US conniving with Islamic State?

 

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

 

 

Russia’s foreign ministry says it has “reached the terrifying conclusion”

that the US is conniving with the Islamic State.

 

 

 

 

Love of money is idolatry, according to Pope Francis in a sermon in which he bluntly stated that what really is at the root of warfare, its essential driving force, is a greedy lust for money.

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/10/19/pope_francis_love_of_money_is_idolatry/1180344 The Pope reminded the congregation at Mass in the Santa Marta chapel that we cannot serve two masters: either one serves God, or one serves wealth. Jesus, “is not against wealth as such,” but he warns against staking one’s safety in money – something he said risks, “turning religion into an insurance agency.” In addition, attachment to money is divisive, as illustrated by the Gospel tale of the “the two brothers arguing over the inheritance”:

 

“Let us consider how many families we know, whose members have fought, who are fighting, who don’t [even] say ‘Hello!’ to each other, who hate each other – all for an inheritance. This is just one of the cases: the love of family, love of children, siblings, parents – none of these is the most important thing – no, it’s money – and this destroys – even wars, wars that we see today: yes, sure there is an ideal [over which people fight], but behind that, there is money; money for arms dealers, the money of those who profit from the war. This, then, is [just] one family, but all of us, I’m sure, know at least one family so divided. Jesus is clear: ‘Be careful and stay away from all kinds of greed: it is dangerous.’ Greed: for, it gives us a security that is not true and it brings you to pray – yes, you can pray, go to church – but also have a heart that is attached [to material wealth], and that always ends badly.”

[End of quote]

 

 

World News | Sat Sep 17, 2016 | 4:31pm EDT

 

U.S.-led jets kill dozens of Syrian soldiers: Russia, monitor

 

BEIRUT U.S.-led coalition jets bombed a Syrian army position at Jebel Tharda near Deir al-Zor airport on Saturday, killing dozens of Syrian soldiers, Russia and a war monitor said, paving the way for Islamic State to briefly overrun it.

 

The U.S. military, in an apparent admission that it may have hit the position, said in a statement that coalition air strikes near Deir al-Zor had been halted when Russia told coalition officials they may have hit the Syrian army.

 

Syria's army general command said in a statement that the air strike was "conclusive evidence" of U.S. support for Islamic State, noting that the strike was "dangerous and blatant aggression".

Islamic State said in a statement on its Amaq news channel that it had gained "complete control" over Jebel Tharda but both Syrian state television and Russian state media said the positions lost to the militant group were later recaptured.

 

The defense ministry in Russia, which has been aiding Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war, said U.S. jets had killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers in four air strikes by two F-16s and two A-10s coming from the direction of Iraq.

….

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-usa-idUSKCN11N0PT

 

 

….

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin responded by saying that the U.S. airstrike that struck Syrian government troops has put "a very big question mark" over the future of the U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire agreement in Syria adding that in his decades as a diplomat he had "never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness as we are witnessing today."

 

* * *

Update 3: Russia's foreign ministry says it has "reached the terrifying conclusion" that the US is conniving with the Islamic State. As ABC reports, Russia has called for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council over a U.S. air raid that it says struck Syrian troops battling the Islamic State group. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says Moscow is demanding "full and detailed explanations about whether this was deliberate support of the Islamic State or another mistake."

Zakharova was quoted by the state news agency Tass as saying that "after today's attack on the Syrian army, we come to the terrible conclusion that the White House is defending the Islamic State." 

 

The U.S. military says it halted an air raid against IS in eastern Syria after it was informed by Russia that it might have struck Syrian troops. If confirmed, it would be the first American strike on President Bashar Assad's forces in the five-year-old conflict. The allegations come as Moscow and Washington are already at loggerheads over a five-day-old Syrian cease-fire, with each accusing the other of failing to fully implement it.

 

It appears this major diplomatic scandal is only starting to play out. 

 

* * *

 

Update 2: it appears that Russia is angry, and has called a UN Security Council session, while reporting that Washington never announced any plans to conduct raids in the region in question.

….

