Greater Israel and the Tale of Two Temples

by Katherine Frisk

The United States of America was founded on a federated system with a small central government, where the individual states had a large degree of autonomy and control in the decision-making process as to the laws that they did or did not want to implement within their own regions. America was the land of opportunity where millions from Europe, the poor, the tired, the huddled masses, with enough determination and hard work, made a decent life for themselves and their families.

Over the last 70 years since the end of WW2, the government in Washington D.C. has grown to such a degree that the Founding Fathers would not recognize it. Control has been centralized, and by incremental steps, the states have lost and are losing more and more control over their own decision-making.

The same can be said of Europe where power has been centralized in the EU parliament. In both instances the standard of living for the average middle-class person has declined dramatically in the last 20 years, global corporate monopolies have gobbled up every small, medium and large private business enterprise and a large sucking sound has been heard where wealth has vacuumed up to the top and into the pockets of the elites, while those on the ground have been left all the poorer for it.

Both regions have all the signs of becoming dictatorial, fascist police states where the voter’s aspirations and concerns do not count. As Martin Shultz of the EU recently proclaimed following the Brexit referendum: “It is not the EU Philosophy that the Crowd can Decide its Fate.” In the USA, voter rigging ensures that the elite in society remain in power, while the will of the people is undermined.

Russia on the other hand under the Soviet Union had total and complete centralized control. But since the fall of the Soviet Union, and especially since Putin came to power in 1999, the Russian Federation has been decentralized, and more and more autonomy has been given to the regions. Along with this move, the government has supported small, medium, and large private business enterprises and taken steps to limit global corporate monopolies.

The most glaring example of this in Russia is the ban on genetically modified patented food products. The country has invested in organic food production and provided support for all its farmers. The result is that in the space of two years the country has changed from being a food importer to a food exporter. In this case, the vacuuming sound has not moved in the direction of a handful of corporate monopolies but has dispersed and benefited the large majority and contributed towards the GDP of the country as a whole.

But what has this got to do with Greater Israel and two temples? Everything. It is the prototype, the fractal that has played out throughout the centuries and has had a major influence and effect on Western religious, social, economic, and political policy.

Up until recently, the world has been brainwashed into believing that Israel is a Judaic, Jewish state as promised to them in the Bible and that centralized control, religious, social, political, and economic should reside in Jerusalem with a new temple symbolizing this body and a Jewish Messiah who will rule the world. (Compare to the second and third paragraphs of this article.)

Consider this recent report from Press TV:

“Israeli institutions and organizations are reportedly awaiting the regime’s go-ahead for the construction of a so-called “third temple” in place of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in the Israeli-occupied Jerusalem al-Quds….Israeli Zionists claim they have the right to build a third temple in line with “scriptural prophecies” to follow the tradition of the first and second ones built in ancient times.”

Over and above the political implications of this story, historians and archaeologists are having a problem with this whole concept, first and foremost because it appears that there never was the first temple nor was “king David” the powerful ruler he is claimed to be. Little to no evidence after 70 years has been found for the building of the first temple, either inside of Jerusalem or in references to it in surrounding countries.

The Armana letters, for example, diplomatic correspondence between Ankenaton refer to tribal chiefs at Shechem and in Judea, as well as correspondence with Tushratta in the Mittani kingdom during a period when Joseph and his family were in Egypt and Canaan was an Egyptian protectorate. The Mittani was in alliance with Egypt through intermarriage and through trade.

The concept of a “Greater Israel” historically does not apply to Judea but to Egypt that ruled from the Nile to the Euphrates river, where all peoples within these borders pledged allegiance to the Pharaoh, who was seen as a “god” with a divine right to rule.

By inheritance through the blessing of the firstborn who was designated as the leader of any family, any land promised to Abraham for grazing rights by “god,” who in all likelihood was the Pharaoh of Egypt, by inheritance would have been passed on from Isaac to Jacob, to Ephraim, Nun and then Joshua, who accordingly founded the twelve tribes of Israel.

These grazing rights would not have been the exclusive property of the tribe of Judah. The agreement was cemented due to Joseph’s marriage to the Egyptian princess Asenath and his high status in the house of the “god” as steward to the king and master of the horse. Due to the family bond that now existed between the royal house of Egypt and Joseph, the grazing rights bequeathed to Abraham now became legal tender and land rights, which Joshua the great-grandson of Joseph apportioned to each of the twelve tribes.

I was not surprised during the “Arab Spring” that one of the targets of the looting that went on in the Cairo Museum at the time, was the mummies of Yuya and Tuya, who many scholars have identified as the Biblical Joseph and his wife Asenath. The “Exodus,” which is debatable and paints the Egyptians in a negative light might never have happened. The time spent in the wilderness coincides with the battles that were fought between the Egyptians and the Hittites between the rule of the military generals Horemheb and Ramses 11.

