Selah! “Suspended”...Part 2

Selah! “Suspended”

Selah at the Hinom Valley

As Christ looked down from Golgotha, He did so from a mechanism of wood and iron, fixed with pins. He was suspended on high from a fixture familiar to both farmers and sailors, to soldiers and civilians. While in this suspended state, He suffered in agony and slow asphyxiation as long thin stakes (or “nails”) were protruding through His anklebones and into the bend of His wrists. These were driven mercilessly through His body, and into the wood of the Cross. His agony was intensified in that the Romans nailed His arms with one elbow up and one elbow down. This position is mimicked in modern times as a type of anti-climax stage-freeze jazz-dance pose (often with a hat in one hand). Its hidden meaning is to mock Christ at the Cross. If we invert the Hebrew letter Alef by 90 degrees onto its point, depending on the writing style, we will usually see the intent of the letter as “Christ crucified”. This position, which Messiah found Himself in, with one elbow up and one elbow down, forced His bones out of joint over the course of His six hours of suffering upon that Cross.

From this location, at Golgotha, Jesus would have looked to the right up the Kidron Valley, where He was in; but also He would have looked just a little off to His left and straight into the Hinom Valley as well. As He looked into the Hinom, at about his 10 o’clock visual position, 12 o’clock being due west, there Christ saw Judas the traitor, dead by his own hand in suicide. This tract of land is known as Haceldama or “the field of blood” to this day. Judas died, hanging on a tree limb over a small precipice on the southeast Hinom, by means of a rope about the neck; in full view of millions who packed the Kidron and Hinom Valleys, and just left him there. What is important to note, is the silent affirmation of the historical witness to these facts. Notice that there is never an accusation against Christ, of how that Judas sold Him out, and then could not bear to look upon the face of his master or “Raboni”. There is also never a refusal by the priesthood, to say that they did not buy Judas off for 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. Had this occurred, we would have a Talmudic account, a reference in Josephus, or by the Roman historians: because the outcry would have been too great to not notice, and utilize to put the Christians down as fraudulent. Yet, no record exists, because Christians were called “Chrestians” by the Romans, which means “the gracious (and honest) ones”.

Now, at about Christ’s 2 o’clock field of view, He would have seen -- over the many hundreds of thousands of the multitudes who filled the Kidron Valley -- the irrigation conduit of the Pool of Siloam, which emptied out into the Kidron. As the masses moved, people ran to and from this conduit, collecting water for the thirsty in the Valleys below. From the Cross, Jesus was able to behold the processes of both death and life.



Selah in Gematriac context

In Gematria, Selah and Salah have a value of 95. This is the same value as Hinom
(הנמ). Hinom, of course, is one of the two valleys to which Christ was crucified, the valley of burnings. Here, every 8th feast Day of Tabernacles, the Jewish men of Israel burned their makeshift huts, and gave thanks to YHVeH, in recollection of Isaiah 66:24, which tells them that in the Kingdom, in the New Heavens and the New Earth,

"they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses
of the men that have transgressed against Me: [YHVeH]
for their worm shall not die,
neither shall their fire be quenched;
and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.” KJV

After the value of 95, the value of Selah and of Hinom: what is being told to us about this valley and juncture south of the Temple Mount? It is a place for one who is held in "contempt" or PUT (פוט). Both Jesus who was cast out and crucified here, and on the other side of the same valley, Judas Iscariot, who hanged himself on the tree while viewing Christ crucified. The tree-limb, on which the body of Judas hung, snapped. Judas was then plunged at least 30 feet or more below into the Valley of Hinom, onto some sharp rocks, and was disemboweled. That Valley depth or even greater has been covered since at least A.D. 70, when the Romans filled it during the siege of Jerusalem.
Whether of a right heart, as a disciple; or through a sinister intent, as a zealot or anti-Christian: we all "chase or follow after" Tseda (צדא) YHVeH Messiah.
The wicked cannot help but to "bubble up and froth over" Pachez (פחז) against YHVeH's anointed, and YHVeH Himself.
They would rather offer up drink offerings to some mythical "queen" Milkah/Malkah (Mem-Lamed-Kaf-He) of Heaven. King David sung it of Messiah’s rejection by the people in exchange for idols in this way:
“Sons of men, until when is My Glory? For a reproach (concerning this) will you love vanity and seek out a lie (instead)? Selah.”
(Psalm 4:2)

At some of the modern Passover Seder Celebrations in America, songs are sung also in reverence of “the queen of Heaven” in preference to YHVeH Messiah. Those cakes eaten to the “queen of Heaven” also bore the sign of the cross upon them. The custom of “dessert” still carries this form of indulgence for the “theoi”, “the disposers”, whose god is the belly. Therefore, the idolatry of Baal and the pouring forth of drink offerings to demons are not far from our lips and acts of recognition in our own day. Sadly, this has been embraced as part of the "Jewish ness" of the culture, much like some of the ancient cults engaged in by their Fathers which led to the taking of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon; and were rebuked by GOD, through His prophet, for it (re: Jeremiah 7:18; 44:15-30).

At the Hinom Valley, we have the choice between two sights: Jesus on the Cross, or Judas hung from a tree and then disemboweled upon the rocks below. We have, after the value of 95, the choice of being able "to watch and be observant" - Yiscah (יסכה);
or, to suffer "dishonor and shame", "to suffer disgrace and confusion" - Kelimmah (כלמה).

It is Ge-Hinom, which is called "gehenna" in the Greek: translated as "hell", the "place of burnings". Here, in the Plateia of the city, the outer darkness, is Naham (נהם): the "growls, snarls, and roars" which YHVeH Messiah says is the "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (cf. Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, and 25:30).

Hinom is set in prophecy for a place in which Selah (סלה) is Manah (םנה): "ordained, set, appointed" as a measure or weight weighed out, carefully analyzed and considered. The Manah refers directly to YHVeH Messiah. In the Hebrew, the Bread from Heaven is called "manna"; and even though its spelling lacks the "H" (ה), being spelled as "man" (מן); yet after the Greek transliteration, we see it pronounced as though the "H" were present as "manna" (μαννα). The word manna, is taken to mean "bread" in the Greek description of it: for example, John 6:32-33. Literally, this Hebrew word of "manna" spelled as "M-N" means: "What's this?"

In the New Testament, we read how that "manna" to the First Century Hebrew, and to us, is the bread of Heaven. Jesus clearly tells us in John chapter 6, that He is the True Bread, the true "manna" from Heaven. Unfortunately, when many people look at Jesus and the Cross, they cannot help but gaze in a lack of understanding and also say "What's this?", without the comprehension of what they are saying. In effect, "What's this?" is a correct answer, because translated back into the Hebrew, their question becomes an affirmation of identity: "manna", which translated means "What's this?"

After the value of 95, we see that this "manna" which is the Bread come from
Heaven, is like the Chelbenah (Chet-Lamed-Beth-Nun-He): an "odorous gum that is comparable to fat".
On the Cross, Adayahu (Alef-Dalet-Yod-He-Vav) "YH has adorned" Him, in order to Miklah (Mem-Kaf-Lamed-He): "to make complete or whole" Fallen Man. The word Miklah also speaks of the formation of a pen or fold for sheep; and YHVeH Messiah talked about the building of His Church, and the restoring of lost sheep back into the fold of those who have been obedient to Him.

The purpose of the Cross, as we also see in the value of 95 and the other things we have gone over, is the revelation of the knowledge of Christ; and a right relationship with GOD. We see this with passages such as "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me.” (John 12:32). “Selah” Gematrically reveals the very identity of YHVeH Messiah, after the value of 95, as: HaMelek (He-Mem-Lamed-Kaf) - "the King", and Daniel (Dalet-Nun-Yod-Alef-Lamed): " the Judge of GOD."

When Luke wrote Paul's Gospel in ca. July of 57 A.D.,9 which over 100 years later was referred to as Hebrews, he wrote of how that we are called to enter into the rest that the LORD provides for His servants, saying,

"For we which have believed do enter into rest…
For he that is entered into rest, he has also ceased from his
own works, as GOD from His.
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest…." (Hebrews 4:3a, 10-11a) KJV

That Sabbath rest is the Selah, it is a suspension of works and efforts directed at ourselves. This illustration can be seen in the very Hebrew words used for resting or ceasing on the Shabbat. In the Bible, the rabbis inform us how that GOD stops (Genesis 2:2), He rests (Exodus 20:11), and then the example is given us of what was on GOD’s mind at the making of the Sabbath. To which we are referred to I Samuel 25:9, where we see the example of King David’s “mouthpiece” / “logos” / “messenger” / “angel”, after having spoken what his king instructed him, he then has nothing more to say.

Therefore, the Sabbath rest of Selah is the activity of stopping, being refreshed, and no further need for words. It is as if words themselves, are become a form of "work". Thus, when we accept this, we can accept the Gematriac teaching in 2 Kings 14:7, that the word Selah is equated with Joktheel: which means "subdued by GOD". We are also admonished by this, that on the Sabbath, the activity of speaking more than what is necessary, is also a form of work. Therefore, if one is truly to keep the Sabbath as according to the Law of Moses, he had best keep his prayers short, true from the heart, and to the point. But according to the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2), which is free from the Law of Moses (a Law dealing with sin and death), prayer ceases to be like a slave addressing his King in a form of humility. Rather, prayer becomes more of a friend to the Prince relationship (John 15:13-15), who are gladly welcomed and honored as if family by the King, for the sake of His dear Son.


