The Sign and the Seal

by Graham Hancock

  138 See Julian Morgenstern, ‘The Book of the Covenant’, Hebrew Union College Annual, vol. V, 1928; and ‘The Ark, the Ephod and the Tent of Meeting’, Hebrew Union College Annual, vol. XVII, 1942–3; both reprinted by KTAV Publishing House, New York, 1968. See also Chapter 3 above.

  139 Menahem Haran, Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1978; reprinted 1985 by Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, Indiana, USA, p. 246.

  140 Exodus 19:3.

  141 Exodus 19:12–13 (Jerusalem Bible translation).

  142 Exodus 19:16, 18 (amalgam of Jerusalem Bible and King James Authorized Version translations).

  143 Exodus 24:12.

  144 Exodus 24:15–18 (amalgam of Jerusalem Bible and King James Authorized Version translations).

  145 See Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, op. cit., vol. III, pp. 118–19.

  146 Exodus 31:18; 32:15–16.

  147 Exodus 32:19. The well known golden calf incident begins at Exodus 32:1.

  148 Exodus 32:28.

  149 Exodus 34:28.

  150 Exodus 34:29.

  151 Exodus 34:29 (Jerusalem Bible translation).

  152 Exodus 33:7, Jerusalem Bible translation: ‘Moses used to take the Tent and pitch it outside the camp. He called it The Tent of Meeting.’

  153 Exodus 33:11.

  154 Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, op. cit., vol. III, p. 119.

  155 Exodus 34:29–35.

  156 Exodus 34:30.

  157 Exodus 34:33.

  158 Exodus 34:34–5.

  159 See Moshe Levine, The Tabernacle: Its Structure and Utensils, Soncino Press, Tel Aviv, 1969, p. 88.

  160 See, for example, The Oxford Reference Dictionary, Guild Publishing, London, 1988, p. 793, which gives the measure of a span or hand-breadth as nine inches. See also The Oxford Library of Words and Phrases, Guild Publishing, London, 1988, vol. III, p. 451.

  161 Rabbi Shelomo Yitshaki was born at Troyes in AD 1040 and died in the year 1105. He is generally referred to as Rashi (an acronym based on his full title and name). See Geoffrey Wigoder (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Judaism, Jerusalem Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1989, p. 583.

  162 Exodus 39:1–32.

  163 See, for example, Exodus 28:43 and Leviticus 10:6.

  164 Numbers 4:5–6 and 15: ‘When the camp is broken, Aaron and his sons [Eleazar and Ithamar] are to come and take down the veil of the screen. With it they must cover the Ark … On top of this they must put a covering of fine leather, and spread over the whole a cloth all of violet. Then they are to fix the poles to the Ark … [Then] the sons of Kohath are to come and take up the burden, but without touching any of the sacred things; otherwise they would die.’

  165 Ibid.

  166 Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, op. cit., vol. III, p. 228: ‘The most distinguished among the Levites were the sons of Kohath, whose charge during the march through the desert was the Holy Ark. This was a dangerous trust, for out of the staves attached to it would issue sparks that consumed Israel’s enemies, but now and then this fire wrought havoc among the bearers of the Ark.’

  167 See passage quoted in note 164 above which specifies that the ‘veil of the screen’, a layer of leather and a layer of cloth were used to wrap the Ark. When the Tabernacle was pitched and at rest, the ‘veil of the screen’ hung in the entrance to the Holy of Holies. It was made of ‘blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work’ (Exodus 26:31). Unusually for such an important accessory, it did not contain any gold – and neither, of course, did the ‘covering of fine leather’ or the ‘cloth of violet’. In other words before the Ark was moved it was first thoroughly wrapped and insulated by several layers of non-conductive materials.

  168 The view that the Ark was dangerous to carry for some possibly electrical reason is supported by the Jewish tradition quoted in note 166 above. The same tradition adds further credibility to this notion when it states that the Kohathites, rather than behaving as though they were honoured by being given the job of carrying the Ark – as one might have expected if it was indeed nothing more than a symbol of their God – in fact tried to avoid the duty, ‘each one planning cautiously to shift the carrying of the Ark upon another.’ Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, op. cit., vol. III, p. 228.

  169 Leviticus 10:2. The full passage reads: ‘And there went out the fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died there before the Lord’ (King James Authorized Version). The Jerusalem Bible translation of the same verse reads: ‘Then from Yahweh’s presence a flame leaped out and consumed them and they perished in the presence of Yahweh.’ See Chapter 12, note 11 above for an explanation of why the Ark is implied.