It appears that the Hebrews fled into the wilderness in order to escape the battles that raged from the Nile to the Euphrates ending in the battle of Kadesh, during which time Moses and Joshua converted them to the monotheism that they had adopted from Akhenaten. It is highly possible that the battles recorded in the Bible by Joshua were in fact the battles fought by the Egyptians against the Hittites across the land of Palestine. Missing objects returned to the Egyptian museum

“The second returned object is one of the 10 missing shabtis of Yuya and Tjuya (JE 68982). It is still in very good condition; it does not require restoration and will be placed on display again immediately, stated Dr. Tarek El-Awady, Director of the Egyptian Museum.”

Unlike the Armarna correspondence, so far nothing similar has been found between the kingdom of Judea during the time of King David and Solomon and the empires that surrounded it.

Many scholars are now debating as to whether these kings as described in the Bible existed in the first place, or if they were the stories of kings from other nations that have been woven into the fabric of the texts. Comparisons with Egyptian texts suggest that many of the passages in Psalms and Proverbs were copied from similar Egyptian poetry during the tie of Amenhotep III.

All the evidence so far points to the first temple never having been built and that the kings of Judea were minor chieftains whose loyalty was subject to the countries that surrounded them. Judea after the split the kingdom into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judea aligned themselves with the Assyrians during the invasions of the Mittani kingdom and later the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The concept of a “Greater Israel” historically does not apply to Judea but to Egypt, and although Abraham and Joseph were given land rights, they were still subjects of the Pharaoh.

With regard to the second temple, as we shall explore further on in this article, far from being in line with the Torah and the religious beliefs of the Israelites, it was a “pagan” temple and an abomination that was rejected by the large majority of religious Hebrews during the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D. If anything they prayed for its destruction. The Dead Sea scrolls found at Qumram 2,000 years later in the 20th century, tell the story of the Righteous Teacher ( an Essene) who was murdered by the “wicked priest,”the high priest of the temple.

As the Dead Sea Scrolls have made very apparent, there is another story that has been ignored, maligned, swept under the carpet, and at every opportunity wiped from the memory of history. The story of Judah and Levi is only 2/12ths of the story. What about the other 10? According to the Judaic view, the ten tribes of Israel have been conveniently lost and no longer exist, which is a fallacy.

There are Hebrews across the Middle East and around the world who are not Zionists, do not follow the Babylonian Talmud, and remain true to the Torah. There are also Christians and Muslims across the Middle East and around the world who can also trace their descent to these 10 tribes. They are all part of “Greater Israel” across the Middle East as promised to Abraham and now extend internationally. They all belong to a monotheistic religious belief system that was founded by Moses and Joshua, and where Joshua at Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, dedicated the original twelve tribes to the Covenant.

Israel consisted of a federation of states, each with its own autonomy. What joined the nation together was the Covenant.

The firstborn in each family be they male or female (Deborah was one of the first judges of Israel), from each of the twelve tribes, was dedicated to God. They became students of the law and formed part of the individual tribal and national judiciary.

Joshua, rather than becoming a king of Israel was instead inaugurated as a Judge. He became first but was considered first amongst equals. His bloodline and his inheritance gave him the authority to rule Israel. The blessing of the firstborn in the line of descent went from Abraham Isaac-Jacob-Ephraim-Nun-Joshua. From Jacob’s blessing on Ephraim, he inherited the title “firstborn of god” due to Ephraim’s mother Asenath being of the royal Egyptian household and considered a child of the “gods,” while Joseph he inherited the blessing from Jacob, the corner-stone, the Shepherd of Israel, the vine and a crown amongst his brothers.

According to the Covenant, there was no king but God, and this Covenant included the laws of God. The most basic is to honor your mother and your father, not lie, cheat, steal, kill, interfere in somebody else’s relationship, or be jealous of another’s possessions. Joshua was the prototype of what became the legends of Arthur and the stories of the Knights of the Round Table. Joshua and the twelve tribes. All monotheistic religions are based on the Covenant and the first commandment, that you should love the Lord your god above all others and worship none before him. This excludes a high priest, a king, and a dictator who conceptually fall into the category of an idol. As do all idols, animate and inanimate.

The Covenant, the laws of Israel were housed in the Ark which was kept at Shiloh in the land of Ephraim, in the Tabernacle which was the tent of meeting.

Jacob’s prophesy that the scepter would pass from Judah when Shiloh came, was now fulfilled. The tabernacle was later replicated throughout Israel either in tent form or in stone with copies of the law kept in what later became to be known in Christianity as the “altar.” On the Sabbath, the Judges, also known as the Rabbis would read from these scrolls to the people gathered in the tent of meeting which later developed into the synagogues.

