22

Jerusalem the World Mountain

In Hebraic tradition, the World Mountain, is called the ‘Holy Mountain of God’; and this is how Jerusalem is referred to in Psalms:

‘In the city of our God (Jerusalem), in the mountain

of his holiness, beautiful for situation. . .

Is mount Zion (Jerusalem). . . The city of the great king.’ Psalms 2:6

‘. . . in the city of our God (Jerusalem) his holy mountain.’ Psalm 48:1

Isaiah refers to Jerusalem as Ariel ‘Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt.’ 29:1-2. Ariel, according to W. F. Albright, can be interpreted as a loan word from the Mesopotamian Arallû, which is a term for the mountain of the gods – the World Mountain, also the Underworld.

I have already mentioned a navel stone at Jerusalem, it is under the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock situated on Temple Mount in Jerusalem, is an Islamic shrine, first built in the seven century BC. Under its golden dome – like a precious jewel in a golden box – lies an area of exposed limestone bedrock, holy to Muslim and Jew alike. To the Jews the bedrock is known as Even ha-Shetiyet ‘the foundation stone’, said to be the one, upon which God founded the Earth and all its myriad life forms, on the first day of creation. This stone, mirroring the ben-ben stone, is then the navel point of the earth, and it was over it – a direct route to god – that the son of David, Solomon, raised up his great temple. And was it also the exact spot where Abraham enacted the sacrifice ritual with Isaac?

The Temple of Solomon had been destroyed in 586 BC, when the Babylonians conquered the city.  Zerubbabel, grandson of the second to last king of Judea, was one of the Jewish colony of exiles in Babylon. When Babylon was overthrown by the conquering Persians, their king Darius I, appointed Zerubbabel as governor of the province of Judea. He, and a number of returning exiles, came to Jerusalem and instigated the building of a second temple on the site of the old one. According to Wikipedia, this plan was greeted with mixed feelings, by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. Zechariah commented ‘Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.’ 4:7. Meaning of course, will the second temple embody the same mystic connection as the first. ‘In all probability, the myth of the navel of the earth, far from being an incidental aspect of worship at the temple of Jerusalem, constitutes in effect the determining factor which links together a number of its cultic practices and beliefs that otherwise appear to be unrelated.’ 55

There is a Muslim tradition, that on the day of resurrection of the dead, the Kaaba’s mystical black stone will fly through the air to Jerusalem; and join with the Foundation Stone. When the Foundation Stone sees it approach it will cry ‘Peace be to the great guest!’ – if only human beings could be as peaceful as stones.

But returning to the Dome of the Rock, under the foundation stone is a small cave – measuring 14 square feet with a 6-foot ceiling – on the floor of which is set a round marble slab, situated over Bir al Arwah the ‘well of souls’. Muslim tradition holds that it is the entrance to the bottomless pit, the abyss, where the souls of the dead are awaiting judgement. The Jewish Talmud states, that beneath the Foundation Stone, lies the abyss above the primeval waters. There is a Jewish tradition, that David once removed the navel stone that rested over these subterranean waters – the source of all the springs, rivers and fountains in the world – and nearly caused another deluge. This is why the navel stone is sometimes referred to as Shetiyah which means ’drinking’. The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of the new temple, to replace Solomon’s, that had a river flowing from its threshold.

 Beneath the Foundation Stone, is where the Hebraic subterranean kingdom of the dead is located named Sheol, a place of darkness and stillness – where the righteous and unrighteous go – similar to the equally gloomy Mesopotamian abode of the dead. The inhabitants of Sheol are shades, called Rephaim, without strength or personality, cut off from life and God. Although it was thought they could be contacted, the witch of Endor conjured up the soul of Samuel for Saul, but it was a forbidden practice. Mesopotamian souls would have felt at home there – I prefer the Greek version and attitude towards the dead. Aeaneas popping down to talk with his father, and I like the thought of Tuatha de Danaan kings, chatting with their ancestors in a great barrow.

This linking of Jerusalem or Zion to the land of the dead, is mirrored in the valley of Hinnom below the city, which was associated with the abode of the Rephaim. The topography of the place, also bears a resemblance to the abode of the dead, which Enoch called a ‘cursed valley’; where souls wait to be judged.

