The Temple of temples
We may think about temples, to name some, like the St. Peter Basilica in Rome, the Notre-Dame in Paris, the Westminster Cathedral in London, la Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona, etc., they are huge, imposing, impressive buildings, astonishing stonework outside, carved marble and sophisticated art inside. Breathtaking external view, heart-stopping internal experience. Enduring marvels of architecture and human designing capabilities. Occasionally the builders even got a Michelangelo or an El Greco or a Raphael to paint real art inside of the edifices.
However, we have to remember that there is a temple, or there should be a temple on Earth which should be, must be considered as Number One, and it is the Temple in Jerusalem, though it is actually not standing. It was destroyed approximately 2000 years ago.
Emperor Nero, who accused the Christians of starting the great Fire of Rome, ordered that Christians must be persecuted, tortured and killed. Same Emperor Nero also ordered his troops to siege and burn Jerusalem in 66 AD.
This war was a brutally fatal one, as Josephus Flavius, the contemporary eye-witnessing historian estimated the number of the civilian, non-combatant casualties around a million.
Just as Jesus conversed with his disciples, regarding the damages of the devastating war , it became written in thew Gospel of Luke: “When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."
The Holy Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, destroyed by the Roman legions, was not the original one, built by the wise king Solomon, called the first Temple, because Solomon’s Temple was devastated by the Babylonians in 587 BC. When the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, they built a second Temple by the help of the Persian Empire, and it had stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for almost 600 years, until the Romans came and burnt it down to the ground. Both temple had the divine presence. Imagine, that the first temple hosted the ark of the covenant, and the original stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, received by Moses and the people at the Mount Sinai, and through them they were given to humanity.
The second Temple was the actual temple that Jesus and the disciples attended.
Both Temples the first and the second ones were dedicated to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to the God who had spoken to Moses from the burning bush, who revealed himself to the patriarchs and the prophets, and who sent Jesus to proclaim the Gospel to all nations.
Both temple, first and second ones, had a major and essential attribute in common that there was only but only one temple in Israel and later in Judea, the temple in Jerusalem. All the other places were just buildings of religious gatherings like the ancient synagogues, but not temples. Thus the temple in Jerusalem was not only the number one temple among others at that time but the only one. It was forbidden to have other temples. Also the TEMPLE, with capital letters must stand in Jerusalem and nowhere else.
Even in exile, the Jews were not allowed by God to build a temple somewhere else, maybe in a friendly though foreign environment, like in ancient Greece or Persia or elsewhere.
When the Jewish diaspora gradually reached all the ends of the world during the almost 2000 years of exile, they did not built a single temple in Athen, or Rome, or Paris, or Madrid, or Cairo, or Amsterdam, or Buenos Aires, or in Cape Town or in London, nor in the United States. They built synagogues all over but not Jerusalem temples.
For nearly 2000 years they kept mourning the distraction of the Temple and the Holy City. Moreover the strictly observing Jews wear the black clothing because they still grieve the loss of the Temple. It happened in the year of 66 AD, that Emperor Nero, whose name, according to the numerology, covers the infamous number of 666, or (616), he sent his general, Vespasian to crash the Jewish Revolt. Vespasian's son Titus was appointed as second-in-command.
Before the very end of the war, general Vespasian was called back to Rome to be elected as an Emperor. He, himself became infamous, because he placed tax on the urine collection from the public urinals due to its ammoniac content, used in the leather industry. Emperor Vespasianus created this method to ease the financial hardships resulting from the many wars that had been fought. This was not a popular choice with his people, and he was ridiculed for the decision, to which he reacted with the famous quote, Pecunia non olet, aka "Money does not stink".
However, he was not only a tasteless man, but a man without compunction, and without conscience. Although it was very characteristic to the Roman Empire too, as a whole, but Vespasianus in his person, became the walking embodiment of blasphemy and sacrilege. The very Construction of the Colosseum was funded by the opulent spoils taken from the Jewish Temple after the Siege of Jerusalem. According to an inscription found on the site, “the emperor Vespasian ordered the Colosseum to be erected from his general’s share of the booty and the loot.” He should have feared God though, whose temple was robbed, profaned, demolished and burnt, whose people were killed, tortured, mass-murdered, enslaved, taken into captivity and exiled by the Romans. Because the almost instant karma just stroke back.
The urine taxing Emperor, not a long time after that just died from the illness of such a heavy diarrhea that he all but swooned, he said: "An emperor ought to die standing," and while he was struggling to get on his feet, he died in the arms of those who tried to help him.
Eventually his son, Titus finished the siege of Jerusalem, and the burning of the Jerusalem Temple. The almost instant karma just kicked in again. The ancient sages say:
“When Titus was traveling back to Rome on a ship with the Jewish captives and the holy golden vessels of the Holy Temple, a storm at sea threatened to drown him. He said: "It seems that the G-d of these people only has power over water. When Pharaoh came, He drowned him in water. When Sisera came, He drowned him in water. Now He is about to drown me in water. If He wants to show His strength, let Him come onto dry land and fight with me there!"
