Sunday, June 1, 2025

No God does not Condemn based on Thoughts Alone

Among Conservative Evangelical Christians it is common to emphasize that “according to The Bible we are judged even for our thoughts”, this influenced even my own thinking way back in the day.  
 
The basis for this is mainly The Tenth Commandment (Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21) and certain quotes from The Sermon on The Mount (Matthew 5: 22 and 27-28).

Many theologians have argued that Coveting in The Bible refers to more than just having ever felt like you want something someone else had.  It’s about dwelling in that Envy and letting it consume you.  It’s a Sin of thought rather than action only in contrast to actual Theft or Adultery, but it is very likely still affecting your actions towards the person you are Envious of even if only subconsciously.  2 Peter 2:14 refers specifically to “Covetous Practices”.  Roman 13:9 lists this command among those sufficiently covered under “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” so if you are obeying that commandment you are sufficiently obeying the Tenth. 

Looking at a Woman with Lust in your Heart absolutely involves an Action, it’s about leering, ogling. (And that’s leaving aside the dispute of whether the context being about Adultery means Gune should be translated Wife rather than Woman.) It’s not a condemnation of having ever had horny thoughts, or even of indulging such thoughts privately in a way that harms no one.

Likewise calling someone a “Fool” or “Raca” is an act of insulting them, the way people twist that into being a condemnation of ever being Angry is absurd. Righteous Anger is absolutely something The Bible condones. 

Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus felt all the same Temptations we do but never Sinned, this to me is clearly about more than just the famous story of Satan directly tempting him three times.  It’s an affirmation of the Full Humanity of Jesus, He had thoughts that would be Sinful to Act upon, but because He didn’t Act on them they were not Sins. 

And it’s because I’m a former Conservative when it comes to this very aspect of morality, that I’m among those Leftists who see similar attitudes among so-called Leftists as inherently Conservative.  It is pure Idealism, a product of Immanuel Kant’s pseudo intellectual babble about thoughts somehow being more powerful than actions.

And this is part of why I’m against Antishipers.

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Harm Reduction needs to be the basis for Morality.

That is my position as both a Christian and a Communist. 

Whether an action is truly "Evil" or not should solely be about whether or not it does Harm, no whether or not you find it "Weird" or "Gross".  But unfortunately many who claim to agree with that still seek to define "Harm" in increasingly abstract ways. The Harm has to be tangible and measurable especially if you want to make it a Civil Crime. 

In addition to that, in my view whether someone is a currently a bad person or not is solely determined by whether they are currently doing or inclined to do harmful actions or not.  I don't believe they need to in anyway "make up" for their past Sins, I don't even really think they need to regret them, Anime does a great Job at turning Villains into Heroes without even changing anything about that character's thought process.

Deserved or Earned Redemption is an Oxymoron, the literal definition of the word is about Redeeming a Debt that can't actually be paid off, same with Forgiveness.  

What's funny is people are gonna tell me my attitude can't be a Leftist one because it's the traditional Christian one.  The problem is modern mainstream Christianity is as Conservative as it now because they don't believe that anymore.  They may deny that fact, they may still preach form the Pulpit that all you need to do to be Forgiven is accept Jesus, but when you get into the weeds of their Theology that is utterly contradicted, because they are all either Calvinists or Arminians, they believe either Evil People were Predestined for Damnation by God for the fun of it, or that they all chose to be Evil.  However I view Sin as an illness that needs to be cured not a Crime that needs to be Punished, and Christians who agree with me were the ones who invented Communism and Liberalism long before any Atheists came along.

Leftists are supposed believe in Materialism not Free Will.  There is no value in Punishing people because they undo the harm they caused. 

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Materialism and Idealism

 One thing that unintentionally poisons the well of Internet Leftist Discourse is that both of those words (as well as their -ist forms) have more than one meaning, and yet many either only know one meaning, ignorantly conflate the meanings, or are willingly ignorant that others don’t know the other meanings.

Idealism as in the Metaphysics of Platonism and Immanuel Kant has nothing to do with what it means when someone is called an Idealist in contrast to being a Pragmatist or Cynical.  In the latter case Ideal is being used as a synonym for Value or Moral rather then a Platonic Ideal Form.

Likewise Materialist Metaphysics (or lack of metaphysics) has little to do with the “Historical Materialism” of philosophies like Marxism and nothing to do with the Madonna song Material Girl.

