The Copper
Scroll, the Anointing Oil, the Temple Incense and the Ashes of the Red Heifer
Jeremiah and the
Five Guardians of Solomon’s Temple Treasures
Part Three
by Robert Mock MD
November, 2002
The Legacy of the Copper Scroll
The Holy Anointing Oil (Shemen
Afarsimon)
The Holy Temple Incense (Pitum haQetoret)
Kalal, the Urn that contains the Ashes of
the Red Heifer
The Ashes of the Red Heifer
Introduction
In part one of this series we became acquainted with the
fascinating document, Emeq HaMelekh and the roles of five worthy men, Shimur Ha
Levi, Haggai (Chaggai the Prophet), Zechariah son of Iddo, Zedekiah
(Zidkiyah), Hezekiah (Hizkiyah), Hilkiyah, Ezra the Cohen, and Baruch son of
Neriah the Scribe for Jeremiah who were commissioned on a secret mission to
hide the treasures of Solomon’s Temple.
Under the command of King Josiah, the Prophet Jeremiah as
recorded in the Book of Maccabees secreted, with these Jewish revolutionaries
for the God of Abraham, the museum archives of the Nation of Israel. These
treasures possessions were stored in Zedekiah’s Grotto or Cavern under the
Temple Mount (Hiram As-Sharif) below the Temple of Solomon (Beit HaMikdash).
There the Sanctuary of the Congregation (Mishkhan) described in the Torah, the
Ark of the Covenant, the Menorah, the Altar of Incense were stored in times of
security.
These were taken to a safe haven several miles from
Jerusalem in the Valley of Achor, near the caves of the Essene community of
Qumran fames for the Dead Sea Scrolls and in site of Mount Nebo. This site was
accessible by the extensive tunnels that extended from what is now known as
Solomon’s (Schlomo’s) Quarries or Stables. Now in the Emeq HaMelekh, a group of
Mishnahs, we can read the rest of the story of how the vast treasures that was
saved for the future atonement of the chosen people of God at the time of the
end.
Vendyl Jones and his Research Institute and the Temple
Institute have been prominent in the quest to find the Qalal, a pottery jug
containing the Ashes of the Red Heifer, the Wilderness Sanctuary (Mishkhan) and
the Ark of the Covenant. This chapter we will be introduced to the discoveries
of the of the Copper Scroll (Luach Nehoshet), the Anointing Oil (Shemen
Afarsimon) which was used the anoint the prophets and the kings, the Temple
Incense (Pitum haQetoret) and the special Incenses Spices prepared by the noted
Jewish Avtinas family for the Jewish Temple.
The Qalal (Kalal) with Ashes of the Red Heifer still awaits
discovery, for it was used according to the Seder Ha Olam during the dedication
of the Sanctuary Tabernacle and without it the waters of purification needed to
cleanse and purify a new Jewish Temple would not be possible. Here the story of
the ten red heifers that were to be killed before the time of the messiah
(Moschiach) and the nine red heifers that were sacrifices for a sin offering
between Sinai and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE will be told. It was
the officiating priests, Ezra the Cohen, Shemon HaTzaddik, Yochanan High
Priest, Hananel Egyptian, Ishmael Piabi who took the heifers ‘outside the camp’,
across the Kidron Valley and over the Bridge of the Red Heifer to the Miphkad
anointed altar on the Mount of Olives.
Whereas in Christian theology, Jesus (Yeshua) has been seen
as the Passover Pesach lamb, he is also an anti-type of the heifer that was
slain as a sin offering on the Day of Atonement. Now we will see that the
extensive Jewish temple ritual of the burning of the red heifer will be seen in
literal detail to be prophetically reenacted by the trial of Yeshua by the
Sanhedrin in the Chamber of Hewn Stones, the walk through the eastern gate of
the temple, across the Kidron Valley and the crucifixion of Jesus (Yeshua) on a
tree as a final reenacting the sacrifice of the red heifer on the Miphkad altar
on the Mount of Olives. Omens prior to the destruction of the temple by the
Roman forces on the massive door called Hekel, the crimson cord are also
portrayed in the aborted attempt to sacrifice the tenth red heifer. With the
discovery of the mikhvoat baths for the high priest above the Gihon Springs and
the possibility of Solomon’s temple as being erected at this site, we will
consider that the tenth red heifer has truly been sacrifices in the death of
Jesus, the one called Yeshua son of Joseph brother of James the Just.
These are the holy
vessels and the vessels of the Temple that were in Jerusalem and in every
place. They were inscribed by Shimur HaLevi and his companions, on a "Luach
Nehoshet" (Copper Plate/Sheet), with
all the Vessels of the Holy of Holies that Shlomo son of David made. And
together with Shimur were Hizkiyahu, Zidkiyah, Haggai the Prophet, and
Zechariah, son of Berachiah, son of Ido the Prophet.
In this
Mishnah, we now see the five Temple treasury guardians as they work together laboriously
inscribing on what is called the “Luach Nehoshet” or the brazen, brass or
copper sheet or plate (Strong’s 5178 - nekj-o-sheth). This is our strongest
evidence of the origin of the Copper Scroll found at Qumran.