The only form of centralized control occurred on the Feast Of Tabernacles (Booths) when the people of Israel would ascend Mount Gerizim in remembrance of their wandering in the wilderness and when Joshua dedicated them to the Laws of Moses on this mountain and established the Kingdom under a Judiciary with a Federation of twelve tribes. The Sabbath was celebrated in the home with prayers and blessings said by the mother of the house at sunset and the next day in the local tabernacle where the law was read by the Rabbis to the congregation.

The Passover was also celebrated in the home as well as in the Tabernacle. The lamb sacrificed and burnt on the altar with the whole community gathering around, is the equivalent today of a Sunday barbeque with family and friends. It was and still is, a family-based religion in conjunction with the reading of the Torah in a localized community structure.

Due to corruption, a lack of oversight, and general irresponsibility on behalf of all the population, the system began to fall apart. The solution, they decided, was obvious. Rather than take responsibility for themselves and observe the Covenant, they abdicated their independence, demanded a king, and handed over control to a centralized body.

Rather than save themselves, Israel demanded a savior to come and rescue them. And so the Covenant was broken and has been broken ever since. It was from this time in history that the tribe of Judah, the family of David, claimed sole land rights over all of “Greater Israel” which according to the Bible and as partitioned out by Joshua, did not extend from the Nile to the Euphrates river, but was as you see it on the map in this article.

This “Jewish” sentiment continues today to the exclusion of all the ten tribes, who are now commonly grouped together as the Palestinians though they are also the descendants of many other nations: Samaritans, Torah Jews, Christians, and Muslims who can be found in Egypt, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Greece, as well as being dispersed around the world over a 2,700 year period.

Samuel, the last Judge of Israel had this to say about the concept of a centralized body of authority.

(Again compare to paragraphs two and three of this article and the current economic situation in the EU with austerity measures and taxpayers money going to line the pockets of the banking system as well as in the USA with the “too big to fail banks” that have robbed the American people of tax money that should have been spent on affordable education up to university level, affordable healthcare, a police force with an IQ above 60 and affordable transport systems with fast rail and no toll roads.)

“And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.

Now, therefore, hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.

And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.

And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.

And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.

And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.

Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said Nay, but we will have a king over us;

That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.”

This centralized kingdom in Jerusalem under the authority of the High Priests who were now restricted and limited to those born into the tribe of Levi only, and no longer the firstborn from each of the twelve tribes making up the Judiciary, did not last for very long. Barely two generations.

The ten tribes in the northern part of the country soon revolted and broke away forming the Northern Kingdom of Israel and separating themselves from the southern Kingdom of Judea, now ruled by the line of David and the Levite high priesthood. Jerusalem established temple worship as opposed to the Tabernacle with an exclusive priesthood that was autonomous and the Holy of Holies only accessible to this individual in secrecy without openness and transparency before the whole community.

During the Protestant Reformation, a similar split can be equated with a break from the centralized control of the Vatican and the high priest who is considered “infallible” and a law unto himself, as well as European countries moving towards Nation Statehood and the deposing of the royal families from their previously held position of autocratic and absolute control under the dictum of a “divine right to rule.”

In the 21st century, this can be compared to the Brexit vote where Britain left the EU as well as many other countries in Europe who want to opt for independence due to the political and economic corruption in the central body as well as laws that have been imposed on them that are contrary to their national identity and particular cultural customs. One size does not fit all. In “Europe Has Two Options: Revolution Or Elections,” Charles Gave writes:

“Mervyn King, the former governor of the Bank of England, wrote in his recent book, The End of Alchemy, that European leaders pushed for the adoption of the euro as a single currency knowing that it would cause an economic disaster in Southern Europe. The idea was that the impact of weakened economies would force national politicians to accept “reforms” imposed by Brussels. Put simply, Lord King argues that these elites consciously organized a huge decline in living standards in the expectation that it would undermine the legitimacy of local politicians. The problem is that most regular people (rightly) believe that their state is the best guarantor of their society being able to “live together,” which is the basic contract binding a nation.”

When the Assyrians invaded the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah sat on its laurels and did not help to defend itself, they were complicit in this genocide because it suited their long-term objectives. Judah and the Levite priesthood planned to annex the whole of Israel and take possession of all title deeds. When the Hebrews fled to Judea for help, they were treated like slaves and persecuted. (See Jeremiah 31-36.)

Many of these Hebrews then fled to Egypt as did Jeremiah after the Babylonians invaded Judea. A group of them finally settled in the south of Egypt on the island of Elephantine where they built a Tabernacle of stone.

