LOOKING FOR ISAIAH

[JLG]

The New Testament and the Temple

The temple is a central feature in the Gospel narratives of the life and ministry of Jesus. The Gospel of Luke opens in the temple with the appearance of the angel Gabriel to the priest Zacharias as he was officiating at the incense altar in the Holy Place (Luke 1:5–24), and the Gospel of Luke ends with a note that the disciples of Jesus, after his ascension “were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God” (Luke 24:53). Forty days after the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph took him to the temple to offer the burnt and sin offerings as prescribed by the law of Moses (Leviticus 12:6–8), and there they met Anna and Simeon, who both proclaimed Jesus’s messiahship (Luke 2:28–38). The only story of the youth of Jesus in the Gospels recounts how as a twelve-year-old, after being left behind in Jerusalem following the Passover feast, he was found by his parents conversing with the elders at the temple (Luke 2:41–52). And as part of the temptations Jesus was transported by the Spirit (JST) to “a pinnacle of the temple” where Satan tempted him to throw himself off so that the angels would come and save him (Luke 4:9–11; Matthew 4:5). The Gospel of John records that Jesus cleansed the temple at the outset of his ministry as a symbol that he came in power and with authority, and Jesus used this occasion to teach of his eventual death and resurrection from the dead (John 2:13–25). Following this cleansing of the temple, the Jews asked Jesus for a sign of his authority. According to the Gospel of John: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body” (John 2:19–22).

Throughout his ministry Jesus came to Jerusalem each year to celebrate Passover. He regularly taught and healed at the temple (Matthew 21:14–15). In the temple precincts he observed the widow offering her alms and taught the lesson of the widow’s mite (Mark 12:41–44). During the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) John records that Jesus taught in the porch of Solomon (John 10:22). According to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus cleansed the temple at the end of his ministry. During the passion week Jesus went to the temple, whose precincts were crowded with tens of thousands of pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. There he made a whip and drove out those “that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves” (Matthew 21:12; Luke 19:45–47). Jesus explained his act by quoting Jeremiah 7:11: “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 20:13). More than six hundred years earlier, Jeremiah had come to the temple and had warned Israel that their unrepentant hypocrisy and sin would bring the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians. Jesus’s reference to Jeremiah was thus an ominous foreshadowing of the future destruction of the temple by the Romans if the people did not repent. And finally at the moment when Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the Holy of Holies in the temple was rent in two (Luke 23:45), symbolizing that through his atonement all would be able to enter into the presence of God.

The Gospel of John specifically portrays Jesus as a fulfillment of some of the symbols of the temple and its festivals. A passage at the beginning of John describes Jesus as the tabernacle when it says, “and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The English word dwelt is derived from the Greek verb skēnoō used in reference to the Old Testament tabernacle that literally means “he tabernacled” or “pitched his tent” among us. Thus, through Jesus, God came to dwell among his people just as God had made his presence known among his people anciently in the tabernacle, in which he could “dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). When John the Baptist first saw Jesus he announced him as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), an allusion to the sacrifice of the lambs at the temple. And in the Gospel of John Jesus is crucified on the cross on the day of Passover when the paschal lambs were being sacrificed at the temple (John 19:31–37).[23] The Feast of Tabernacles included a ceremony of drawing water from the Siloam pool and pouring it on the altar of the temple and also of lighting the four great menorahs in the Court of the Women. Jesus may have been comparing himself to these symbols of water and light when in the context of this festival (John 7:2) he taught: “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38), and also “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

Following the death of Jesus, the book of Acts records that the apostles and followers of Jesus continued to teach and worship at the temple. A pivotal event occurred fifty days after the death of Jesus during the pilgrimage feast of Pentecost, in which many Jews had come to Jerusalem to offer up to God their firstfruit harvests at the temple. On that day the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles like a mighty wind and tongues of fire, causing them to speak in tongues. Three thousand people followed Peter’s invitation to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ—fulfilling the symbols of Pentecost as the firstfruit harvest of Christianity (Acts 2). Acts describes the early saints as “continuing daily with one accord in the temple” (Acts 2:46). Following Pentecost Peter and John healed the lame man at the temple (Acts 3) and continued to teach the good news of the resurrected Jesus at the temple, leading to their arrest and imprisonment (Acts 4:1–3).