The
Copper Scroll by the West Semitic Research Project
The picture is now beginning to unfold. Zechariah and his
famed end of times Oracles, with Haggai
and his five exhortations to encourage the speedy rebuilding of the temple of
Zerubabbel, along with Zidkiyah, the 1st civil leader of the newly
returned Jerusalem community and Hizkiyahu and Shimur HaLevi were all
co-conspirators and accomplices in the secret spiritual and religious mission
to preserve the sacred vessels of the Mishkon (Sanctuary) and the articles of
temple service in the renown Temple of Solomon (Shlomo)
The Legacy of the
Copper Scroll
The Copper Scroll was part of the collection of the Dead
Sea Scrolls discovered in May, 1952 in cave Qvj3
in the caves of Qumran. It was first translated in 1956-57 after the
archeologists designed a way to cut the copper sheets that had been rolled up
into two copper rolls. Within the Copper Scroll it described the location of
where the Qalal (the copper urn that hold the ashes of the red heifer) and the
Temple treasures are hidden including possible cryptic references to the Ark of
the Covenant, the Altar of Incense and other sacred furnishings of the Mishkhan,
the Wilderness Sanctuary of the Congregation hid by the Prophet Jeremiah.
Yet most researchers believed that this scroll either was a
forgery, or was part of the temple treasures of Herod’s Temple that were
secreted away prior to its destruction from the Roman forces in 68-70 CE. So
the Copper Scroll lay ignored for over twenty years in the Museum of Amman,
Jordan. As M.A. Ben-Luria stated, “…the validity and authenticity of the
Copper Scroll would remain in question until one single item mentioned in the
scroll is discovered. Once something is found at Qumran that was listed among
the 64 designated items and places in the Copper Scroll, the scroll’s validity
would finally be unquestioned.”
The Holy Anointing
Oil (Shemen Afarsimon)
And so it was. In April, 1988, the Vendyl Jones Research
Institutes in collaboration with Professor Yoseph Patrich, Benny Arubas and
Benny Agur of the Hebrew University made an astounding discovery. A juglet of
the Shemen Afarsimon, the Holy Anointing Oil was discovered in Cave 13
(Jordan’s Cave #24). The Pharmaceutical Department of Hebrew University tested
the substance inside the small juglet and gave their scholarly verification
that it was the Shemen Afarsimon of Psalms 133.
Shemen Afarsimon, the
Holy Anointing Oil
Psalms 133 - “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down
upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went
down to the skirts of his garments: as the dew of Hermon, and as
the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the
Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore.”
This Anointing Oil was used by the Prophet Eli to anoint
King Saul and later King David and Solomon, but also the High Priests
of the Temple of the Lord and the Prophets. This oil was also used as a
fragrance that was poured on the oblation to provide a ‘sweet smelling savor’
on the sacrifices.
The Holy Temple Incense
(Pitum haQetoret)
Also within the Copper Scroll, is documentation of the Holy
Incense that was used to by the priests to sprinkle on the Altar of Incense in
the Holy Temple. On April 8, 1992, the excavation team of Vendyl Jones
Research Institute, was searching the strata in the Cultural Dome of the
‘hidden north entrance’ at the Cave of the Column”, when Glenda Hurst, a
volunteer called out to Larry Banks, “Come over here and look at this. It’s
some kind of red stuff that is very different.” The taste test and the smell
test revealed an organic compound with a hint of cinnamon in it.
The samples, that were sent to Dr. Marvin Antelman with the
Weizman Institute and Ya’acov Arkin at the Israel Institute of Geology, both
determined that the substance was indeed organic, for the "density indicates that the material which is lighter
than water is excluded from the category of red soil or red minerals......also
the high percentage of ash is typical of plant source." In all, it was identified that this
substance contained eight of the eleven spices present in the Pitum
haQetoret (Temple Incense), all in a highly refined state. This was again
confirmed again at the laboratories at Bar-Ilan University. With the addition
of two additional inorganic ingredients, Karsina Lye and Sodom Salt, which was
found near by in the same cave, ready to be mixed with the spices, the
ingredients of the Holy Incense, the haQetoret, would be mixed to be used in
the Temple services according to the Torah and the Talmud.
Later and more exhaustive testing and analysis by Dr. Terry
Hutter, a paleo-botanist, who stated that not just eight ingredients, but ‘the
red-brown spice sample is composed of nine different and unique plants.
The plants are recognizable both by pollen and organic maceral types.” These
plants types include.
·
Three kinds of Cinnamon
·
Saffron
·
Balsam
·
Myrrh
·
Galganum
·
Cassia
·
Frankincense
There on the cave
floor a total of eight hundred pounds of spices (600 kilos) were
waiting to be
mixed and transported to the Temple. This quantity of spices is significant
because it is
equivalent to the amount of spice used in one year of daily sacrifices in
the
Temple. In
the Torah, only four ingredients are listed for the haQetoret,
whereas the Mishnah lists eleven ingredients plus
Sodom Salt and Karcina Lye.
It is also in the
Mishnah that records that the Avtinas family were given charge and
custody of the
secret recipe of compounding the pharmaceutical mix of these spices
and ingredients.
The has been recorded that the fragrance of the haQetoret was so
powerful that
when it was being mixed, one could smell it clear over to Jericho, twelve
miles north of
Qumron.
Qalal, the Urn
that contains the Ashes of the Red Heifer
In March, 2002, in a farm in Galilee, an Israeli rancher had
a cow that gave birth to a red heifer that was born without blemish that is no
white hairs on her body and face. After the heifer was a month
old the Temple Institute was contacted and Rabbi Menachem Makeover and Rabbi
Chaim Richman to inspect her. There they found this young heifer to be kosher
and a potential candidate to become the 10th red heifer in Hebrew
history.
The
Red Heifer in 2002
The world press was abuzz with the news of the birth of a
pure red heifer in the Land of Israel. The orthodox community of Israel was all
astir, and the topic of discussion was when was the era of the Last Days and
the 10th Red Heifer about to begin? In the Siddur, called the Four
Parshiot in the Parah, it states, “The hiding place of its (the red heifer)
ashes will be revealed” and in the Mishnah, Tractate Parah it states that
the tenth red heifer that will be burned will be done in the time when the
Messiah (Moschiach) comes and restores a new Temple for His people.