They worked as mercenaries for the Egyptians against the invading Assyrians and later helped to protect the southern borders of what is today called Aswan. They were residents on the island from the time of the Assyrian invasion in approximately 600 B.C until the Persians left Egypt in 399 B.C.

For the most part, there was no acrimony between the Hebrews and the Egyptians who worshiped Khnum, the Ram-headed potter “god” who made people from clay on the potter’s wheel. Monotheism, after all, was an Egyptian concept conceived by Akhenaton and adopted by Moses and Joshua, including the ten commandments which were copied and duplicated from the “Egyptian Coming Forth of Day.” Their “god” was similar to the Egyptian Amen-Ra. And Hebrew prayers ended with the word Amen. Their ancestor Joseph had also once been part of the royal household.

These Hebrews came from the northern Kingdom of Israel and escaped with the Ark Of The Covenant. They installed it in their newly built temple on Elephantine island. Again this would have not been a cause for acrimony between the Egyptians and themselves. Egypt had for many centuries carried statues of the “gods” in similar Arks when transporting them from one venue to another, Horus sailing down the Nile once a year to meet the goddess Hathor is one example or carrying them ahead of an army in battle. Arks are also found in Egyptian tombs that housed their “gods” to accompany the king on his journey through the night sky and towards rebirth.

That the Hebrews housed their “god” in an Ark and installed their Ark in the temple, was totally compatible with Egyptian religious custom. Where they did finally clash in later years during the Passover festival. The Egyptians objected to them sacrificing a lamb on the altar of the Tabernacle which they saw as a representation of Khnum their ram “god,” and symbolic of the astrological age of Aries, the ram.

But whether this was the cause of the acrimony or whether the cause was the expansion of the temple of Khnum which resulted in part of the Tabernacle being demolished is anyone’s guess. When the Egyptians did allow them to rebuild the Tabernacle temple, it was on condition that they no longer sacrificed animals but only offered incense, wheat, and the first fruits of the harvest on their altar. Throughout history, the Egyptians, unlike the Canaanites in Gehenna or the Babylonians, were not known for blood sacrifice in either human or animal form. In all likelihood, it was an Egyptian high priest (the Lord) who convinced Abraham not to sacrifice his own son to “god.” (Moloch) Here is one example of many Egyptian influences. Archaeologists Unearth 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Artifacts In Israeli Cave:

“Archeologists, working in an underground cave in southern Israel, found 3,000-year-old Egyptian artifacts left behind by robbers…“Egyptian authority was not only manifested in political and military control, but was a strong cultural influence that contributed to shaping society,” Dr. Amir Golani from IAA said, according to the Jerusalem Post, adding: “Along with an administration of Egyptian officials in Israel, a group of the local elite evolved in the country who adopted many of the Egyptian customs and their artistry.

“The investigation of the cave and the finds is still in its early stages, and upon completing the treatment of the hundreds of objects that were exposed, it will be possible to add important information regarding Egypt’s influence on the population of the Land of Israel in the biblical period,” Golani said.”

Again we see Egyptian influence on Hebrew religious beliefs and customs. Blood sacrifice on the altar was abandoned and in its place, incense and first fruits were adopted, as were monotheism and the ten commandments adopted in the time of Moses and Joshua. The Essenes and the early Christians in the 1st century B.C and the 1st century A.D also abandoned blood sacrifice, which was a cause for acrimony between them and the high priests of the temple in Jerusalem. The temple priests made a lucrative living selling animals for their altar and getting free meals in the bargain. Abandoning animal sacrifice would have been a blow to the temple coffers.

Jerusalem in turn has a long history of blood sacrifice going way back to before the time of Abraham. It is situated in the “valley of the dead,” Gehenna, Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is commonly known as “hell.” It was where the Canaanites would burn their sons and daughters to Moloch. Judah married the Canaanite Tamar, and it is not surprising to find that during the reign of the kings of Judah, during the time of Jeremiah, they still sacrificed their children to fire. (Jer. 7:31, 19:2-6).

But the most important part of this story revolves around the rebuilding of the Tabernacle on Elephantine island after part of it was demolished by the Egyptians to make way for the expansion of Khnum’s temple.

The papyri discovered on the island are the most informative. This is from Wikipedia:

“The “Petition to Bagoas” (Sayce-Cowley collection) is a letter written in 407 BCE to Bagoas, the Persian governor of Judea, appealing for assistance in rebuilding the Jewish temple in Elephantine, which had recently been badly damaged… by a segment of the Elephantine community.