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-17/syria-accuses-us-airstrike-killing-62-soldiers-serious-and-blatant-aggression

 

 

Interesting, in light of all this, is that Pope Francis had earlier this year - in the ‘Meeting of the Millennium’ with the Russian Patriarch Kirill - turned to the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as the one best able to resolve the Syrian crisis and defend the persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

 

https://sputniknews.com/politics/20160209/1034451116/pope-francis-putin-christians.html

 

In an attempt to defend Christians in the Middle East and other parts of the world where they're being persecuted, Pope Francis wants to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin for help.

According to Pope Francis, Putin is "the only one with whom the Catholic Church can unite to defend Christians in the East." "It's important to join efforts [with Russia] to save Christianity in all regions [of the world] where it's oppressed," Russia's Metropolitan Hilarion said*. With the help of Putin, Pope Francis hopes to reach out to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani and even the Chinese government elite and work out a plan to help Christians in these regions.

 

 

 

“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows”.

 

1 Timothy 6:10

 

Vote on marriage equality reveals the haters of the Left

Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun
September 19, 2016 12:00am

MALCOLM Turnbull’s plan for a public vote on same-sex marriage has indeed unleashed the haters — but they’re the thugs of the Left.

Worse, the Prime Minister may now give in to this pack and force on the public the same-sex marriage change they have not voted for.

Warning: a new fascism — a soft totalitarianism — is on foot, marching this time under the banner of same-sex marriage.

The latest example? It’s the mob that forced the cancellation of a meeting of Christians this week at the Mercure Sydney International Airport.

More than 100 people were expected to attend — Anglicans, Catholics and members of the Marriage Alliance and Australian Christian Lobby.

But then the haters got busy. Their calls to the hotel and posts on its Facebook page were so alarming that the owner told The Australian that staff were “rattled” and scared for their safety, and for their guests.

Who helped to whip up this hatred?

SameSame.com.au, a gay news website, had alerted readers to the event, which it said was hosted by the “notorious” ACL.

It quoted activist Pauline Pantsdown — actually university media lecturer Simon Hunt — who in a post urged followers to “stand up to the dangerous, predatory” ACL and get the event cancelled.

“No one won their rights peacefully,” advised one poster on SameSame, rejecting suggestions that Christians be left to talk in peace.
Panicked, Mercure and the church groups then cancelled the function, with ACL managing director Lyle Shelton blaming “threats of violence”.
Hunt seemed unashamed. Instead, he justified this harassment of the ACL and fellow Christians by accusing them of “cluster bomb attacks” that made them a “danger” to gays, lesbians, transsexuals and their children.

But stop. That is the classic defence of the totalitarian Left, excusing its own viciousness by claiming its enemies are even worse.

In other words, it is not the principle that counts, but the side.

While Hunt, himself, issued or condoned no threats, his excuse-making is the morality of the tribalist, which means a confrontation is ultimately decided not by reason but by force. Isn’t that the history of the brown shirts? Red shirts? And now the green shirts?

I wish we could just dismiss this totalitarianism as just the work of a few fringe-dwellers of the Left.

But it’s no coincidence that Shelton, in particular, was singled out here — because mainstream same-sex marriage activists have made him the particular target of their hate-speech.

BLOG WITH ANDREW BOLT

He’s been demonised and dehumanised so relentlessly, it’s no surprise that fringe activists would think he deserves extreme reprisals.

Greens MP Adam Bandt, for instance, last week denounced Shelton as a “bigot”.

Bernard Keane, of Crikey, vilified him as a “creep” and “nauseating piece of filth” who was “obsessed with sex”. ABC commentator Paul Bongiorno called people like him “Neanderthals”.

Fairfax columnist John Birmingham, while not mentioning Shelton by name, accused opponents of same-sex marriage as “a sweating pig circus of morons and bigots”, and Labor leader Bill Shorten claimed they could hound young gays to suicide.

This ruthless attack on the character of people like Shelton — and attacks now on even their freedom to meet — is a warning of what will come once same-sex marriage becomes law.

Already a Greens candidate has dragged a Catholic archbishop to the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commission for defending traditional marriage.