You can be Idealistic while still rejecting Philosophical Idealism, and you can be a Historical Materialist while while holding to Idealist Metaphysics.

Materialist Metaphysics is a key pillar of Stoicism, and the main reason I call myself somewhat of a Stoic rather than most anything popularly associated with Stoicism.  While the rejection of anything metaphysical existing is Epicureanism. 

I agree with Historical Materialism but not the more specific Dialectical Materialism which I view as a symptom of Pythagorean Dualism.  And that’s why my status as a Marxist is questionable.

So I’m definitely not a Philosophical Idealist.  How much the other Idealism applies to me is purely subjective. 

Thursday, April 3, 2025

Feast Days and the Gestational Cycle

I have skepticism of certain aspects of how Zola Levitt and others have presented this thesis before, but there is a strong basis for it.

Here is a Wikipedia Link.

It is a mistake when they equate Birth with Hanukkah.  The 280th day of a Gestational Cycle identified as beginning on the First of Aviv would be the 10th Day of the Tenth Month at the soonest unless there are five extra intercalary days inserted somewhere in the first 9 months in which case its the 5th Day at the soonest.  And that’s using full 30 Day months not Lunar Months as the Hebrew Calendar is popularly understood.

But I want to focus on the first month for now.  

The 14th Day of a woman’s Menstrual Cycle is typically when the Egg leaves the Ovary and Ovulation begins, with Fertilization usually happening on the 15th Day.  Fertilization can sometimes be accomplished with Sperm planted earlier. That compelling correlation is what the rest is built on.

The first issue comes when they claim Implantation can happen at any point for a Week after Fertilization so they can identify it with the common Christian understanding of the first day of Omer in Leviticus 23:9-14.

The truth is Implantation rarely happens sooner than four days after Fertilization or later then five days.  The typical estimate is Day 6 from Fertilization and Day 20 of Gestation.  So Implantation on Day 16 or 17 to fit either Common Christian understanding of how The Resurrection fulfills “First Fruits” isn’t viable, but neither is my proposed model where The Resurrection happened on Day 22.

I’m about to now work on my own particular model for this with the Gospels-Acts narrative in mind.  And using my own proposed revision of how the Passover Chronology and The Passion interact.

The starting point however is that the Child being conceived is The Church fitting my The Man Child of Revelation being The Church or Individual Believers thesis.  And that’s how I can be cool with no notable day correlating to Resurrection Sunday.

The Mother is Israel, the Womb is Jerusalem and the Ovaries are the Northern and Southern Kingdoms and the Egg(s) represents individual Israelites who at some point became followers of Jesus.  The Baby Daddy is The Messiah, her Bridegroom and His Seed is The Word of God based on Luke 8:11.  And we are the Children of the Bridechamber in Luke 5:34.  Also James 1:18.

In my proposed Passion Model the significance of the 14th day of the first month is John 12:1-11.

Jesus and his Disciples entered Jerusalem on the 15th..

Implantation is the day I place The Crucifixion, a day the Followers of Jesus fled and hid for safety in Jerusalem.

The finishing of Implantation is typically day 26 which in this model would equate to Bright Thursday, the traditional reading for which is Luke 24:35-48 but I don’t think those events are actually believed to happen on that day.

Day 9 of Implantation, Day 15 of Fertilization and Day 29 of Gestation is when the Embryo Stage begins.  That correlates to the Sunday a week after Resurrection Sunday which is Thomas Sunday, John 20:24-29.  Once all of the Eggs have seen the Risen Jesus then the Embryo is formed. 

Day 20 of Implantation, Day 26 of Fertilization and Day 40 of Gestation is the day Primitive Heart Function can first be detected. Maybe we could arbitrarily identify this with Matthew 28:16-20.

Day 51 of Implantation, Day 57 of Fertilization and Day 71 of Gestation is the day The Fetal Stage begins.  And that equates to day 50 of the Omer, Pentecost.  Now that day is popularly called the Birth of the Church, but it can be viewed as in truth the day it took its basic visible form.  It is also about here that Fetal Breathing Movements start, so remember that both the Hebrew and Greek words for Spirit also mean Breath, this is when The Holy Spirit entered The Church.

Sex Organs do not take form till during the Fetal Stage, hence Paul saying in Galatians 3:28 that we are neither Male or Female.  The Holy Spirit will guide us to our true intended Gender Identity, not the biology of The Flesh.

