Posted on 09/30/2006 8:56:23 PM PDT by Iam1ru1-2
By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
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 treasure’s 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 treasure’s 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 Kingsley’s 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 God’s Gold: The Quest for the Lost Temple Treasure of Jerusalem, to be published by John Murray on October 5.
Lby should read Looted by
We can also note that the Arc of the Covenant is in Ethiopia....
So, they've been found?
MORE ON SEAN KINGSLEY'S THEORY that the Temple treasures were hidden in the Monastery of Theodosius in the early seventh century: YnetNews has an interview with him. Excerpt:
'Best left locked away'
Despite the prospect that the Temple artifacts could be so close to home, Kingsley warns of the dangers of attempting to retrieve them. " So many dangerous dreams for messianic redemption hinge on this Jewish birthright that I believe it would remain far safer for humanity locked away in the cleansing soils of the Holy Land, dreamt over but not recovered," Kingsley says.
He adds: "The Temple Mount is the centre of world religion but also a seething volcano of human hatred in the Arab-Israeli conflict. It takes very little provocation for all hell to break loose in Jerusalem. The Temple treasure should today be a global treasure that unites people, not a political tool validating the construction of a Third Temple on the Haram al-Sharif. If the menorah's Diaspora over the centuries tells us anything then it is a wise lesson about the irrationality of religious fanaticism: every power that sought to imprison this icon eventually crumbled into dust."
Where is the Menora?
Kingsley says that the fate of the Temple Menora, the official symbol of the State of Israel, is likely tied to the other artifacts pillaged by Rome: "Most of the splendours of the Temple were eagerly liquidated into cash by the emperor Vespasian who needed 4,000 million sesterces (£2.25 billion) to get the (Roman) empire back on an even keel after civil war, anarchy and the great fire of Rome of AD 64 left the Eternal City looking worn out. The menora, silver trumpets and Table of the Divine Presence were acknowledged as key symbols of power. Control these and you controlled heaven, the seas and all between. Rome knew that the menora was a hotline to God and was keen to 'imprison' this divine power for its own benefit. The same held true for subsequent possessors – Vandals and Byzantines."
He also weighs in on the Waqf's treatment of the Temple Mount. Read it all.
This is an interesting theory, but I hope it doesn't lead to a bunch of treasure-hunting loonies ransacking the grounds of the monastery.
posted by Jim Davila | 9:15 AM
http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/
LOL....sure it is.
Got to be true, I saw it on the Discovery Channel.... or was that National Geographic.
http://www.sacredsites.com/africa/ethiopia/sacred_sites_ethiopia.html
See!
Also found in Ethiopia, were the gospels of Peter, and Thomas, now translated from Coptic and available at Barnes and Noble bookstores as "The Gnostic Gospels".
According to someone who supposedly saw it, it is not in Ethiopia as was thought previously. It is located under the Temple Mount. He said that he had entered into a tunnel just behind the Western wall and that he walked quite a ways down that tunnel when he found a entrance that was completey filled in. That entrance was opened up, and he claims that deep inside the large room that the entrance led to stood the Arc of the Covenant. He said that he immediately took his eyes off of it and backed away from it, but that what he saw was not the picture of the Arc that is pictured in many renderings. He said that with the quick glance he noticed that the Mercy Seat was did not have two Cheribim kneeling with their bodies parallel to the cover with wings extending over the cover, but instead the Cheribim were kneeling but with their bodies erect, and their wings formed the "Mercy Seat", an actual seat where the "Shekinah" of God would appear. He also thinks that the Ark is located exactly below where the Arc was located in the Holy of Holies of the Temple.
Tell me why you think this is so funny. You're not one of those "Replacement Theology Dominionist" people are you?
Nice story, but the Al Asqa mosque is built over the site of the Roman Stables, The Christians occupied Jerusalem in the 4th Century, and were impressed by the remaining buildings.... the former Roman barracks, just to the south side of the Temple. A church was built on the site, and then the Arabs converted the Christian church into the Mosque.
So: your story is literally founded on Horse manure.
Don't be like a weenie liberal. If you have something to say, back it up with facts. What you gave me was a history of who took over the Temple Mount and when. Tell me, do REALLY know where the 2nd Temple was located and where the Holy of Holies was located?
I'm not saying that I believe this account either, but I'm not so arrogant as to just dismiss it out of hand. Neither should you, or are you one of those who say, "Don't confuse me with facts, I've already made up my mind.
I am not like a weenie liberal. I sent you the story about ethiopia.
What is your source for your story.
What is your source for this story?
See. I can play that same game too. Don't answer the question, just evade the question and say something that takes the onous off of you.
See post 8.
btt
Too bad that archeologists haven't discovered cameras.
GGG ping.
alas:
Treasures looted by (Ancient) Rome are back in the Holy Land(Jerusalem treasure mystery solved)
Times Online | September 25, 2006 | Dalya Alberge
Posted on 09/26/2006 9:26:26 AM EDT by NYer
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1708494/posts
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