This Jerusalem World Mountain, while being connected beneath to the land of the dead, upon its mystic top, as I already mentioned, was said to reside the garden of Eden. Enoch also writes of Eden being on top of the high mountain, the throne of God. The place where the Tree of Life flourishes – mirroring the Atlantean tree of the Hesperides, the Persea tree of Egypt, the burning olive tree of Phoenicia.

Time for the narrative to pay a visit to Eden.

23

The Tree of Life and the Garden of Eden

Muslims call the Foundation Stone at Jerusalem es-Sakhra, and they believe it is one of the stones from the garden of Eden. On the western façade of the Dome of the Rock is the inscription ‘The Rock of the Temple from the Garden of Eden’; the northern gate of the shrine is called Bab ej-Jinah ‘Gate of Paradise’, inset in the floor beneath this gate is a square stone of green jasper called ‘the Stone of Eden’. The prophet Ezekiel also writes of stones being found in Eden: ‘Thou hast been in the Garden of Eden. . . every precious stone was thy covering. . . the

sardius, topaz . . . diamond . . .beryl . . .onyx. . .jasper. . . sapphire. . . emerald. . . carbuncle. . . and gold. . .’ 28:13

The Islamic linking of this place to the garden of Eden, is echoed in the Hebraic tradition, of connecting the holy World Mountain to the first paradise on earth. Although the garden of Eden, before it found expression in the Hebraic Bible and Islam, was already existing in an earlier Mesopotamian myth.

In the Hebraic account, this first garden was a grove of trees, amongst which grew, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the Tree of Life. God overseeing the garden, had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of this tree, saying if they did, they would die. But the serpent, entwined amongst its branches, told Eve that if she did eat the fruit, she would not die, ‘for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be reopened, and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil.’ Genesis 4:5. So, as the well-known story goes, she did eat of the fruit of the tree, and the snake’s advice was proven correct; she didn’t die, and she did know the difference between good and evil. This disconcertingly means, which doesn’t seem to bother many people, that God lied; instead, the main focus has been – women can’t be trusted to resist temptation.

Later in Genesis, God voices the fear that they will then eat of the Tree of Life, revealing the real reason for denying them the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ‘Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and live forever.’ Genesis 4:22. This God wanted to keep them in slave-like ignorance, and then wanted to deny them the god-like attribute of immortality. So, like a cast-off failed genetic experiment, Adam and Eve are thrown out of paradise – and we’ve all been trying to get back ever since.

Enoch writes of the Tree of Life growing in Eden, whose fragrance he says pervades the garden, and its beautiful fruit confers a long life – which according to his account was enjoyed by men of old; in the Bible Shem, son of Noah, was six hundred years old when he died.

The site’s connection to this tree, lies behind the ceiling, walls and doors of Solomon’s Temple, being heavily adorned with depictions of palm trees flanked either side by cherubims. Palm trees, as I have already mentioned, were symbolic of the Tree of Life. Cherubims were winged angelic beings, represented in some cases as a human headed lion or bull with eagle’s wings. This mirrors the Mesopotamian sacred Tree of Life, depicted as a palm tree, also flanked by cherubim.

The Tree of Life was an important part of the worship in the Jerusalem temple, as attested by the practice of erecting ashêrah, which I mentioned earlier – a pole decorated with pieces of cloth and flags, representing the Mesopotamian Tree of Life.  King Manasseh of Judea, the fourteenth king after Solomon, was known to have erected one there.

The prophets vehemently decried the practice. The reforming King Josiah, who wanted to lead his people back to adherence to the covenant of Moses, and cultic practices as outlined in Deuteronomy, removed among other things from the temple; sacred tree ashêrim (called a ‘grove’ in the authorized version of the Bible), which he burnt on the bank of the Kidron brook. Stamped the ashes to powder, scattering them on the graves of children. Was he demonstrating to the population the enormity of their crime; in that their idolatrous behaviour had equally cursed their children?

G. K. Beale professor of New Testament and Biblical theology, also views the Jerusalem temple as a symbolic Garden of Eden. He reasons that the first temple was the actual garden of Eden itself, because it was the place where human beings could speak directly with God.  In the holy of holies in the Jerusalem temple, the presence of God was said to be directly experienced.

In seeking further comparisons, he writes of the two cherubim in the garden of Eden, who guarded against Adam and Eve gaining access to the Tree of Life. He finds them represented in the temple, by two eighteen feet tall statues of Cherubim, who guarded the holy of holies; where the ark of the covenant was housed. I found this comparison interesting because of what is written in Psalms 80:1

‘. . .Shepherd of Israel. You who leadest Joseph like a flock,

thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth.’

