Merry Christmas!

Joy to the world!

Temple Shekel Coin Discovered

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1048260.html

Conceptualizing the Son of God

Three recent books offer interesting insights into the way ancient Jews and Christians conceptualized the son of God as king, priest, mediator, etc. They also examine sacrifice and ascent. Idel's book looks at medieval Jewish mystical conceptualizations of the "Son." These works provide a number of fascinating insights.

A. Collins and J. Collins, King and Messiah as Son of God: Divine, Human, and Angelic Messianic Figures in Biblical and Related Literature, (Eerdmans, 2008), ISBN 0802807720

Levenson, Jon, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity, (Yale, 1993) ISBN 0300065116

Idel, Moshe, Ben: Sonship and Jewish Mysticism, (Continuum, 2007), ISBN 0826496660

Templars Live ...

... in Croatia:

http://www.javno.com/en/croatia/clanak.php?id=212032

I suppose I should join too!

http://www.theknightstemplar.org/index.html

High Priest's Crown

For a number of years the Temple Institute in Jerusalem has been reconstruction the vessels and furnishings of the temple in the hope of the rebuilding of the temple. Here is the High Priest's crown (tzitz).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oNDsITDlu8

Something I never thought I'd see

Solomon's Temple restored, by the Legos. That's what I said, Legos, not Logos.

http://assemblingthetemple.blogspot.com/2008/12/first-of-all-i-want-to-apologize-to-my.html

Herod's Tomb

National Geographic has an article on Herod in the Dec 2008 edition. It includes a large map insert with very nice drawings of the history of the Temple Mount.