Shalom All:I visited the link provided by John Clark (9 July 2005)
"RE: "The Dome Of The Rock""
http://www.askelm.com/temple/t991001.htmI've read similar material which corrobrates the info in this link.
Thinking along the lines of the Bride getting ready, She should really look at what She believes and why! Counterfiets have replaced the genuine in sooo many ways, and not just with the Dome of the Rock!
I don't know how many of you will take the time to read this link so I'm posting paragraphs that I believe are important for the the Bride to know! These are just the references to "Chrisitan" items. What is written about the Muslims is also important but to do so I would be sharing the entire article here.
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The historical evidence shows conclusively that no Jewish person was ever interested in any religious or national manner to the "Rock" under the Dome of the Rock until the time of the First Crusade. The area was NEVER considered a sacred spot of Jews until the time of Benjamin of Tudela in the twelfth century (check other articles on the ASK Web Page on the Internet for proof of this). The site of the Dome of the Rock was ONLY of Christian significance BEFORE the time of Omar and Abd al-Malik. It only became important to Muslims in the eighth century to the eleventh, and only important to Jews in the twelfth century.Indeed, the "rock" underneath the Dome of the Rock was specifically and significantly of Christian importance and that the Jews up to the time of the Crusades showed no interest whatever in this former Christian spot that Abd al-Malik rebuilt as a Christian type of building (with its characteristic Byzantine dome) in order to wean Christians (who comprised at least 90% of the population of Jerusalem in the seventh century) from New Testament teachings and to win them over to the doctrines then being taught by Islam in and through the Koran.
It was a "Rock" purely of Christian importance and it was formerly recognized by Christians until the seventh century (and even historically until the time of the Crusades) as a most prominent Christian site that was singled out in the Gospel of John as a "Rock" that dealt directly with the mission of Christ Jesus to this earth.
There was much mimicking by early Muslims of the Temple rituals performed in Jerusalem by the Jews as demanded in the Scriptures and in Jewish tradition. Muhammad kept the same themes in his ritualistic interpretations. This is important to know in viewing the architectural design of the Dome of the Rock and the ritual focus intended by Abd al-Malik.
The first Christian pilgrim that has left us a record of his journey to Jerusalem was the Bordeaux Pilgrim who in 333 A.D. mentioned that the most significant building east of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (then being built) was the Roman Praetorium where Pilate sentenced Jesus.
This was NOT the site of the Temple in the eyes of the Bordeaux Pilgrim. He had already described the Temple site (and several other buildings around it) a few paragraphs before.
This particular "Rock" within the Praetorium area had a "Pavement" or flagstones around it. The "Rock" was associated with the Praetorium and was part of Fort Antonia, the permanent Roman Camp that was located in Jerusalem in the time of Pilate and Jesus. ... Before construction of the fortress, the "Rock" was 50 cubits high (75 feet), but Herod later built a platform around it (when it became the north/south center of the walled fortress) and this made it not as high and it became accessible for judicial purposes. That "Rock" around which Fort Antonia was built (and mentioned by Josephus) was the chief geographical feature of the site. It was near this "Rock" that Pilate had his residence at the time of Jesus' trial.
Later Christians simply confused the literal meaning of bema [footprint] and the indentions they saw in the natural outcropping of rock became "Jesus' footprints." Though this was error, the reckoning became an indelible identifying mark associated with the "Rock" where Pilate made his judgment against Jesus. This "Rock" (called "the Pavement" by the apostle John) was well known in the time of Constantine. The records show that Helena, the mother of Constantine, ordered that a small Christian Church with the name "St.Cyrus and St.John" be built over that "Rock" (see Life of Constantine in Wilkinson's Jerusalem Pilgrims Before the Crusades, p. 204). This small church was later enlarged probably in the fifth century to become a major church in Jerusalem called "The Church of the Holy Wisdom."
Just as Josephus stated that the "Rock" was the most prominent part of Fort Antonia [the Praetorium area], so this "oblong stone" was the central feature of the Church of the Holy Wisdom (that was destroyed by the Persians and Jewish soldiers in 614 A.D.). This is the same "Rock" that is now under the Dome of the Rock in the Haram esh-Sharif.
There are historical references both Christian and Muslim that attest that the "Rock" over which the Dome of the Rock now stands was the same "Rock or Stone" that had the footprints of Jesus inlayed as foot-like depressions sunk into the "Rock." Indeed, even as late as the period of the Crusades we read that the court recorder of Saladin (the Muslim who reconquered Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187 A.D.) made mention that Jesus' footprints had been embedded in the "Rock" underneath the Dome of the Rock
Why the Dome of the Rock Was Built by Abd al-Malik in 692 A.D.
The Muslims abhorred what they believed to be outright idolatry among Christians with their statues, pictures and pagan practices within the Christian community, but they still thought in this early period that they could wean Christians away from their religious beliefs unto the new Islam that God had now revealed to the world by Muhammad. This was the central reason why Abd al-Malik first devised and designed the building called the Dome of the Rock to be built over the Christian spot where once the Church of the Holy Wisdom had stood.
And though Jews were also accounted as being "People of the Book," the construction of the Dome of the Rock was NOT intended in any manner to influence Jews. After all, Jews would NOT have reckoned as important a "Rock" that was exclusively a Christian religious site because it was identified with "the Pavement" recorded in the Gospel of John (John 19:13).
So, Abd al-Malik set out in 692 A.D. to woo the Christians to Islam. What he did was to rebuild in the exact spot and in the precise form "The Church of the Holy Wisdom" that had been destroyed by the Persians and Jews in 614 A.D. (and he desired it to have as much architectural grandeur as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre). He then built what looked like a grand Byzantine "Church" directly over the very "Rock" that Christians believed contained the footprints of Jesus.
Every device imaginable was used by Abd al-Malik in his building of the Dome of the Rock to direct people (both Muslims and Christians) AWAY FROM any significance of the "Rock" (just as Omar had demanded when he was first in Jerusalem). This is because it was well known in the seventh century that the "Rock" was actually a Christian holy spot.
---end clips---A challenge ... how genuine is your "Rock"? The time for the call of the Beloved Kinsman Redeemer Yeshua draws close.
Dianne
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