«Jews and Muslims once worshiped together at the Dome of the Rock, and many Jews considered it to be the Third Temple», according to research compiled by Dr. Moshe Sharon.
In his study, «The Shape of the Holy» the Hebrew University professor theorizes that the Dome of the Rock’s construction challenged Christian dominance in the city, and that the Islamic tradition of the Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey and ascension to heaven from this spot was an invention to legitimize their presence in Jerusalem.
Islamic tradition ascribes the conquest of Jerusalem to a number of glorified Muslim rulers, but Sharon believes this to be a fabrication, saying Jerusalem capitulated to a minor commander out of choice rather than necessity.
«The tradition about its conquest was shaped at least a century after the event took place and it was no longer possible for the first association of Islam with Jerusalem to remain mundane», writes Sharon.
The city was a bastion of Christian relics and glory, epitomized in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. Between the two sat the desolate rectangular complex where Herod’s Second Temple once stood, which intrigued the Muslims who learned of its connection to Koranic prophets Abraham, David and Solomon.
Before the Arabs entered the city, Jews held the belief that the perforated rock on Mount Moriah was present in Solomon’s Temple, a tradition that the Muslims adopted.
«There is reason to assume that Muslims together with Jews attached themselves to the rock and Jews had developed around it annual pious rituals», writes Sharon.
Islamic tradition attributes construction of the Dome to ruler Abd al-Malik, and according to Sharon it symbolized Solomon’s Temple, a notion accepted by Jews of the time. The tradition of the Al-Aksa complex as the site of Muhammad’s Night Journey developed years later.
«It was built to symbolize the renewal of the Solomonic Temple, and an early Jewish Midrash known as Nistarot Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai hailed the Muslims as the initiators of Israel’s redemption and a Muslim ruler as the builder of the House of the Lord. Abd al-Malik acquired his Divine authority by rebuilding a mighty symbol for his temple, and was the new Solomon», writes Sharon.
Other pre-Crusades Islamic traditions regarding the Dome of the Rock highlight a heavy Jewish role at the site.
«One tradition says, The Jews used to light the lamps of Bayt al-Maqdis.Bayt al-Maqdis is the exact Arabic rendering of the Hebrew Beit Hamikdash, and is reminiscent of the lighting of the Menorah in the Temple», writes Sharon.
Pagan inspiration behind the Dome of the Rock
Noting that all Roman Temples of Jupiter had an almost identical design, Sharon compares the schematic of the ruins of a Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek to that of the Al-Aksa complex.
«Jupiter’s Temple in Baalbek had exactly the three features which we find in the Al-Aksa complex: the polygon building in the front where the worshipers assembled, the open space where the god’s statue stood and the rectangular main temple. The same symmetrical line which goes through the three components of Jupiter’s Temple also goes through the Al-Aksa complex, and both plans fit each other perfectly», writes Sharon.
Source: Jerusalem Post
My comment:
What a remarkable story. In my article following the Popes visit to the Temple Mount, I have made this point my self. There is not going to be build a third Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The «temple» is already there.
What we need is a peace deal between the Worlds major religions, so that this temple can be made into the Temple of the new One World Universal Religion with the basic belief that all faiths leads to the same god.
More or less, only true Messianic Christians and Messianic Jews will refuse to bow down to this false end time religion. We will forever proclaim that salvation can only be found in the name of the Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, God the Son. Only He has shed God´s blood for us sins, so we can escape God`s coming wrath up on this falsehood religion.
The hostility between Judaism and Islam will be a hard nut to crack. But also here shall we se a false peace deal enforced, so that even Jews will be welcomed to worship the final antichrist in the International temple in Jerusalem.
That Moshe Sharon has discovered a new Jupiter connection to the «Dome of the Rock» is also worth mentioning. The main seat of Jupiter was in pagan Rome. Today its the Pope who sits in the chair of Jupiter, moved from the old Pantheon, to the Vatican. Soon this chair will move to another seat of this pagan Roman god, built by the Muslims in Jerusalem.
Read more about what is ahead of us at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem: Click here
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