Thought upon Selah, the Suspension, and the Sabbath rest

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live….” (Galatians 6:20)

Selah! “Suspended”...Part 1

Selah

Selah (סלה). In the songs of David, SeLaH was an utterance where an entire world of musical noise, in the song, was called to a stop. “Selah” is a stillness, “as a silence that hangs in the air”, within a song. It holds an expectation of anticipation, energy, and power. It is a time set aside and apart from all words, as a Sabbath (a time of rest) of holy silence as though a vision is being played over in every mind. Whether the music was flowing in a smooth melodic tempo, or in a wild crescendo, when the word "Selah" is sung: all the worshippers, all the musicians, all noise, all activity, comes to an abrupt halt. "Selah" is a call to be still, and know that GOD is.

In Habakkuk 2:20, the idea of Selah is conveyed in the words,
"YHVeH is in the ‘Hushed and Silent Temple of His Holiness’,
(and) before Him, (is) all the Earth.” (Translation mine)

while in Zephaniah 1:7, the reason for Selah is revealed as:
"Be hushed and silent before the Lord YHVeH:
for drawing near to battle is the Day of YHVeH:
because YHVeH hath prepared and appointed a sacrifice,
He has consecrated those called and summoned by proclamation.” (Translation mine)

In aleitheia (the true reality), Selah is a call to stop, pause, and reflect on the 3 hours of light, and 3 hours of darkness in which Christ hung upon the Cross. It is the this theme that is to be reflected upon as the Church takes Communion. Selah is a time to reflect on what GOD has done for us, and upon the sacrifice, which YHVeH (not man) has prepared. This gives us pause upon the Two Sacrifices of Judaism:
1) the upright Passover sacrifice, of a crucified lamb, cooked upright in that state upon a spit, with its intestines wrapped about its head and called the "horned" or "crowned sacrifice"; and
2) the escape goat that is led into the wilderness with scarlet wool wrapped about its head, to take upon itself the sins of all Israel during Yom Kippur.

One occurs in the spring for the benefit of no less than a group of 13, the lawful size of a "Community" AND THE Gematriac equivalent of "Love" in the Hebrew is - הבהא "Ahavah": a value of 13. This size is reflected in YHVeH Messiah's choice of having 12 anointed Disciples, who with Him, were representatives of GOD’s love to the world. Again, we see “love,” (the value of 13), with the 12 tribes of Israel represented by the Priestly tribe, whose number is not de facto counted as 13, but whose inheritance is from the LORD. In other words, the 13th member takes on the attribute of the Heavenly, while the 12 take on the attribute of the earthly. The Alef א is the abbreviation for “GOD” in the Hebrew - Elohim.{1}


The Alef - Havah
Separated in the word Ahavah, or “love”, it forms the identification of two words: Alef - havah, which in Gematria means “GOD breathes into existence”. Therefore, the very act of GOD creating Adam, and breathing into his nostrils “the breath of life”(Genesis 2:7), was an act of love. The souls of men are thereby “GOD breathed”, and must be “GOD redeemed” with the same concept as the exhaling breath. The name YHVeH is the sound of our breath in our nostrils (Lamentations 4:20), and is the name of our Messiah. The inhalation is the masculine YH (represented in the GOD-head by the Father and the Son); while the exhale is the feminine VeH (represented in the GOD-head by the Holy Spirit). This tells us, that since man was created by the feminine exhale breath of GOD, so also must all eternal life be born of the Holy Spirit; and physical life be birthed through the females of the species.
The Origin of the living engine of the soul of man, which is left as a hollow hole in the unbelievers, is in reality the place where G-D is supposed to come and dwell within each one of us. It is a ready-made structural design, to be filled by the Spirit of GOD...and was and is still birthed to a filling by the breath (as it were), such as the power of the spoken word in faith and trust into Christ Jesus as LORD and Savior. The soul that has fallen away in a state of sin (e.g., unbelief), following this line of reasoning, then must be redeemed also by the spoken word as well. Because it was mistrust that caused man to fall, it is by obedient trust or “faith” to which man finds his way back to GOD. That route of return is limited to one lone and narrow cross that stands in the vast wilderness where all other ways lead to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). We must trust the spoken word, Christ our LOGOS (John 1:1), and step through the dimensions of time and space through the only portal that will save us: the Cross.

Between 9 am and 12 pm on March 23, A.D. 30, very probably only those of the small faction that caused Christ to be crucified did call out words against Him, and mocked Him. But when the sun was high, and noon came, the whole world changed, and fell into darkness.{2} The sun fell into the blackness of sackcloth, the stars withdrew their light, the Cross may have taken on the appearance of having begun to smoke, and the moon shone a blood red ambiance upon the land.{3} The majority of the Jewish nation, who watched on like silent lambs, now did so with great sadness. And this they did, not knowing or understanding, not perceiving with eye or the ear, what was truly going on and taking place. They, like we -- had we been there -- stood stunned, and in a daze as if it all were an actual, living dream. But it wasn’t a dream. It was a happening.

As Christ hung upon the Cross, suspended between Heaven and Earth, when darkness enveloped the earth at about 12 noon: the wind was silent, the sky was clear, and a holy hush lay upon all of Jerusalem and its hills. There Jesus, who had 4000 plus years before breathed into Adam the breath of life as YHVeH, now as a man, whipped to shreds and pieces that hung on His skeletal frame, breathed in and out after the manner of one being strangled to death. Literally, now Christ breathed in death, that by His breathing in the form of one dead -- though yet alive in the physical -- He might breathe forth again eternal life. Wherefore as GOD He gave life to man, as man He gave up the death-state of man as atonement to GOD the Father, that all men, dead in trespasses in sins in the living flesh, might breathe forth the spoken word of faith and trust, and be redeemed unto GOD, once and for all time -- and beyond time itself. And as Christ breathed out His last, and the earth quaked, and the veil of the Temple rent, and the wind roared forth in great fury, as an entire nation fell to the ground and fell prostrate. There is a claim in Jewish Tradition that every synagogue but one in Jerusalem fell in that moment. That is a number akin to 499 buildings falling to the ground. When those moments were over, the Roman centurion spoke in a loud voice for all to hear, in words to this effect: “Surely this Righteous One, was a son of the gods.”{4} In response, the people acknowledging the intent of the centurion’s message, that Christ was the “son of GOD”, then beat their chests in mourning and deep heartfelt lament, and returned home overcome with grief (Luke 23:48).


א (Alef) and the Revelation of the Trinity

The letter Alef א holds the value of 1, which is the Heavenly. This letter hangs and hovers over the 12 of the earthly, even as the Holy Spirit hovered, fluttered, and moved upon the face of the waters in Genesis 1:2. The letter Alef hangs, quivers, and flutters as the Eternal Life of us hanging over us.

This Alef is shown in its very concept to be Trinity by the rabbis, and the eternal affirmation of Trinity, even as GOD is Trinity. Alef is formed by a yod (י) in the upper right, and a yod (י) in the lower left, joined in the middle by a Vav (ו).{5} The upper Yod (י) holds a value of 10, and represents the abbreviation for the name of YHVeH, which we Gentiles translate as Jehovah or LORD. In the Alef, the upper right yod represents the Heavenly Father YHVeH. The lower Yod (י), which supports, represents YHVeH the Holy Spirit. The Vav represents Messiah, He who is both man and GOD, having both the Heavenly and earthly attributes in one form. He, as the Vav (ו), has come down as the eternal Life from Heaven, from YHVeH Father (the upper yod). He has lived life as a man -- the Vav (ו): which holds a value of 6. He has died, and entered into the lowest depths of death; but by the power of GOD, He has risen from the dead. His ministry of Messiah being designated to eternally be supported by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of GOD the Father. Together, as One, these three letters value a total of 26, the same as YHVeH יהוה- Jehovah, LORD.

Thus, the Sh’ma of Deuteronomy 6:4 -
“Hear, listen carefully, and obey, O Israel!
YHVeH your GOD, YHVeH is One united!” (Translation mine)

And how do we see YHVeH united as One? In the Alef. Turned 90 degrees it becomes to us as the Cross, in its appearance. Therefore, to behold Christ upon the Cross, is to behold the mystery of the Trinity of GOD; whom in remembrance of this Day, will ever after call His own Name as “One” (Zechariah 14:9). This very concept, for man, involves the intensity of silenced and hushed meditation. It takes a need for a concentrated grasping of the far-reaching ness. Thus, in both the Cross and the letter Alef, Selah is found to be a reflection of how Christ died for the Community, for you and me, and for the nation of Israel.



Thought upon Selah and the Cross from the Psalms:

“YHVeH is made known in the Judgment He has made and brought about:
in the work of the bend of His Hands [.i.e., in His wrists]
are the wicked ensnared (as in a noose). A Meditation. Selah!” (Psalm 9:16, translation mine)


Selah is the suspension of both Time and Space.
When Time and Space are intertwined in a moment of eternity, we see a synonym in "Talah" (תלה), the Hebrew verb that means, "to hang". In Isaiah 22:24, Talah is used to describe a "hanging like a peg" (perhaps 'on a wall' would be a best word picture illustration for us). In Psalm 137:2, Talah is descriptive of the "hanging" of a (traveling) musician's lyre upon a tree in a foreign land. In Job 26:7, when the earth is described as hanging upon nothing, while "talah" is used in this verse, "selah" is visualized. However, the relationship between Selah and Talah does not end there. In Esther 7:9, the Greek Version (LXX, or the Septuagint) uses the Greek word "stauroo" in translating "talah".{6} In other words, after Haman was hung by a rope, he was impaled up high on the instrument of death, like a peg some 50 cubits high, fixed as an example to all.