The Fall Feasts connections are also an area where I’m skeptical of Zola Levitt’s claimed connections. Being able to hear distinct sounds at the start of the third trimester does seem to hold up.  But Blood Cells form well before the third trimester and the Heart Beating starts before then too, same with Breathing as already shown.

Revelation 12:3-5 is part of a collection of signs being seen in Heaven, so maybe not when on the timeline the events they represent happen.  But as it’s about the preparation for Birth it could be correlated to entering the Third Trimester after the Seventh Trumpet is sounded.

Deuteronomy 16:17-19 which applied to all the Pilgrimage Festivals is also I think part of the root of the Communism of the Early Church which is described twice. Acts 2:44-45 is definitely on Pentecost so Acts 4:32-37 could be set at Tabernacles.

Our true Birth happens at the Bodily Resurrection, when the Earth gives Birth to her Dead and all Flesh sees Salvation.

But it may be worthwhile to note at least typologically that according to Acts 8 it was after the death of Stephen that The Church finally left Jerusalem, that’s when we left The Womb.  Stephen’s Martyrdom is traditionally dated to December 26th, the day after Christmas, in the West and December 27th in the East. A date that on a Hebrew Calendar could correlate to Hanukkah or the Fast of the Tenth Month. 

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Protection, Passover and Easter

 One of the silliest hills you will see a KJV Onlyist die on is defending the use of the word Easter in Acts 12:4 specifically and nowhere else.

Now I suspect the people at the King James Research Center YouTube Channel I discovered in December of 2024 are scholarly types who’d know better than to do that.  They would just argue that in King James English Easter and Passover are synonyms so it’s not a big deal that this one verse translates the name of the holiday differently then the others.  And that position isn’t entirely wrong, I’m not one of those “Easter is Pagan and the very etymology of the word proves it” types.  But I do think the baggage the word now has is a good reason to avoid it at least in how we translate Scripture.

These bad KJV Onlyists first argument is “it’s during Unleavened Bread so Passover is past already”.  That is based on Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23’s rather strict usage of Passover for the 14th specifically, but Deuteronomy 16 and Ezekiel 45:21 set the precedent for using Passover to describe the entire Spring Festival season and that’s clearly how all New Testament references are using it like in Luke 22:1-7.

Herod Agrippa was a devout Jew not a Pagan, so no he would not have been observing any “Ishtar” festival in Jerusalem. 

The fact is this verse of Acts uses the same word as every other reference to Passover in the Greek, Pascha which is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Pesach.

The little historical footnote they will cling to is that it was William Tyndale who coined the word Passover and he used Easter in this verse.  The problem is Tyndale used Easter for every Pascha verse of the New Testament.  You see he did the New Testament first and then started work on the Hebrew Bible which he never got to finish and it was for that he coined Passover.  If you asked him if future translations should use Passover for Pascha in the New Testament including Acts 12:4 he would probably say yes.

I am however now going to say something that will be anathema to even those more sane KJV Onlyists. I think even Passover was a wrong translation of Pesach.  I think Tyndale got a lot of stuff right, but he messed up here.

As the name of a Holy Day Pesach should perhaps just be transliterated.  

But as far as what the word means when used as a Verb I agree with scholars like Nehemiah Gordon that it really means Protect and thus as a name means Protection. Gordon’s articles are behind a Paywall now so I’ll instead link to this one.
https://fatheroflove.info/article/view/explaining-that-passover-means-god-protecting-not-deciding-not-to-kill

Both uses of “pass over” in Exodus 12 make more sense if translated “protect” especially verse 23, and “passed” in verse 27 works as “protected”.  Likewise “passing over” in Isaiah 31:5 definitely makes more sense in context as “protecting”.  

The seemingly contradictory way this word is translated in 1 Kings 18 as “halt” in verse 21 and “leaped: in verse 26 is fixed by understanding inherently defensive actions as what both verses were going for.  In 2 Samuel 4:4 the second “lame” in the KJV is a form of Pesach but the first “lame” is different, in this case I think it’s an ironic usage about Johnathon’s son being defenseless.

Continuing the running joke of me when talking about translation issues suggesting a Japanese word because I watch Anime, the best Japanese Translation of Pesach would be Mamoru.