  170 Leviticus 10:4–5 (Jerusalem Bible translation).

  171 1 Samuel 5.

  172 E.g. the slaying of Uzzah by what sounds like some kind of electrical discharge. See 2 Samuel 6:3–7.

  Chapter 14 The Glory is departed from Israel

  1 See Chapter 5 above.

  2 Mecca and Medina are the first two. For details as to the date of construction of the Dome of the Rock see Dan Bahat, Carta’s Historical Atlas of Jerusalem, Carta, Jerusalem, 1989, p. 44–9.

  3 See Chapter 12 above. See also Zev Vilnay, Legends of Jerusalem: The Sacred Land, vol. I, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1973, pp. 11–12.

  4 See Chapter 5 above, and later parts of this chapter, for further details.

  5 For further details see Jerome Murphy-O’connor, The Holy Land, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 84–6.

  6 See Chapter 5 above.

  7 1 Chronicles 28:2.

  8 For a good concise history of the successive stages of building and destruction on the Temple Mount see Carta’s Historical Atlas of Jerusalem, op. cit. As regards archaeological confirmation that the Dome of the Rock does indeed stand over the site of the original Temple of Solomon, see Kathleen Kenyon, Jerusalem: Excavating 3,000 Years of History, Thames & Hudson, London, 1967, p. 55: ‘From the present structure back to Solomon there is no real break. One can therefore be certain of the site of Solomon’s Temple.’ See also Kathleen Kenyon, Digging up Jerusalem, Benn, London, 1974, p. 110.

  9 Islam also accepts Jesus Christ as a prophet. Muhammad is regarded as exceptional because he was the last of the prophets – the last of the messengers sent by God to teach and enlighten humankind and whose honour it therefore was to complete the divine message. There can be no serious dispute that the God worshipped by the Jews, Christians and Muslims is, in essence, the same deity. The oneness of this God is accepted by all three faiths although Muslims believe that Christians are confused by such notions as the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. An Arabic inscription within the Dome of the Rock reads as follows: ‘O you People of the Book, overstep not bounds in your religion, and of God speak only the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, is only an apostle of God, and his word which he conveyed into Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from him. Believe therefore in God and his apostles, and say not Three. It will be better for you. God is only one God. Far be it from his glory that he should have a son.’

  10 See Zev Vilnay, Legends of Jerusalem, op. cit., pp. 123 and 324, footnote 136. See also Neil Asher Silberman, Digging for God and Country: Exploration, Archaeology and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land 1799–1917, Knopf, New York, 1982, p. 186.

  11 Quoted from ‘The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch’ in H. F. D. Sparks (ed.), The Apocryphal Old Testament, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989, pp. 843–4.

  12 Ibid.; see ‘Introduction to the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch’, particularly p. 837.

  13 See Chapter 5 above.

  14 See Chapter 12 above.

  15 1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10–11, 27.

  16 1 Kings 11:4–5.

  17 1 Kings 4:30.

  18 Each wing measured five cubits (about seven and a half feet). See 2 Chronicles 3:11 and 1 Kings 6:24. According to the Jerusalem Bible translation, the cherubim were made of olive wood plated with gold.

>   19 1 Kings 6:19 (Jerusalem Bible translation).

  20 Twenty cubits, by twenty cubits, by twenty cubits. See 1 Kings 6:20.

  21 Chronicles 3:8 states that 600 talents of fine gold were used to overlay the walls, floor and ceiling of the Holy of Holies. An ancient talent weighed approximately 75 pounds, therefore 600 talents would have weighed 45,000 pounds – more than twenty tonnes. For further details, and academic support for the amounts of gold specified in the Bible as having been used in King Solomon’s Temple, see Professor Alan R. Millard, ‘Does the Bible Exaggerate King Solomon’s Golden Wealth?’, Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1989, pp. 21–34. See also 1 Kings 6:20, 22 and 30.

  22 2 Chronicles 3:9.

  23 1 Kings 7:13–14 (amalgam of King James Authorized Version and Jerusalem Bible translations).

  24 Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances (translated by D. D. R. Owen), Dent, London, 1987, p. 375; emphasis added.

  25 Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival, Penguin Classics, London, 1980. See in particular pp. 62–7 and 70–1.

  26 See Kenneth Mackenzie, The Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia, Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1987 (first published 1877), pp. 316–17. See also Alexander Home, King Solomon’s Temple in the Masonic Tradition, Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1988, pp. 262–8 and 272–9. See also John J. Robinson, Born in Blood, Century, London, 1990, pp. 217–18. Hiram of Tyre, the bronzeworker and skilled craftsman, is of course not to be confused with King Hiram of Tyre who supplied Solomon with cedarwood for the construction of the Temple, and who also sent him a number of skilled artisans to assist with the work.