In Deuteronomy 21:22ff, after the offender 'worthy of death' is stoned dead, he is then impaled and "hung upright" as though a dead image. Yet, quite often, the neurological system is still somewhat active, as many corpses may still have the post mortem "quivers". This aspect is important, because TaLaH (as a root word) has a derivative in the Hebrew word "teli" (תלי), which literally means: "to quiver". The nails pierced the hands of Christ through the bone in the bend of the hands at the wrists, right through the major nerves. This will make the hands go limp, the thumbs to bend into the palms, and the arms to quiver. Add a mildly breezy cold day in March, and strip Messiah of all garments, and the whole body will shiver and shake. So it is at this point that the next passage of Deuteronomy strikes home between Jew and Gentile unbelievers alike, as the literal reading of Deuteronomy 28:66 (in light of this) tells them:
"And your LIFE shall be hanging and quivering before you,
and you shall tremble with fear, and dread night and day,
because you do not believe into your LIFE." (Translation Mine)

The LIFE that is talked about in Deuteronomy 28:66 is YHVeH Messiah, who is the way, and the truth, and the LIFE (John 14:6); who for us men and for our salvation, came down from Heaven, and offered Himself as a ransom/sacrifice for our sins. One of the disciples of John the Apostle, Ignatius, whom became bishop of Antioch of Syria, used the example of his "love name" as an illustration of "selah" for us. In either 107 or 116 A.D. (depending on which historical reference you accept), Ignatius spoke with Caesar Trajan in Antioch of Syria. At the time, Trajan may have been warring in the East and decided to visit Syria. Antioch of Syria was third after the capitol of Rome in Italy, and Alexandria of Egypt. Trajan addressed Ignatius of his knowledge that Ignatius was secretly called "Theophorus": 'he whom GOD lifts up.’ But Ignatius corrected the Emperor, before being banished to death by wild animals in the Coliseum of Rome, saying that "Theophorus" should actually be interpreted as 'he who has Christ within his breast.’ To Ignatius, every believer who has Christ, experiences "selah".{7} Every believer is to be GOD - breathed from within. We are given a new and eternal nature that lays sin dormant (Romans 6:2-12).


The Selah Instrument of Jesus Christ -- the Cross
Again, this following quote, which bears repeating: in part because its clarity and truth concerning the mechanics involved in the Crucifixion has been so neglected by scholars; and in part, because it so accurately word-pictures "Selah" and suspension for us:
In the Syriac of Ignatius' letter to the Ephesians, .9., Ignatius clarifies this to us, writing:
"And you are prepared for the building of GOD the Father,
and you are raised up on high by the instrument of Jesus Christ, which is the Cross,
and you are drawn by the rope, which is the Holy Spirit;
and your pulley, is your Faith;
and your Love [Heb. “ahavah” - your GOD - breathed trust] is that Way
[or Path] which leads up on high to GOD."

When Christ was crucified, He was nailed to a Cross, and suspended upon the Cross; the Cross being lifted up by means of a rope and pulley. So too, by the Holy Spirit and Faith, Christ is lifted up and suspended in the breast of every believer and our love of Christ is that Way, which we then follow up on high to GOD the Father, through Christ our LORD. Selah.

The drawing up of the Cross, by rope-and-pulley, was accomplished by means of metal stakes that were driven into the Cross; which was a more sophisticated task than most modern scholars and lay people comprehend. Tertullian, the renowned Carthaginian Christian lawyer who resided and practiced in Rome from ca. 190 - 210 A.D., furthers our understanding about the Cross upon which Christ was crucified, saying:
" 'His glory, is that of a bullock. His horns, are that of a unicorn; (and) with them, shall He push the nations to the very ends of the Earth.' He was not, of course, designated as a mere unicorn with its one horn, or a Minotaur with two; but Christ was indicated in him -- a bullock, in respect of both His characteristics -- to some, as a severe Judge; to others, as a gentle Savior; whose horns were the extremities of His Cross. For the antenna, which is part of the Cross, the ends are called horns; while the mid-way stake of the whole frame is the Unicorn. His Cross is then, by this virtue and in this manner, "horned". He is both now pushing all nations through Faith, bearing them away from Earth to Heaven; and will then push them through Judgment, casting them down from Heaven to Earth." (Tertullian, Against Marcion, Book 3, Chapter 18)

Here we see a long metal protrusive stake through the back of the Cross, which is called a "unicorn". We also see the inference to metal spike also in the extremities of the Cross, likened to those Passover strokes of Lamb's blood on the door posts and lintel, which are called "antenna". It was to these that perhaps only 3 slaves were required to winch up a Cross and set it, while the soldiers could do their job, and stand guard; ensuring that the execution is carried out without interruption. “Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the unicorns…”(Psalm 22:21 - KJV)

Again, in "An Answer to the Jews", Tertullian explains:
"For even in the ship's yard -- this is the name by which the extremities are called, which is a part of (the Cross), -- the central pole of a mast is (called) a ‘unicorn’. In fact, by this power and in and in this manner (is) the Cross ‘horned’." (Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews, .10)

Thus, the goal of the bull and unicorn in the symbolism of the Cross, is to teach us about the nature of GOD. The shipyard tells us that we are living in the midst of a Universe created around the Design of the Creator, which central theme or purpose is the Cross. GOD is a Judge to the rebellious, but gentle to those who are reverent of Him. In the shipyard, this was probably the same attitude taken up by taskmasters, carpenters, and the various workers -- be they slave or free. Respecting the treatment of those who act and obey faithfully, these are to be treated gently. So it is, Tertullian demonstrates that the mission of the Cross, seen on every ship and in every shipyard, points to the mission of one's life: to pass from the Judgment of GOD, and to enter GOD's gentleness and love: through Jesus, through the Cross.
Irenaeus likened the Cross, which is plated together with iron, after the parable of Matthew Chapter 13,{8} to being the “plough of GOD”, by which the Almighty “turns up the earth” (i.e., mankind):
“He has firmly displayed the plough, in that the wood has been joined on to the iron, and has thus cleansed His Land; because the WORD, having been firmly united to flesh, and in its mechanisms fixed with pins, has reclaimed the savage earth. In the beginning, He figured forth the pruning- hook by means of Abel, pointing out that there should be a gathering in of a race of Righteous men.” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies,, 4.34.4)

Selah also takes into account the Sacrifice of the escape-goat at Yom Kippur, in His reclaiming the savage earth. For Christ (being without guilt, without sin) takes upon Himself the sins of all Israel, and by implication the sins of all mankind. Whereas the people whip and spit on the escape goat from Temple to the Water Gate of the Kidron, Christ was beaten about the face and head by over 400 - 600 open hand blows from the Gentiles in the fortress (which represents Heaven), and whipped at The Pavement (which represents the Bema platform of Moses' seat, hence representing Earthly domains). For intestines or scarlet wool about the head, he was plaited with a crown of thorns that not only pricked, and were pressed down with violence, and bled Him; but made Him vomit so much that it must have felt as if every last bit of food and drink was just sucked out of His small intestines. This disgusting and vulgar detail, though prophesied, is left out of the Gospel accounts. Therefore, every hangover or sickness that involves the activity of nausea can now also be identified as a sin atoned for in the Crucifixion of Christ. From thence, from Gabbatha, He was dispatched out of the city by the same path as the escape-goat of Yom Kippur.

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1 Hebrew is read from right to left, in an order reverse to English. Greek is read right to left, just as in English. These two languages show the Cross, in the effect, that the beginning of time in the Bible, is read as if going back into the past to the Beginning, in reverse order. The Greek is read as if from the Cross, and to the right, into eternity future. That is, it is read in such a manner as to the end of time -- either as we know it, or as the Bible tells it. This teaches us that time is a finite entity set for a singular purpose: that we might focus on YHVeH Messiah and the Cross, the source and means of our eternal salvation, in and above and infinitely beyond time - and beyond even the very concept of time. Amen.