East of Jerusalem Crucifixion

I’d considered just supporting the Holy Sepulcher Site now that I’ve made an effort to restrain my bias for Alternative Biblical Geography theories, which includes that I do now mainly favor the Mainstream Sinai View and definitely do not think it was in Arabia or Jordan.

But the more I think about it and look into it the more convinced I become of an East of Jerusalem model for The Crucifixion and Resurrection rather than West or North. 

The most compelling reason is the parallel accounts of Matthew 27:51-54, Mark 15:38-39 and Luke 23:45-47.  

One can argue there is some reasonable doubt that the Veil being torn has to be specifically among what the Centurion saw, but looking at as an an aspiring writer and one who likes to analyze the writing of others, to deny every sign here is among what the Centurion saw is worse then denying that Blue Curtains symbolize Sadness.  And if you know even the basics of the Geography of The Temple and Jerusalem then you know that is only theoretically possible if they were directly due East of The Temple.

I’m still undecided about how I fully view Zechariah 12-14, but for Chapter 14 Verses 4-5 I lean towards the Earthquake cleaving of the Mount of Olives there as being the one from Matthew:26:51-54.

John 19:20 says The Crucifixion was “nigh to the city”.  To a modern reader that doesn’t seem to say anything about which direction, but when you understand all the Torah and Scriptural Emphasis on entering The Tabernacle and Camp from the East you’ll understand that best fits being on the road leading to Jerusalem from The East.

And that also applies to Hebrews 13:10-13 and it’s allusion to Torah Passages like Exodus 29:14, 33:7, Leviticus 4:12-21, 6:11, 8:17, 9:11, 16:27, 24:14 and Numbers 19:3-8.  

Additionally Numbers 31:13-19 identified “Without the Camp” as where Censuses were held, and because of Exodus 16:13, 38:16, Number 1:2-18-20-22 and 1 Chronicles 23:3-24 the Hebrew word gulgoleth could be associated with Censuses.  So Golgotha could refer not to a Geographical feature but to a place for holding a Census.

Second Kings Chapter 23 in Verses 4, 6 and 12 refer to Josiah burning Idols and other pagan paraphernalia in the Brook Kidron which is between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, even saying “without Jerusalem”. Verse 12 names Ahaz and Manasseh showing this is still tied to the Tophet mentioned two verses earlier. 

Gehenna in The New Testament is a name derived from Hinnom of The Hebrew Bible.  I disagree with the popular view that it was South of Jerusalem, that’s based on a misunderstanding of Joshua 15:8 and 18:16.  Jeremiah 19:2 much more explicitly identifies Hinnom with the Eastern Gate. 

In The Bible Kidron is always the name of a Broke, the Valley we today call Kidron is the real Valley of Hinnom.

The Tophet is why Hinnom became associated with Fiery Judgment in Jeremiah 7 and 19 and Isaiah 30:33.  The Tophet was something related to the Worship of Molech built by Ahaz in 2 Chronicles 28:3 (and 2 Kings 16) and used by Manesseh in 33:6.

In Genesis 22 Moriah is the name of a land not a single Mountain, but the Hebrew word translated “mount” in 2 Chronicles 3:1 can itself refer to a mountain range rather than a single mountain.  So the Mount of Olives rather than the Temple Mount being where Abraham offered Isaac is plausible.

2 Samuel 15:30-16:1 tell us David Worshipped God at the Summit of The Mount of Olives as he fled the rebellion of Absalom.  In Ezekiel 11:22-23 the Glory of God leaves the midst of The City and stands on the Mountain on the East Side of The City.

In my Sunday post at the start of 2025 I mentioned Biblical reasons to view Sunrise as a symbol of The Resurrection.  Well the Sun Rises in The East so likewise Jesus should Rise East of Jerusalem.

The Romans usually Crucified criminals in front of a City's Main Gate to make sure a maximum number saw the example being made.  And for Jerusalem especially during the Pilgrimage Festivals that was The East Gate.

The problem with having so much confidence that the local Traditions couldn’t have gotten it wrong is that the history of Jerusalem is filled with multiple discontinuities.  There is a lot of dispute on if the Jewish Jerusalem Church after 70 AD ever returned to Jerusalem from Pella even in part, because Jerusalem was largely not actively inhabited at all during that time.  But what’s most significant is after the Bar Kochba Revolt, Jews, including Jewish Christians, weren’t even allowed anywhere Jerusalem was visible from, so in Hadrian’s City a new Gentile Christian community was formed that had no direct continuity with the prior community. And the thing is I don’t believe these truly Early Christians were all that invested in worshiping as special sacred locations to begin with.  