This young heifer was only a month old, yet within two to
three years, if no more than three white or black hairs are found on her body,
the orthodox Jews would have sufficient reason to take possession of the Temple
Mount, where most of them feel the Temple of Solomon had been built and begin
the construction of a new temple there.
The reports of the birth of a potential red heifer, though
genetically rare in this age of advanced genetic knowledge and artificial
insemination, are becoming more frequent. According to an article in The
Mid-East Dispatch, issue 237, the 16th of March 1997, that a six month old red
heifer had been born to a black and white cow and a dun colored bull, in the
religious kibbutz, Kfar Hassidim, near the northern Israeli port of Haifa.
This heifer called Molly, was also declared kosher, but within a year blemishes
and imperfections were noted.
This
arcane piece of Biblical knowledge on the purification rites of the red heifer
has left the Christian community puzzled and the Islamic community in
consternation. In the beginning of the Israelite nation, Moses (Moshe) was
standing on Mount Sinai and was given not only the two tablets of the Decalogue
engraved on stone, but the Written Torah in which the letters (Words) were
given one by one by the Lord of hosts to Moses for him to write down. This was
the Written Torah of the Hebrews which included the first five books of
the Hebrew Scripture called the Pentateuch, which he was to write down as
dictated to by the Lord of hosts. On the other hand, the Lord spent 120 days,
40 days on three separate ascents by Moses, in which he revealed to Moses how
the these ordinances and commandments of the Lord were to be put or lived out
in human life. This was called the Oral Torah.
The Ashes of the
Red Heifer
The Mishkhan, the Tabernacle of the Congregation,
built in the wilderness by the skills given to noble craftsman, called Bezaleel
under the supervision of Moses, was dedicated according to the Seder Ha
Olam on the 1st day of the 1st month (Nissan) in the
second year of the Exodus (Jewish year 2449 from Adam). The first day of
services was completed and according to the Seder Olam, on the second
day, Moses was instructed by the Lord of hosts to have the priest Eliezar,
the priest, take a perfect red cow, under the age of three and who had not had
a yoke put to her neck, and lead her out of the camp of Israel into the
wilderness and slaughter her.
Numbers 19: 1-8 -
19:1 - “And the Lord spake unto
Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
19:2 - “This is the ordinance of
the law which the Lord hath commanded saying, Speak unto the children of
Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without
spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:
19:3 - ‘And ye shall give her unto
Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without
the camp, and one shall slay her before his face:
19:4 - ‘And Eleazar the priest
shall take of her blood with his finger and
sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven
times:
19:5 - “And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and
her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:
19:6 - ‘And the Priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast
it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
19:7 - “Then the priest shall wash
his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come
into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even….
19:8 - “And he that burneth her
shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be
unclean until the even.
19:9 - ‘And a man that is clean
shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a
clean place, and it shall be kept for the
congregation of the children of Israel (“as a keepsake for Israel’) for a water of
separation: it is a purification for sin.
19:10 - “And he that gathereth
the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even:
and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and
unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute forever.”
There in the wilderness
that is outside the camp of the Israelites the red heifer was then burned with a mixture of cedar, hyssop and scarlet
covering. Here the
cedar, oil from the juniper bush in the Sinai desert, would cause a skin
irritation, which would stimulate the applicant to vigorously rub the solution
in their hands. The hyssop oil was known for its antiseptic properties, as
Hyssop oil contained 50 percent carvacrol, and antifungal and antibacterial
medicinal agent.
Note carefully that we
say burned, as this demonstrates that whole body of the heifer, even the blood
and organs were burned to ashes. The ashes would then be made into a liquid paste and used in the water of purification that a Jew or Israelite must undergo
in a ceremonial purification cleansing before they can enter the Temple
complex. The ashes were then gathered by another priest who was recognized to
be ritually ‘clean’ and kept in a vessel
in a place outside the camp of Israel that was also kept ritually ‘clean’.
After that a small fragment of these ashes could be placed in water
in a vessel or thrown upon a body of water. How do we know if this water was purified? According to
the rabbinic tradition, if the surface of
the water became disturbed when the ashes touched the water, then purification had occurred.
According to the
historical records kept by the Jews in their Mishnah, a total of nine perfectly red heifers have been
burned. In the Mishnah 5, called the Tractate Parah, these nine heifers burned in the sacrificial history of the Israelites and
the Jews have been recorded.
“The
first heifer that was burned was under the
supervision of Moses on that 2nd
day of Nissan in the second year from the Exodus. The second heifer was burned under the
supervision of Ezra; two were
burned by Shimon Ha Tzaddik; two were
burned by Yochanan, the High Priest, the seventh by Eliehoenai, the son of He-Kof, the eighth by Hanamel, the
Egyptian, the ninth by Ishmael, son of Piabi and the tenth will be burned in the time of
the Moschiach.”
In this same tractate, Mishnah 5, it uncovered the conditions that would be vital to purify
the future generations of Jews and Israelites at the end of times. The oracles
of God state over and over that the chosen people were to be a Holy People and
a Holy Nation. The rites of purification were therefore applicable not only to
the people of God but also to the Land. For the rites of purification to exist
in the End of Times, the ashes of the
tenth heifer must be mingled with the ashes of the previous nine heifers.
