✪ 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. "Over the centuries Islam has come to claim the Temple Mount--which they refer to as Al-Haram al-Sharif (“Noble Sanctuary”)--as one of their holiest sites. This is done on the basis of the account of Muhammad’s Night Journey in the Qur'an. In the Night Journey, which according to tradition occurred in approximately A.D. 620, the angel Gabriel takes Muhammad on a celestial horse to visit a “distance shrine.” Through the early Islamic period neither Jerusalem nor its Temple Mount were ever regarded as a place of Islamic pilgrimage, a fact not surprising since Jerusalem is not mentioned by name once in the Qur'an. However in the twelfth century, the Kurdish warlord Saladin mounted a large propaganda campaign claiming that the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem was indeed the “distant shrine” to where Muhammad had flown in his Night Journey. The fact that there was also a mosque at the site called Al-Aqsa (meaning “distant” or “farthest”) was used to make this claim certain and to justify an attack on the Christian crusaders who then controlled Jerusalem." Ref-1326, p. 109.
✪ "The Cathars (or Albigensians, as they were also called) were a sect of Gnostics: that is, they held the flesh in contempt, forswore procreation, believed the material cosmos to be the creature not of God but of Satan, thought this world a prison house in which spirits are incarcerated through successive incarnations, and preached salvation through inner enlightenment and escape from the fetters of birth and death." Ref-1290, p. 76.
✪ See (20160213090627.pdf).
✪ "The historian Josephus (AD 37/38 -- ca. 100) states that the book of Daniel was shown to Alexander the Great when he passed by Jerusalem in 332 BC: 'When the book of Daniel was shown to him [Alexander], in which he had declared that one of the Greeks would destroy the Empire of the Persians, he declared himself to be the one indicated.' [Josephus, Ant.11.337. S.R. Miller NAC 41.]" Paul Lawrence, Who Wrote Daniel?, Ref-0066, 28.1 (2015), 4-11, p. 9.
✪ 1K. 4:34
; Jer. 28:7; Eze. 39:23✪ The meaning of the word all must be established by the context.
✪ "I can imagine a question being raised at this point. 'What about 1 Corinthians 9, verses 19-23?' . . . This is a highly relevant passage. Looked at superficially it might seem to be the justification of much of this present-day argumentation which suggests that the pew should really control the pulpit. The Apostle on the surface seems to be saying that what he does is determined by the people to whom he is speaking. . . . This Apostle, of all Apostles-but it was true of all the others also-obviously does not mean that the content of his message varied with the people. He is only concerned here with the form of presentation. . . . q We should not be interested in the incidentals, in the temporary or the passing aspects of religion; we should be interested in the principles and the things that are permanent. And surely that is what the Apostle is saying. . . . What the Apostle says repeatedly is that while we must hold on to the essentials we must be elastic with regard to things that are not essential. He qualifies this because he is concerned about 'the weaker brother'. . . . The Apostle's argument, surely, is that there must be elasticity in our actual mode of presentation. But let us be clear that there are certain limits even to this principle. We must not be archaic and legalistic, but there are limits, and one limit, obviously, is that 'the end does not justify the means'. This is a very common argument today. The argument put so frequently is, 'But people are converted as the result of this.' We must not accept that Jesuitical argument, and we have good reasons for not doing so. . . . The fact is that the world expects us to be different; and this idea that you can win the world by showing that after all you are very similar to it, with scarcely any difference at all or but a very slight one, is basically wrong not only theologically but even psychologically. . . . we must never give the impression that all that is needed is for people to make a little adjustment in their thinking and ideas and behaviour; that is to militate against our message. Our message is that every man 'must be born again', and that whatever may happen to him short of that is of no value whatsoever from the standpoint of his relationship to God." Ref-1369, pp. 135-141.
