night
Why would the jewish nation feel inferior in that day and age
To begin with, they felt inferior because thay had no king. Thus they demanded one, so they could be like their neighbors. Concerning this king and his residence, here is a quote:
Saul's kingdom was primitive by the later standards of David and especially Solomon. The principle building at Gibeah, from Saul's era, with massive stone construction and eep walls, "was like a dungeon rather than a royal residence, in comparison with the Canaanite masonry with whch Solomon later graced Jerusalem." Saul's general cultural background is similarly evaluated by Albright: "...Saul was only a rustic chieftain, as far as architecture and the amenities of life were concerned."
While modern archeology questions that there ever was a temple of solomon, i will nevertheless use what the bible says about it, for the sake of this discussion. - For more on the nonexistence of solomon's temple, see 'the bible unearthed' by finkelstein.
Moses and his wandering group had few building, metalurgical or literary skills. Even 500 yrs later, solomon and his people were not themselves able to build a temple for their god. Solomon called in lebanese, pagan, gentiles to help him. In return, solomon paid w agricultural products and 20 jewish cities, complete w their populations.
1 Kings 5:1 When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father David, he sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been on friendly terms with David. 2 Solomon sent back this message to Hiram: 6 "So give orders that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My men will work with yours, and I will pay you for your men whatever wages you set. You know that we have no one so skilled in felling timber as the Sidonians."
1Kings7:13 King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram, [7] 14 whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was a man of Tyre and a craftsman in bronze. Huram was highly skilled and experienced in all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him.
1Kings5:10 In this way Hiram kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and pine logs he wanted, 11 and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors [1] of wheat as food for his household, in addition to twenty thousand baths [2] , [3] of pressed olive oil. Solomon continued to do this for Hiram year after year. 12 The LORD gave Solomon wisdom, just as he had promised him. There were peaceful relations between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.
1Kings9: 10 At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings-the temple of the LORD and the royal palace- 11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and pine and gold he wanted. 12 But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.
As well, solomon used slave labour, forcing non-jews to do the actual work:
1Kings9: 20 All the people left from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites), 21 that is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites could not exterminate [8] -these Solomon conscripted for his slave labor force, as it is to this day. 22 But Solomon did not make slaves of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers. 23 They were also the chief officials in charge of Solomon's projects-550 officials supervising the men who did the work.
So there you have it. Solomon's temple was built by unclean gentiles.
Further, the socalled second temple was also built by gentiles, under the supervision of gentile, pagan roman king herod.
The philistines are depicted in the bible as the most base of all. However, archeology has shown that their culture was more highly developed than israel's, through a comparison of pottery sherds. As well, the philistines had monopoly of the iron trade. What iron israel was able to buy from them, had to be taken back there to be resharpened or repaired.-1 Samuel 19:21 The hittites had already posessed iron tech for at least a century. Saul and his armies, "on the day of battle there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan; but Saul and Jonathan his son had them." -1 Samuel 13:22 It was through their defeat of the philistines that saul's people acquired iron technology.
Under king david, israel eventually met the challenges from it's neighbors such as moabites and ammonites, but israel was still nothing compared to the super powers of those times: egypt, assyria, babylon, persia and later rome.
why do you call yourselfy ( saint ,satan , )
It's part of my anti superstition therapy.
try & stop to take aslow long look into the creation around you and brother ,when you know & feel ,life that jehovah god /a creatyor created life ,then you had better pray ,that you never meet him or her for your lack of faith
I have absolutely no fear of the creator(s) of the earth, who/whatever they may be. I doubt they had much to do w the bible writings and its imagined god.
were you an ex j.w or have you allways been arebel
I grew up a jw. Dfd in '96 for questioning. Brother, though you consider that challenging status quos to be rebellion, it's the only way to freedom, IMO. Govts, corps, religions, politicians, doctors; for the most part would like to control the masses, like flocks of sheep. Do you want to continue being one?
SS
Edited by - saintsatan on 7 January 2003 12:41:54