2 In Rome, ca. 198-217 A.D., a well noted Carthaginian lawyer with Roman citizenship, wrote a lengthy speech that was to be read before the Senate and Caesar Himself, at a time when Carthage was considered the second most important city in the Empire. The matter at hand, in the apologia, was to defend the Christians, who were malfeasantly persecuted by the Empire. One of the things worthy of note, is that to the Senate and to Caesar and to all of Rome's elite in the gallery who would listen, Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus wrote:
"And yet, nailed upon the cross, He [Christ] exhibited many notable signs, by which His death was distinguished from all others. … In the same hour, too, the light of day was withdrawn, when the sun at the very time was in his meridian blaze. Those who were not aware that this had been predicted about Christ, no doubt thought it an eclipse. You yourselves have the account of the world portent still in your archives.” (Tertullian, Apology .21)

3 Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44-45 The idea that is conveyed from Joel 2:30-31, is that all Israel at Jerusalem saw the fulfillment -- the signs in the sun, moon, and the pillar-vapors of smoke. The confusing aspect that is overlooked is the sign of the plural pillar-vapors of smoke that is evident to both Joel 2:30-31, and all those witnesses of Jerusalem who saw its fulfillment only weeks before, as Peter so accused them of seeing with their own eyes. I believe that even as the Passover was cooked upright, from noon until 3 pm, a pillar-column of vapor that smelled like smoke may have taken on the appearance of being emitted from the Cross, and have flown upwards from the Cross itself, as far as the eye could see. This would be after the manner of the burnt sacrifice of Manoah in Judges 13:19-20. However, this would isolate only one column of smoke, and we are told in Joel and in Acts of wonders of the plural “columns” of smoke. Where else they could have come from, who knows? In the Letters to Tiberius Caesar from Pontius Pilate (Roberts, “The Ante Nicene Fathers”, Vol. 8, pp. 459-463.), it is suggested that they came from the Valleys of Kidron and Hinom themselves, as they gave the very appearance of opening up, even as the earth did so to Korah and the followers of him (Numbers 26:10). In Numbers, we are told that Korah and his followers became a sign, being 250 in number. Korah’s children, we are told (in Numbers 26:11) did not perish with him. Therefore, the sign, as it relates to the coming Cross, is that only a grand total of 250 men actually mindfully and knowingly conspired against Messiah at His crucifixion.
We are to absorb this, in light of the 2,700,000 to 3,000,000 Israelites present in Jerusalem at the time. Let us ask ourselves, how many members of the 3 branches of government in the United States would it take to commit a great evil? A handful in the White House, a couple dozen very determined leaders of the House and Senate would suffice to order the military to launch a war, including a nuclear option, just because…with the true reason hidden. Even so, this nation’s 280,000,000 would be put in jeopardy for all the consequences of the actions of these few men. Even so, it was with Israel. Therefore, anti-Semitism, simply based on their fulfilling prophecy in killing their own King through their leader’s manipulation of Law, has no real basis. GOD has given Israel to mankind as a gift, and they are to be treated as equals, and even with greater respect, because the gifts and calling of GOD are upon them, without repentance. Any person or entity, seeking the destruction of Jews or Israel, is de facto, a hater of GOD and a blasphemer of Jesus Christ.

4 cf. the Semitic of Daniel 3:25. If the centurion was like the Righteous soldier from Galilee, and a friend of Israel, then the translation of intent is obvious to be “Surely this Righteous One was THE Son of GOD.” The particular argument here, is in what language did the centurion speak? Obviously, he would have been fluent in three required languages: Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Hebrew being his most recent acquisition, he then would have uttered in his most native tongue: Latin. At the ages of 12-15, boys are sent to a 5 year boot camp on the isle of Sardinia, and grilled and drilled into being the Roman fighting machine, whose battle readiness must be a minimum of 5 hours of intense combat endurance. Drilling day in and day out, then, using Latin and the trumpet by instinct and temperament -- this centurion spoke Latin, and the Gospel writers translated based on their knowledge of Latin at the time they heard the utterance.

5 cf. Benjamin Blech, “The Secrets of Hebrew Words”, Northvale, NJ: Aronson, 1990, p.23

6 cf. Harris, “The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament”, Chicago:Moody Press, 1980, pp. 970-971

7 In the mind of Trajan, Christians were still considered a Jewish sect; and it was the Jews of the “Near & Middle East”, who were derailing his plans of conquest. Therefore, the kindness and innocence of Ignatius was lost on the Emperor, because of the equating of all Israelites leaders as being saboteurs who preached and practiced sedition (whether openly or philosophically).

8 Matthew 13 shows first, the parable of the seed. Jesus carries His cross, and then the Apostles sow after Him (Matthew 13:11). The seed is scattered about, some making it properly into their fitches, and bearing much fruit. That seed, which makes it into the fitches, does so because Jesus guides the direction of that seed: which are defined as being the “sons of the (Heavenly) Kingdom” (Matthew 13:38). Therefore, the Cross brings forth that treasure which is both new and old for every believer. The cross is the plough, and we are the seeds. Therefore, water yourselves in the Word of the LORD: and grow, grow, grow.

The location of Christ's Cross: Hidden to the south and right

Old Testament Confirmation in Teman and Toemnin

In the Hebrew of Habakkuk, the significant word that deserves our focused attention is “Teman”, which denotes “south and to the east.” That is, to the same general location of the Kidron as what we have already looked to -- in relation to the Great Two Witnesses and the True Messiah of Israel, YHVeH Messiah Jesus Christ. In the King James Version of Habakkuk 3:3, we read,
“GOD came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.”

Teman is that which lays to the south of one’s Right Hand. It is likened to a servant who follows at his master’s right hand, but three steps behind. In geography, Teman is in Edom, to the south and to the right hand of Jerusalem, as one faces north: on the eastern bank of the Dead Sea (Jeremiah 49:7,20; Amos 1:12). Obadiah 9 calls Teman “Mount Esau”, “the hill of the firstborn son”.{1} Mount Esau is the location of the hidden city of Petra (“Petra” means the “Rock”, a Messianic identifier).

In Yiddish Food, according to the respectable work of John Cooper, we find that the Ashkenazi dish of Toemnin derives its name from Teman.{2} The Sabbath dish is “covered and hidden,” it is “concealed” for more than an entire day. It undergoes a period of “sleep”, of “rest”. It is “a dish of life” to some, a dish despised “as death itself” to others. The location of the Cross and the tomb of Resurrection, is to us, Toemnin: “it is hidden and concealed” by the ravages of wars --and the ravages of time -- upon the landscape of Jerusalem.

Paran, which accompanies Teman in Habakkuk, deals with the “revealing” of that which is “Teman” or “Toemnin” -- a revealing of that which is covered, having been hidden and concealed. Like the book of Revelation’s title, “Paran” is the “pulling back of a covering” to show what lies within. It is a revelation of that which was covered until now, that which was once hidden and concealed; but now, light having shone forth upon it, so that it is no longer in the state of darkness. Even as YHVeH Messiah taught,
“For not -- is a thing hidden (without a purpose),
which if (were)not (hidden), it may be revealed;
nor came it (first) into being (as) covered,
that it might come into the Light (and be not as a thing still hidden).”
(Mark 4:22 - translation mine)

Again, note the contrast of these two words, of being “hidden” and “revealed” in relation to Messiah’s ministry at the Cross.
‘To the South of one’s right hand’ -- Teman; Crucified (dark)
‘Covered’ -- Toemnin; Dead & Buried (dark)
‘ Revealed’ / ‘Revelation’ -- Paran. Resurrected (light)

Even as the covered Sabbath casserole dish must rest over a very low flame for more than a day, stewing in its own juices to be the tastiest: so too, should this mystery “come to light”, after having stewed for two days -- being two millennia (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8), to be the most appreciated. Toemnin is as an allegory of being as a Sabbath food for those -- in these last days -- who would partake of a Sabbath Rest in the work of YHVeH Messiah: whom we know as Jesus the Christ. Amen. For it was on the High Sabbath of the Passover that Christ was crucified; and like the Sabbath casserole, He was hidden and concealed, as though under a lid. He was covered with a great stone in a tomb. The location was Teman -- “south and to the right” (of the Temple of Jerusalem).

Therefore, even as the early Church fathers might say,
"…Salvation is become a physical reality, and the Apostles are (shown to have been) filled with a form of completed knowledge or understanding, and the Passover of YHVeH advances…"
(The Epistle [of Mathetes] to Diognetus, .12 - translation mine)


GOD comes forth from the South and to the right to conquer

The word “Paran” tells us that Messiah, who was dead and buried, and covered up, is alive to be revealed unto all. GOD is not GOD of the dead, but of the living, energetic, and bright shining ones (cf. Matthew 22:31-32).

Unlike their modern day descendants, the people of ancient Israel were cognizant of their Scriptures beyond the five scrolls of the Torah. In the 1st Century A.D., there appears to have been one perspective in which GOD would come down in power from above, after the manner of “Paran”.{3} GOD would then, by means of a great and powerfully shining revelation, roll back the heavens and reality, as if He were rolling up a great Cosmic scroll. In doing so, GOD would then rid Israel of their enemies before the establishment of His Kingdom. But watch which direction He comes from.

"And YHVeH shall be seen over them,
and His arrow shall go forth as the lightning,
and YHVeH GOD shall blow the trumpet,
and shall go with the whirlwinds of the South." (Zechariah 9:14)

"YHVeH came from Sinai, [Mt. Sinai - from south and east of Jerusalem]
and rose up from Seir unto them;
He shined forth from mount Paran, [a revealing light from the south & east]
and He came from the myriads of the holy ones at the Right Hand
as His fiery hillsides (Heb. - asheda) went out to meet them."
(Deuteronomy 33:2)

In the Scriptures, noteworthy scholars inform us that the Hebraic singular ashed [spelled Alef-Shin-Dalet] (ravine, valley slope) is used only in Numbers 21:15. Its plural 'ashedot' or 'ashdot' is used specifically for the Jordanian River and its regions, including those near and around Mount Pisgah (Deuteronomy 3:17,4:49; Joshua 10:40, 12:8).{4} Clearly, there is a connection for us to look south and east of the Temple. Thus, from the Right Hand (East) and from or with the whirlwinds of the South, GOD comes down and forth, as the valleys and ravines lift up to meet His Coming.{5} GOD descends on Mt. Sinai in Arabia,{6} travels north, then northwest or westward toward Jerusalem. At such a time, GOD will reward the faithful who did not faint, and thrust out into the outer darkness the unfaithful (Zechariah 2:5).{7} All the while, reaffirming that it is in this direction, from the Temple, in which we ought to be looking.