This is relevant to debating the location of The Temple as well.  You’ll see it claimed that during this period of Jews being banned from Jerusalem they were at least allowed to visit the site of The Temple once a year on the 9th of Av, but even that wasn't there from that start, that allowance was granted by Septimius Severus.  By then it’s very well possible no Jews who had ever been in Jerusalem previously were still alive, but any who had been were very old and possibly Senile.

The Architect Hadrian used for Aelia Capitolina also oversaw a similarly shaped complex at Baalbek, where a Temple to Venus was also built nearby the Temple to Jupiter, that’s why a Temple to Venus was built where The Church of The Holy Sepulchre now stands, it had nothing to do with covering up a Christian place of worship. But maybe even before Nicea local Christians desired to imagine it was.

Where The Church of The Holy Sepulcher is located was outside the city limits during the first century, unfortunately the history of people arguing against it was so wrapped up in people before we knew that starting with that argument that traditionalists just think that being debunked is itself enough to dismiss alternate theories.  As I laid out above, the real issue is that it’s in the wrong direction. 

However Melito of Sardis and my own date for the writing of Revelation (Chapter 11 verse 8) can be cited as evidence that the Crucifixion site was now in the City Limits after Hadrian's rebuilding of the City.  Neither Melito or Revelation are being strictly geographically literal, and the Mount of Olives can be considered part of the area of Jerusalem in any time period.  In the Fourth Century Cyril of Jerusalem referred to both The Mount of Olives and Bethlehem as part of Jeursalem at least as far as his clerical authority went.  But if Hadrian’s rebuilding did create some increase in a willingness to refer to the Crucifixion site as within Jerusalem maybe it was some nuance in how a Roman style city is defined.  Or maybe what Cyril claimed goes back to Marcus the first Greek Bishop of Jerusalem.

The Garden Tomb has the issue of its Tomb being too old going back to the Bronze Age.  We also know the Skull like Feature tourists find so attractive probably didn’t exist yet in Antiquity.  Ron Wyatt’s claim about finding The Ark under that Crucifixion site is attractive for a lot of symbolic reasons I understand, but his story also sounds way too much like Joseph Smith’s. 

There are different East of Jerusalem sites that have been proposed for The Crucifixion and Resurrection.  One of the first I read about was looking way too far north not lined up with any proposed Temple Location.  Bob Cornuke places The Temple way too far South and thus is also looking for The Crucifixion way too far South.  

I have come to favor the Northern Conjecture or Dome of the Tablets view of where The Temple/Holy of Holies stood, of alternatives to the official view it’s the least extreme, it's not that far away being essentially on the same large platform. And it involves reading sources like the Bordeaux Pilgrim pretty much the same as the mainstream view does, my hunch is simply that the Rock underneath the Dome of the Rock and the “Well of Souls” beneath is the Cave where these Fourth Century Witnesses say Solomon wrote “The Book of Wisdom”.  And that’s even if the Pilgrim was still referring to the correct Temple Site, as I said above the core mistake could have been made before the 2nd Century was even over.

The main reason I like that view is it places The Temple directly due West of The Golden Gate, which is definitely where it should be.  I therefore think the Crucifixion site should be looked for directly due East of The Golden Gate.  It is principally the Crucifixion site that has to be directly due East, the Tomb can be a little north or south as long as it isn’t too far away from its corresponding Crucifixion site.

I think the original Jerusalem Church may have casually commemorated these locations and they may have in some form been inherited by the Greek Church set up after Hadrian, but no one built grand structures as Christian Worship sites in the area till Constantine. I think after the site of Hadrian’s Temple to Venus became the official imperial backed site the true sites may have become reframed as more obscure references, that may or may not have been at the same location anyway.  But maybe not, again I have no great confidence that the Traditions got anything right.

So I decided to look at Churches that are due East of The Golden Gate. Attempting to start in the West then moving East, but I can’t find a single Map with all of them so I may be uncertain about some of the order.  And all of this is speculative, I don’t know nearly enough about the geography of the area to propose a definitive exact location for anything.