The Shepherd a king, who is the stone – the Earth-Heaven link – his royal body, Tammuz-like, shining with solar powers in his role as World Pillar in communion with the higher powers manifesting in the holies of holies.

The ritual Tammuz-like transformation of the king within the temple, which was of central importance in the rites of this kingship, was performed in a temple environment coated with the solar metal gold, including the holy of holies. According to a description of the temple in 1 Kings 6:22: ‘. . . Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold; and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle (holy of holies); and he overlaid it with gold, until he had finished the house; also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.’

The sun itself, was worshipped in the temple. But then of course, with the worship of the ashêrah Tammuz and the goddess, would also come veneration of the sun, and ophidian worship. Ezekiel 8:16 relates how he witnessed a group of twenty-five priests at the door of the Temple, facing east, and worshipping the sun.

The prophet Isaiah, lay the origins of this idolatrous behaviour, at the feet of Jacob, he wrote:

‘By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged,

And this is all the fruit of the taking away of his sin,

When he shall make all the stones of the altar

As chalkstones that are crumbled to pieces,

The ashêrah and sun-images shall not stand. . .’ 27:9

King Josiah as well as destroying ashêram, also took away the horses of the sun, dedicated by previous kings of Judah, and burned their sun chariots. When King Hezekiah came to reign over Judea, he also purged the temple, casting down images and ashêrah. He also broke into pieces the brazen snake of Moses, called Nehushtan, the one that cured the wandering children of Israel of fatal snake bites, which in the temple had incense burnt before it. According to II Kings 18:4, this snake was already in Jerusalem, when David and his men captured it, and therefore continued to be venerated after he took control.

But to return to G. K. Beale’s ideas about the Jerusalem temple being modelled on the Garden of Eden. In the biblical account ‘A river went out of Eden to water the garden. . .’ Genesis 2;10. This river, he identifies with the one, the prophet Ezekiel, in a vision saw flowing over the threshold of the future temple. Of course, in the mythology of the site, as I have previously mentioned, the primeval waters lay beneath it, which was the source of all water.

He considers the lamp stand situated directly outside the holy of holies, which resembled a small tree with seven branches, to represent the Tree of Life.

He then highlights the profusion of carvings, depicting an abundance of vegetation, gourds, open flowers, palm trees and pomegranates; which evokes a garden setting. The Jewish Mishnah (part of the Talmud) includes an inventory of the preserved treasures of Solomon’s temple, hidden at Segal Habar, and they include golden wall hangings depicting the Garden of Eden.

The area outside the holy of holies was called the holy place, and the bread which was provided for the priests, was first displayed on tables called ‘show tables’. This bread, G. K. Beale identifies with the food, produced without toil, provided for Adam and Eve in the garden. In the tenth Mishnah, there is reference to seventy fine gold tables for use as show tables, being made for the temple, which were said to stand beneath the Tree of Life. The tree-like lamp stand, G. K. Beale likens to the Tree of Life, was positioned in this area and supports his ideas about the symbolic make-up of the temple.     

The needlework on the curtains surrounding the Holy Place, according to Josephus, depicted stars, reflecting the heavenly nature of this innermost sanctuary. While outside in the courtyard, where all the Israelites could come and worship, stood a rough stone altar called ‘the bosom of the Earth’. This altar G. K. Beale likens to a representation of the Earth, while a massive bronze basin also in the courtyard, containing 10,000 gallons of water; called the ‘molten sea’, represents the world’s oceans.

Here then embodied in this one temple is a stunning concept, an earthly paradise aligned with the forces of heaven, where the presence of God resides in its innermost sanctuary – and as in the first garden, can speak directly to his people. Outside this central part, is the earth and the world of humanity, but a humanity existing within the framework of the divine. It is a most stunning panorama to consider, it is not just a cold place of stone where one goes to pray to a remote God, it is breathtakingly far more, the first paradise once again realized on earth.

Neither David or his son Solomon established an empire, neither did those kings who came after them. The region continued to be at the mercy of greater powers, the Babylonians who destroyed his son’s temple, the overlordship of the Persians; the Hellenes who allow them to mainly rule themselves.

