Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Was The First Temple In Jerusalem Originally Dedicated To Helios?

The Old European Culture blog makes a rather compelling case that the First Temple in Jerusalem was originally a temple dedicated to the Sun god Helios, and that as of the time of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible (set ca. 622 BCE +/- a couple of decades), that the Old Solar Religion was alive and well and that the religion of the Hebrews was struggling to compete with it. The blog also argues that the same religion was widespread from Serbia to Ireland in the early Bronze Age. And, the blog also suggests that this solar religion may have been in import from Southeast Europe.

I don't disagree. Assuming that legendary history sources like the Hebrew Bible are a mix of fact and fiction is a reasonable assumption, particularly given past successes based upon those assumptions like the discovery of the ruins of the lost city of Troy in Anatolia. But, sifting the fact from the fiction is more art than science and takes a rich background in other relevant material to provide the right context.

Coverage of earlier development of this hypothesis is found at this post.

3 comments:

neo said...

the bible references egyptian gods and molech, which is the canaanite god.

does the bible, Ezekiel of others name Sun god Helios?

how would a greek god Sun god Helios wind up in the Levant, and not say a caananite or philistine version of the sun god?

Marnie said...

https://www.kkjsm.org/

Marnie said...

Mosaics of Thessaloniki: 4th to 11th Century
https://www.amazon.com/Mosaics-Thessaloniki-4th-11th-Century/dp/9606878368