Al Quds means 'The Holy' and is the Islamic title for Jerusalem. "In fact, however, when the Muslims captured Jerusalem after Mohammed's death (A.D. 637), they did not call it Al Quds, but Ilya. Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Koran, and while the term Al Aqsa is used, it simply means 'the endmost' or 'farthest' and has nothing to do with Jerusalem. Originally, it probably referred to a remote place in Mecca, or at the extreem, Medina. In addition, while Palestinians will assert that the Al Aqsa mosque at the southern end of the Temple Mount is the third holiest site in Islam, other Muslim nations such as Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, also claim to have 'Islam's third-holiest shrine' on their soil."
Ref-0142, pp.284-285. "the word Al-Aqsa simply means 'far corner'-- a term originally applied to the east corner of Mecca, not Jerusalem."
Ref-0146, p. 174. "Today the Muslims call Jerusalem Al-Quds ('the Holy'); however, the earliest Arab name for the city was Iliyia, derived from the Roman renaming of the city as Aelia (Capitolina). In the Islamic period, the name was Bayt al Maqdis from the Hebrew Beit Hamiqdash ('the Holy House,' i.e., the Temple), revealing the city's Israelite origin. Only later was the name changed to Al-Quds."
Ref-0146, p. 180.
"The desert Arab. . .feared and worshiped incalculable deities in stars and moons. . .Now and then he offered human sacrifice; and here and there he worshiped sacred stones. The center of this stone worship was Mecca [with] the Kaaba and its sacred Black Stone. . .in its southeast corner, five feet from the ground, just right for kissing. . . Within the Kaaba, in pre-Moslem days, were several idols representing gods. One was called Allah. . .three others were Allah's daughters--al-Uzza, al-Lat, and Manah. We may judge the antiquity of this Arab pantheon from the mention of Al-il-Lat (Al-Lat) by Herodotus as a major Arabian deity. The Quraish [Muhammad's tribe controlling Mecca] paved the way for monotheism by worshiping Allah as chief god; He was presented to the Meccans as the Lord of their soil, to Whom they must pay a tithe of their crops and the first-born of their herds. The Quraish, as alleged descendants of Abraham and Ishmael, appointed the priests and guardians of the shrine and managed its revenues."
Ref-0047, cited by
Ref-0017, February 2000. "In Mecca was the Kabah, a simple primitive structure housing a black meteorite which the Arabs worshiped as a fetish, and to which they brought sacrifices and came on annual pilgrimages. Some also worshiped Allah and the godesses at the Kabah. The building that housed the sacred meteorite was in the shape of an enclosed square; its name, Kabah, gives us our word for cube. Allah was the patron deity of the Quraysh, a tribe that made its home in Mecca."
Ref-0150, pp. 324-235.
"The moon god theory does not adequately explain the presence of the term 'Allah' in present-day Arabic Christian bibles. Evidence seems to suggest that this way of referring to the one true biblical God as Allah began to occur among Jews and Christians earlier than in Muhammad's time. Translations of parts of the New Testament into the Arabic language were done in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., in which the word 'Allah' was used for the true God." Imad N. Shehadeh, "Do Muslims and Christians Believe in the Same God?",
Ref-0200, vol. 161 no. 641, January-March 2004 (pp. 14-26), pp. 16-17. "The word 'Allah' is a cognate of the Hebrew plural הַּוֹלֱא, 'a god' or 'God.' The root of these Hebrew words is assumed to be הלא, which corresponds to the Arabic 'ilah, meaning 'a god.' However, while the moon god was referred to as 'ilah, or 'al 'ilah, it is wrong to conclude that 'al 'ilah contracts to 'Allah,' for this has little historical evidence. This popular view does not explain the elimination of the second syllable 'el (or 'il), which is the most important in 'al-'ilah where 'el or 'il is the Semitic word for God since time immemorial. Furthermore this popular belief sadly ignores the much more plausible notion that the word 'Allah,' like many other words--especially religious words--was imported from the Arabic 'alaha or 'alah, which is the word for the unique Christian God. Several lines of evidence support this Aramaic origin . . ." Imad N. Shehadeh, "Do Muslims and Christians Believe in the Same God?",
Ref-0200, vol. 161 no. 641, January-March 2004 (pp. 14-26), p. 18.