In the course of this appeal, the inhabitants of Elephantine speak of the antiquity of the damaged temple:

‘Now our forefathers built this temple in the fortress of Elephantine back in the days of the kingdom of Egypt, and when Cambyses came to Egypt he found it built. They (the Persians) knocked down all the temples of the gods of Egypt, but no one did any damage to this temple.”

The community also appealed for aid to Sanballat I, a Samaritan potentate, and his sons Delaiah and Shelemiah, as well as Johanan ben Eliashib. Both Sanballat and Johanan are mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah, 2:19, 12:23.

There was a response of both governors (Bagoas and Delaiah) which gave the permission to rebuild the temple written in the form of a memorandum: “Memorandum of what Bagohi and Delaiah said to me, saying: Memorandum: You may say in Egypt … to (re)build it on its site as it was formerly…”.

They appealed to the Samaritan potentate for help and not to Jerusalem and the construction of the temple did not follow the design of the temple in Jerusalem, but of the Tabernacle that Joshua installed at Shiloh on the land designated to the tribe of Ephraim and once the spiritual center of the whole of Israel housing the Ark Of The Covenant. This is from Steven G Rosenberg:

“As in descriptions of the Wilderness Tabernacle and the Solomonic Temple, there were probably vessels for ritual washing (Exod 30:18) and space for tethering animals. Being so closely located within the residential area, it is possible that the laity participated in the ritual within the temple site, as they did in the shrine at Shiloh (1 Sam 1:12), and therefore there were several doorways to the courtyard. This, of course, had not been the case in the Temple of Jerusalem, whose inner precincts were reserved for the priests and the Levites alone. ”

The implications are profound. Firstly the authority of the Northern Kingdom now under the control of Sanballat I, a Samaritan potentate was deferred to as opposed to Jerusalem and the Levite priests; secondly that the construction was in the design of the Tabernacle and not the temple in Jerusalem and thirdly due to its design everyone participated and nobody was excluded as they were in the Jerusalem temple where the inner precincts were reserved for the exclusive use of the Levite priesthood. This is in accordance with Joshua and the firstborn of all the tribes who were dedicated to the Lord and became judges and rabbis as opposed to the law being centralized and controlled by the high priests of the tribe of Levi. (Again please refer to the opening paragraphs at the beginning of this article.)

But what of the temple in Jerusalem? After the Jews returned from Babylon the acrimony between the Northern Tribes of Israel and the southern tribes of Judea and Levi continued. This is from Wikipedia:

Sanballat “is best known from the Book of Nehemiah, which casts him as one of the chief opponents of the Jewish governor Nehemiah during the latter’s efforts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and carry out his reforms among the Jews. In Jewish tradition, he was called “the Horonite,” (another possible “the Harranite”) and was associated with Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arabian. His home was evidently at Samaria.

According to Magen (2007), he appears to have been the scion of a veteran Samaritan family of the Israelite remnant originating in Horon, perhaps to be identified with the village of Hawara at the foot of Mount Gerizim.

According to Yitzhak Magen’s reconstruction, he was commander of a garrison force who rose to be appointed governor of Samaria, the first of the Israelites to achieve this rank, sometime prior to Nehemiah’s return from exile, and arrival in Judea in 444 BCE. In order to unite Samaria and its populations, he thought a sacred site was necessary.

The Levite priesthood had migrated to Judea, and the priests of Baal were idolatrous, and he chose from tradition Mount Gerizim, over whose site he chose a high priest from a noble family in Jerusalem, a grandson of Eliashib, to preside, and to whom he gave his own daughter in marriage. He established a temple to YHWH on Mount Gerizim, over which his own descendants, as born into priestly blood, could minister. Josephus relates that many Israelites married to Samaritans moved to Samaria, causing much bewilderment in Jerusalem.”

There is another possibility to add to this mix. That the “Jews” who returned to Jerusalem were not “Jews” at all, but Babylonian converts who were promised land in Judea and the city of Jerusalem. Babylonians, in order to circumvent and save themselves from Persian retribution took on “Jewish” identity and brought with them “pagan” temple worship along with it usury which was against the laws of the Torah.

They also brought with them the story of Esther, which is a Judaic version of the worship of Ishtar. The book of Esther was not found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and was also not included in the Samaritan texts. This being the case, it would not be surprising that the Israelites married to Samaritans moved to Samaria and left Jerusalem where a corrupted form of their religion was starting to take form.

According to Almonitor:

“Both temples — the one in Jerusalem and the one on Mount Gerizim — were built-in accordance with pagan [structural] traditions that were accepted at that time period. There is an area open to all, inside of which is a section permitted only to the priests, and a third inner “holy of holies” section. Only the high priest is allowed to enter the inner sanctum, and only once a year. Although no remnants remain from the structure, the entrance gates and the western wall of the holy site survived. Thus, it seems that the Samaritans have their own “western wall.” Twelve large stones survived from the wall, and they believe that these are the 12 stones on which the Israelites stood when they crossed the Jordan River to the Holy Land after 40 years of wandering in the desert. This large wall of stones is the Samaritans’ holiest site.”