What next? Will priests be punished for refusing to conduct gay marriage ceremonies? Will defending traditional marriage be made illegal?

Indeed, Channel 7 and Channel 9 have already refused to run a commercial defending traditional marriage, and now Labor and the Greens even insist the public must not be asked to voice its own opinion, either.

Both parties, along with Nick Xenophon’s, are fiercely opposed to the Turnbull Government’s plan to ask Australians in a plebiscite whether to allow same-sex marriage.

This means the plebiscite will not only be blocked by the Senate but will die to the cheers of most journalists, despite it being an election promise made by the government and supported in polls by most Australians.

Here we have the seeds of a soft tyranny — a soft fascism. Big Media, Big Politics, Big Government and Big Activism in a conspiracy to deny Australian citizens the right to decide themselves this critical issue.

And see how these neo-fascists put their case: not with sweet reason, but with threats and the law, backed with lies, false promises and parliamentary tricks.

Is this how this country is to be run? Well, yes — particularly if Turnbull now gives in to temptation.

Turnbull is a big supporter of same-sex marriage. He is also very proud, some say arrogant, and would hate being mocked as a puppet of his party’s conservatives.

He will want to assert himself against those conservatives — against people like Tony Abbott — and to be a hero again of the Left.

Now, here is his big chance.

Yes, he did promise to stick with Abbott’s plan to let the public, not the politicians, decide whether to allow same-sex marriage.

But note carefully: he now refuses to say what he’ll do once the Senate blocks that plebiscite.

Why does Turnbull keep refusing to say the choice is clear — that it’s a public vote on same-sex marriage or it’s nothing? No same-sex marriage for at least the next three years?

Surely, that would add to the pressure on Labor to give in?

Conservative MPs are finally waking up to the threat: Turnbull is clearly leaving himself room to cut a deal with Labor to have a vote on same-sex marriage.

In fact, Turnbull, cocky after cutting a compromise deal on his superannuation changes, on Friday let slip that he could now compromise on same-sex marriage changes, too. “We may have to negotiate on all of these matters,” he told 3AW.

And he could do this and triumph.

Here’s how. First, Turnbull would tell his Cabinet after his plebiscite is defeated that the Liberals must deliver this important social “reform” of same-sex marriage or risk looking weak.

Cabinet could then narrowly vote for same-sex marriage — a decision that will bind all the ministers.

With those votes locked in, Turnbull could then win a vote of his party room as well, and then a vote of parliament.

All this will be cheered ecstatically by the media, especially the ABC. Turnbull will forever be the hero of the Left, no matter what happens next.

What happens next, of course, could be the splitting of the Liberal Party, but would Turnbull care?

If he’s defeated, he’d still quit a happy man, lionised by the Left. If he survives, he’s even happier.

And his opponents? Well, let them complain — while it’s still legal.

Let them hold a rally — if the mobs will let them.

Let them meet — if any hotel dares take their booking.

And as for you, the voters, who cares what you think?

The new class rules, and Turnbull will be their hero.

....

Taken from: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/vote-on-marriage-equality-reveals-the-haters-of-the-left/news-story/2f09b04e68c9de92887e550ffe351250

Pope Francis puts French priest murdered by Isil extremists on path to sainthood

 Nick Squires, Rome 

14 September 2016 • 3:50pm 

 

Pope Francis has described as “a martyr” the elderly French priest who was stabbed to death at his altar by Islamist extremists, strongly implying that he will one day be made a saint.
In a forthright homily in the chapel of the Vatican guesthouse where he lives, the Pope said that anyone who murders in the name of God is “satanic”.
The world should have “the courage to tell the truth: killing in the name of God is satanic," he said.
He repeatedly described the Rev Jacques Hamel, who was knifed to death in July in an attack that was claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), as a martyr.

A priest has throat slit in Normandy Play! 01:04

"He accepted his martyrdom there on the altar," the Pope said. "He is a martyr and martyrs are beatified."
The remarks strongly suggested that the Pope intends to make Father Hamel a saint. Beatification is the first major step in the path towards sainthood.
For a person to be beatified, the Catholic Church normally requires that a miracle be attributed to them.  But that condition appears to have been waived by the Pope, who has established a reputation for “jumping over procedural hurdles”, as one Vatican insider put it.