Ezekiel’s vision of the coming Cross in this location

“And the glory of YHVeH went up in the midst of the city,
and stood (as though erected or propped up)
upon the mountain eastward of the city.” (Ezekiel 11:23)

In the Hebrew of the above verse, the Hebrew for “went up” is VeYaAhL (Vav-Yod-Ayin-Lamed), “alah” in the Qal imperfect. Comparison of “alah” in the phonetic should also be made (Alef-Lamed-He and Ayin-Lamed-He). In the Tanakh (Old Testament), alah is often translated as “that which is brought up”, and as “that which is offered up”.{8} The idea conveyed here, is not just that which merely “ascends” or “goes up from”; but “that which is being led away from.” It is a word picture prophesying of Christ being led away to the crucifixion.

The Greek equivalent is “ago’, from which root word “angel” is derived. It is a picking up, of carrying away, and of coming, going, or leading away. That “leading away” in “Alah” is the same experience that Jesus (called Yeshua in the Hebrew) experienced personally, in fulfillment of this prophecy, when He was led away from the midst of the city, from Gabbatha. At Gabbatha, within the walls of Jerusalem at “the Pavement”,{9} Jesus was judged and whipped, and dispatched. The Cross passed from here, through the Siloam Gate, and out to that mount “eastward of the city” (Ezekiel 11:23).

This verse is so important in prophecy, that in Ezekiel 43:1-7, we see how that Tawech (Tav-Vav-Kaf] is reinforced so that it clearly defines how that the entire Temple Mount area, including that which would later become known as “Gabbatha”. Again, “Gabbatha” was that “midst of the city” from which “the Glory of YHVeH” was “led away from.” Tawech is a derivative from a Hebrew root word that means, “to sever”. And, indeed, “after 62 weeks…Messiah the Prince…(was) cut off [severed], but not for Himself”(Daniel 9:23). So, even in Ezekiel, we have a prophecy signifying the manner in which Messiah must die consistent with that of Jesus Christ: as being led away (and rejected out of Jerusalem), then lifted up and killed (in a propped up manner such as a crucifixion).



The glory of GOD points us: EASTWARD.
When the glory of YHVeH “stood” upon the mountain, eastward of the city, the word used here for “stood” in the Hebrew is VaYAMaD (Vav-Yod-Ayin-Mem-Dalet). This word not only means “to stand”, but is also inclusive of “that which is propped up” or “erected”, such as the Cross. Even as the Cross was erected and stood up, being propped by means of a rope and pulley system, so too, does the prophecy point to a “suspension” or SeLaH of GOD’s Glory to the East of the Temple, and in relationship to the Siloam Gate.
In getting to this location, we find that the Kidron torrent river was flowing in John 18:2.
Twice, on the night prior to the Crucifixion, Christ and others crossed this flowing (flash flood runoff) river. That means: that there were at least two wooded bridges that specifically crossed the Kidron from Mt. Moriah to Mt. Olivet in Jerusalem in A.D. 30:
1) in the northeast area by the Temple spanning Olivet to Moriah; and
2) one to the south, spanning Olivet to the Lower city near the Gate of Siloam.

This latter point requires a road leading north on the westward side of Olivet from En Rogel to this bridge. Christ, upon being cast out of Jerusalem, was denied access of the lower city bridge, and had to wade through its frigid running torrent. This is informed us in prophecy found in 2 Kings 6:6. In this, we are shown that both Simon (now bearing up the Cross) and Christ (whom Simon bore up the Cross for) had to cross this stream of the Kidron. {10}

Only one “river” in Jerusalem is ever mentioned concerning the Passover. That torrent-flood runoff stream is Easterly from the Temple: the Kidron. In 2 Kings 23:13, the Mount of Olives is viewed in the context of a northern and southern mount, or a double peaked mount, as it were. Modern geographers will designate this Mount of Olives with 4 peaks. The southern aspect of this mount is known as Lehar HaMaschiyith , the “hill of destruction” or the “destroying mountain”.

While some uses of Maschiyith mean “to pull down” (e.g. Genesis 13:10, and Ezekiel 26:4); it is also translated as “to wound” in Exodus 21:26. Both of these carry Messianic implications: “the pulling down of strongholds” via the Cross, to which Paul alludes to in 2 Corinthians 10:4; and being “wounded for our transgressions” in Isaiah 53:5. Even the bruising of the head, while having His heel bruised in turn, in Genesis 3:15, can be experienced through the Cross in prophecy and Gematria at this location.

The tomb of “the rich man” is in this general location, at the westward base of this 4th peak of Mt. Olivet; for in relation to the Tomb, we see the prophecy of Isaiah, which states:
“[GOD] Who raised the Righteous (One) from the East,
called Him to His foot.” (Isaiah 41:2a)

That is “resurrected the Righteous One from the Eastern hill of Olivet”, and from this direction, GOD the Father “called Him up in the clouds to Heaven” -- Acts 1:9,11.

We are given an overwhelming amount of internal Biblical Evidence that places the Cross and the Tomb in this location South and East of the Temple. So why has this information been ignored, and why hasn’t this area been excavated as of yet? Because, as Paul points out, even when that which is known of GOD is made clear and apparent, men will prefer to hold an alternate version or slant upon the truth, to follow after the lusts of the vanity of their imaginations -- that they may be void of GOD in them (cf. Romans 1:18-23). And as Messiah puts it, “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil”(John 3:19 - KJV).

-----------------------------------------------------

1 As indicated in Obadiah 9, Edom (the desert lands of southern Jordan, South of the River Arnon and EAST of the Dead Sea, is the place of origin for the modern Arab Palestinian; showing their claim upon Israel’s land is fraudulent. For further study and documentation, read the eminent Joan Peters in her book, Peters, Joan “From Time Immemorial”, © 1984 Harper & Row, published of late by JKAP in Chicago 2002. Joan Peters is a thorough researcher / author, in regards to Mid-East/Israeli affairs.

2 Cooper, John “Eat & Be Satisfied”, Northvale, N.J.: Aronson, © 1993 This entire section was inspired by the insight of Toemnin/Teman as a covered Sabbath dish.

3 In the First Century A.D., just like today, there was an expectancy of GOD's Spirit to mysteriously fall from the heavens and light upon the faithful in the same miraculous and eventful manner that in those times of antiquity GOD fell or came down upon His prophets and judges to deliver the people of GOD from their oppressors. This notion they gathered from passages and commentaries such as that which might have been gathered about Zechariah 12:8, which reads:
"And in that Day: YHVeH shall protect the inhabitants around Jerusalem;
And it will be that he who is feeble among them in that Day (shall be) like David:
and the House of David (shall be) like GOD, like the ANGEL of YHVeH before them."

(cf. The Hebrew - Greek - English Interlinear Bible (Literal translation), Green, Jay P., sr. (Editor), Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, second edition 1986.)

This led to the populist idea among the zealots, such as Judas Iscariot, that when the Kingdom of GOD came with Messiah, the feeble would receive vigor and rejuvenation to be as mighty David in his peak years. In that time, the House of Israel would take pre-eminence among the nations, and dwell as if they were gods. The Greek uses “theoi”, which Herodotus the Greek historian translates as “the disposers” (Herodotus, Histories, 2.52). In other words, the rabbis taught that the destiny of the Jews was to be the masters of this world. Being supermen, meant being GOD-empowered, and that power then being used to subject even GOD’s Kingdom to the human, but Jewish, whim.

In effect, World War II and German National Socialism was GOD’s object lesson to the Jews. This was because, in an attempt to name and claim by "faith", the leaders of the Jews at Jerusalem, those of the Sanhedrin (the ancient governing religious body politic of the Jews) called themselves "NASI" or "princes". It was for a warning upon the modern descendant of Jacob that GOD allowed an enemy to rise up and be “princes” and “rulers” called Nasi, though spelled n- a-"Z"-i. However, the eyes and ears were again shut to the obvious warning from GOD in not straying after the sins of these ancestors who are denounced in a manner like Korah, Datham, Abiram, and the prophet Balaam are in the Scriptures.

4 Harris, “The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament”, p.176
5 Isaiah 40:3-5
6 Galatians 4:25 clearly identifies Mt. Sinai as being in Arabia.

7 There will be Hebrew bodies piled high in Jerusalem’s Kidron and Hinom Valleys by the many tens of thousands, as every last Jew on earth (at that time) fights for their existence. These will also be piled as high as the horses bridle (cf. Zechariah 12:11; Revelation 14:20, 16:16). The return of Messiah, that there be flesh saved, regards His mission to the Jews, not the nations (Matthew 24:22, cf. vv. 16-22 in context; and Mark 13:20, cf. vv. 13-20 in context). The city of Jerusalem is besieged by the armies of anti-Christ in one-third, being westerly; and by the armies of the Asiatic warlords in one-third to the north and east. It is held from the Temple by one-third via the Jewish remnant, who for 45 days are hanging on for dear life from days 2580-2625, but are now being butchered in the valleys of Hinom and the Kidron, cut off from all escape (cf. Revelation 16:12, 16,19; Zechariah 12:3-9; Daniel 12:11-12; Jeremiah 31:38-40; Joel 3:14-17; etc.).