The sanctity of the temple for the earliest Christians is further reflected in a number of stories recorded in Acts. Paul and the other apostles prayed and worshipped at the temple, performing the required purification rituals and offering sacrifice there (Acts 21:26). Paul insists that he never “offended” “against the temple,” implying he accepted its sanctity (Acts 25:8). Indeed, Paul’s second vision of Christ occurred at the temple (Acts 22:14–21), strongly suggesting the continued special sanctity of the temple where God still appeared to men.

The Epistle to the Hebrews explains the atonement of Jesus Christ in terms of the temple. Hebrews 8–9 portrays Jesus as the high priest and explains his act of reconciliation between God and humans in terms of the ritual of the Day of Atonement when the high priest would take the blood of the sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, thereby reconciling God and his children (Leviticus 16). In Hebrews this atonement occurred not in the temple on earth but in the heavenly temple made without hands: ^“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24).

The book of Revelation contains John the Revelator’s vision of the new Jerusalem. In this vision John looked for the temple in this heavenly city and then said, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Revelation 21:22). In this vision the ultimate fulfillment of the temple was realized by the continuing presence of the Father and the Son in the heavenly city.

[JLG]

The Temple in First-Century Judaism and Christianity

The Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem in 63 BC, and Judea became a vassal state to Rome. Herod the Great ruled as a loyal subject to Rome, and yet the splendid temple he erected generally enjoyed a fiercely defended autonomy broken only by incidents where Roman rulers demanded the erection of images of themselves or their pagan gods requiring the Jews to worship them.[24] As a symbol of this balance of power under Roman rule, a daily sacrifice was offered for the welfare of the Roman emperor at the temple consisting of two lambs and an ox. The sacrifice was initiated and financed by Augustus but was defiantly abandoned at the beginning of the Jewish revolt in AD 66 (Philo, The Embassy to Gaius 157, 317–19).

The major sects of Judaism and early Christianity had their own distinctive relationships to the institution of the temple and its priesthood and rituals. The Sadducees were the aristocratic priestly families who controlled and administrated many aspects of the temple. When the temple was destroyed, the Sadducees lost the foundation of their livelihood and their base of power among the people. While priestly traditions survived for a time in the synagogue traditions, eventually the Sadducees without a temple were eclipsed by the Pharisees.

The Pharisees did not oppose participation in the temple in spite of their opposition to the control of the Sadducees. The Pharisees, however, owed their allegiance to oral law and thus found their relationship with the temple more flexible. Through oral law they would be able to forge religious practices that could survive without the temple. A Jewish legend records how Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai, who found himself trapped in Jerusalem during the Roman siege, realized the temple was going to be destroyed. He had himself hidden in a coffin in order to leave the city. He was taken before the military commander Vespasian, who eventually became a Roman emperor. The rabbi asked Vespasian to give him Yavneh, a city where he founded a rabbinical academy that preserved the Sanhedrin and the ongoing process of oral tradition that would result in the publication of the Mishnah (Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 56).

Eventually the sect of the Pharisees transitioned into rabbinic Judaism, which became mainstream Judaism to the present day. With time Pharisaic Judaism was able to promote institutions that continued worship in the absence of the sacrificial system of the temple. A well-known story in the Midrash tells of Rabbi ben Zakkai, who, when walking by the ruins of the temple, said to his disciple, “My son, do not be grieved, for we have another atonement that is just like it. And which is it? Acts of loving-kindness, as it is said, ‘For I desire loving-kindness, and not sacrifice’ [Hosea 6:6]” (Avot de-Rabbi Natan 4.21).[25] With time other rabbis noted that prayer, study, and acts of loving-kindness are pleasing to the Lord like sacrifice.[26]

The Samaritans claimed to be remnants of the northern ten tribes. They preserved an ancient tradition in their version of the Torah called the Samaritan Pentateuch that commanded the temple be built on Mount Gerizim. According to Josephus the Samaritans built their temple there sometime in the period of Alexander the Great (Antiquities 11.310–11), and it remained a center of their religious community and a competing temple to the Jerusalem temple until the Samaritan temple was destroyed by the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus in 129 BC (Antiquities 13.254–56).[27] The age-old conflict between the Jews and Samaritans was exacerbated by the Jewish refusal to allow the Samaritans to help with the rebuilding of Zerubbael’s temple in ca. 515 BC. The destruction of the Samaritan temple in 129 BC was another one of the defining incidents leading to the division and continued animosity between the Jews and Samaritans as reflected in the New Testament. This dispute over the temple provides the background of the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman in John 4. To this day Samaritans continue to live near Mount Gerizim and offer the yearly Passover sacrifice in the vicinity of their temple site.

