Israeli Rabbis Hope to Search Vatican

Associated Press ^ | Jan. 15, 2004 | Gavin Rabinowitz

[Alouette]

JERUSALEM - Israel's chief rabbis, who will meet the pope Friday, said they hope to get permission to search Vatican storerooms for artifacts such as the huge golden menorah that stood in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

Vatican officials confirmed the meeting would take place but declined comment on the rabbis' request.

Yehuda Metzger and Shlomo Amar are to have an audience with Pope John Paul II, the first by Israel's chief rabbis in the Vatican. The pope met Israel's previous chief rabbis in the Holy Land during his visit in 2000.

Amar, spiritual leader of Israel's Jews of North African origin, told Army Radio that when he received the invitation, "the truth is I asked them, I could not resist ... I asked them about the Temple vessels and the menorah."

When the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70 A.D., they took huge amounts of booty home. Legend has it that religious articles from the Temple, including the menorah, were among them.

The Arch of Titus in Rome depicts victorious Roman legions marching off with the seven-branch menorah in hand.

Amar said the Vatican official denied the menorah was there.

"My heart tells me this is not the truth, but that it is some kind of camouflage," Amar said. An aide to the rabbi said the Vatican was not likely to permit a search.

The Vatican will allow the rabbis to view rare Jewish manuscripts in its possession, Amar said.

He said if the rabbis were to come across "other objects," they would be happy to bring them home.

The menorah was the most important symbol of the Temple after the Ark of the Covenant. The image of the biblical menorah is the symbol of the modern state of Israel.

Some Orthodox Jews believe the restoration of the menorah and other holy vessels to Jerusalem would be the first step in rebuilding the Temple, whose site is now occupied by the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine of Islam.

[HarleyD]

Thanks NYer. I always do a search prior to posting. I've must have missed it.

[HarleyD]

I know I'm coming in late and I had to go through ALL the posts. If the Goths sacked Rome in 400 and carried away the treasury, how could the Vatican claim to have manuscripts dating back before this? Would the Goths have taken or burned these as well?

[AnAmericanMother]

Goths being Goths and therefore illiterate, they went for portable objects of obvious intrinsic value - gold, jewels, etc.

A bunch of dirty parchments and papyri with chicken scratches on them would have excited zero interest, unless they needed to burn a few to keep warm . . .

The thing I don't understand in all this speculation is that the Roman government of A.D. 70 was not Christian - indeed if anything it was anti-Christian. Why would the Vatican wind up with any surviving treasure - if indeed the Goths or the Vandals didn't get it?

[HarleyD]

Let me say that I believe in the Vatican's right to privacy. That being said this need for secrecy isn't consistent with the biblical teachings. At least the Queen of England threw open the doors of Winsor Castle-at least for a brief moment to raise money. The only reasons I can think of why the Vatican wouldn't want people to see what's in the vaults are:

1) they have lots of riches that may prove to be embrassing for a church and someone will want to tax them for; and/or

2) there is something embrassing they've been holding on to that someone might come across. (the eighteen minute gap of Richard Nixon? :O) )

Quite honestly I don't know how they'll solve the Rabbis request to their satisfaction.

[AnalogReigns]

There's been an age-old argument about whether the arms were curved or straight.

Here's the first solid gold full-size (nearly 6 feet tall!) Menorah since the Romans took the one in the Temple. Imagine its weight, and worth!
(from the Temple Institute in Jerusalem.)

[Cvengr]

Of course they can't allow them in. If they showed them the Mennorah, they might tells others about all the arms the Catholics keep stashed away beneath all their churches. It wouldn't be an urban legand anymore, it would instead show a conspiracy,....Yeah, that's the ticket,...if they don't allow them in, it's to hide the conspiracy. And if they did show them the basement, it would only display how much further the conspiracy reaches because they still refuse to show the Mennorah,....and even if they did, it would show there had always been a conspiracy anyways,...so then what would they do?

Face it,..the gig's up,...the Vatican needs to turn over the goods now. (unless of course there really aren't any there.)

[tjwmason]

Do you think that's true? Ark of Covenant is in Eithiopia

They certainly have an ark-like box; the Ark features heavily in their rituals (they have a replica of it on every Altar) which date back to antiquity; there are strong connexions between Ethiopia and ancient Israel (a probable lost-tribe). All in all, it seems to me to be the most likely resting place for the Ark.

[SunkenCiv]

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Gods
Graves
Glyphs

Note: this topic is from January 15, 2004. Thanks Alouette.

Blast from the Past.

Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

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God's Gold: A Quest for the Lost Temple Treasures of Jerusalem by Sean Kingsley

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[SunkenCiv]

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/jewishtemple.htm

Colosseum ‘built with loot from sack of Jerusalem temple’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1311985/Colosseum-built-with-loot-from-sack-of-Jerusalem-temple.html