAT THERE WAS EVEN A PERFECT MAN/GOD WHO WALKED THE EARTH AND PREDICTED THAT THE SAID TEMPLE WOULD BE LEVELED, WITH NOT ONE STONE REMAINING UPON ANOTHER. I AM ALWAYS AMAZED AT THE LEVEL THAT THE ADVERSARY WILL GO TO WIPE OUT THE TRUE HISTORY AND REPLACE IT WITH EITHER LIES, OR OUTRIGHT EXPUNGING IT FROM THE HISTORICAL CONTINUUM.

TO THAT END, WE HAVE AN OUTRIGHT COVERUP GOING ON AS THE WAQF TRIES TO DESTROY THE LAST VESTIGES OF THE UNDERGROUND VAULTS ON TEMPLE MOUNT WHERE ALOT OF TEMPLE EVIDENCE WAS DISCARDED DURING THE CENTURIES. AS WITH ALL OTHER LIES OF THE ADVERSARY, THIS ONE IS COMING BACK TO BITE THEM AS HERODS WALLS ARE BECOMING UNSTABLE AND COLLAPSING. TWO HUNDRED LINEAR FEET SO FAR HAS EITHER COLLAPSED OR IS THREATENING TO DO SO.... (I AM PROPHESYING HERE) THAT THIS DESECRATION ON THIS SACRED SITE WILL CAUSE THE COLLAPSE OF AL AQSA (DOME OF THE ROCK) (THE SEVENTH TIME IS WILL HAVE BEEN DESTROYED THROUGH HISTORY) AND WILL RESULT IN THE U.N. AND THAT FUTURE NOTORIOUS LEADER CAUSING THE FOURTH (YES, MY COUNT IS GOOD) TEMPLE TO BE BUILT WHICH WILL LEAD TO THE END-GAME STUFF. CANNOT WAIT! WE ARE COASTING THROUGH THE FINAL CHAPTERS OF PRE-MILLENNIAL HISTORY - MOST PEOPLE ASLEEP AND UNAWARE WITH LITTLE OR NO OIL IN THE PROVERBIAL LAMPS.

ENJOY!

By MICHAEL BARAJAS
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel displayed for the first time Wednesday a collection of rare coins charred and burned from the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple nearly 2,000 years ago.
About 70 coins were found in an excavation at the foot of a key Jerusalem holy site. They give a rare glimpse into the period of the Jewish revolt that eventually led to the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in A.D. 70, said Hava Katz, curator of the exhibition.
The Jews rebelled against the Roman Empire and took over Jerusalem in A.D. 66. After laying siege to Jerusalem, the Romans breached the city walls and wiped out the rebellion, demolishing the Jewish Temple, the holiest site in Judaism.
The coins sit inside a glass case, some melted down to unrecognizable chunks of pockmarked and carbonized bronze from the flames that destroyed the Temple.
"These really show us the impact of the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century," said Gabriela Bijovsky, an antique coin expert from Israel Antiquities Authority. "These are a very vivid, dramatic example of that destruction."
"The most important coins we have are from those last four or five years of the rebellion against the Roman army, and one coin we found was actually minted very close to the destruction of the Second Temple," she said.
The coins were excavated from an ancient street below the Temple Mount, experts said. Archaeologists had to sift through debris and remove boulders thrown off the Temple Mount during the Roman raid before they found the road and the hoard of coins.
Today the Al Aqsa Mosque compound sits atop the ruins of the temples. Muslims refer to the site as the Noble Sanctuary, marking the spot from where they believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. The conflicting claims make the site one the most explosive issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The coins are part of a larger exhibition in Jerusalem's Archaeological Garden, showing a collection of antique coins that have been uncovered over the past three decades.
The exhibition shows not only coins minted in Jerusalem during the rebellion but also European, North African and Persian coins that were found around the holy site from various periods.
"This just shows the international character of the city," Katz said. "It shows the importance of Jerusalem to generations of people ... the importance of Jerusalem never faded away for Jews, Christians and Muslims," she said.

FATE OF THE PERSECUTORS OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH

This is one of my now-favorite topics - that if you get me started on, will not easily get me off of. I have always been fascinated with happens to wicked people, who for one reason, or another, decide to harrass or even murder the servants of God - or even the Son of God himself.

Somehow, people in their deluded minds think that they can halt the work of God by taking the life of a hallowed servant. Usually, in so doing they actually propel the work forward. Such is the folly of the devil and his short-sighted minions. From the enticement of the fruit in the Garden of Eden to the crucifixion of Jesus himself, the plan of Salvation was played right into with each act.

Almost with precise clockwork, backfirings and miscues by the adversary and associated ilk are leading God's people right along to their final destiny to usher in the millenial reign of peace and joy in a world free of sin and where "none can molest or make afraid".

I had a group of rabblerousers (self-proclaimed hedonists) on the bus I ride mention that they would gladly take the life of Joseph Smith if given the opportunity again. That led me to point out that they had the same lying and murderous spirit that the people that murdered Jesus had and I talked about Josephus, a contemporary Romanized Jewish historian that witnessed the deconstruction of Jewish society in 69-71 AD. One of them mentioned that her son liked Josephus and I was able to get a book about Josephus from her. It was very telling of the final days of that group of people. It was prophesied by the Savior that the temple would be destroyed within one generation of his own crucifixion. Just under 40 years later, wham - it was over.

The reason that I point out the utter destruction in Jesus' day is that Joseph Smith made a similar prophecy about those who had destroyed the homes of the Saints and driven them out of their homes and taken the land/possessions by force - THE SAME THING WOULD BE DONE TO THEM: (EXACT QUOTE TO FOLLOW)

There is ample info out there on " ORDER #10 AND #11 " that was carried out by the Union troops against the guerrilla's fighting just inside the western border of Missouri, the same place where the Saints had been driven from just 20 years earlier.

Note the pics in the following link how it is exactly as it is described by the early Saints (not so much as a chimney standing in an attempt to drive the Lord's people out):

MISSOURI BORDER WAR (DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU....)

MUCH, MUCH MORE TO FOLLOW LATER....