  27 John J. Robinson, Born in Blood, op. cit., p. 219.

  28 1 Kings 7:23, 26.

  29 See Shalom M. Paul and William G. Dever (eds), Biblical Archaeology, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1973, part III, p. 257.

  30 Bruce Metzger, David Goldstein, John Ferguson (eds), Great Events of Bible Times, Guild Publishing, London, 1987, p. 89.

  31 Shalom M. Paul and William G. Dever, Biblical Archaeology, op. cit., p. 257.

  32 1 Kings 7:38.

  33 See Chapter 12 above.

  34 See Chapter 11 above.

  35 1 Kings 7:40, 45.

  36 1 Kings 7:15, 21–2.

  37 Kenneth Mackenzie, The Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia, op. cit., pp. 349–50. See also David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 143–52.

  38 Alexander Home, King Solomon’s Temple in Masonic Tradition, op. cit., p. 219.

  39 Ibid.

  40 Joshua 15:48; Judges 10:1; Judges 10:2; Chronicles 24:24.

  41 E.g. Deuteronomy 27:5: ‘And there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them.’ See also Joshua 8:31.

  42 Moses was said to have used the Shamir in the desert to engrave writing on the precious stones worn in the breastplate of the High Priest. See Louis Ginzberg, The Legend of the Jews, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1909, vol. I, p. 34, and vol. IV, p. 166.

  43 Ibid., vol. I, p. 34.

  44 Ibid., vol. TV, p. 166.

  45 Ibid., vol. I, p. 34. On the vanishing of the Shamir see also Herbert Danby (trans.), The Mishnah, Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 305.

  46 Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, op. cit., vol. I, p. 34.

  47 From Islamic traditions about the Shamir, reported in Alexander Horne, King Solomon’s Temple in the Masonic Tradition, op. cit., p. 165.

  48 Jerusalem Bible, Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1968, Chronological Table, p. 344.

  49 1 Kings 14:25–6.

  50 The only objects specifically mentioned are the ‘shields of gold which Solomon had made’, 1 Kings 14:26.

  51 For further details see Professor Kenneth A. Kitchen, ‘Shishak’s Military Campaign in Israel Confirmed’, Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1989, pp. 32–3. See also Bruce Metzger, David Goldstein, John Ferguson (eds), Great Events of Bible Times, op. cit., pp. 94–5.

  52 Ibid., p. 95.

  53 Ibid., p. 94. This view is also expressed with great authority by Professor Menahem Haran of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University in his book Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1978, reprinted (with corrections) by Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, Indiana, 1985, 286: ‘It may be concluded that the Egyptian army bypassed Jerusalem in the north, proceeding from Aijalon to Beth-horon and Gibeon and from there north-eastwards to Zemaraim and down into the Jordan Valley at Succoth. Shishak’s campaign seems to have been mainly directed against the Northern Kingdom. Only one section of his army seems to have overrun the Negeb as far as Arad, without advancing towards the Judean hills. It is thus not impossible that the temple treasuries and those of the king’s house with “all the shields of gold which Solomon had made” were handed over to Shishak by Rehoboam himself. He thereby succeeded in diverting the Egyptian army from his land. This would be the meaning of his words “he took away” used with reference to Shishak. The story in 1 Kgs 14:25–6 only mentions one particular part of Shishak’s route, highlighting it as viewed from Jerusalem.’

  54 Professor Menahem Haran, Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel, op. cit., p. 284.

  55 Ibid., pp. 284–5. Examples in the Bible of Judaean kings who emptied the treasuries for their own purposes include Ahaz and Hezekiah. See 2 Chronicles 28:24 and 2 Kings 18:15–16.

  56 Jerusalem Bible, op. cit., Chronological Table, p. 344. The reign of Jehoash (Joash) is given as 798–783 BC. 2 Kings 14:1 states that the conflict between Jehoash and Amaziah took place in the second year of the reign of Jehoash – hence the date 796 BC.

  57 2 Kings 14:12–14. The King James Authorized version states ‘in the treasures of the king’s house’. However, the more accurate and recent translations of the Jerusalem Bible and the New English Bible state, respectively, ‘the treasury of the royal palace’ and ‘the treasuries of the royal palace’. It is clear that the translation ‘treasury’ or ‘treasuries’ is the correct one here.