We have 1. Pagan temples. 2. Inner sanctum reserved for the high priest. 3 Twelve large stones where the Israelites stood when Joshua dedicated them to the Covenant. The temples are considered to be pagan in design because they do not resemble the Tabernacle as the temple on the island of Elephantine did. Instead, they resemble Solomon’s Temple, which by inference here is regarded as “pagan.” The second temple built-in a pagan design both in Jerusalem and on Mount Gerizim.

Was the first temple in Jerusalem a pagan temple to start with? It was apparently built in an era when Israel became centralized, abandoned the Covenant, and installed a king and high priesthood of the tribe of Levi which differs from the Tabernacle temple that embraced the whole community. These two temples were built according to the design given for “Solomon’s temple” as described in the Biblical texts, which this article infers was “pagan.”

Again we are hit with a conundrum. No archaeological evidence has yet been found for the building of the first temple in Jerusalem. This could be due to one of two factors. 1. Either it was never built and the texts referring to it and Solomon were copied from Egyptian texts, which leads us to Amenhotep III, or 2. It was completely destroyed right down to its foundations and nothing remained. No evidence, no proof, means no legal claim to the Temple Mount.

This leads us to the next obvious clue. If it was completely destroyed, all its treasure, gold, the Menorah, and the Ark Of the Covenant would not have been left behind or destroyed but would have been carted off by the Babylonians. This leads us to Iraq in the 20th and 21st centuries and the ongoing war and pillage of antiquities that has taken place for over 26 years since George Bush senior declared war on that country in 1991. If since the end of WW2 no evidence for the first temple has been found in Jerusalem in order to justify rebuilding it, then other evidence needs to be found for its existence, and the obvious place to look would be in Iraq.

But nothing has been found. No texts, no artifacts and certainly not the Ark Of The Covenant or the whole world would have heard about it by now. Nothing has been unearthed referring to it in the sands of Iraq.

What has the war in Syria been about for the last five years other than a land claim for “Greater Israel” and securing the Golan Heights in contravention of resolution 242? Not only does Assad stand in the way of these objectives but so does something else.

Isaiah 17 clearly describes Israel as being Ephraim and Damascus and that total destruction will fall on those who have attacked not only Israel but their capital city, which has been host to the tribes of Israel, the early Christians, and Muslims. But more than that, Syria and Damascus have been host to the Mitanni Kingdom, a kingdom that once incorporated Syria and Armenia and that was in alliance with Egypt during a critical period in history from the time of Abraham until the Assyrian invasion of the whole of Israel.

Due to their alliance with Egypt, Egyptian religious, social, and political influence stretched from the Nile to the Euphrates river and this would have included their prose, poetry, texts, artifacts, and artwork.

Jacob married the Syrian Rachel and their son Joseph married an Egyptian princess. Their great-grandson Joshua founded Israel. The Egyptians had two major influences on both Mitanni and the Hebrews. Temple building. The Tabernacle temple housed “god” and protected the Ark Of The Covenant and the “pagan” Syrian temples built by Mitanni.

But let’s return to the 21st century. A quote from a recent article by Steven Sahiounie via American Herald Tribune, “The True Story Of How War Broke Out In Syria:”

“The CIA agents running the Deraa operation from their office in Jordan had already provided the weapons and cash needed to fuel the flames of revolution in Syria. With enough money and weapons, you can start a revolution anywhere in the world. In reality, the uprising in Deraa in March 2011 was not fueled by graffiti written by teenagers, and there were no disgruntled parents demanding their children to be freed. This was part of the Hollywood-style script written by skilled CIA agents, who had been given a mission: to destroy Syria for the purpose of regime change.”

How many of these agents were and are Mosaad? How many of these so call Syrian Rebels have been assisted on the Golan Heights by Israel and treated in Israeli hospitals? There is something else in Deraa. A temple. A Temple that resembles the description given in the Bible for “Solomon’s Temple.”

Ain Dara is based on a unique ground plan that was inherently Syrian and in territory that was part of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Mitanni kingdom. As yet, no such temple has been found in the south, and no such temple has to date been found within the precincts of Gehenna/ Jerusalem. According to John Moson:

“A stunning parallel to Solomon’s Temple has been discovered in northern Syria. The temple at ‘Ain Dara has far more in common with the Jerusalem Temple described in the Book of Kings than any other known building.