Most scholars believe that the Qumran community reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls were the Essenes (see chapter 7). According to ancient historians, as well as some of the documents from Qumran, the Essenes believed that the Jerusalem priesthood that administrated the temple was corrupt and that the sacrificial system and the calendar were also corrupt. Thus, while the Essenes passionately believed in the temple, they did not participate in its rituals in Jerusalem. Some scholars argue that they saw themselves as a community representing the temple.[28] While they may have rejected the Jerusalem temple in their time, they had a strong belief in and love for the institution of the temple. One of the significant finds in the Dead Sea Scrolls is the Temple Scroll, believed by the Qumran sect to be scripture that describes the plans and the legal requirements for a future eschatological temple.[29]

Christians initially continued worshipping at the Jerusalem temple and living the law of Moses, but eventually it became clear, following the Council of Jerusalem, that one did not have to become a Jew to become a Christian (Acts 15; compare Galatians 2); therefore most Christians began to distance themselves from the temple. Following the destruction of the temple in AD 70, Christianity generally adopted the point of view that the church was a temple. Based on passages of scripture in the writings of Paul like “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (1 Corinthians 3:16), and “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1). Christians came to view the individual believer and the church as a community of believers functioning as the new temple of God.[30]

[JLG]

Destruction of the Temple

In the final week of his ministry, speaking to the apostles on the Mount of Olives, Jesus prophesied the destruction of the temple: “Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here, upon this temple, one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down” (Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:3; compare Matthew 24:1–2). In this prophecy Jesus also quoted the prophecy of Daniel of the “abomination of desolation” connected with the destruction of Jerusalem and the desecration of the temple, and he advised those who wished to be preserved to “stand in the holy place” and “flee into the mountains” (Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:12–13; compare Matthew 24:15–16). Eusebius recounted that the saints in Jerusalem were spared from the destruction of Jerusalem by fleeing across the Jordan River to Pella (Church History 3, 5, 3).

The temple became the focal point of the conflict between the governing Romans and the vassal Jews that lasted from AD 66 to 70 when Titus and the Roman armies besieged and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. As Jesus had prophesied, the temple was burned and destroyed, leaving a pile of rubble. The historian Josephus recorded the Roman destruction following the burning of the temple: “Caesar ordered the whole city and the temple to be razed to the ground.” He further noted that the city “was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited” (Jewish War 7.1.3). The Jews were eventually driven from Jerusalem and were left without a temple.

Many of the furnishings of the temple were destroyed, though several of the implements—the trumpets, the table of the bread of the presence, and the lampstand—were preserved and taken to Rome, where their images were captured in the relief on the Arch of Titus in Rome built to commemorate Titus’s triumph. Various implements from the temple, including the menorah and the shewbread table, were preserved for many years in Rome in Vespasian’s Temple of Peace.[31]

The final echo of the temple in the Roman period is found in the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Simon Bar Kokhba (“son of the star”) was a Jewish claimant to the title of messiah who led an unsuccessful revolt against the Romans in AD 132–135. He issued coins depicting the façade of the temple, suggesting that the rebuilding of the sacred building was an integral part of Bar Kokhba’s rebellion. Bar Kokhba was heralded as the Messiah by numerous prominent Jewish rabbis, including Akiba, and thus many Jews gathered to his rebellion. The devastating defeat of Bar Kokhba led to the banning of Jews from even living in Jerusalem.

The destruction of the temple was pivotal for Jews and Christians alike. For the Jews the temple of Herod was a tangible symbol of their religion that made it possible to fulfill the laws of sacrifice in the law of Moses. With its destruction came the loss of the center of their religion, and Judaism would have to develop ways of worship to replace or compensate for the rituals and ordinances—most notably sacrifice and the celebration of the festivals—that could formerly be done only at the temple. Christians would have to decide what their proper relationship was to the temple—whether they needed an actual earthly building or if Jesus had in some way done away with the need for a physical temple. However, both Jews and Christians would continue to read and study the canonical books of their religions, including the prophecies in the Old Testament about the future restoration and rebuilding of the temple. Amos prophesied, “In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, . . . and I will build it as in the days of old” (Amos 9:11). Ezekiel has a vision of the future temple complete with the plans in Ezekiel 40–48. And Isaiah prophesied, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, . . . and many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob” (Isaiah 2:2–3).