8 cf. Harris, Archer, Waltke “The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament”, Chicago: Moody, © 1980, 12th print, Vol. 2, p.666; Vo. 1, pp.41-46. ; Zodhiates, Spiros “The Complete Word Study Old Testament”, Chattanooga: AMG, © 1994, p. 2349. In regards to textual criticism, compare the Hebrew extensively in Gematriac phonetics extensively with the Greek “aggelos” and “ago”.

9 Notice: that Jerusalem’s use of “the Pavement,” is almost like that of what we could visualize as like unto a Colonial Square of Cobblestones. It is an expression that the rest of Jerusalem’s streets are NOT founded in stones, like many of the Roman main arteries; and that the streets were dirt and rock of the mountain itself. The only exception to this will be that of the Temple itself; but even within the Courts of the Gentiles, the pave stones were covered in a layer of dirt, to ease the securing of animal excrements, in order that the Temple be not defiled. This is demonstrated when Jesus, while at Solomon’s Porch, stoops down and writes (probably the Hebrew word for Falsehood: Sheqar רקש) in the dirt in John 8:6,8 -- (followed underneath by the names of the accusers, from oldest to youngest).

10 The tree or “cross” of 2 Kings 6:6 being cast into a river, is taught in miracle of the floating axe-head, as Irenaeus relates:

“And the man of GOD said, ‘Where did it fall?’ And he showed him the place. And he cut down a tree, and cast it in there, and the iron floated."

[That is, he cut down a tree and cast it into a river, --2 Kings 6:6 -- signifying that Christ had to carry His cross through the cold Kidron brook following a recent rain, and during runoff. This was a sign that through death, as through the Jordan, Christ will bear the souls of all men who believe, aloft to Heaven with Him. It is also a greater depth understanding to the bark (Heb. “eitz”) that was cast into Marah, and made the bitter waters sweet. This shows that the coming Cross of YHVeH is the only means by which one can attain the Living Waters of YHVeH, and hence, eternal life. For the laws and statutes were “uplifted” (Heb.- “nisahu”) as upon the coming Cross, and “tested” in the uplifting. (Exodus 15:23-24). Cf. Riskin, Shlomo - Jerusalem Post International, “Weekly Portion”, February 6, 2004 p.31]

This was a sign that souls should be taken up and away, being borne aloft through the instrumentality of wood, upon which he suffered, who can lead those souls that follow up and away and aloft that follow His ascension.
This event was also an indication of the fact, that when the holy soul of Christ descended [into Ge-Hinom], many souls ascended and were seen in their bodies. [Matthew 27:52]. For just as the wood, which is the lighter body, was submerged in the water; but the iron, the heavier one, floated: so when the WORD of GOD became one with flesh, by a physical and hypostatic union, the heavier and terrestrial having been rendered immortal by the Divine Nature, was taken up and borne into Heaven, after the Resurrection.” (Irenaeus, Fragments .28)
Roberts, “The Ante Nicene Fathers”.

New Testament specifics to the location of the Cross

In the New Testament's Book of Revelation, the Great 2 Witnesses of the Tribulation Period {1} are slain in Jerusalem, in a street spiritually called "Sodom and Egypt". These two witnesses will come in the near future, and they will confirm -- by their deaths -- a very close general proximity of where Jesus suffered His crucifixion.

Therefore, what I teach as being the true location of Christ’s crucifixion will eventually be confirmed by the prophetical and literal deaths of these two great witnesses. They will clearly be known to every nation on Earth, and their identification will be unmistakable. When the deaths of these two Great Witnesses are televised, the precise location of their bodies, lying exposed to public view and in respects to the Temple, will be known -- to within a matter of feet. The media will mark and aerial photograph the very spot, and the nations will demand that they continuously look -- “live from Jerusalem” -- upon their bodies. That Day of their demise will be greatly exalted as a Day of celebration, which must be immediately commemorated with gifts as if it were a “New Christmas” holiday (Revelation 11: 9-10). Let us look at it:

The Two Witnesses
"And I will bring forth to those 2 Witnesses of Me,{2}
and they will prophesy -- having been clothed in sackcloth -- 1,260 days.{3}
This they are: as 2 Olive Trees, and as 2 Lamp stands,{4}
standing before the GOD of the (whole) Earth.

And if anyone acts to execute harm upon them,
fire proceeds out of their mouths, and devours the enemies of them;
and if anyone acts to execute harm upon them,
thus, it is inevitably necessary that he is to be killed.

These have --and hold the right and might of -- Authority to shut the heaven,
in order that it does not rain in the days of their prophecy;
and the right and might of Authority - they do continually possess upon the waters, to turn them into blood; and to touch - strike - and smite the Earth with all plagues, as often as they will it to action, wherever and on whosoever.
And fulfilling their desires, they reach the full end of their Witness.{5}
The Beast, he ascending up out of the Abyss, will make war in their midst,
and will overcome them, and will kill them.
And the bodies of them (will lay) upon the Great City's Plateia,
which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where our LORD --
was indeed -- crucified." (Revelation 11:3-8, w/ Greek word pictures - Translation mine)

In locating the Plateia (or “street of Egypt”) in Jerusalem, “where our LORD was crucified”, we revisit Matthew 13:22 with Jeremiah 46:7-8, and surmise that “Egypt” in Jerusalem deals with the Kidron Valley.

We are required (by Scripture) to first locate this geography of Jerusalem that is called “Egypt”; and then to intersect that location with the geography called “Sodom”. The manner in which the location of “the street of Sodom”, in Jerusalem, is identified as the Hinom valley -- is quickly dispatched with the fact that the Hebrew Ge-Hinom (“Valley of Hinom”) is transliterated in the Greek as Ge-henna (“the Valley of Burning Fires”). Here, the booths of branches were annually burned -- following the Feast of Tabernacles. Here, many tens of thousands of paschal lambs were likely cooked in open fire-pits for the Passover festivals. Here also, in the Valley of Hinom, did the children of Israel abort their fetuses, and burn them as sacrificial offerings in hopes of prosperity from the demons (e.g. Jeremiah 7:31-32). From branches to lambs to children, the Israelis apparently burned them all in the Valley of Hinom.

This part of the valley of Hinom to which we are most concerned, is directly SOUTH of the Temple, and runs in an east-west direction. Therefore, we need only to find the next intersection point: the Hinom valley representing Revelation 11:8’s “Sodom”, which Scripture describes as a place associated with “fire, brimstone (sulfur)… and great smoke as from a furnace” (Genesis 19:24,28).


The Gospel of Paul also points to this location

The book of Hebrews is identified by Irenaeus as being the good news of Paul, and composed by his pupil, Luke (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.1.1.). The inference is that this composition follows Paul’s death in Rome with Peter, on June 29, 57 A.D. Therefore, Hebrews is a pre-70 A.D. composition, with a pre-70 A.D. concept of Jerusalem, written only 27 years following the LORD’s Passion. In this book, Luke (in circa July of 57 A.D.) records the words of Paul, who taught:

"Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. For that the heart be established with grace (is) a good thing --not with meats, which have not profited those who have been obsessed with them.
We have an altar, whereof they, which serve the Tabernacle, have no right to eat.
For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the Sanctuary
by the High Priest for sin, are burned without the Camp.

Wherefore, Jesus also,
that He might sanctify the people with His own blood,
suffered outside this gate. [The gate of burning, the Hinom]
Let us therefore go forth unto Him without the Camp, bearing His reproach."
(Hebrews 13:9-13)


In the Temple rituals, from what appears to be the case, the animals were sacrificed, and the bodies of the lambs were carried to one’s tent / tabernacle / or home in Jerusalem. The ashes of the sacrificial blood that was burnt upon the logs of the altar-fire, were removed from the Temple Mount, by assigned Levitical priests. These men were all 25-50 years old. They used cart and ass or cart and donkey, and traveled west from the Temple Court, and then south into and through the lower city. These Levites normally left the walls of Jerusalem by way of the Dung Gate, to burn the bodies of various sacrificial animals (bullocks, turtle doves, etc.) in the Hinom Valley through the rest of the year. They would then take the ashes, and bury them in the wilds of Judea, in the Dead Sea area, stopping through various Dead Sea Communities for this purpose. The vessels carrying the ashes of the blood of the Temple were separate and not to be mixed with the vessels carrying the ashes of the Hinom Valley. Simon the Cyrene was a Temple Levitical Priest, assigned to the vessels of the Hearth of Fire on the Passover, and was en route back to the Temple, when he was kicked about with the knees into submission by the Romans.

In regards to Kohen charge of burning the bodies of the Temple Sacrifice, the Passover lambs were the exception. The heads of every family gathering (pre-divided into groups of 13) would take the Passover home, and then take what was leftover himself into the Kidron to burn those bodies, being about 240,000 lambs incinerated each First Passover in the Hinom Valley. This lent credence to the Scripture of all Israel being called out by GOD to be a nation of priests (Exodus 19:6; 2 Peter 2:9; cf. - Revelation 1:6, 5:10, 20:6). At the Temple, the Kohen priests would burn the logs and the blood of some 230,000 to 240,000 lambs in the great altar cauldron, which measured some 30 feet across. The logs and blood of the Passover sacrifices are representative of the Cross. So, when Simon the Cyrene left the Temple, carting the Temple ashes of wood and blood, he was already carting the Cross. When he returned, he was chosen to fulfill that religious duty literally. And he was a man considered strong and robust by the Romans, being a powerful looking man between age 25 and 50.