 During the Hellenic period, the desecration of the second temple under King Antiochus IV, resulted in a victorious revolt, led by the Jewish leader Judas Maccabee, who established independent rule. But it was not long before a Roman army led by Titus marched in, destroying the second temple and exiled great swathes of the Jewish people amongst the diaspora. There was a revolt in 132 AD against Roman rule, but it came to nothing, the leader being killed in the Judean hills. The Romans decimated the Jewish community further and renamed Jerusalem Amelia Capitoline and Judea as Palestine (to add insult to injury, a name derived from Philistine). Then came the Byzantine Arabs, Crusaders who made the streets run ankle deep with non-Christian blood, and the Ottomans.

No empire, no lands subjugated, but an empire nevertheless sprang forth from this land – a spiritual one, around another Davidic king. Resulting in the Old Testament being studied in northern climes, to influence the naming of children, to be thundered forth from pulpits as far afield as America to Russia. People from all countries studying the book of a people so different in custom and culture, bringing the east into the west, and transforming it into something else. Is this what Zechariah meant when he said:’ In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard God is with you’.8:23. The irony is, for this is the prime element of life on earth (if it was ruled by cats or aphids, instead of humans, it might be eliminated), the Jews did not accept this last Davidic king.

24

Which Christ?

The narrative now comes to the last of the kings – Jesus the Christ – to embody the World Pillar. I think of him as the last, because not only did he smash the mould by transcending the role, he made the role obsolete, because he tried to create the Earth-Underworld-Heaven link within every human heart. And because of the enormity of what he undertook, he is also the greatest.

It is difficult to find this Christ, in the form of Christianity, which is widely accepted today. This Christianity is the product of the Church in Rome. How it managed to obtain such a hold on Christian affairs, is down to one man, the Roman emperor Constantine 312-337 AD.

After Emperor Diocletian abdicated in 305 AD, there were a number of contenders who sought to take his place, including Constantine, who proving triumphant over the others, was left with one opponent, Maxentius, to overcome. During his campaign, he had a vision of a luminous cross appearing in the sky with the words EN-TOUTO-NIKA meaning ‘in this conquer’. The cross was the Christian chi-rho – a monogram of an X and P the first two letters for the Greek word for Christ Christos – with the P placed in the middle of the X. The night before the 28^th October 312, when he was to face the forces of Maxentius, he dreamt of the same cross and Christ appearing, admonishing him to place it upon his imperial standard. This he did, combining this Christian symbol with the military symbols of the Roman empire, which is called the labarum; also having it put on the shields of his soldiers.

He defeated Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge, Maxentius drowning in the Tiber, his body found, decapitated, and the head displayed through the streets of Rome. The western portion of the empire was now his to command. He continued to decorate the shields of his soldiers with the Christian symbol, going on to be victorious in other campaigns. In 324, at the battle of Chrysopolis he defeated Licinius the ruler of the eastern portion of the Empire, and from then on was the sole emperor of the Roman world.

After the battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine was regarded as a Christian convert. Although he wasn’t baptized until he lay on his death bed, after the battle of Milvian Bridge he made a sacrifice to the sun god Sol Invictus (the all-conquering sun), coins minted in his name up to 323 displayed the sun god’s image; some view his Sunday-keeping edict in 321, as in part motivated by his veneration of that deity.

Nevertheless, he went on to instigate a massive change in the fortunes of the Christian faith, which had suffered grievous persecution under his predecessor Diocletian, by signing the edict of Milan in 313 AD; which legalized Christianity. So are lives altered in an instance, with the backing of a man with real worldly power, things were about to change even more drastically for Christians; later it would be their turn to persecute the pagans (an activity human beings excel at, alongside greed, although they are often both intertwined).

He summoned the first Council of Nicaea in 325, held at Bithynia in present day Turkey, personally attending and involved in proceedings, to address doctrinal divisions in Christianity. Two thousand church leaders and one thousand eight hundred bishops were invited, but according to various sources, between 250 to 318 bishops attended. The attendees included representatives from Britain. The Church from that northern isle tended to go its own way (when it could), as late as 664, at the Council of Whitby, Rome sought to induce it to conform to Roman standards, to adopt the Roman tonsure, robes and their observances.