[Sister]

Hi JLG

Thanks for all that information, much appreciated, there is a lot to read there and I havn't finished reading yet, but is there any mention in scripture?  You see this is the first time I've heard this and I have a problem trusting history records outside of the bible.

Also have you considered this verse;

  John 2:20   Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

[JLG]

1 hour ago, Sister said:

Hi JLG

Thanks for all that information, much appreciated, there is a lot to read there and I havn't finished reading yet, but is there any mention in scripture?  You see this is the first time I've heard this and I have a problem trusting history records outside of the bible.

Also have you considered this verse;

  John 2:20   Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

- No you won't find anything!

- Because in the Bible it is in connection with the destruction of the city and the temple!

- There is no difference between the reconstruction of the second temple and  Herod 's temple!

- I would say the city and the temple are one!

- I have learnt a lot from this article which is incredible with all the information!

[JLG]

 

68) Looking for Isaiah

 

Isaiah chapter 4 and 5:

 

• We are told about good news for the restoration!

• We are told about fertility!

• Good crops!

• But before the restoration and hope first comes the destruction!

• The nation of Israel is compared to God's vineyard!

• And the vines to the people of Judah!

• Even if it takes times because for God time is nothing!

• After the destruction comes the restoration!

• And it is the same today after the destruction of this world will come its restoration under God's kingdom!

• And nobody will be authorized to oppose it!

 

[JLG]

 

69) Looking for Isaiah

 

Isaiah 5:12

 

They disregard
לֹ֣א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

the actions
פֹּ֤עַל (pō·‘al)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 6467: Doing, deed, work

of the LORD,
יְהוָה֙ (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

and fail
לֹ֥א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

to see
רָאֽוּ׃ (rā·’ū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 7200: To see

the work
וּמַעֲשֵׂ֥ה (ū·ma·‘ă·śêh)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 4639: An action, a transaction, activity, a product, property

of His hands.
יָדָ֖יו (yā·ḏāw)
Noun - fdc | third person masculine singular
Strong's 3027: A hand
 

 

• They disregard the actions of the Lord!

• And fail to see the work of his hands!

• It's simple!

• But what about us?

• When we get up?

• When we have free time during the day?

• When we go to bed?

• When we rest?

• When our brain is free to think?

• When we drive?

• At any time of the day or of the night?

 

[JLG]

 

70) Looking for Isaiah

 

Isaiah 5:13

 

Therefore
לָכֵ֛ן (lā·ḵên)
Adverb
Strong's 3651: So -- thus

My people
עַמִּ֖י (‘am·mî)
Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 5971: A people, a tribe, troops, attendants, a flock

will go into exile
גָּלָ֥ה (gā·lāh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1540: To denude, to exile, to reveal

for their lack
מִבְּלִי־ (mib·bə·lî-)
Preposition-m | Adverb
Strong's 1097: Failure, nothing, destruction, without, not yet, because not, as long as

of understanding;
דָ֑עַת (ḏā·‘aṯ)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1847: Knowledge

their dignitaries
וּכְבוֹדוֹ֙ (ū·ḵə·ḇō·w·ḏōw)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 3519: Weight, splendor, copiousness

are starving,
רָעָ֔ב (rā·‘āḇ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7458: Famine, hunger

and their masses
וַהֲמוֹנ֖וֹ (wa·hă·mō·w·nōw)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 1995: A noise, tumult, crowd, disquietude, wealth

are parched
צִחֵ֥ה (ṣi·ḥêh)
Adjective - masculine singular construct
Strong's 6704: Parched

with thirst.
צָמָֽא׃ (ṣā·mā)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6772: Thirst
 

- Starvation and thirst!

- Exile!

- Why ? Because of their lack of understanding!

- We could say bad choices!

- Or stupid choices!

- Or nonsense when it repeats again and again!

- Or man has lost his mind!

- Or man has no brain!