Pope Francis said that to murder in the name of God is a "satanic" act Credit: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP

The Argentinean pontiff spoke at a special Mass for around 80 Catholics from Rouen, where the 85-year-old was killed after two men barged their way into his church in the suburb of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray.
They forced him to kneel and then slit his throat, while chanting in Arabic at the altar. The two attackers were shot dead by police as they came out of the church.
The Pope said that before he was murdered, Father Hamel yelled at his attackers: “Satan, get out!” He added: “What a pleasure it would be if all religious confessions would say: 'To kill in the name of God is satanic'".

Hundreds gather to mourn murdered priest Father Jacques Hamel Play! 00:50

He said Father Hamel was just the latest in a long line of martyrs in the history of the Church. Throughout the world there were Christians "who are murdered, tortured, imprisoned, have their throats slit because they do not deny Jesus Christ,” he said.
After the Mass, Dominique Leburn, the archbishop of Rouen, said the Pope had told him that the French priest should from now on be “venerated” – a further indication that his path to sainthood is all but assured.

Pope Francis declares Mother Teresa a Saint Play! 00:34

....
Taken from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/14/pope-francis-puts-french-priest-murdered-by-isil-extremists-on-p/

Same-sex marriage: Church and ethnic groups unite to support ‘no case’ in a plebiscite

The new alliance against gay marriage is unprecedented.

EXCLUSIVE Simon Benson, National Political Editor, The Daily Telegraph

August 30, 2016 12:00am

....

• CONSERVATIVE MPs OBJECT TO ‘MARRIAGE EQUALITY’
• GREENS VETO PUTS PM’S PLEBISCITE IN PERIL
• SHORTEN SET TO PULL PLUG ON TURNBULL PLAN
• MIRANDA DEVINE: Same-sex marriage is totalitarian tolerance

AN unprecedented alliance of church, family and ethnic groups will unite under a single banner to campaign against same-sex marriage.

The Daily Telegraph has learned leading representatives of all the major church denominations have met over the past several weeks to finalise a formal cross-faith and cross-denominational coalition to support the “no case” in a plebiscite.
It is understood at least 40 religious denominations, ethnic groups, charities and family-based organisations have signed up to a memorandum of understanding under an organisation to be called Australians for Marriage.
The faith-based coalition, which is expected to number more than 100 groups when finalised, would claim to represent a congregation and membership of between four and six million Australians.

So far it is believed that Catholic, Anglican, Maronite, Eastern Orthodox, Baptists, Pentecostal, Assemblies of God and other Christian ­denominations have signed, as have prominent family and ethnic associations.
The coalition, however, is expected to end up being much broader with likely representatives of other major faiths, including both Islam and Judaism.
The alliance will argue that it is not a question of the church versus “everyone else” but a coalition reflecting a broad section of the Australian community.
It will pit the alliance against an already powerful lobby pressing the case in favour of same-sex marriage.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull / AAP

Sources involved in the establishment of the group said the memorandum of understanding was a charter to co-ordinate a national campaign against changing the Marriage Act to remove gender.
“There appears to be an ever-growing groundswell of concern in the community about this major social change and its consequences,” an alliance source said.
“All voices should be heard on this issue and the guiding mission of this group will be to ensure the voice of mainstream of Australia is heard.”
The fate of the plebiscite now rests with Labor leader Bill Shorten after three Senate members of the Nick Xenophon Team confirmed they would side with the Greens and vote against enabling legislation for a plebiscite, claiming the issue should be resolved by a vote of the parliament.

So far it is believed that Catholic, Anglican, Maronite, Eastern Orthodox, Baptists, Pentecostal, Assemblies of God and other Christian ­denominations have signed the memorandum, as have prominent family and ethnic associations.

Mr Shorten, who was a minister in the Gillard government that ensured the defeat of a gay marriage bill in 2012, is now arguing for a free vote of MPs on the issue.
Same-sex marriage lobby group Australian Marriage Equality has called for all political parties to work together to deliver an outcome to support marriage equality.