In the days of the first
and the second temples, the ashes were divided
into three parts. The
first lot of ashes was kept by the Levites who guarded the entrance of the Temple. The second lot of ashes was kept on Anointment
Hill, now called the Mount of Olives. It was on that sacred mount that the prophets and the
kings were anointed. It was also on that site that the priest would be
purified in a ceremony that was deemed necessary before he could burn the body
of another red heifer. The third lot was placed in the chail, a portion of the wall
approximating the Women’s Gallery of the Temple.
Yet a puzzle still
exists. If you will notice, from the time of Moses and the dedication of the
Sanctuary of the Congregation at Mount Sinai until the fall and destruction of
the Temple of Solomon, the ashes of only one red heifer was used in the
purification of the priests and the temple. This suggests that the Wilderness
Tabernacle (the Mishkhan) until the end of the days of Solomon stayed in a
state of ritual purity in which very little of the ashes of the red heifer had
to be used. After the death of Solomon and the split of the House of Judah
from the House of Israel, the Temple services still remained a strong moral
force in the Land of Judah, until the days of King Manasseh, the son of
Hezekiah, a king with such evil in his heart that he sold the physical and
moral fiber of the Kingdom of Judah to the Devil.
2 Chron. 33:2-4,5-7,9
(parts)- “He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abomination of
the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
…he built altars for all the host of
heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he caused his sons to pass
through the fire in the Valley of the Son
of Hinnom; he
practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft
and sorcery, and
consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of
the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God….so Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitance of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had
destroyed before the children of Israel.
It was the reforms with
the subsequent purification and dedication of the Temple, plus bringing the Ark
of the Covenant from its hiding place in the bowels of Solomon’s Grotto a
thousand feet under the Temple by the twelve year old King Josiah, it appeared that
the ashes of Moses’ Red Heifer were almost fully used up. At the end of
Josiah’s reign, the Prophet Jeremiah advised that the Ark and the Wilderness
Sanctuary be hidden permanently.
After the return of the
Jewish exiles from Babylon, the second Red Heifer was sacrificed, apparently to
rededicated the new Zerubbabel’s Temple to the Lord. During the years from 520
BCE (350 BCE by Jewish yearly calculations), until 70 CE when Temple of Herod
was ransacked and destroyed, eight more heifers were slaughtered. This
suggests that from 1585 BCE to 538 BCE, over one thousand years, ritual purity
was maintained within the Sanctuary and the Temple complexes, yet for the last
420 years until the destruction of Herod’s Temple, there was a constant and
repetitive breeches in the rites of purification of the priests and the temple as
given by the Lord of hosts to Moses.
According to the
traditions of the Jews, after the death of Jesus, the hierarchy of the temple priests
became more and more aware that the sacrificial
system within the temple was corrupted and not accepted in the eyes of the Lord
of hosts. Note what
the Talmud states occurred at the time of the death of Christ.
Shabbat 15a - “Forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin was banished (from the Chamber of Hewn Stones in the Temple) and sat in the
trading Station (in the Temple to the east of the former Chamber)”
Yoma 39b - “Our rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the lot (‘For the Lord’) did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson
colored strap become white; nor did the western most light (the three lamp shaft with seven lamps each on the right
side of the Menorah nearest the Holy of Holiest) shine; and the
doors of the Hekel (the large doors into
the Holy Place) would open
by themselves.”
The altar upon which the
Red Heifer would be burned is called by the rabbis as the Miphkad Altar. In Nehemiah 3 we see the historical description of the
reparations done to the gates of Jerusalem. The Miphkad Gate was one of the
gates into the city which was near the corner of the city near the Sheep Gate.
Nehemiah 3:31-32 - “After him repaired Malchiah the
goldsmith’s son unto the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over
against the Gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the
corner. And between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate repaired the
goldsmiths and the merchants.”
The Hebrew meaning of Miphkad is ‘appointed’, which is also referenced in Ezekiel 42, which
talks of the bullock being burned as the sin offering at the appointed place
(Miphkad).
Ezekiel 43:21 - “Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place (Miphkad) of the house, without the
sanctuary.”
Combining the burning of a cow (bullock) as the sin offering at an appointed place (Miphkad) which was outside the
sanctuary, we can now
see combines all the elements of the crucifixion of Jesus, who also was
crucified as a sin offering for all the sins of the world and according to some
scholars was crucified on a ‘tree’ on the Mount of Olives, without the sanctuary,
at an appointed place designated by the temple priests and the Romans. This
crucifixion was also for the future purification of the saints and remnant of
the chosen ones of Israel at the coming of Y’shua, the messiah.
The author of the Book of
Hebrews make an interesting analogy between the Red Heifer and Y’shua.
Hebrews 13:9-13 - “We have an altar from which those who serve the
tabernacle have no
right to eat. For the bodies of those
animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for
sin, are burned outside the gate. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with
His own blood, suffered outside, the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”
As all the other
offerings in the temple services were also utilized as food for the priests and
Levites, the bodies of the bullock, goat and the red heifer were to be burnt
with their whole bodies were reduced to ashes.
There were four types of
sin offerings. Three of these were killed or slaughtered at the slaughtering
arenas within the temple proper, “before the presence of the Lord. (Lev 4:4)
All three had their blood sprinkled seven times before the Inner Curtain which
veiled the Holy of Holiest. All three sin offerings had their bodies carried
out of the camp to be burned to ashes on the altar outside the camp.