almah([[HebrewStrongs:h5959]]) here means virgin. How else is it a major sign (Isa. [[7:11|bible.23.7.11]])? Septuagint translates using Greek "parthenos" which specifically is a "virgin". Mtt. [[1:23|bible.61.1.23]] clearly quotes passage as referring to Christ. Only 7 uses in OT: Gen. [[24:43|bible.1.24.43]] Rebekah (unmarried, a virgin), Ex. [[2:8|bible.2.2.8]] Miriam (unmarried, a virgin), Ps. [[68:25|bible.19.68.25]] procession before God (better be virgins!), Sos. [[1:3|bible.22.1.3]] purity in marriage, Sos. [[6:8|bible.22.6.8]] contrasted with queens and concubines (non-virgins), Isa. [[7:14|bible.23.7.14]] how could an illegitimate child be a sign? See Niessen's article, "The Virginity of the almah in Isa. [[7:14|bible.23.7.14]]",
Ref-0200 137/546 (1980):133-50.
Earth = pin head, sun = grapefruit at 50', Plato at 2,000 feet (1/2 mile), alpha centauri = 3 stars size of grapefruit at 8,000 mile distance. Chuck Missler
For a chart comparing early alphabetic symbols, see
Ref-0151, p. 19. "As best as we can now surmise, somewhere between Egypt and Mesopotamia in the area of Syria-Palestine, some Semitic person(s) developed the alphabet. The time was perhaps 1750 B.C., and from this first alphabet all other alphabets are derived. . . . In Babylonia and elsewhere, legal and religious laws were inscribed and erected for public display. Hammurabi (c. 1750 B.C.), one of the well-known Babylonian kings, set up his stele (and upright stone monument) in order that any oppressed person might read his 250 laws and be granted justice."
Ref-0236, pp. 12-13. "Another [pot] sherd has been found and dates back to about 1100 B.C. It contains, with minor differences, the Hebrew alphabet of twenty-two letters."
Ref-0236, p. 16.
alpha α, beta β, gamma γ, delta δ, epsilon ε, zeta ζ, eta ε, theta θ, iota ι, kappa κ, lambda λ, mu μ, nu ν, xi ξ, omicron ο, pi π, rho ρ, sigma σ ς, tau τ, phi φ, chi χ, psi ψ, omega ω,
aleph א, beth ב, gimel ג, daleth ד, he ה, waw וּ, zayin ז, cheth ח, teth ט, yod י, kaph כ, lamed ל, mem מ, nun נ, samech ס, ayin ע, pe פ, tsadhe צ, rosh ר, qoph ק, shin שׂ, taw ת
Following is Sayce's list (PSBA, XXXII (1910), 215-22) with some variants: (1) aleph א = ox; (2) beth ב = house (tent); (3) gimel ג = camel; (4) daleth ד = door; (5) he ה = house; (6) waw ו = nail (Evans, tent peg); (7) zayin ז = weapon; (8) cheth ח = fence; (9) Teth ט = cake of bread (Lidzbarski, a package); (10) yodh י = hand; (11) kaph כ = palm of hand; (12) lamedh ל = ox-goad; (13) mem מ = water flowing; (14) nun נ = fish; (15) camekh ס =?; (16) `ayin ע = eye; (17) pe פ = mouth; (18) tsadhe צ = trap (others, hook or nose or steps), (19) qoph ק = cage (Evans says picture is an outline head and Lidzbarski, a helmet); (20) resh ר = head; (21) shin שׂ = tooth (not teeth); (22) taw ת = mark. Not all of these meanings are, however, generally accepted (compare also Noldeke, Beitrage Strassb. (1904), 124-36; Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, II, 125-39).
Ref-0008, (C) 1996 by Biblesoft
". . . Eze. [[43:17|bible.26.43.17]] states that the altar of burnt offering in the Millennial Temple will have eight steps facing east. Under the Mosaic Law this altar would have been illegitimate, because its stipulations prohibited both going 'up by steps to My altar' (Ex. [[20:26|bible.2.20.26]]) and an eastward orientation. This is why the altars in previous Temples were constructed with a ramp for priestly ascent (see Mishnah Middot 3:4) and with a north-south orientation. The reason for this prohibition (as well as the commandment in Ex. [[28:42|bible.2.28.42]] concerning the priests wearing linen underwear) was because of Israel's proximity to the Canaanite culture, whose priests ascended stepped altars in order to reveal their nakedness during their sacrificial rituals, which involved the worship of nature and fertility deities. In addition, the Canaanites worshiped the god Shamash, who represented the sun, which rises in the east."
Ref-0146, p. 548.