First is The Church of All Nations and the nearby Garden believed to be Gethsemane. The Church commemorates a Rock they believe is where Jesus prayed on the Eve of his Passion. I’ve looked at pictures of this Rock and I feel it could justifiably be said to look like the top of a Skull and thus Golgotha.  But I’m not gonna be like other people insisting their Golgotha is obvious and nothing else could be Golgotha, I’m self aware that there is a bit of a Rorschach test in my seeing it here, and I’ve argued against it needing to refer to what anything looks like anyway.

John 18:1-26 mentions a Garden popularly assumed to also be Gethsemane of Matthew 26:36 and Mark 14:32.  John 19:41 and 20:15 say the Tomb Jesus was buried was in a Garden.  Could it be that they were meant to be the same Garden?  I don’t know for certain and I don’t know if this Gethsemane has or had any First Century Tombs, but this Garden is considered to have been larger than it is now in the First Century. Sometimes I’m tempted to speculate that the traditional Tomb of The Virgin located a little north of here was actually the Tomb of Jesus.

The Church of All Nations is the point on this route that seems to be of the same level elevation as The Temple would have been.  Whether or not this is the Crucifixion site it feels like it makes the most sense for being where the Tophet was.

Next is The Church of Mary Magdalene.  Given that her original core importance is as the first Eyewitness of The Resurrection naming a Church for her at or near where that happened makes sense. But this Church isn’t Ancient. 

The Dominus Flevit Church is a bit too far South for a Crucifixion site, but it does long fascinate me not for what it in name claims to commemorate but because of the good reason for believing it marks the primary burial site used by the original Jewish Jerusalem Church.  Christians and Jews in Antiquity chose Burial over Cremation primarily as a witness to their Faith in the General Resurrection of The Dead.  To Christians the Resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of that, so it makes sense for them to choose their first burial site as close as possible to where Jesus was buried.

Last is The Chapel of The Ascension at the Mountain’s Summit.  

The idea that the Ascension happened on the Summit of the Mount of Olives originates in a misunderstanding of Acts 1:12, but that verse in my view can be read as placing the Mount of Olives between Jerusalem and where the Ascension happened.  Luke 24:50 places the Ascension at Bethany, which can be considered on the Mount of Olives but is its Eastern edge not the Summit.

A lot of Prophecy students want to interpret Acts 1:11 as saying Jesus will return to the same spot he left from and tie that into Prophecies about the Mount of Olives, but that verse isn’t about location but the manner in which Jesus Ascended.  And the Eschatological significance of the Mount of Olives I think is fulfilled by the Crucifixion and Resurrection happening there, but I’ll get into that someday on my Materialist Eschatology Blog.

The “Ascension Rock” is another rock that arguably looks like the top of a Skull to me. 

Just a little South of the proper Ascension site is the Church of the Pater Noster where the Eleona was built during the reign of Constantine. It was associated with the Ascension but Eusebius also stressed it as containing a “Cave” where Jesus taught His Disciples “Secret Knowledge”, that is not a Biblical Concept. The modern name implies it’s the Our Father that was taught here, but The Bible doesn’t place that in a Cave and Eusebius never hints at that. In Eusebius’s writings this site is presented as the Holiest most central site of Christian veneration prior to 325. There are reportedly First Century Tombs carved into the Cave. 

The Boreux Pilgrim refers to a location near the summit of the Mount of Olives as where the Transfiguration happened, which has long confused scholars since that happened in Galilee.  Ernest L. Martin in his book on a Mt of Olives Crucifixion theory says this is a linguistic confusion with Transfixiation which could have been used to describe Crucifixion.  But I want to note that the Gospel event we typically call The Transfiguration was just a lesser preview, the true permanent Transfiguration of Jesus to a fully Immortal Unfallen state was The Resurrection. 

Jerome’s Commentarius in Sophoniam or Commentary on The Twelve Prophets is a work I can’t find an accessible English Translation of Online even though so many other Jerome works are easy to find.  There is a claim for which Ernest L. Martin sources this text on page 108 of Secrets of Golgotha that I want to independently verify about a woman named Poemenia placing a large Cross at this spot on The Mount of Olives in the late 4th Century. 

There is a lot of folklore involving Helena’s role in all this.  For one thing Eusebius’s Life of Constantine does not imply she had anything to do with choosing The Church of The Holy Sepulcher, just the Church of The Nativity and the previously mentioned Eleonia near the mainstream Ascension site.