“We will continue to meet with MPs across all political parties to build a consensus that achieves equality for Australians,” AME chair Alex Greenwich said.

....

Taken from: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/samesex-marriage-church-and-ethnic-groups-unite-to-support-no-case-in-a-plebiscite/news-story/624543033dc0eea8d503cee7fb9cb795
 

‘Pinnacle of the Temple’ where Satan took Jesus

 

by

 

 Damien F. Mackey

 

 

 

“He [Solomon] made that Temple which was beyond this a wonderful one indeed, and

such as exceeds all description in words; nay, if I may so say, is hardly believed upon

sight; for when he had filled up great valleys with earth, which, on account of their

immense depth, could not be looked on when you bent down to see them without

pain, and had elevated the ground four hundred cubits [600 feet], he made it to

be on a level with the top of the mountain on which the Temple was built…This

wall was itself the most prodigious work that was ever heard of by man”.

(Antiquities of the Jews, VIII, 3, 9; XV, 11, 3 – Temples, p. 441)…

 

Thus Roger Waite quotes from Jewish historian Josephus’s Antiquities in his fine compilation, “The Lost History of Jerusalem”, much of which is, in turn, based on the research of the biblical historian, Dr. Ernest L. Martin (RIP), from his book, The Temples That Jerusalem Forgot.

Waite goes on to write of the Great Eastern Wall of the Temple built by King Solomon, the SE corner of which in later times was the pinnacle of the Temple, to where Satan took Jesus.

 

 

According to Waite (beginning p. 63):

The Great Eastern Wall of Solomon‟s Temple

 

Solomon built a great wall on the eastern side from the very base of the Kidron Valley. It rose 300 cubits which is the equivalent of 40 to 45 story modern skyscraper. This can hardly be said about the eastern wall of the Haram [esh-Sharif, or “Temple Mount”] which at its highest point in the SE corner is only several stories high.

 

Solomon built this great eastern wall straight up from the very base of the Kidron Valley which brought the Gihon spring within the city walls and then he had the area between the top of the SE spur known as the City of David and this eastern wall filled in.

 

A huge amount of fill was dumped and compacted on the eastern slope between the top of the hill and the eastern wall that shot straight up from the base of the valley.

 

All this fill went directly over the Gihon spring and then Solomon built the Temple in an east–west direction from the top of the Ophel summit where Ornan‘s threshing floor was and over this artificial extension that was directly above the Gihon spring.

 

Speaking in amazement of Solomon‘s original work that was added to by others Josephus writes:

 

He [Solomon] also built a wall below, beginning at the bottom [of the Kidron ravine] which was encompassed by a deep valley. At the south side he laid stones together, and bound them one to another with lead, and included some of the inner parts till it proceeded to a great height, and till both the largeness of the square edifice and its altitude were immense. The vastness of the stones in the front were plainly visible on the outside yet so that the inward parts were fastened together with iron, and preserved the joints immovable for future times.

 

When this work was done in this manner, and joined together as part of the hill itself to the very top of it, he wrought it all into one outward surface. He filled up the hollow places that were about the wall, and made it a level on the external upper surface, and a smooth level also.

 

[Later in Herod‟s day], this hill was walled all round, and in compass four stades [a stade was 600 feet], each angle [of the square] containing in length a stade [it was a square of 600 feet on each side]. But within this wall and on the very top of all, there ran another wall of stone also having on the east quarter a double cloister [colonnade] of the same length with the wall; in the midst of which was the Temple itself (Antiquities of the Jews XV, 11, 3 – Temples p.451).

 

About this description by Josephus Ernest Martin writes:

 

Notice two points in Josephus' description that I emphasized. He said the stones that made up the wall on the east side of the Temple were "bound together with lead" and on the inside they had "iron clamps" that fused them together with such a bond that Josephus reckoned they would be permanently united together. These bonding features in the east wall that used iron and lead would have been a unique aspect associated with the binding of those stones. But note this: Much of the eastern wall of the Haram (that some attribute to Solomon because they think it is the Temple Mount) DO NOT have any of these features. The stones of the Haram are all placed one on another without any type of cement between them (either of lead, iron or whatever). This fact is, again, a clear indication the walls surrounding the Haram are NOT those that encompassed the Temple of Herod as described by Josephus, our eyewitness historian (Temples, p.466).

