Israeli dig finds ancient gemstone

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 08-30-2009 11:49 AM

JERUSALEM, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Israeli archaeologists say they have found a miniature precious stone carved with the image of Alexander the Great.

The stone, dating to the Hellenistic period, was found at the Tel Dor excavation site south of Haifa, the Israeli news Web site Arutz Sheva reported Wednesday.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/08/26/ ... 251283463/

joequinn · Post by **joequinn** » 08-30-2009 06:59 PM

We still don't know enough about the Greek influence on the Jewish religion of Jesus's day. The Maccabee rebellion against the Seleucid Empire was triggered by the Hellenization of the Jewish religion in the second century BCE, and no less an authority than Josephus tells us that the Essenes were influenced by the Pythagorean brotherhood of ancient Greece (which helped to introduce the doctrine of reincarnation into the Jewish religion, where it formed one of "the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven" that Jesus preached and later rose to prominence in the Middle Ages as part of the Cabalistic tradition). And the gossip has always been that Saint Thomas (who was to die in India, a place that Jesus was said to have visited during his "hidden years") was a philosopher of Stoic and Epicurean schools of the Pentapolis (the five Greek cities on the outskirts of Israel).

That ancient gemstone --- just one little reminder of how little we actually know of the world of Jesus and of Jesus himself!

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 08-30-2009 07:15 PM

That ancient gemstone --- just one little reminder of how little we actually know of the world of Jesus and of Jesus himself!

We only know what we are told Joe and you better believe it, who are you to question, who?:D

joequinn · Post by **joequinn** » 08-30-2009 07:31 PM

I am a subversive malcontent who has been possessed by the devil. That's who I am!

cherry · Post by **cherry** » 08-30-2009 08:37 PM

joequinn, yesterday at the Requiem Mass for Ted Kennedy at Our Lady of Perpetual Healing Basilica in Boston, the Gospel lesson was from Matthew 25, separating the sheep and the goats at the end times

C-Span edited out the scriptural readings for the replay last night. Oh well, ten virgins with lamps and oil for the bridegroom was not selected. The virgins proceed the goats being tossed into hell fire for eternity. Good read! joequinn.