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

The Tabernacle of David

In December of 2023 I made the most refined version of my Zion/The City of David is Bethlehem not Jerusalem argument, more refined mainly in that I resisted the urge to trail off the main topic at hand into more specific geographical speculations.

So I do here want to speculate on where in Bethlehem the Tabernacle of David that for a time housed The Ark of The Covenant was located.  But first I need to talk about some of Bethlehem’s History.

When Emperor Hadrian banned Jews from living in Jerusalem he also banned them from living anywhere Jerusalem was visible from.  Jerusalem is visible from Bethlehem. That’s why it’s easy for some more fringe skeptics to try and argue Bethlehem as we know it didn’t even exist before the 130s, there was this massive discontinuity in the population. 

Hadrian also impacted the history of Bethlehem in another way, he built a Temple on the site where the Church of The Nativity now stands.  Fourth Century sources identify it as a Temple to Adonis or Tammuz, it was probably actually originally part of the Cult of Antinous which was probably from the start Synchronized with those kinds of cults.  I doubt that Church is actually the location of the Nativity (the Cave fixation is Anti-Biblical), but even if it was, Jerome is wrong to claim that’s why Hadrian built a Temple there.  

I doubt Pre-Hadrian Bethlehem ever even had a local Christian population to identify and venerate that location.  The New Testament never refers to missions to Bethlehem focusing instead on the Church’s spread Northwards and Westwards from Jerusalem, nor does Eusebius. There aren’t even any later traditions I can find about there being an Apostle in Bethlehem in the first Century. All Ante-Nicene references to Bethlehem are from a distance, from Justin and Origen.  Christian Bethlehem as we now know it really does begin in the 4th Century.

But even if there had been, the earlier religion whose local legacy Hadrian wanted to blot out was Judaism not Christianity.  In his turning of Jerusalem into Aelia Capitolina the main Temple Complex was built over the former Temple of Herod.  I’m working on another Post about why the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus had to be East of Jerusalem not West or North.

If the original local Jewish population of Bethlehem who Hadrian had just deported remembered that they were the true City of David, then maybe they also remembered where The Tabernacle of David had been?

The Church of The Nativity is most well known to those who’ve never visited it for its underground Caves one of which being where they claim the Manger was. But the Church proper is above those Caves on a Hill with a similar lay out to other Byzantine Churches that can be compared to the design of The Tabernacle and Temple of The Hebrew Bible.

I have also sometimes wondered if one of those Caves could have been the Cave of Adullam.

I believe Jesus was born in a house that Joseph owned, so if St Joseph’s Church in Bethlehem is the site of St Joseph’s House like it claims to be, then that is where the Nativity happened.

Now I know some people might eventually say “what if the Church of The Nativity is both?  Maybe Jesus was born where The Tabernacle of David was” and that would be neat.  But The Church of The Nativity is too heavily tied to the false Cave tradition.

The Cave tradition is Anti-Biblical but it also can’t be blamed on Constantine or Helena, it is Pre-Nicene, it’s in Justin Martyr, Origen and the Protoevangelium of James.  But none of them Predate Hadrian’s remaking of this entire region.  I think the Cave tradition came from a desire to presume Hadrian was desecrating the place of The Nativity.

I believe Jesus was born in a house that Joseph owned and lived in.  And if the site of David’s Tabernacle was still locally known up until Hadrian it’s unlikely any residential house was there, at best Joseph could have been living in a Davidic Family estate adjacent to it.  So a theory that the Church of The Nativity’s above ground Altar could correlate to where Jesus was born instead of the Cave would be mutually exclusive with that being the Tabernacle of David. 

If I were to consider a second option for the location of David’s Tabernacle, it would begin by asking if the location of the former Kathisma Church would have been considered part of Bethlehem territory rather than Jerusalem in Antiquity?

The Kathisma or “Church of Mary’s Seat” was an Octagonal Byzantine Church on the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem that tradition said marked a place where Mary rested on the way to Bethlehem.  Christians of Late Antiquity symbolically associated Mary with the Ark of the Covenant, so for example at Abu Gosh which was Kirath-Jearim in The Bible a Church dedicated to The Virgin Mary marks where the locals believe The Ark of The Covenant was kept when it was there.

So a Church of Mary’s Seat built around a Rock that The Ark once rested on is feasible.