Judaism's Stake: The Mysteries Of Solomon's Temple

How did the place first become holy? The answer is lost in prehistory. At the point where the Judean desert begins to give way to the more fertile lands of the north, there was a mountain, cradled in a small bowl surrounded by other peaks. It was not particularly tall. But there must have been something special about it. As early as the Bronze Age, it was venerated as home to the local god Shalem, still remembered in the word Jerusalem. Later it was the shrine of the Canaanite deity Baal. Over millenniums, men would claim that it was Mount Moriah,...

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