Israel's Other Temple -- Research Reveals Ancient Struggle over Holy Land Supremacy

[FarCenter]

The Jews had significant competition in antiquity when it came to worshipping Yahweh. Archeologists have discovered a second great temple not far from Jerusalem that predates its better known cousin. It belonged to the Samaritans, and may have been edited out of the Bible once the rivalry had been decided.
...

Yet the most exciting indication of how history actually transpired has now been unearthed by Yitzhak Magen. Working behind security fences, the archaeologist has been digging on the windswept summit of Mount Gerizim.

His findings, which have only been partially published, are a virtual sensation: As early as 2,500 years ago, the mountain was already crowned with a huge, dazzling shrine, surrounded by a 96 by 98-meter (315 by 321-foot) enclosure. The wall had six-chamber gates with colossal wooden doors.

At the time, the Temple of Jerusalem was, at most, but a simple structure.

Magen has discovered 400,000 bone remains from sacrificial animals. Inscriptions identify the site as the "House of the Lord." A silver ring is adorned with the tetragrammaton YHWH, which stands for Yahweh.

All of this means that a vast, rival place of worship stood only 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Jerusalem.

...

Around the year 180 BC, the ceremonial building grew to a size of roughly 200 by 200 meters. The Samaritans added a monumental staircase and rooms for "thousands of pilgrims." There were apparently huge crowds of devout visitors. None of this is mentioned in the Bible.

The dispute finally came to a head. In the year 128 BC, John Hyrcanos, a Jewish prince, ascended Mount Gerizim with an army and burned the proud sanctuary to the ground. Archaeologists have found a "burn layer" along with arrow heads, swords, daggers and lead missiles for slings.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,827144,00.html

[laconicsax]

1. Little nitpick:

The Tetragrammaton doesn't stand for "Yahweh." It stands for the unspeakable name of the Abrahamic god. He closest any scholarly interpretation has come to an actual pronunciation is for a verb meaning "he is." At no point in the Jewish religion did the Tetragrammaton stand for a proper name.

"Yahweh" came about when some morons took the four letters, YHWH and applied the placeholder vowels which indicated which word (meaning "Lord&quot was to be spoken when read aloud, and got Yahweh (or Jehovah).

[Bohunk68]

2. Not so sure about that.

I've always read that the translation of G-d's name is: I AM.

[dimbear]

3. From the similarity in size, sounds like Magen is referring to "Structure B."

A known place perhaps not thoroughly dug before. Would be extremely interesting to hear the impressions of Israel Finkelstein wrt this.

BTW, no temple discovery is ever likely to compare in glory and glamour with Solomon's Temple, which was a temple of the mind unencumbered by reality.

[Viva_Daddy]

4. There were at least three Jewish Temples in Egypt, where Jahweh was worshipped along side his

consort, Anath.

[MineralMan]

5. There is nothing new about Middle East conflict.

It's been going on for millenia. And we think we can mediate it? How silly of us.

All one has to do is to read Exodus to find out that it has been going on for so long. The books following have more to learn about the Middle East conflict. We're way over our heads, historically, if we try to meddle in it.

Joshua 'fit' the battle of Jericho. Never forget that.

That part of the Old Testament, at least, has some historical fact in it.