Therefore, on the Passover, we must mentally re-adjust our senses. In A.D. 30, there was in the air the smell of burnt mutton, and the smell of blood. This was the incense of Jerusalem and for many miles round about, as the smoke choked the air like a thin fog of smog during Christ’s Passion. It is likely that Christ suffered not only a lack of oxygen from being crucified, and hyper-ventilated because of a large blood loss...but that he was effectively choking on the smoke from the Hinom as well. One of the signs given in the KJV's Acts 2:19's "signs in the Earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke."
The emphasis is that the crucifixion occurs outside the South-southeastern gate, through which the bodies of those sacrificial beasts were cast out and "burned". The only primary location known for this activity at Jerusalem is the Valley of Ge-Hinom, which is transliterated as 'Gehenna' (γεεννα) in the Greek, and as "hell" in the English.


Outer Darkness: the Plateias in Jerusalem
When GOD returns to Jerusalem to save the final Jewish/Israeli remnant on Day 2625,{6} He finds His people thrust into the “outer darkness” of the city (doomed to destruction). To these, He makes a way of escape by creating a Valley through Mount Olivet, and in effect, hiding them in the Cross. From thence, because of His glorious light and presence, all the nations round about at Jerusalem then find themselves as being thrust into the outer darkness, and doomed to destruction.
In grappling with this concept of being “thrust out into the outer darkness”, we may this concept better by looking in an odd place. When the Two Great Witnesses of the Tribulation are killed in the “street” of Sodom and Egypt, in Jerusalem on Day 1286 ½ in Revelation 11:8, John uses the word “Plateia”.

"And their dead bodies (that of the Two Witnesses, shall lie)
in the STREET [Gr. - Plateias] of the great city,
which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt;
where also our LORD was crucified.” (Revelation 11:8 - re: KJV)

In this passage of Revelation 11:8, we read, the word for "street" in the Greek as being πλατειας: PLATEIAS. To translate it simply as "a street" only, in this passage, is misleading and lost upon the English language reader.

The plateia is "the outer darkness":
a) “the echoing chasm”(outside a city);
b) “it is the fork of two highways;
c) it is that open area of two valleys joining; and,
d) it is also an open area’s corners or exalted points, be it a courtyard or park, that acts as a type of embankment or curve to be merged into.

The outer darkness and plateia are represented by “curves”. Darkness is a curvature of the principle of light. The Hebrew word for “righteousness” involves the concept of a perfectly straight line, rod, or beam. The concept of sin is to be curved, not fit as a straight line, to miss the mark due to a veering off. Plateia incorporates into its concept, not only a veering off, but a “dropping off”: such as an embankment that veers off downward, and becomes a ditch or chasm. This is representative of sin, and its end- result. Jesus tells us if those who are in bondage to sins, lead others suffering from the same bondage to the same types of sins, they shall both fall into destruction -- as though into a ditch.{7}

Here, in the angles, corners, and embankments of the Plateia: Judaizing hypocrites pray openly to be seen of men (Matthew 6:5){8}, even after they have robbed their own parents and spent their inheritances. They behaved as if to attract the giving of alms into their hands under false pretenses.{9} Here, in the angles, corners, and embankments of the Plateia: people eat and drink and some even teach (Luke 13:26); and here, the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind blend into the crowds (Luke 14:21).

So, by its own definition, the "Plateias" must either be within the city of Jerusalem at some court or open area, -- or it must be in the outer darkness of the city, where at least two “highways” or “valleys” meet. Two, because we need a “way” called “Sodom”, and another called “Egypt”, both intersecting -- as defined by Revelation chapter 11. Since Pompey filled the northern chasm up, and the Jews in Herod’s time built a new city called “Bezetha” upon this filled in place;{10} we must rule that this northern area is completely, geographically, and prophetically, as disqualified.

If you were to observe the location of Judas Iscariot’s last act, you would see that it is precisely in a “gonias plateian”, an embankment in the “outer darkness” of Jerusalem. The “gonias plateian” is an exalted place within the Valley, which could be prominently seen. Judas’ hanging served as an anti-thesis to the crucifixion. The Pharisees saw themselves as the “Sons of Light”, as protectors of the Holy Temple and the Faith. Those without were considered as “the Sons of Darkness” and “the children of Belial”. The Dead Sea Scrolls describe the rift within the Pharisaic sect, not the Essene. In this regard, I believe the Dead Sea Scholars scholars have been wrong from day one. The perspectives of the Dead Sea Scrolls are of rifts of those Pharisees who formerly served within the Temple, as being as highly placed as that of Temple Commanders, but who were unable to effect change -- so as to weed out corruption by the ruling establishment. That ruling establishment appears to be inclusive of the “house of Caiaphas”, a Sadducee Galilean “house” (or family tree) that bought and ruled the Sanhedrin and high priesthood through the power of wealth.

Therefore, we can now more clearly comprehend the actions and motivations of Judas Iscariot, as a loyal Galilean and devotee of a faction within the Sanhedrin. This same Judas was the betrayer of Christ. Judas had conspired with “the Sons of Light” against Jesus (Dead Sea Scrol1 QM 1:1ff; Luke 22:3-6), whose identities are described to us as that of being the Temple Commanders and scribes. But, when Judas realized that he was not in an alliance with “the sons of Light” after all, what did he do? He went out into the outer darkness, where Christ hung and quivered. In the outer darkness of the city -- the freezing body of Messiah was shaking violently upon the cross. Judas gazed in great remorse upon the Cross, and by hanging himself; Judas declared by his action (within the first hour or two of Christ’s Passion) that the “sons of darkness” had taken over the Temple within, and cast the true “Son of Light” without.

Christ hung and quivered in the “outer darkness” on a tract of land called “Golgotha”, on a clear and cold breezy day in March. The night rains had (by this time) fully blown through, and Jesus was hung in the one place where most of the 3,000,000 who gathered in Jerusalem and could gaze upon Him. Christ Himself, with His right eye not beaten shut,{11} would also have been able to gaze upon the disciple of Him, across the Valley, hanging limp and lifeless upon the tree, strangled by a cord on a tree limb that extended over the south Hinom embankment.

Judas would have had to crawl out and then dropped from the end of the limb for maximum viewing effect. He probably did not break his neck initially, but strangled himself in the manner that would have mimicked a Sanhedrinal judgment. As a false witness who caused an innocent’s death, the Temple Tradition was that Judas should have been strangled by two men pulling on a cord about his neck in the presence of the Sanhedrin acting as a Beth Din, following a fair religious trial. The first priests, because of their equal guilt, refused to condemn him or even consider the matter.

Upon the earthquake at 3 pm, when Christ died upon the Cross, the body of Judas (which had now hung for at least 4-5 hours by this time), bounced on the rope until the limb snapped, and fell headlong onto a boulder or such below, where his corpse broke in half, and spilled out all his bowels (Acts 1:16-18).

Picture now an analog clock with its two hands. Place the clock’s hands as revolving from the central point of the Kidron and Hinom juncture. This is your compass. Fix the 12 o’clock as north. Set the hourly hand for 3 o’clock. Set the minute hand for the number 7, so that your clock now reads 3:35. You now have the approximate compass position of Christ and Judas, as of 12 noon on March 23, 30 A.D., just before the whole world became as the confusion of night.12
This aspect of the crucifixion has been lost upon the Christian: that those who gazed upon Christ were offered this alternate spectacle of Iscariot across the Valley; and that Jesus too, would have gazed upon His own dead disciple.

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1 The Tribulation period is descriptive of the end of the world, as we know it. It is the end of the period of grace, and the beginning of Daniel 9:24-27’s 70th week of years. Each week of years is defined as 7 actual years upon the earth. When Jesus died upon the Cross, He stopped the Judgment clock, and we entered into a period of grace. That last week of years is determined to bring all sins, from the age of Adam to ours: to a finality, to cut it off and to kill it -- therefore judgment and wrath from GOD. This wrath is upon all those who receive not the atonement of the Cross. Mankind is called to ask GOD that He would pass over their unrighteous acts and rebellion toward Him.
The 70th week of 7 years is collectively called “the Tribulation Period”, but it is actually divided into two halves (Daniel 9:27; 12:11,12). The first half is also referred to as the “Tribulation”, while the second half is the “Great Tribulation” and the “Day of the LORD”. In the first 1290 days, there is still a call to believe and trust Jesus and his work of the Cross, that they might be taken up, and away from judgment in the coming Elijahn rapture. At Day 1291, nuclear war strikes America and Russia, an asteroid strikes the Mediterranean, and over the course of the next 1335 days, the world’s population is decreased to possibly only the hundreds of millions. Our current planet population is somewhere close to 7 billion.