Like Solomon’s Temple, the ‘Ain Dara temple was approached by a courtyard paved with flagstones. A large chalkstone basin used for ceremonial purposes stood in this courtyard. (A large basin was also placed in the courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple [1 Kings 7:23–26].) At the far end of the open courtyard, the temple stood on a 2.5-foot-high platform made of rubble and limestone and lined with basalt blocks engraved with lions, sphinxes, and other mythic creatures. A monumental staircase, flanked on each side by a sphinx and two lions, led up to the temple portico. The four basalt steps, only three of which survive, were decorated with a carved guilloche pattern, which consists of interlacing curved lines. The building itself was covered with rows of basalt reliefs of sphinxes, lions, mountain gods, and large clawed creatures whose feet alone are preserved. ”

Again in spite of the war in Syria, the destruction of their antiquities, the damage done to their ancient temples, no documentation has been found, no correspondence between the Kings of Judea and the surrounding nations, no artifact, and no evidence of a temple built in Jerusalem according to the dimensions given in the Biblical texts or of the whereabouts of the treasures of that temple and the Ark Of The Covenant in particular. There are many who think that there never will be. In every ancient civilization other than Judea, archaeological evidence, textual references, and the remains of temples back up historical and religious records. The temple in Jerusalem so far has no such reference either inside of Jerusalem or outside of it.

Unless something emerges in the future, the conclusion that we have to come to is that the texts were either Egyptian describing an Egyptian temple during the time of Amenhotep III that was situated in Northern Syria, as the poetry and prose of Proverbs and Psalms suggests or that the temple was Syrian built by Mitanni and by comparison with the Tabernacle erected at Shiloh, was considered to be “pagan” by the Hebrews and not in keeping with the Covenant.

There is a very strong possibility that the Ark Of The Covenant was never installed inside of it. And if there was an Ark of any type, it was the house of the “god” who was worshiped in the Syrian temple, similar to the Egyptian Arks that housed their gods and was not necessarily the repository of the ten commandments or the monotheistic god of Moses and Joshua. All things considered, so far, the Ark Of The Covenant was never in the temple in Jerusalem. It was kept in the Tabernacle temple in the hills of Ephraim and after the Assyrian invasion was transported to the island of Elephantine. The Ark never returned to Israel nor was it installed in the “second temple,” built in Jerusalem. This would have been considered sacrilege.

In the first century A.D. a man called Joshua-Jesus, the son of Joseph, the “son god,” who came from Nazareth in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who referred to himself as the corner-stone, the Shepherd, the vine, and was a crown amongst the twelve disciples, entered Jerusalem and damned the money lenders and the temple.

He said that they had turned his “father’s house” into a den of thieves and that the temple would be destroyed right down to its foundations. Which it was by 70 A.D. Like the Essenes and the Samaritans he was opposed to the “pagan” temple cult, the money lenders, and the sacrificial blood of animals that ran throughout the temple precincts. Nine points to note.

1. Jesus never taught in the temple. He taught in the synagogue and on the mount, in all likelihood Mount Gerizim.

2. He never sacrificed or spilled the blood of animals.

3. He had twelve Apostles who represented all the twelve tribes of Israel and was betrayed by Judah.

4. He taught as a Rabbi and was persecuted by the Levite priesthood who were of the opinion that only the tribe of Levi was entitled to this office and allowed into the inner sanctum of the temple.

5. He accuses the Levite priests of “having the keys to the kingdom,” but they let no one in and do not go in themselves.” In other words, restricting the priesthood to the tribe of Levi and the Holy of Holies, being the Torah and the law and the prophets, to the sole discretion and control of the High Priest, which contravenes the gathering at the Tabernacle.

6. He never called himself “the king of the Jews,” or the “king of Israel.” If anything like Joshua before him, he ran into the hills when the people wanted to make him a king and he turned the devil down in the wilderness when offered all the kingdoms of the world. To do otherwise would have been breaking the Covenant.

7. He was put to death by a system that was centralized and controlled by a High Temple priest called Caiaphas, a King called Herod, and a military general called Pilate. It was a miscarriage of the law and justice. He was detained without trial, falsely accused, did not have due process, and had no witnesses to speak on his behalf was tortured and put to death. According to the Torah, he was allowed due process and witnesses to speak on his behalf. He was denied his legal rights by the Sanhedrin.

8. Early Christians, including Jesus, were Hebrews who kept the Covenant, did not spill the blood of animals, and preached Genesis 1, where all are made in the image of god. Early Christian women were Apostles and blessed the bread and the wine as they did once a week at every Sabbath meal.