The first sin offering was a young bullock which was
slain for the sins of the high priest. (Lev. 4:3-12) and the final
burning was in a clean place outside the camp. The second type of sin offering was also a young bullock which was
slain for the corporate community of
Israelites, the entire
assembly (Lev. 3:13-21) The ritual separation of the fat and certain organ was
the same as the first bullock. The third
sin offering was on
the Day of Atonement in which a young bullock and a
goat were carried outside the camp and burned in the entire carcass of the
animals. (Lev. 16:27)
The holiest of all the sin
offerings, was the fourth sin offering, the Red Heifer. The red heifer, offered as a sin offering for purification
of the collective congregation of Israel, was slaughtered according to the dictates of the Lord of
hosts to Moses outside the camp of Israel. (Num 19:3) Unlike the other sin
offerings, the Red Heifer was walked over
to the Altar on the Mount of Olives and there burnt in
its entirety. The
difference of the red heifer and the other sin offerings is that the other three
were absolving sin, giving the recipient freedom from sin or in a sense,
salvation. On the other hand, the ashes
of the red heifer were to bring holiness. The blood of the red heifer was sprinkled outside the
camp, the body burned to ashes and then the ashes through some mystical process
that left even the wisdom of Solomon bewildered, bestowed holiness and
purification with the pure spring water as its was sprinkled over not only people, but over the land. They purified the temple with
it. They could purify the entire city of Jerusalem if needed or the entire Land
of Israel.
Let us let Alfred Edersheim explain the deep meaning of the Red Heifer.
“As
the first manifestation of sin which separates man from God, defilement by the
dead required a Sin-offering, and the ashes of the red heifer are expressly so
designated in the words: “It is a sin-offering.” (Num. 9:17) But it differs
from all other sin-offerings. The sacrifice was to be a pure red color; one “upon which never came yoke; and a female, all other sin-offerings for the congregation being
males….But what distinguished it even more from all the others was, that it was
a sacrifice once for all, (at least so long as its ashes
lasted); that its blood was sprinkled, not on the altar, but outside the camp towards (westward) the sanctuary; and that it was wholly burnt,
along with cedar wood, as the symbol of
imperishable existence,
hyssop, as the of purification from
corruptions, and
“scarlet” which from its colour as the
emblem of life. Thus
the sacrifice of Highest Life, brought as a sin-offering, and,
so as far as possible, once for all, was in its turn accompanied by the symbols of Imperishable existence, freedom from corruption, and
fullness of life, so as yet more to intensity its significance. But even this
is not all. The gathered ashes with running water were sprinkled on the third and seventh days on that which was to be purified.
Assuredly, if death meant “the wages of sin,” this purification pointed in all
its details, to “to the gift of God,” which is “eternal life”
through the sacrifice of Him in whom is the fullness of life.” (The Temple,
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Michigan. 1987, pages 348-349)
The High Priest was
forbidden to offer the sacrifice of the Red Heifer. In the same manner and in
the same location, only Y’shua, the son
of God, and as our High Priest, could offer His life as a ‘sin offering’ for the entire planet would also
be sacrificed ‘outside the gate” or
“outside the camp”. This strongly suggests that the place where
the red heifer was slain was also near the site where Jesus was crucified. This was the Holiest area
surrounding the city of Jerusalem. (Berakoth 9:5)
What does “outside the
camp” mean? In Numbers 15:35-36, it is clear that the death penalty under the Torah was to be administered
“outside the camp.”
Yet what were the limits or how far away from the camp of the Israelites was
this to be?
As the children of
Israel were moving throughout the wilderness, they kept a certain distance
between the Wilderness Tabernacle and the encampment or their places of
habitation according to their clans each with their standards and ensigns.
(Numbers 2). When they were to follow the Ark of the Covenant around the city
of Jericho, this ‘distance’ that they were to keep away from the Ark of the
Covenant was specified.
Joshua 3:3 - “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord you God, and the
priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go
after it. Yet there shall be a space
between you and it,
about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it (ark)…”
So they needed 2000 cubits or 3000 feet or 1000 yards in order to maintain the sanctity
of the ark and for the preservation of their own lives. According to the
Hebrew law, the place of residence for an individual, whether a tent or a
house, would extend out from its abode for 1000 yards. If the place of
dwelling was in a corporate site such as a walled village, a Levitical town or walled city, then the city limits was 1000
yards from the outer walls of the village, town or city. The House of the Lord, wherein rested the Holy of Holiest and the Ark of the
Covenant, was the symbolic dwelling place of the Lord of hosts. To be “outside
the camp” or “outside the gate”, it would have to be over 1000 yards (2000
cubits) from the Temple Proper or the residence of God.
During the days of
Christ, the Sanhedrin, who governed from the Chamber of
Hewn Stones, which was on the left side of the Holy of Holiest facing east, or
the north side of the Temple proper, used the same calculations to determine
the corporate city limits of the city of
Jerusalem. Since the
court of the Sanhedrin stood as the center, a radius of 1000 yards determined
the limits of their encampment. Outside this perimeter was ‘outside the camp’.
As such the traditional sites of
Jeremiah’s Grotto, the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and a small
hill north-east of the Damascus Gate would be excluded from this definition of “outside
the camp” and thereby excluded as potential sites for the crucifixion of Jesus.
The Hebrew author takes
it a bit further. He recognized that the Torah (Law) was but a shadow of the
future saving power to be brought by the Son of God. Jesus, as the ultimate
‘sin offering’ for the world would give His body to pay the penalty of sin in
order that sin could be eradicated forever from this planet and this universe.
Yes, Y’shua as the Living Torah, would fulfill all these shadow and types
imbedded in the sanctuary services.
Hebrews 10:11-13 - “And every priest stands
ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. But his Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of
God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. (Ps.
110:1, Eph.1:22, ‘the last enemy that will be destroy is death” 1 Cor 15:26)
This typology was inclusive of the both the bullocks and
the goats which were
used as sin offerings and the red heifer
which was used for purification and holiness (from sin or defilement) of the Levites and the
temple premises.