2 The Two witnesses are two famous biblical figures who were raptured or snatched up by GOD, as though through a time portal -- from their times to ours. The primary Biblical candidates are Enoch (Genesis 5:23-24), and Elijah (2 Kings 2:7-8,11). However, Josephus tells us that his Temple copy of the Torah, which was captured in the siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, indicates that Moses was indeed also “raptured up into Heaven,” and did not perish. -- The Temple Torah was taken to Rome, and placed in Vespasian’s “Palace of Peace” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 7.5.7). From here, in Rome, Josephus had full access to the Imprimis or “first” scroll of all Judaism Torah manuscript copies: that one scroll which was “in the first place” as the Source scroll (Josephus, Antiquities, 3.1.7., and 5.1.17.). From this source, Josephus informs us that Moses was clearly raptured into Heaven, like Jesus, from the presence of Joshua, in the location they were then at (Josephus, Antiquities, 4.8.48.).

This being the case, Enoch would then remain in Heaven as a type of the Heavenly Father. Moses and Elijah would then portal through time, even as seen upon the Mount of Transfiguration Matthew 17:1-5); and act as witnesses as a human type of GOD the Son and GOD the Holy Spirit. Moses the meek, possesses the characteristics of Jesus Christ the Messiah; and Elijah, displays the manners and character of GOD the Holy Spirit to the world for 1,260 days in the end-times.

3 The appearance of the 2 witnesses will be on Day 26 ½ from the circa 3 pm (Jerusalem time) signing of the 7 year Peace treaty which is signed by Israel, the “Palestinians”, representatives of the United Nations, Russia, Greece or Italy, the United States, and the European Union. They will probably show up at about 3 to 5 am that morning, Jerusalem time, upon the Mount of Olives in one of two locations: either the general tract of land where Jesus was crucified, ancient Golgotha; or in or near ancient Gethsemane. I do not believe it likely for them to show up first upon the bare exposed stone amongst the debris of the then “recently demolished Dome of the Rock”, but it is possible.

4 The number two symbolizes: the Two Covenants, Old and New; the Two Churches, Gentile and Jew. The Gentiles or nations of the New, do not and cannot replace the nation of Israel -- they simply join it, as a wild new Olive tree grafted into the great and large ancient one. Nor can the Jew dismiss the nations, as they are invigorated and made alive to an ever greater and greater fruitfulness because of them.
The symbolism of the two Olive trees: in the form of the two witnesses, they represent the Ark of the Covenant’s 2 Witnesses, being Cherubs or Seraphs. That is, those privy to the most holy and inner sanctum of GOD; who are instructed, and who know His will. The Cherubs of Solomon (I Kings 6:23-28) were each 10 cubits or about 17 ½ feet high (according to the more ancient 21 inch cubit, versus the less ancient 18 inch cubit).

5 Moses and Elijah will teleport to every nation upon the Earth (cf. Revelation 11:9-10), and instead of finding receptive audiences, they will be forced to command plagues and devastations upon the peoples they visit. They will have reached a full end of their witness, and ensured the safe in-gathering of all Jews upon the face of the Earth to Israel. Those of the tribes of Israel, who remain among the nations, are swiftly sought out and mercilessly slain. Moses and Elijah will perform miracles that will feed the ingathered nation of Israel, both physically and in the spiritual sense as well.

6 The Tribulation Period is divided into two sets of 3 ½ years. The first 3 ½ years last 1290 days, and the second
3 ½ years last 1335 days beyond, totaling 2625 days from the signing of the Treaty w/ anti-Christ, to the return of the True Messiah. (cf. Daniel 12:11,12)

7 Matthew 15:14. In context: Matthew 15:1-14 informs us that the “Holy Ones”, (the Pharisees), were robbing their parents, and driving them into severe poverty: so that they themselves might selfishly live softly. They considered the mission of protecting the Temple an excuse for starving people so that they may be fat, and well clothed, and live in oversized apartments or houses with fine things. Therefore, this particular sin of the Pharisees is “greed”, the love of money and wealth. Such desires are NOT planted by the Heavenly Father in the heart of the believer (Matthew 15:13). The vow of the Catholic priest to poverty after a fashion, is correct -- though his vow to refrain from marriage, is not. The consequences of soft living through robbery of Temple Treasuries, affected the families of these “Protectors of the Temple Order”, by teaching children the virtue of thievery and self-justification.

8 και οταν προσευχη ουκ εση ωσπερ οι υποκριται
"And/ but when you pray NOT shall (you) be as the hypocrites

οτι φιλουσιν εν ταις συναγωγαις και εν ταις
because they (brotherly) love in the Synagogues and in the

γωνιαις των
Corners (by the High or Prominent Places) of the
πλατειων
Plateian [the wide courts, streets, ways: inclusive of those ways and
valleys which surround city walls]


εστωτες προσευχη οπως αν φανωσι τοις ανθρωποις.
standing up alongside to pray so that may they appear to men.

“And when you pray, expressing your concerns and giving thanks,
you should not be as the actors who pretend brotherly love in the
Synagogues and in the places of prominence: the corners of the
Plateian, standing (up and openly) alongside to pray, so that they
may be seen of men.” (Matthew 6:5, translation mine)

9 Tertullian puts it this way: “Majesty is made a source of gain. Religion goes about the taverns begging” (Tertullian, Apology, .13). The city of Jerusalem was a city of pilgrimages and endless streams of people exercising charity upon the city and its Temple. Where there is an abundance of money, there are often an abundance of beggars.

10 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 14.4.1; Wars of the Jews, 5.4.2.

11 Cyprian, Against the Heresy of one Noetus, .18; tells us Christ closed His (one) eye upon the Cross.
After a beating of 400-600 open hand strikes, mainly by right hands against the left side of Messiah’s face, we would expect that whole eye to be bloated and swelled shut -- even hidden. Therefore, from Gabbatha to Golgotha, and until His death, Jesus was only able to see out of His right eye. This vision would also have often been blurred by sweat, blood, and agitation to the optic nerve from all the head trauma He suffered. However, there would have been moments of visual clarity. It was in these moments, whether several minutes at a time or more, that Jesus would have looked over the Valley, and seen Judas’ alternate spectacle / public apology. Satan probably spurred Judas into the act as a purposeful mockery, but the seriousness of the event was never used against Christ or his followers in that way.

12 Genesis 1:2 reads:
“And the Earth was then in a state of existence that no longer exists,
being an empty and barren place of nothingness, desolate, and without any life whatsoever; and the face immediately above the deep was darkness.” (Translation mine)

The Hebrew tells us that “In the Beginning…” the Earth had light upon its face, but not upon its depths. The earth was glowing, but not like a ball of magma. It was created as fully formed, as soft and hot. The word for the deep in Genesis 1:2 is tohum, i.e. “tohu”. While Job, 6:18 describes “tohu” as “a wasteland,” Job 26:7 uses “tohu” as the “dark vast and empty nothingness” upon which the Earth hangs. Tohu has a relationship with the Hebraic “hoshek”, which is “that darkness which is void of all light, promoting a predisposition to insanity and through chaos and the lack of orderliness.”

In the Greek New Testament, “hoshek”, in translation, is used to describe the literal blindness of men, as well as the spiritual. Genesis 1:5 informs us, that “GOD proclaimed the Light (as) Day, and the Darkness He labeled as Night.” The “Hoshek” [He-Shin-Kaf] He labeled as “the adversity (and the heartsick misery of falsehood)”, which a description of the sin nature. That is, before even the creation of the sun and the moon, there was a Day and there was a Night, and “the plan of Salvation”. Day and night created at the first, however, were in a state that no longer exists, nor can be comprehended at this present time. Psalm 104:2,5-6, suggests that the Earth in Genesis 1:2 was covered in light like as with a cloak of the shekinah clouds of GOD’s presence (2 Chronicles 5:13-14). Therefore, GOD covered “adversity (and the heartsick misery of falsehood)”, i.e. the sin nature that was to come, with the cloud of His glorious presence. Here, showing us that in the ages to come, that which is of earth would sin, and He would have to become its covering. This predicts the coming of the Cross from the foundation of the world.

The very word for “evening”, ereb / erev, has some 16 differing definitions to its usage. The rabbis themselves call this word “disorderly” and “chaotic”. Three of the more interesting definitions of “ereb” are:
1) as being a physical impurity;
2) as being swarms or dark clouds of flying insects;
3) as being that worldly pleasure and contentment that is derived from the hustle and bustle of trading and bartering, of purchasing and selling, of intermingling in the marketplace.
All of these are represented by the word “Egypt” in the Bible. But the more interesting aspect is its Gematriac association with Arab, which most appropriately describes the modern sons of Esau: which means “to ambush”, or “to lie in wait” as the crouching lion of sin. The word picture that is brought to mind, is that crouching lion of Cain’s anger and resentment that was ready to pounce Cain in Genesis 4:7.

In Gematria, the letter Ayin ע is interchangeable with the letter Alef א: spelling it now as [Alef-Rosh-Beth]. Rearranged, in the Gematriac analysis, Ereb now becomes Abur [Alef-Beth-Rosh]: “he who infuriates himself by crossing over from simply having wrongful thoughts, to the doing and carrying out wrongful words and acts.” Rearranged, this activity is Baar [Beth-Alef-Rosh]: “destined to be kindled and consumed by fire,” or as the “consummation of foods eaten by cattle” and cast out as dung piles. Therefore, from even before Adam’s creation, the destiny of Adam and his descendants, from Beginning to End, was foreseen and foreknown by the Almighty: from Adam’s rebellion, to YHVeH’s personal sacrifice, to the Lake of Fire and Judgment. And for man to choose “destruction over salvation”, “darkness over light”, is confusion and rebellion of the greatest disorder indeed.