9. The first Bishop of the early Christian church was James the Righteous, the brother of Jesus who in the opening paragraphs of his epistle makes no mention of the “King of the Jews” but instead says:

“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”

The religious, social, and political implications behind the conflicting architectural structure of a federated community-based Tabernacle where the law and the Judiciary is the highest authority; and the centralized Temple of High Priest and king have had far-reaching implications over the last 2,000 years in all the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, never more so than in the opening years of the 21st century.

The current political system in the Zionist State of Israel is a fascist, racist, police state and a far cry from the founding fathers of Moses and Joshua. Many of the “Jews” who returned to Judea 2,400 years ago were Babylonian “converts” surviving the Persian conquest who added their own particular Sumerian texts into the Bible as we know it today. After the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 69 A.D. they returned to Babylon and wrote the Babylonian Talmud which contracts the Torah and the earlier Palestinian Talmud. They were not Israelites.

After WW2 many “Jews” who returned to Judea and have done so into the 21st century are not Israelites, they are Khazars from Eastern Europe and Russia who converted to Babylonian Talmudic Judaism. The persecution of the Palestinians and the theft of their land in order to bring about “Greater Israel” under a Judaic Jewish body along with the rebuilding of yet another pagan temple runs counter to the true history of Israel and is a covert invasion as it was 2,400 years ago.

The title deed to the land of Israel was inherited by Joshua, not Judah, and the remnants today of the Joseph tribes Ephraim and Manasseh are Palestinians who are Samaritans, Torah Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Not surprisingly one of the main targets of all “terrorist” activity throughout the Middle East during the Arab Spring since 2011 has been Christian communities that are some of the oldest in the world, many of their families going back to the 1st century A.D. Central to their belief is Joshua/Jesus, the son of Joseph, the “son god,” who came from Nazareth in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who referred to himself as the corner-stone, the Shepherd, the vine and was a crown amongst the twelve disciples.

It is not surprising then that the Babylonian Talmud condemns him to boil in excrement for all eternity.

Through it all ancient historical records continue to be destroyed by fanatics across the Middle East, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, who want to obliterate any evidence that could prove that their assumptions on their own religious bias might be invalid. Academics and Archaeologists Fight to Save Syria’s Artifacts

“In 2011, after three decades of working in Syria, the archaeologist Glenn M. Schwartz was unable to return to his dig at the Bronze Age city of Umm el-Marra. The intensifying civil war had made work in the country impossible.

Like many archaeologists of the Middle East, Mr. Schwartz, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, is watching the news from the region with deep concern and, he said, a feeling of impotence.

“It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happened in Syria in terms of cultural heritage and more so for the country at large,” he said.

The upheavals and conflicts sweeping the Middle East in recent years have caused untold human suffering, and they have resulted in deep losses to the heritage of the region.”

And consider this from: ‘Western Propaganda is Paid for in Syrian Blood’ – Dr Bouthaina Shaaban Talks to Vanessa Beeley

“Khaled al-Assad is the only archaeologist in the world who was writing about who was here in the past, in Palmyra. He was proving that the Zionists were never here. They killed him, they burned his library, they burned his books so we have nothing left of his work. From an observers’ perspective, they are focusing on history, material history, cultural history, identity, and army. Any power that keeps you as an entire state or any statesman that represents strength or unity will be demonized and destroyed.

Even Ramadan al Bouti a Sunni scholar who was speaking sense was murdered because they want to destroy anybody who speaks the truth or who is influential and can gather people around him.”

This evidence is essential for the whole human race. Without it, we could well devolve into yet another dark age of ignorance, slavery, inequality, corruption, and servitude to a centralized body in the form of unipolar, fascist world order, as was the temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

Suggested Reading:

• Elephantine papyri
• The Jewish Temple at Elephantine
• Sanballat the Horonite
• An Archaeological Pearl, Mount Gerizim Is Opened to Tourists
• The Sacred Precinct On Mount Gerizim
• The New ‘Ayn Dara Temple: Closest Solomonic Parallel

Katherine Frisk

Katherine Frisk is or was an enigma. We know that the amazing world-changing book, Jesus Was A Palestinian, was authored by a “Katherine Frisk” but there is NO other information on “Katherine Frisk”.  We don’t even have an active email for her.

Many say that Katherine was Catherine “Kate” Frisk who was born in Malta in 1933 and lived in the USA where she passed away in 2018. But that’s NOT confirmed.

It may be that “Katherine Frisk” is a nom-de-plume. Considering the subject matter in our book, it would NOT be a stretch to imagine that some would take offense to her truth-telling and so going full anonymous would make survival sense. We simply don’t know.  And so we cannot 100% confirm her identity.

What we do know is that Katherine submitted over 50 articles to VT and wrote a great book. That all stopped in 2018.  VT periodically does a few re-publishes of her work.

katherinefrisk.webs.com