  58 Professor Menahem Haran, Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel, op. cit., pp. 277 and 285, footnote 19.

  59 According to the authoritative chronology provided in the Jerusalem Bible, op. cit. See Chronological Table, p. 346. See also translation of the second book of Kings, pp. 423–4.

  60 2 Kings 24:10–13 (amalgam of King James Authorized Version and Jerusalem Bible translations).

  61 Professor Menahem Haran, Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel, op. cit., p. 287. The King James Authorized Version of the Bible wrongly translated the word hekal with the general term ‘temple’, thus causing much confusion to subsequent generations of scholars who did not have access to the original Hebrew. The hekal was a specific part of the Temple – the outer sanctum which formed the ante-chamber to the Holy of Holies.

  62 For details see Chapter 11 above.

  63 See Professor Edward Ullendorff, ‘Hebraic-Jewish Elements in Abyssinian (Monophysite) Christianity’, in Journal of Semitic Studies, vol. I, no. 3, 1956, p. 235.

  64 Ibid., pp. 235–6: ‘The outside ambulatory of the three concentric parts of the Abyssinian church (which is either round, octagonal, or rectangular) is called k’ene mahlet, i.e. the place where hymns are sung and where the debtara or cantors stand. This outer part corresponds to the haser of the Tabernacle or the ulam of Solomon’s Temple. The next chamber is the k’eddest where communion is administered to the people; and the innermost part is the mak’das where the tabot rests and to which only priests have access. In some parts of Abyssinia, especially the north, the k’eddest (the qodes of the Tabernacle of hekal of Solomon’s Temple) is called ’enda ta’amer, “place of miracle”, and the mak’das is named k’eddusa k’eddusam (the qodes haqqodasim of the Tabernacle and the debir of the Temple). This division into three chambers applies to all Abyssinian churches, even the smallest of them.’

  65 This, as I subsequently established, had not been quite the act of senseless vandalism that the En
glish version of the text implied: the phrase ‘cut in pieces’ was a translation of the Hebrew way-e-qasses, which did suggest cutting up but also connoted the stripping of metal plates from overlaid objects. Such a nuance made sense because the Bible stated unambiguously that the ‘golden furnishings’ that had stood in the hekal had included the ‘altar’ and the ‘table of the showbread’ – both of which had been made of wood overlaid with gold. For a discussion see Professor Menahem Haran, Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel, op. cit., p. 287, footnote 23.

  66 1 Kings 7:49–50 (Jerusalem Bible translation).

  67 If this is not already patently obvious to the reader, then it is made clear in the Jerusalem Bible’s translation of 1 Kings 8:6 which reads as follows: ‘The priests brought up the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh to its place, in the debir of the Temple, that is, in the Holy of Holies, under the cherubs’ wings.’

  68 As is demonstrated by their treatment of King Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:11–12), their deportation of large numbers of the inhabitants of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:14–16), and their despolation of the Temple of Yahweh (2 Kings 24:13).

  69 Research notes provided to the author by David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent of The Independent, London.

  70 2 Kings 24:17.

  71 2 Kings 25:1.

  72 2 Kings 25:1–3. For the dates of these events I have relied on the Chronological Table in the Jerusalem Bible, op. cit., p. 346. There is a small margin of error in the dates allocated. Some archaeologists put the ending of the siege and final destruction of the Temple at 586 BC – e.g. see Kathleen Kenyon, Jerusalem: Excavating 3,000 Years of History. op. cit., p. 55.

  73 2 Kings 25:8. It is important to stress that the academics disagree as to whether these events took place in 587 or 586 BC.

  74 2 Kings 25:8–10, 13–16. A parallel inventory, which does not contradict this one in any way, and which also makes no mention of the Ark, may be found in Jeremiah 52:17–23.

  75 The view that the gold and silver items taken by Nebuzaradan consisted only of relatively minor utensils is given additional weight by the text of the parallel list in Jeremiah 52:17–23 which, in verse 19, states explicitly that commander of the guard ‘took the bowls, the censers, the sprinkling bowls, the ash containers, the lamp-stands, the goblets and the saucers: everything that was made of gold and everything of silver’ (Jerusalem Bible translation). See also Jeremiah 27:18–22 which refers to the objects not taken by Nebuchadnezzar in 598 BC and prophesies that they will be taken after the second conquest of the city: ‘But if they be prophets, and if the word of the Lord be with them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of Hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon. For thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the Sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of vessels that remain in the city, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not when he carried away captive Jeconiah … king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon … Yea, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem; They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the Lord; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.’