Hebrews 9:13-14: “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes
of a heifer,
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to
serve the Living God.”
That the early church
believers recognized the relationship between the Jesus and the Red Heifer is
depicted in the Letter of Barnabas (8:2) written about 90 CE which stated,
“The calf is Jesus: the sinful men
offering it are those who led him to the slaughter.”
The whole temple services
which revolved around the sin offerings and the ashes of the Red Heifer has
been studied extensively by the late Ernest Martin. In his book, Secrets of Golgotha, the forgotten
history of Christ’s crucifixion, (ASK Publications, Alhambra, CA. 1988, 0
945657 77 3.), he documents in the Jewish records that describe the ritual of
preparation of the ashes of the red heifer.
In the Mishnah, the early
Jewish records describe the positioning
of the Temple as facing east, with the Holy of Holiest on the western end of
the temple premises.
Note that this is the same pattern of the Garden of Eden, in which Adam and
Even approached God by traveling west and were cast out of the garden by being
sent out of the eastern gate. Here we see the Lord of hosts residing in His
residence, and He is envisioned as looking from His dwelling place or Throne
facing east towards the Mount of Olives.
The Giant Menorah is standing on His right hand side, with all the symbolism
of Jesus, as the Light of the World standing on the right hand side of the
Father and as we have noted above, after the crucifixion of Jesus, the three
lamp poles on the western end of the Menorah, or those nearest the Holy of Holiest,
failed to light, as thought the Light or the Glory of the Shekinah, which
Y’shua was a reflection was extinguished from the Inner Sanctum of the Holy
Place.
During the special
ceremony of slaughtering the red heifer, which we need to be reminded occurred
only nine times between Sinai and the
destruction of the temple
in 70 CE, the red heifer was led out of
the eastern gate,
across the doubled tiered arched bridge called the Bridge of the Red Heifer, to the Mount
of Olives and led up
to an altar near the summit of the mount. (Middoth 1:3; 2:4; Yoma 7:2 plus the
Talmud in Yoma 68a and Zebahim 105b). Here on this altar called the Miphkad (Appointed) Altar, the ceremony of preparing and
burning the red heifer was performed.
Adding the typology of
the Hebrew Jewish Nazorean believers of Y’shua, under the leadership of James
(Yacob) the Just (Tzaddik), the brother of Jesus (Y’shua), we can now see the shadows
and symbols of Jesus as the
Passover Lamb in
which every detail of the selection, preparation and slaughter of the Pesach
Lamb at Passover matched with every detail of Christ as he was interrogated,
inspected by Pilate and then crucified.
While Jesus was being investigated and interrogated, it was done in the Hall
of the Sanhedrin housed
in the Chamber of Hewn Stones in the Temple on the left side of the Altar of
Burnt Offering. (Shabbat 15a and Rosh haShanah 31a.b) During the Passover
season the High Priest Caiphas as
President of the Sanhedrin and Annas, the Sagan, his deputy left their homes probably in the
aristocratic section of the southwest hill of Jerusalem and went to live for seven days in their official ‘house’ in the
temple compound.
(Middoth 5:4; Encyclopedia Judaica iii.991) The residence of the High Priest in
the temple, was called the “House of Stone” (Parah 3:1)
This seven day residency
included every weekly Sabbaths, the new moons, the annual festivals, especially
the Day of Atonement and for seven days prior to offering the Red Heifer. It
was here in their temple residences that they walked across to the Chamber of
Hewn Stones to interrogate and judge Jesus.
Think carefully the meaning of this whole scenario. In as
much as the trial of Jesus occurs just before a High Shabbat (Sabbath) during
the Passover week, Jesus was judged by the High Priest, his deputy and the
chief priests and then condemned by the Sanhedrin, all within the Temple proper
itself. The judgment for Jesus’ death was
to be in His own Father’s House, in the presence of God, His
Father, who was
symbolically dwelling on His Throne in His dwelling in the Holy of Holiest.
Since Jesus was now accursed as a condemned man, He had to be taken away from
the presence of God out the eastern gate. He followed the route of Adam to the
east and away from the Garden of Eden and the presence of God.
The same pattern of fulfillment is seen in the relationship between Y’shua and the
Red Heifer. The Red Heifer was examined
and inspected on the
temple proper to determine if she was a perfect or blemishless a heifer with no more than three white or black hairs on
her body. So also Y’shua was examined and
interrogated by the
High Priest, then the whole Sanhedrin and then Pilate, who could find ‘no fault in Him’.
The Red Heifer was then led out the eastern gate of the temple, so also Y’shua was led away from the temple out the eastern gate, also away from the presence of
His Father. As an accused man of sin, Y’shua followed the route of Adam and
Eve as they were driven from the Garden of Eden and away from the presence of
God because of their sin of disobedience.
The Red Heifer was led across the Kidron Valley, walking over the Bridge of the Red Heifer to the summit of the Mount of
Olives, and up to the
summit of the mount where she was slaughtered, so also Jesus was led by the same route to the place where He is
crucified.
Notice again how the
author of Hebrews depicts this scene.
Hebrews 13:12-13 - “Therefore Jesus also, that He
might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered
outside the gate.
Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”
Carefully look at this
text. In order to sanctify us with his death, Jesus, guided by His Father,
meticulously fulfilled every detail of the ritual of the red heifer in which
his crucifixion occurred outside the gate (walls of the city) and outside the
camp. In order that his death would not defile the temple itself, the location
was beyond the limits of 1000 yards (2000 cubits) outside the city walls. The
closest location beyond the limits of 1000 yards was near the summit on the
southern hill of Mount of Olives.