The main cause of division was Arianism, originating with the Alexandrian priest Arius c250-c336, which denied the divinity of Christ, maintaining he was created by God the Father, and was therefore neither coeternal not consubstantial with the God. In opposition Athanasius, stipulated that he was of the same substance as God the Father, the view of the Roman Church. In the end, in the interest of free speech, the Arians and others who disagreed were exiled and their teachings forbidden. Anyone possessing the writings of Arius, and not destroying them, would be punished with death. Some of those who had supported the now heretical doctrine, recanted (perhaps because a rudderless life was in view), and then had the challenging task of explaining their actions to their congregations at home. And so, it was official, Christ was the Son of God, the Logos, the third element in the holy Trinity.

The Council also established the primacy of the Roman Pontiff or Pope, under whom all churches would unite in a universal brotherhood, adhering to a common (Roman) religious philosophy. This is the basis for the word ‘catholic’ from the Greek katholikus meaning ‘universal’.

The Roman Church based their supremacy upon the authority of the Apostle Simon Peter, also known as Peter or Cephas. The Church asserted that not only had he been the first bishop of Rome, but he above all other disciples had the favour of Christ, and therefore the authority to disseminate his message. An authority also established in the exchange between Jesus and Peter, as recorded in St Mathew 17:13-18. Jesus asked his disciples ‘Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? . . . Peter answered. . . Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered. . . Blessed art thou. . . And I say unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’

Let’s consider these two assertions, that establishes Peter’s sole authority.

The assertion that he was the first bishop of Rome, has been severely questioned, because there is no evidence of his travelling to, or of his presence in Rome. There is the mention in the Gospel of Paul, of his encountering Peter in the eastern Mediterranean, but otherwise he appears to have stayed in Jerusalem. It was there, compelling evidence is found for his presence, helping to run the Jerusalem Church with the brother of Christ, James. In the Old Testament it is also shown that Peter spread the words of Christ mainly among Jews, and Paul rebuked him at one stage, for refusing to eat with Gentiles. There is also the fact that he was uneducated, knew no Greek or Latin the principal languages of Rome, and only spoke Aramaic.

The assertion that Jesus meant in his answer to Peter, that he would build his Church upon Peter, in a play of words on the name Peter meaning ‘rock’, is disputed by theologians. Loraine Boettner points out the name Peter in Greek is Petros, and Jesus switches to the feminine form of the word petra when he says, ‘upon this rock’.  Petra means ‘bedrock’ or ‘immovable foundation’. Which would mean he was saying ‘You are Petros, and upon this petra I will build my Church’.

There is also the matter, of what transpired later between Jesus and Peter. Jesus told his disciples, that he would suffer many things, be killed, and be raised on the third day, to this Peter ‘. . . began to rebuke him (Jesus), saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. . .and (Jesus) said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence to me: for thou savour not the things that be of God, but those of men.’ St Matthew 17 21-23.

To further undermine the assertion of Peter’s supremacy, there is the evidence in the Gospels that Christ never singled out Peter to spread his word, in Mark 16:14, the resurrected Christ rebukes all of them for unbelief and hardness of heart, telling all of them to go and preach his message. When Jesus appeared to the disciples at Pentecost, he again didn’t single out Peter as a leader ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me so I send you.’ John 20:20

Constantine continued to be involved in Church affairs, it became in essence an arm of his government, as its teachings became integrated into the machinery of state, the Nicene creed, Trinitarian Christianity, being proclaimed as imperial law.

In 358, under the auspice of Constantine’s son, the Synod of Ariminum was convened, producing a very long list of Christian writings, which from henceforth was to be banned. Including ones by the early Church fathers Origen and Tertullian, the Book of Revelations by John (later incorporated in the New Testament), the Shepherd of Hemas, which carried great authority in the second and third century. They were banned and damned forever in the shackles of anathema. Anathema is an extreme form of Christian religious sanction, that completely cuts off the aberrant party from any communication with the Church. It is a severer penalty than excommunication, in which access to mass, or the rite of the Eucharist is denied. Eternally damning and binding these writings up with the threat of anathema, in a rhetorical overkill, was also indicating how much they challenged the version of Christianity, then being promoted by Rome.

In 380 this Roman Christianity was declared the state religion of the empire, and in 382 at the Council of Rome, Christian theologians and Church officials met to further establish the biblical canon, a list of written works acceptable as scripture.

