#second temple period

[eretzyisrael]

[girlactionfigure]

[todaysjewishholiday]

Your ask game prompts are so good, I'm having trouble picking one moment in history to travel back to. EITHER the moment Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai snuck out of Jerusalem to bargain with the Romans and set the stage for rabbinic Judaism...OR Beit Shammai locking everyone in the attic so they could get their decisions voted in.

Your *answers* are so good! Here, I'm giving you the keys to the Today's Jewish Holiday time machine. Take it for a week and let me know where you end up going.

[mayday396]

"A Traitor! A Traitor to the Law! A Traitor to our forefathers! You hold the Sin of your parents and their parents before! Why should I let you into the Second Temple?"

"I have not come for you Pharisee, I came for that Star for it has shone above all, neither the Gods of the Nile nor the Djedi before me had seen such a sight.....I may not know who that is yet....but I will one Day I will...and so even if you don't let me in

*Loosen grip on Sica*

all roads lead to that Star"

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Meet ⲡⲁϣⲟⲛϯ (Pašonti), a Nubian Traveler hailing and escaping from Philae Temple, he is in search of a phenomenon known as

"The Christening" that appeared in his dreams and the signs around him.

Serious, Knowledgeable and a man of his word with tinge bit of Silly and Kindness, he is accompanied by two companions and his trusty sparrowhawk "Jubal".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I COMMISSIONED FROM an Instagram artist @ craftsquartch4

She is an excellent Artist with Wholesomeness on her side

This Character comes from historical Fantasy Idea I had taking place in 1st century AD Middle East, I have no title for it yet cause no idea whether I'll be turning this into a series or something.

[escapismsworld]

If you could escape to any other time period or world for one hour at a time, where/when would you go, and why?

Such a hard question to answer because there are so many different time periods to choose from.

If I could escape to any other time period for an hour, I would choose the turn of the century around 30 AD. I would love to experience not just the life of Jesus but also the rich interactions of the Romans, Greeks, Jews, and other Middle Eastern cultures and customs. Being able to witness these civilizations in their prime, with their buildings and structures standing as they were originally intended, would be awe-inspiring. The chance to observe the political and social dynamics of the time, to walk through ancient cities like Jerusalem or Rome before they became ruins, and to see how everyday life unfolded in such a pivotal era in human history would be an unforgettable experience. So for an hour I'd like to see all the hustle and bustle from everyone and everything.

So for 30 AD, I would be in:

The Early Roman Empire under Emperor Tiberius.

The Second Temple Period for Jewish history.

The Greco-Roman period for cultural interactions.

In a single sentence... I would like to visit 30 AD, the start of the 1st century during the early Roman Empire, in the midst of the Second Temple Period, when Roman, Jewish, Greek, and Middle Eastern cultures were thriving and interacting in ways that shaped the world.

[blueiscoool]

Very Rare 2,000-year-old Lilac Amethyst Stone Discovered in Jerusalem

The small lilac stone, featuring the engraving of a bird and a branch with five fruits, had fallen into the main drainage channel of Jerusalem from the Second Temple period.

A stunning 2,000-year-old lilac amethyst stone has been discovered in Jerusalem, including the first known depiction of balsam, a plant featured in the Bible.

It would once have been worn on a ring, and includes an unusual engraving of a bird and a branch from a plant bearing five fruits, according to experts from the City of David Foundation, who found it during excavations of the Western Wall foundations.

The branch engraved on the stone was from an expensive plant used to make perfume for the temple, and is featured prominently in the Bible and other records.

The temple was destroyed around 70 CE, and experts say this ring would have been dropped by someone into the drainage channel in the decades before.

The seal of the bird and balsam is what makes it stand out, as it is 'nothing like other seals used at the time,' and 'may be the first depiction discovered in the entire world with an engraving of the famous plant,' according to archaeologists.  

The plant featured on the iridescent stone is also known as the balsam tree or 'persimmon' and has the modern scientific name 'Commiphora gileadensis'.  

'Toward the end of the Second Temple period, the use of stone stamps expanded and became more common,' said Professor Shua Amorai-Stark, an expert in engraved gems.

'But in most stamps discovered so far with plant engravings, it is common to find plants that were common in Israel at the time: vines, dates and olives.

'But on this stone seal, we immediately noticed that the fruit that appears on it is unlike any of the fruits we have encountered to date.'  

As well as producing perfumes for the Temple, the plant was used in the production of incense, medicines and ointments.

According to the historian Josephus, Mark Antony gifted valuable persimmon orchards that formerly belonged to King Herod, to his beloved, Cleopatra.

Some commentators identify the persimmon in the list of gifts given by the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon.

This surprise discovery was found at the Emek Tzurim National Park operated by the City of David, where remains are sifted by archeologists and volunteers.

Participants were sifting soil from Israel Antiquities Authority excavations conducted along the foundation stones of the Western Wall, when they saw the 2,000-year-old tiny oval stone.

The seal is made of a precious amethyst, in a range of shades of purple and lilac, with a hole where a metal wire was inserted which was used to wear the stone as a ring.

The oval stone seal is just a third of an inch long, and despite its tiny size, includes two distinct engravings.

The first engraving shows a bird, probably a dove, and next to it appears a long, round, thick branch with five fruits on it, thought to be the  persimmon perfume plant mentioned in the Bible, Talmud, and various other historical sources.

'This is important because it may be the first time a seal has been discovered in the entire world with an engraving of the precious and famous plant, which until now we could only read about in historical descriptions,' sayid archaeologist Eli Shukron.