- And he transmits it from generation to generation!

- Till God's kingdom comes then man will get back his mind and his brain!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Isaiah 

Isaiah 5:14

Therefore

לָכֵ֗ן (lā·ḵên)

Adverb

Strong's 3651: So -- thus

 

Sheol

שְּׁאוֹל֙ (šə·’ō·wl)

Noun - common singular

Strong's 7585: Underworld (place to which people descend at death)

 

enlarges

הִרְחִ֤יבָה (hir·ḥî·ḇāh)

Verb - Hifil - Perfect - third person feminine singular

Strong's 7337: To be or grow wide or large

 

its throat

נַפְשָׁ֔הּ (nap̄·šāh)

Noun - feminine singular construct | third person feminine singular

Strong's 5315: A soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion

 

and opens

וּפָעֲרָ֥ה (ū·p̄ā·‘ă·rāh)

Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person feminine singular

Strong's 6473: To open wide (the mouth)

 

wide its enormous

לִבְלִי־ (liḇ·lî-)

Preposition-l | Adverb

Strong's 1097: Failure, nothing, destruction, without, not yet, because not, as long as

 

jaws,

פִ֖יהָ (p̄î·hā)

Noun - masculine singular construct | third person feminine singular

Strong's 6310: The mouth, edge, portion, side, according to

 

and down go

וְיָרַ֨ד (wə·yā·raḏ)

Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person masculine singular

Strong's 3381: To come or go down, descend

 

[Zion’s] nobles

הֲדָרָ֧הּ (hă·ḏā·rāh)

Noun - masculine singular construct | third person feminine singular

Strong's 1926: Magnificence, ornament, splendor

 

[and] masses,

וַהֲמוֹנָ֛הּ (wa·hă·mō·w·nāh)

Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person feminine singular

Strong's 1995: A noise, tumult, crowd, disquietude, wealth

 

her jubilant

וּשְׁאוֹנָ֖הּ (ū·šə·’ō·w·nāh)

Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person feminine singular

Strong's 7588: A roar (of waters, etcetera), din, crash, uproar

 

and carousers!

וְעָלֵ֥ז (wə·‘ā·lêz)

Conjunctive waw | Adjective - masculine singular

Strong's 5938: Exultant, jubilant 

• We are told about death that spreads!

 

• And the people of Jerusalem will go down (nobles and masses thus everybody without exception)!

 

• And in fact both Israel and Judah lost everything but each one at his time!

 

• First Israel!

 

• Second Judah!

Background. In 720 BCE, the Assyrian army captured Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, and carried away many Israelites into captivity. The virtual destruction of Israel left the southern kingdom, Judah, to fend for itself among warring Near-Eastern kingdoms.

 

Assyrian siege of Jerusalem - Wikipedia

 

• So in both cases, they were not better!

 

• Same fate!

 

[JLG]

88) Looking for Isaiah 

Isaiah 5:15

So mankind

אָדָ֖ם (’ā·ḏām)

Noun - masculine singular

Strong's 120: Ruddy, a human being

 

will be brought low,

וַיִּשַּׁ֥ח (way·yiš·šaḥ)

Conjunctive waw | Verb - Nifal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular

Strong's 7817: To bow, be bowed down, crouch

 

and each man

אִ֑ישׁ (’îš)

Noun - masculine singular

Strong's 376: A man as an individual, a male person

 

humbled;

וַיִּשְׁפַּל־ (way·yiš·pal-)

Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular

Strong's 8213: To be or become low, to be abased

 

the arrogant

גְבֹהִ֖ים (ḡə·ḇō·hîm)

Adjective - masculine plural

Strong's 1364: Elevated, powerful, arrogant

 

will lower

תִּשְׁפַּֽלְנָה׃ (tiš·pal·nāh)

Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person feminine plural

Strong's 8213: To be or become low, to be abased

 

their eyes.

וְעֵינֵ֥י (wə·‘ê·nê)

Conjunctive waw | Noun - cdc

Strong's 5869: An eye, a fountain

 

• First comes arrogance!

 

• But then the one who is arrogant must learn humility!

 

• And for that God must strike him!

 

• So was it for Israel!

 

• So was it for Judah!

 

• So will it be for mankind!

 

• But each one at his time!

 

• Why is it so hard to learn the lesson?