This restriction upon early Christian writings, was later extended to the Jewish Talmud, that presented a different picture of Christ, Torquemada 1420-98 oversaw the destruction of six thousand copies in Salamanca, and Pope Alexander reigned 1492-1503 also ordered all copies to be destroyed. In 1553 Pope Julius III ordered the burning of all copies of the Talmud, twenty-four wagons filled with books, were publicly burnt in Rome, and in other places. Pope Benedict XIII 1285-1342 ordered all copies of the Book of Elxai, which reported a life of Jesus, to be destroyed. It would be true to say, this activity hasn’t ceased, in contemporary times the seeming reluctance of making public the Dead Sea Scrolls and its evidence of the religious thinking during the time Christ lived, has been attributed to a Roman Church influence – a matter outlined in ’The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception’ by Richard Lincoln and Michael Baigent.

To dictate what people can read, is also to tell them what to think. And to shape further how people thought, the Roman Church began to classify some beliefs as heresy. Heresy comes from haeresis meaning ‘choosing or choice’, most commonly applied to beliefs the Roman Church declared anathema

A good example of the type of heresies that threatened the hegemony of the Roman Church, was the one occupying the thoughts of the fifth century Pope Leo I; after he had received a letter from the bishop of Aquileia. The letter informed him of the growing influence of the Pelagian heresy. It is named after the Briton Pelagius 353-420/40 (those northerners causing trouble again), who had written that original sin – the spiritual fall of Adam and Eve – did not taint human nature, and that humanity was capable of choosing good and evil, without divine aid. Adam’s sin was a bad example, that the good example of Christ redressed. And in following Christ’s good example, by the dictates of free-will, moral perfection was attainable.

Bishop Aquileia’s letter raised the specter of priests, infected with this thinking, leaving their churches and wandering from house to house, in communion with their flock. This ’heresy’ had in fact freed the spiritual life of the people from the requirement of the central authority of a Church. Which of course undermined the position of the Roman Church, promoting itself as the only conduit for union with the will of God and the seeking of grace; which was crucial to salvation. One can then understand the horror with which this heresy was viewed. It was in fact, the reason why St Patrick’s predecessor (who some view as Patrick himself) had been dispatched to Ireland, where it had many followers.

 From 382 the Roman Church appointed inquisitions, conducted by councils of bishops and archbishops, to investigate such heretical activity. The use of torture to elicit confessions, was not part of the arsenal of the inquisition until the twelfth century. Pope Innocent III reigned 1198-1216 assembled his own body of inquisitors, asserting that anyone deviating from church dogma should be burnt without pity – which happened frequently.

The Church also tended to erase from their history, those clergy who walked a suspect path, through Roman orthodoxy. One such man was the Irish Virgil or St Virgil c710-784, the archbishop of Salzburg; his name derives from the Latin sounding equivalent of Feargal or Ferghil. He was renowned for his learning, an accomplished theologian, philosopher, historian, geographer, astronomer, architect – under his guidance Salzburg cathedral, the largest sacral building at that time in Europe, was erected. He was also a renowned wit, penning ‘Aethicu Istar’ written in difficult to comprehend Latin, about the creation of the world, the wonderful journeys of Aethiacs, sections on Alexander the Great and the kings of Rome; which was thought to be an elaborate practical joke upon the St Boniface, who had sent accusations against Virgil to the pope.

The accusations were: that the baptisms he conducted were not according to the Roman formula, and he professed the earth was as round as a ball, with humans occupying regions called the Antipodes, opposite on the globe, to the then known world. Virgil, most probably escaped punishment, because of his influential patron the Bavarian Duke Odillio and his relationship with the Frankish king Pepin the Short.

He died in 784 and was buried in St Peter’s monastery, near his magnificent cathedral, and then the Roman Church buried him again; he and his writings (unlike the written works of St Boniface) descended into obscurity. Such an obscurity, that when in 1181 his grave was uncovered, during the clearing of the monastery site after a disastrous fire – no one knew who he was. Amongst his bones was discovered a small plaque with the inscription: Virgillus templum construxit scemato pulchro Virgil has erected this house of God in all its beautiful form.

Fifty-two years after this discovery, recorded miracles that had taken place at his grave, he was canonized by the Roman Church; becoming fully cemented in Church history – which perhaps for him would have been the greatest witticism of all.

So, in any investigation of the life of Jesus the Christ, it’s necessary to acknowledge how his story has been manipulated by the Roman Church, and then seek through the debris for the core truths.

But before I present the evidence for Christ the World Pillar, I first need to put his life in the context of the milieu into which he was born; the forces that shaped his life, and the Dead Sea Scrolls provide valuable information in that quest.