✪ "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 אֱלוַֹהּ, ‘a god’ or ‘God.’ The root of these Hebrew words is assumed to be אלה, 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(h5959) here means virgin. How else is it a major sign (Isa. 7:11)? Septuagint translates using Greek "parthenos" which specifically is a "virgin". Mat. 1:23 clearly quotes passage as referring to Christ. Only 7 uses in OT: Gen. 24:43 Rebekah (unmarried, a virgin), Ex. 2:8 Miriam (unmarried, a virgin), Ps. 68:25 procession before God (better be virgins!), Sos. 1:3 purity in marriage, Sos. 6:8 contrasted with queens and concubines (non-virgins), Isa. 7:14 how could an illegitimate child be a sign? See Niessen's article, "The Virginity of the almah in Isaiah 7:14", Ref-0200 137/546 (1980):133-50. "God's instruction to have Shear Jashub accompany Isaiah when he confronts Ahaz as well as the switch from the plural you (Isa. 7:13-14) to the singular “you” (Isa. 7:15-17) makes it clear that this part of the prophecy is not directed to all the house of Israel but rather to Ahaz personally. Thus, having a futuristic prophecy fulfilled in the life of Christ in now way damages relevance to Ahaz since this passage contains two prophecies. One prophecy deals with the distant future and the other deals with Ahaz's immediate situation. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Messianic Christology (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 1988), 32-37." Andy Woods, "The Purpose of Matthew's Gospel, Part II", Ref-0785, Volume 11 Number 34 December 2007, 5:42, p. 7n6). "The phrase “shall not be established” refers back to this covenant recorded in 2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17. God promised David, in an unconditional covenant, that one of his descendants would sit upon the throne of David forever in Jerusalem. At the end of the covenant, God says “And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you, Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:16). The prophecy of Isaiah 7 was based on the Davidic covenant. . . . The word “you” in verse 14 is second person plural. In other words, he is no longer talking to Ahaz, but the whole House of David. As I understand the chronology of this period, the teenage Prince Hezekiah is alive and well in the courts of the House of David. The sign of the virgin-born son, Immanuel, was directed primarily toward him in order to encourage him to trust the Lord. A few years later, when he came to the throne, he had a great revival in that first year. His trust was only in the Lord." Gordon Franz, "Who is Immanuel?", Ref-0066, Vol. 20 No. 4 2007, 113:115, p. 114. "It was the adoption of the Septuagint by the early Church that was the biggest factor in its eventual abandonment by the Jews. The Septuagint’s use of parthenos, meaning “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 to describe the mother of the promised son Immanuel, was used by Matthew 1:23 as evidence for Yeshua’s virgin birth." -- 20160331194951.pdf
✪ 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. "Wadi el-Hol (1993) . . . just west of Abydos in southern Egypt, this site yielded an alphabetic inscription carelessly carved on the under-face of a ledge. It resembled in its paleographic form a similar text found at Serabit al-Khadem in the Sinai Peninsula, the latter dating to ca. 1600 B.C. and thought previously to be the earliest alphabet ever found. However, the Wadi Hol example is at least 200 years older, dating to the period in which Jacob and his sons lived in Egypt. The argument of former times that Moses (if he existed at all) could not have written the Torah in alphabetic form in early (ca. 1400 B.C.) thus has no basis." Eugene H. Merrill, Old Testament Scholarship and the Man in the Street: Whence and Whither?, Ref-0066, Vol. 24 No. 4 Fall 2011, 95-104, p. 99.
✪ 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, upsilon υ, 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, qoph ק, resh ר, sin שׂ, shin שׁ, 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
✪ One reason that God burnt the houses of Jerusalem is that their rooftops had served as places where offerings were made to false Gods (Jer. 32:29).
✪ ". . . note that Hebrews [Heb. 9:3-4] does not say that the altar was in the Holy of Holies. Rather, the author mentions the Most Holy Place as “having an altar of incense.” Although the altar stood before the veil in the Holy Place, its ritual use was connected with the Holy of Holies (see Lev. 16:12-13) The author of Hebrews was concerned with liturgical function, not physical location." Ref-1383, p. 31.
✪ ". . . Ezekiel 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’ (Exodus 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 Exodus 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.