When Titus went ashore , a little gnat, a mosquito, came and entered his nostril, and pecked at his brain for seven years. An eyewitness said: "I was with the great men of Rome at the time when Titus died. They examined his brain and what they found in it, his brain was the size of a small bird!" As Titus lay dying, he instructed his servants: "Burn me and scatter my ashes over the seven seas so that the G-d of the Jews cannot find me and bring me to judgment."
Jesus’ vision he foretold the disciples about the upcoming disaster of the city and the Temple came through, 2000 years ago. It was a prophecy.
Regarding the recent centuries, we have other Biblical prophecies regarding the events that have happened already or happening right now, or will happen hopefully sooner than later.
One of them is the regathering of the exiled people, as prophet Isaiah foretold it: “He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” It keeps happening, together with the whole world we are eyewitnesses of it, that the exiles of Israel are returning to the Holy Land. Emperors are dead, Empires are dust, but the promises of the Lord are alive.
When all will be finished, the sages say that the gathered people will rebuild not only Jerusalem, but they will also build the Third Temple, the New Temple of God, in Jerusalem. This sign will mark a beginning of a new era, when the heavenly kingdom will descend to the Earth. We all feel the winds and the birth pangs of its coming, soon. A new era will be born, when the Lord will dwell among us. There will be no more wars and hatred but peace, healing and providence.
May the Lord’s name be blessed for ever. AMEN
When the Jewish diaspora gradually reached all the ends of the world during the almost 2000 years of exile, they did not built a single temple in Athen, or Rome, or Paris, or Madrid, or Cairo, or Amsterdam, or Buenos Aires, or in Cape Town or in London, nor in the United States. They built synagogues all over but not Jerusalem temples.
For nearly 2000 years they kept mourning the distraction of the Temple and the Holy City. Moreover the strictly observing Jews wear the black clothing because they still grieve the loss of the Temple. It happened in the year of 66 AD, that Emperor Nero, whose name, according to the numerology, covers the infamous number of 666, or (616), he sent his general, Vespasian to crash the Jewish Revolt. Vespasian's son Titus was appointed as second-in-command.
Before the very end of the war, general Vespasian was called back to Rome to be elected as an Emperor. He, himself became infamous, because he placed tax on the urine collection from the public urinals due to its ammoniac content, used in the leather industry. Emperor Vespasianus created this method to ease the financial hardships resulting from the many wars that had been fought. This was not a popular choice with his people, and he was ridiculed for the decision, to which he reacted with the famous quote, Pecunia non olet, aka "Money does not stink".
However, he was not only a tasteless man, but a man without compunction, and without conscience. Although it was very characteristic to the Roman Empire too, as a whole, but Vespasianus in his person, became the walking embodiment of blasphemy and sacrilege. The very Construction of the Colosseum was funded by the opulent spoils taken from the Jewish Temple after the Siege of Jerusalem. According to an inscription found on the site, “the emperor Vespasian ordered the Colosseum to be erected from his general’s share of the booty and the loot.” He should have feared God though, whose temple was robbed, profaned, demolished and burnt, whose people were killed, tortured, mass-murdered, enslaved, taken into captivity and exiled by the Romans. Because the almost instant karma just stroke back.
The urine taxing Emperor, not a long time after that just died from the illness of such a heavy diarrhea that he all but swooned, he said: "An emperor ought to die standing," and while he was struggling to get on his feet, he died in the arms of those who tried to help him.
Eventually his son, Titus finished the siege of Jerusalem, and the burning of the Jerusalem Temple. The almost instant karma just kicked in again. The ancient sages say:
“When Titus was traveling back to Rome on a ship with the Jewish captives and the holy golden vessels of the Holy Temple, a storm at sea threatened to drown him. He said: "It seems that the G-d of these people only has power over water. When Pharaoh came, He drowned him in water. When Sisera came, He drowned him in water. Now He is about to drown me in water. If He wants to show His strength, let Him come onto dry land and fight with me there!"
When Titus went ashore , a little gnat, a mosquito, came and entered his nostril, and pecked at his brain for seven years. An eyewitness said: "I was with the great men of Rome at the time when Titus died. They examined his brain and what they found in it, his brain was the size of a small bird!" As Titus lay dying, he instructed his servants: "Burn me and scatter my ashes over the seven seas so that the G-d of the Jews cannot find me and bring me to judgment."
Jesus’ vision he foretold the disciples about the upcoming disaster of the city and the Temple came through, 2000 years ago. It was a prophecy.
Regarding the recent centuries, we have other Biblical prophecies regarding the events that have happened already or happening right now, or will happen hopefully sooner than later.
One of them is the regathering of the exiled people, as prophet Isaiah foretold it: “He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” It keeps happening, together with the whole world we are eyewitnesses of it, that the exiles of Israel are returning to the Holy Land. Emperors are dead, Empires are dust, but the promises of the Lord are alive.
When all will be finished, the sages say that the gathered people will rebuild not only Jerusalem, but they will also build the Third Temple, the New Temple of God, in Jerusalem. This sign will mark a beginning of a new era, when the heavenly kingdom will descend to the Earth. We all feel the winds and the birth pangs of its coming, soon. A new era will be born, when the Lord will dwell among us. There will be no more wars and hatred but peace, healing and providence.
May the Lord’s name be blessed for ever. AMEN