The last part of the
verse above, one must question, where this is a symbolic or literal
interpretation. If symbolic, then the interpretation “bearing the stigma that he bore”, would suggest that we would give
up the approval of the world and accept the reproach of Christ. And as such,
going ‘outside the camp’, would suggest that we would be willing to be excluded
from religious and social acceptance.
Yet is there a literal interpretation? Would not the Hebrew author suggest that the
reader retrace the footsteps of Jesus. In order for Christ to use His own
blood for the saving grace and sanctification that it offers to all believers,
He would have to suffer and be crucified outside the gates and walls of the
city, as preordained since the days of Moses. Not only that, the author urges
the readers to mentally go watch the crucifixion outside the camp on the Mount
of Olives, and watch Him bear ‘His
reproach’, or the cross beam of the crucifixion.
Restoration of the
Sanctuary/Temple
So the puzzle still
continues. According to rabbinic opinion, future temple construction cannot
begin unless the ashes of the red heifers that have been mixed since the days
of Moses also have been found. Though this fact is overlooked by many
evangelical Christians who in their beliefs of dispensationalism, await the construction
of the Temple in Jerusalem as a sign of the End of Times, the soon to be
abomination of desolation and the imminent coming of Jesus. This fact is not
overlooked by the ultra-orthodox Jews. For three decades, a former Baptist
minister, now amateur archeologist, Vendyl Jones, has been searching for the
K’lal, which according to the Copper Scroll is the urn or vessel that contains
the ashes of the red heifer that was used in the Mishkhan or Wilderness
Sanctuary and in Solomon’s Temple. These ashes were from the first heifer that
was slaughter by Eliezar in the days of Moses.
According to Jones, in order for the Beit
HaMikdash (Holy Temple) to be restored, this vessel of ashes from the first
Temple ashes of the red heifer must be found. This is not just a fantasy of a lone Texas archeologist,
but was shared by the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, whom some believe also to be a
messiah, plus the rabbinic giants of Adin Even Israel Steinsaltz and Reuven
Grodner, formerly from the Hebrew University. Even Menachem Burstin, who is a
known botanist of the Middle East flora and expert on Biblical chemistry has
also stated that only the ashes of the red heifer remain of all the ingredients
needed to prepare for the water of purification.
As we shall soon see, this unique metal document, the Copper
Scroll according to the translation from the Hebrew linguists of the Vendyl
Jones Research Institute, state that “under the spices, is the purification.”
According to the meaning of this translation, buried beneath the site where the Temple Incense called the Pitum haQetoret was
discovered near the ‘hidden north entrance’ at the Cave of the Column is
the site where the ashes of the Red Heifer are buried.
But what is the importance about
the furor on the Temple Mount? In 1967, just a month after the Jews on the
six-day war and took over possession of the Temple Mount, the custody of the
mount was given to the Moslem Grand Mufti of Jerusalem by the Jewish government
as a statement of peace. To a secular Jewish perspective, this was not
particularly significant as the Jewish people did not have access to walk on
the mount for fear that they would be treading over the ground where the Most
Holy Place of the Temple stood with the Ark of the Covenant. This ground was
sacred and holy and as such the Temple Mount was useless to the secular Jew.
With the Mosque of Omer on the mount since 1600’s, the Moslem people now accept this site
to be their own possession. At this site where they believe a vision in the Koran
that Mohammed was miraculously transported from Mecca to Jerusalem, gives them
justification that outside of a holy jihad, no non-Muslim religion or nation
will ever take over control of the third recognized holy spot in the Moslem
religion.
Yet not only the
Muslim faith, but the Jesuits of the Roman Catholic Church have been eying the
control of the Temple Mount a symbol of their being the legitimate
representative of the World Christian faith and what they feel is their
rightful responsibility as the custodian of the Mount, to make it a place where
the faithful of all religions can come to worship. This surreal idealism, to
many prophetic scholars, has the germ of reality, for what place could best
represent the idealism of a One World Order with a One-World Faith, than to
have the Catholics broker this mount as Mount of worship for the three largest
religions in the world.
Yet Jewish tradition
records that the birth of a pure red heifer has not occurred since the
destruction of Herod’s Temple in 70 CE by the forces of the Roman emperor
Titus. To the tzaddiks of Israel, if such a calf were truly to grow up and
remain unblemished, it would herald the beginning of the Messianic era with the
rebuilding of the Holy Temple as envisioned by the prophet Ezekiel. According
to the rabbinic sages, the redemption of Israel will be like the morning dawn, "In the beginning, it progresses very slowly...but as it
continues, it grows brighter and brighter."
Yet not
all orthodox or biblical scholars share the idea that the Temple Mount is the
site where the Temple of Solomon once stood. There is a growing body of
Christian and Jewish scholars that believe that Solomon’s Temple actually stood
on a site south of the present Temple Mount, over the area
of the Gihon Springs and the recently excavated tunnel staircases ascending
from mikhvoat baths that possibly
were used by the High Priest and the temple Levites.
The archeological data accumulated
by the late Ernest L Martin and published in his book, The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot, was that the Temple of Solomon and
Zerubbabel were located over the Ophel Mound near and above the Gihon Springs.
