***Archeologists have discovered a second great temple not far from Jerusalem***
This is news? I thought most bible students knew of the temple on Mt Gerizim.
This is the mountain the Samaritan woman pointed to when she talked with Jesus and said ....
Jhn 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
If they only accept the “written legacy” of Moses, on what basis do they wear head coverings for religious reasons?
It’s a tiny Arab cult. Do any of them really descend from pre-exilic Hebrews from the northern kingdom of Israel? Maybe, maybe not. In any event—if they were reduced to 147 in 1918, not exactly a vital group.
The main part of the article though was dedicated to supposedly “proving” that the Kingdom of David and Solomon—along with Solomon’s Temple is “total nonsense” since no remains of that Temple have been found. (yes, and Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible is recorded as having utterly destroyed it, and all of Jerusalem—rendering the city itself uninhabitable...).
Seriously, this article seemed to drip with delight at finding something that might be able to discredit the Bible and the Jews.
I commented on Der Spiegal’s site that it sounded like the attitude of 70+ years ago...
That will mean something to the Germans for sure.
The Samaritan Schism
Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991.
Throughout the Second Commonwealth Judeans and Samaritans were engaged in intermittent conflict. Many scholars, on the basis of studies of the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Samaritan script, have concluded that the schism should be dated to the building of the Samaritan Temple on Mount Gerizim late in the Persian period and its destruction by the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus in 128 B.C.E. These scholars maintain that the officials of Samaria who opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem cannot be identified with the later Samaritan sect. This distinction seems to be overdrawn. Granted that the schism was the result of a long process, its earliest stages are to be observed already in the early years of the Persian period.
The Samaritans were a mixed people, made up of Israelites who had not been exiled when the Northern Kingdom was destroyed in 722 B.C.E. and people of various foreign nationalities whom the Assyrians had resettled in the area in an attempt to ensure that Israel’s national aspirations could not again come to the fore. This mixed group had adopted a syncretistic form of Judaism that combined old northern traditions with those of the resettled nations. When work began on the Temple, the Samaritans approached the Jews to join in the project. The Judeans rejected the Samaritans because of their questionable descent......
http://cojs.org/cojswiki/The_Samaritan_Schism
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Deuteronomy 12:5 But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, [even] unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:
Deu 12:6 And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks:
Deu 12:7 And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.......
Deu 12:11 Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD:
Deu 12:12 And ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that [is] within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you.
Deu 12:13 Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest:
Deu 12:14 But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.
I don't think there was any editing at all as the scripture would have more variation and they would use that variation as evidence. The way it is written would create doubt but probably just indifference on the writers part.
