Posted on 09/26/2006 6:26:26 AM PDT by NYer
A COLLECTION of sacred artefacts looted by the Romans from the Temple of Jerusalem and long suspected of being hidden in the vaults of the Vatican are actually in the Holy Land, according to a British archaeologist.
Sean Kingsley, a specialist in the Holy Land, claims to have discovered what became of the collection, which is widely regarded as the greatest of biblical treasures and includes silver trumpets that would have heralded the Coming of the Messiah.
The trumpets, gold candelabra and the bejewelled Table of the Divine Presence were among pieces shipped to Rome after the looting in AD70 of the Temple, the most sacred building in the ancient Jewish faith.
After a decade of research into previously untapped ancient texts and archaeological sources, Dr Kingsley has reconstructed the treasures route for the first time in 2,000 years to provide evidence that it left Rome in the 5th century.
He has discovered that it was taken to Carthage, Constantinople and Algeria before being hidden in the Judaean wilderness, beneath the Monastery of Theodosius.
Dr Kingsley said: The treasure resonates fiercely across modern politics. Since the mid-1990s, a heated political wrangle has been simmering between the Vatican and Israel, which has accused the papacy of imprisoning the treasure.
The Temple treasure remains a deadly political tool in the volatile Arab-Israeli conflict centred on the Temple Mount [the site of the Jewish Temple and the Muslim Dome of the Rock].
The treasures final hiding place in the modern West Bank . . . deep in Hamas territory will rock world religions.
Emperor Vespasian ordered the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem after a Jewish revolt and Roman forces took about 50 tons of gold, silver and precious art to Rome.
The Arch of Titus, built a decade later, depicts Roman soldiers bearing the sacred spoils on their shoulders. The Jews were expelled from Jerusalem and dispersed throughout the world.
Between AD75 and the early 5th century, the treasure was on public display in the Temple of Peace in the Forum, in Rome.
The Vatican has told Dr Kingsley that there is no evidence in its archives that the treasure resided in Rome from the medieval period onwards.
He said: One thing is for sure it is not imprisoned deep in Vatican City. I am the first person to prove that the Temple treasures no longer languish in Rome.
Dr Kingsleys sources include Josephus, a 1st-century Jewish historian who sometimes exaggerated but is an authority on Roman and Jewish history. Dr Kingsley also found evidence in, among others, the works of Procopius, a court historian of the Emperor Justinian, who died in AD562, and from Theophanes Confessor (c760-817), a Christian monk from Constantinople.
In Chronographia, which spanned AD284 to 813, Theophanes recorded that Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, loaded the treasures that Titus had brought to Rome after the capture of Jerusalem on a boat to Carthage in Tunisia in AD455.
In the first holy crusade in AD533, the Byzantine Belisarius seized the treasure from a royal ship fleeing the Algerian harbour of Hippo Regius. It was then shipped to Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium.In the 7th century, Persians sacked Jerusalem, killing thousands of Christians, and dragging the Patriarch, Zacharias, to Persia. Dr Kingsley believes that his replacement, Modestus, spirited away the treasures to their final hiding place in AD614.
Dr Kingsley will reveal his findings in Gods Gold: The Quest for the Lost Temple Treasure of Jerusalem, to be published by John Murray on October 5.
Personally, I like Ron Wyatt's claim better. He says that Jesus' blood dripped directly from the Cross through a crack formed by the earthquake onto the Ark, which had been placed underground there centuries before by Jeremiah. He goes on to say that the Ark remains there to this day.
Neat theory, but neither gentleman could be described as an authority on the matter.
The Nazerene (Natsarim) sect was not destroyed.
Michael Rood and many others have this same theory. Makes a lot of sense, although I can not prove it. I am also sure it (Ark) will not be discovered until the proper time.
Ping!
Alas, the dismissive "Nah" and again, no links to authoritative texts or works buttressing your arguments. Goodness, it must be so frustrating to have all this wonderful knowledge trapped in your head and no way to effectively or persuasively communicate it.
Don't be so hard on yourself. Listen to some happy music until you feel better.
I gather worker turn-over will be tremendous.
And I have talked to Ethiopians who insist the Ark is in Axum. Of all of Mr. Hancock's book on "alternative history," this is the most credible, IMHO.
-Theo
He has discovered that it was taken to Carthage, Constantinople and Algeria before being hidden in the Judaean wilderness, beneath the Monastery of Theodosius.
Uh, "WILL herald" is more like it - provided that the Catholic Church releases that which doesn't belong to it - I don't think that G-d has a Statute of Limitations on stealing, and the possession of property known to have been stolen from another is, well, stealing.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Uh, point of order: Jews don't worship things, they do (and always have) worshipped only the One True G-d. We may revere certain people, items and places, but to worship or pray to any of them would be idolatry. The destruction of the 1st Temple and the scattering of our people to the 4 corners of the Earth didn't destroy us, nor did the destruction of the 2nd. Though our ancestors brought it upon themselves (and us, by extension), G-d has promised that He'd always protect us and that someday the 3rd Temple would be built.
Anyone who believed that the Temple was a "cage" for G-d was nothing more than a heretic. For you to ascribe that view to all of the establishment sects in Israel roughly 2,000 years ago is one of the most ill-informed things that I've ever heard. Oh, and the Pharisees did indeed survive - modern rabbinical Judaism (i.e. pretty much anything after the destruction of the 2nd Temple) can be traced directly to their teachings. We are here, as we have always been and always will be, as G-d promised.
Thanks for the ping, fun topic. :') It's sometimes easy to forget how much woodwork there is around here...
The Catholic Church does NOT hold these articles. They were sent to an Orthodox Abbey near Bethlehem. They have been in the Holy Lands in 455 AD.
Here I thought it was buried in my back yard.
You lived 2000 years go? If you read the New Testament, you'll find the sects were fixated on Temple behavior. They were selling sacrifices in the courtyard of the Temple. Who could enter the Holy of Holies? Ironically, the only people who could dare to enter therein were the Chief Priest and the Roman soldiers who sacked Jerusalem. After the Temple was destroyed, the new Christians were able to find converts among the Jews who previously believed the Temple was invunerable. They were saying "See, God didn't protect the Temple".
If you build another Temple, someone else will come along and destroy it. Temples are the work of man.
Hmmmm I thought Christ said He was the Temple???
Hmmm, who will host a party and drink out of the Temple treasures?
Daniel 5:1-6
1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in front of the thousand:
2. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver utensils which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his lords, his wives, and his concubines, might drink from them:
3. Then they brought the golden utensils that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was in Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank from them:
4. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone:
5. In the same hour the fingers of a man's hand appeared, and wrote opposite the lampstand upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote:
6. Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts so troubled him, that his limbs gave way, and his knees struck one against the other:
So this is a promotional ad for a book!
What is this, like, another Da Vinci Code?
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