Also the present Haram
esh-Sharif, the present Temple Mount was actually the Fort of Antonia, where
the judgment hall of Pilate was located. This site would also be in harmony
with the futuristic message of Jesus to his disciples just before his
crucifixion when he and his disciples were overlooking the temple complex,
“Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another
that shall not be thrown down.” (Matt. 24:2)
The Tenth Red
Heifer
Also according to
Josephus, just before the final days of Jerusalem, when the forces of Vespasium
and Titus were heading toward Jerusalem, the high priest prepared a tenth red
heifer for slaughter in hopes of re-purifying the temple and save the city when
the heifer gave birth to a lamb in the temple premises. The very animal that
represented a ‘sin offering’ for the congregation of Israel, now defied the
laws of genetics and gave birth to a lamb. The heifer had been defiled and the
temple was destroyed. Was the Lord of hosts trying to tell the Jewish
leadership that He had already sent His own son, Who became the literal
Passover Pesach Lamb and also had fulfilled all the requirements of the Red
Heifer?
Obviously the message was
not accepted by the High Priest and Sadducean leadership in Jerusalem, who had
seven years earlier, stoned the brother of Jesus, James the Just, who not only
served at the leader of the Jerusalem Nazorean Party, but also due to his
righteousness performed the duties of the High Priest during the Day of Yom
Kippur. It appears that someday, a Red Heifer will be found, if not already
and the ashes of the prior Red Heifer will be discovered. Will this lead to an
apocalyptic confrontation between the Jews and the Moslems? The Sharon
government with its new mandate from the orthodox Jewish community could
reassume possession and control of the Temple Mount igniting the spark that
could erupt in the future Gog-Magog War of Ezekiel.
As one BibleSearcher
commented, “What if the new 10th Red Heifer was prepared for
slaughter to obtain the ashes to purify the site for a Sanctuary or New Temple
and this time she foaled a ‘cub lion’.
Would the Orthodox Jewish rabbabim accept that the Messiah
ben David, the Lion of Judah, was also the Messiah ben Joseph, who gave Himself
as the Pesach Lamb in the 1st century CE? This drama still has a few
pages left to unfold.
The Prophet Jeremiah and the Five Guardians of Solomon’s Temple Treasures
The Emeq HaMelekh – The Story of the Five Hebrew Priests who Hid the Treasures of Solomon’s Temple
Go to Part One – “The Emeq Ha Melekh (Valley of the Kings) - The Hebrew Account of Hiding the Ark, the Sanctuary and the Treasures of Solomon’s Temple”
Go to Part Two – “The Hiding of the Ark, the Furnishings and the High Priest Garments with the Sanctuary of the Congregations”
Go to Part Three – “The Copper Scroll, the Anointing Oil, the Temple Incense and the Ashes of the Red Heifer”
Go to Part Four – “The Exile of Judah and Babylon the City of Wonders - Section One”
Go to Part Five – “Babylon, the City of Wonders – Section Two”
Go to Part Six – “Baghdad, the 49 Lamped Menorah, Bread Molds, and the Table of Showbread”
Go to Part Seven – “The Garden of Eden, the Margalit Pearl, Almugim Trees, Golden Tables of Showbread and Industrial Gemstones”
Go to Part Eight – “Industrial Gems, Golden Trees, The Tree of Life, the Guardian Angel of Solomon’s Temple”
Go to Part Nine – “The Cosmic Golden Curtains”
Go to Part Ten – “The Garments of the Priests, Levites and the High Priest”
Go to Part Eleven – “The Harps and Lyres of King David”
Go to Part Twelve – “Treasures at Ein Kahal, in a Wall at Babylon And at Tel Bruk where the Willow Tree was in Babylon”
Go to Part Thirteen – “The Twelve Stones for the Tribes of Israel, David, son of David, a righteous king over Israel and the Gihon River at the Final Restoration of Israel”
Credits and Links:
Bible
Searchers Sites
Vendyl
Jones Research Institute Sites
Vendyl Jones Research Institute Home
Page
Emeq HaMelekh by the Vendyl Jones
Research Institute
A Door of Hope
by the Vendyl Jones Research Institute
Ashes
for Beauty--The Mysterious Ashes of the Red Heifer by Jim Long
The Gate Between
Two Walls, by Vendyl Jones
Vendyl Jones and the Ark of the
Covenant by Gerard Robins
Temple Mount Sites
The Temple Institute on recreation
the Furnishing for the New Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem
by the Temple Mount Organization
The Gihon Springs Temple Site by Ernest Martin
Emeq HaMelekh Sites
Emeq HaMelekh by the Vendyl Jones
Research Institute
The Temple and the Copper
Scrolls by the Order of the Nazorean Essenes
Emeq
HaMelekh and the Ark in King Tut’s Tomb by Andis Kaulins
The Copper Scroll Sites
The
Copper Scroll by the West Semitic Research Project
A Door of Hope
by the Vendyl Jones Research Institute
Shemen Afarshimon, the
Holy Anointing Oil by the Order of the Nazorean Essenes
The Process of Writing
the Copper Scroll by Meir Bar-Ilan
The Ashes of the Red
Heifer Sites
Ashes
for Beauty--The Mysterious Ashes of the Red Heifer by Jim Long
Ashes of the Red Heifer by
Stephen M. Yulish Ph.D. of Messianic fellowship, Chayim Chadashim
Message
from BibleSearchers
BibleSearchers
scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the
end. It is our prayer that this will allow the believers in the Almighty
One of Israel to “watch and be ready”. Our readiness has nothing to do
trying to halt the progression of evil on our planet earth. In our
readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah of Israel so
that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest. Our preparation
is a pathway of spiritual readiness for a world of peace. Our defender is
the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of
Israel’s intent is to close out this chapter of earth’s history so that the
perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and control, will be
eliminated from this planet earth. The wars of the heavens are being
played out on this planet earth and humans will live through it to testify of
the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel. In a world
of corruption and disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical
truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-information. We cannot
guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be
validated in the Torah and the testimony of the prophets of the Old and the New
Testament.
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