'The balsam plant is a positive symbol because beyond the fact that it was used to produce perfumes and medicines, was attributed magical and ceremonial properties and is one of the ingredients used for making the Temple incense during the Second Temple Period – which is when this seal was made.'

According to Professor Amorai Stark the dove is also a positive motif, as it symbolizes wealth, happiness, goodness and success.'

She said that the engraving on the seal attests to the identity of the person who wore the ring, suggesting its owner was a Jew with means.

This is because the production and trade around persimmon was tightly controlled at the time by Jews living in the Dead Sea basin, where the fruit was grown.

'I guess the owner of the seal was a man who owned a persimmon orchard, and when he came to the craftsman who made the ring for him, it is possible he may have brought a branch of persimmon so that the craftsman knew what to carve on the stone,' she explained.

Shukron added: 'The research that takes place around the finds allows us to get a glimpse into the daily lives of the people who lived in the days of the Second Temple, the glory days of Jerusalem.'  

[kemetic-dreams]

During the Second Temple Period, when Jews were living in the Achaemenid Empire, Judaism was heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Achaemenids.Jewish conceptions of Satan were impacted by Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrian god of evil, darkness, and ignorance.In the Septuagint, the Hebrew ha-Satan in Job and Zechariah is translated by the Greek word diabolos (slanderer), the same word in the Greek New Testament from which the English word "devil" is derived.Where satan is used to refer to human enemies in the Hebrew Bible, such as Hadad the Edomite and Rezon the Syrian, the word is left untranslated but transliterated in the Greek as satan, a neologism in Greek

The idea of Satan as an opponent of God and a purely evil figure seems to have taken root in Jewish pseudepigrapha during the Second Temple Period, particularly in the apocalypses. The Book of Enoch, which the Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed to have been nearly as popular as the Torah, describes a group of 200 angels known as the "Watchers", who are assigned to supervise the earth, but instead abandon their duties and have sexual intercourse with human women. The leader of the Watchers is Semjâzâ and another member of the group, known as Azazel, spreads sin and corruption among humankindThe Watchers are ultimately sequestered in isolated caves across the earth and are condemned to face judgement at the end of time. The Book of Jubilees, written in around 150 BC,retells the story of the Watchers' defeat,but, in deviation from the Book of Enoch, Mastema, the "Chief of Spirits", intervenes before all of their demon offspring are sealed away, requesting for Yahweh to let him keep some of them to become his workers. Yahweh acquiesces this request and Mastema uses them to tempt humans into committing more sins, so that he may punish them for their wickedness. Later, Mastema induces Yahweh to test Abraham by ordering him to sacrifice Isaac

The Second Book of Enoch, also called the Slavonic Book of Enoch, contains references to a Watcher called Satanael. It is a pseudepigraphic text of an uncertain date and unknown authorship. The text describes Satanael as being the prince of the Grigori who was cast out of heaven and an evil spirit who knew the difference between what was "righteous" and "sinful". In the Book of Wisdom, the devil is taken to be the being who brought death into the world, but originally the culprit was recognized as Cain.The name Samael, which is used in reference to one of the fallen angels, later became a common name for Satan in Jewish

[classicalmonuments]

Tomb of Absalom / Absalom's Pillar  (Yad Avshalom, Absalom's Shrine)

Kidron valley, Jerusalem, Israel

1st century CE

20 m.

Tomb of Absalom is an ancient monumental rock-cut tomb with a conical roof, a few metres from the Tomb of Zechariah and the Tomb of Benei Hezir. Although traditionally ascribed to Absalom, the rebellious son of King David of Israel (circa 1000 BCE), recent scholarship has dated it to the 1st century CE. 

The tomb is not only a burial structure in its own right, with its upper part serving as a nefesh or funeral monument for the tomb in its lower part, but it was probably also meant as a nefesh for the adjacent burial cave system known as the Cave or Tomb of Jehoshaphat, with which it forms one entity, built at the same time and following a single plan. The freestanding monument contains a burial chamber with three burial sites. The chamber is carved out of the solid lower section of the monument, but can only be accessed from the upper section via a built entrance and a staircase. It has been compared to Petra, given the rock-cut nature of the bottom segment and the style of the finial.

Absalom's Pillar is approximately 20 metres (66 ft) in height. The monument proper stands on a square base and consists of two distinct parts. The lower section is a monolith, hewn out of the rocky slope of the Mount of Olives, while the upper part, rising higher than the original bedrock, is built of neatly cut ashlars.

The lower half is thus a solid, almost perfectly cubical monolithic block, about 6 m (20 ft) square by 6.4 m (21 ft) high, surrounded on three sides by passageways which separate it from the vertically-cut rock of the Mount of Olives. It is decorated from the outside on each side by pairs of Ionic half-columns, flanked in the corners by quarter-columns and pillars (a so-called distyle in antis arrangement). The four square facades are crowned by a Doric frieze of triglyphs and metopes and an Egyptian cornice.

The upper, ashlar-built part of the monument consists of three differently-shaped segments: a square base set on top of the Egyptian cornice of the lower part, followed by a round drum crowned by a rope-shaped decoration, which sustains a conical roof with concave sides (the easily recognisable "hat"), topped by a half-closed lotus flower. The upper part of the monument corresponds to the outline of a classical tholos and is not unlike contemporary Nabatean structures from Petra.

On the inside, the upper part of the monument is mostly hollow, with a small arched entrance on the south side set above the seam area (where the masonry part starts). Inside this entrance a short staircase leads down to a burial chamber carved out of the solid, lower section. The chamber is 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in) square, with arcosolium graves on two sides and a small burial niche. The tomb was found empty when first researched by archaeologists.