 

Notice carefully what Josephus said about the position of this eastern wall. He said that it was begun at the very bottom of the valley.

 

The eastern wall was built at the very bottom of the valley NOT half-way up! The eastern

wall of the Haram does not start from the very bottom of the valley. It starts half-way up and is not anywhere near 300 cubits (450 feet) high!

 

This eastern wall gave the appearance of great height and impressiveness to the completed structure. Josephus, in the account of the Roman general Pompey‘s attack against the Temple in 63 B.C. before Herod‘s extensions to the Temple complex, says the following:

 

At this treatment Pompey was very angry, and took Aristobulus into custody. And when he was come to the city [Jerusalem], he looked about where he might make his attack. He saw the walls were so firm, that it would be hard to overcome them. The valley before the walls was terrible [for depth]; and that the temple, which was within that valley, was itself encompassed with a very strong wall, insomuch that if the city were taken, that temple would be a second place of refuge for the enemy to retire to (Wars of the Jews, I.7,1 – Temples p.439).

 

Speaking of the incredible height of the eastern wall of the city which was also the eastern wall of the Temple Josephus also writes:

 

He [Solomon] made that Temple which was beyond this a wonderful one indeed, and such as exceeds all description in words; nay, if I may so say, is hardly believed upon sight; for when he had filled up great valleys with earth, which, on account of their immense depth, could not be looked on when you bent down to see them without pain, and had elevated the ground four hundred cubits [600 feet], he made it to be on a level with the top of the mountain on which the Temple was built…This wall was itself the most prodigious work that was ever heard of by man (Antiquities of the Jews, VIII, 3,9; XV, 11, 3 – Temples, p.441)…

 

The Romans also burnt the whole northern portico [colonnade] right up to that on the east, where the angle [northeastern angle of the Temple wall] connecting the two was built over the ravine called the Kidron, the depth at that point being consequently terrific (War of the Jews, VI, 3, 2 – Temples, p.442).

 

Notice Josephus says Solomon artificially “elevated the ground 400 cubits (600 feet).” Then he made it level at the top of this artificial extension “on which the Temple was

built.”

 

Josephus‘ figure of 600 feet, if true, would put this work, “the most prodigious work that was ever heard of by man”, 120 feet higher than the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The highest point was at the SE corner and was called the pinnacle of the Temple which was built at the top of this extended mountain.

 

The pinnacle of the Temple, which had a sheer drop between 300 and 600 feet, was the

place that Satan took Jesus to and tempted him to jump off and see if angels would catch his fall as promised in the Bible.

 

Notice further what Josephus said about its great height:

 

This cloister [that is, the southeast comer of the southern colonnade] deserves to be mentioned better than any other under the sun. For while the valley was very deep, and its bottom could not be seen, if you looked from above into the depth, this farther vastly high elevation of the colonnade stood upon that height, insomuch that if anyone looked down from the top of the battlements, or down both these altitudes, he would be giddy, while his sight could not reach to such a great depth (Antiquities of the Jews XV, 11, 5 – Temples p.443).

 

This incredible height from which someone would be giddy looking down from could certainly not be true of the SE corner of the Haram. Ernest Martin has these things to say about Josephus‘ descriptions of the Temple:

 

While Josephus said in Wars of the Jews V.5,1 that the top of the eastern wall of Herod's Temple was 300 cubits' above the Kidron Valley (or higher in places), he said in Antiquities of the Jews VIII.3,9 the height was 400 cubits (that is 100 cubits higher). Reading the texts carefully means that the extra 100 cubits (of the 400 cubits' measurement) remained below ground because "the whole depth of the foundations was not evident; for they filled up a considerable part of the ravines" (Wars of the Jews V.5,1). And in Antiquities of the Jews VIII.3, 9 Josephus said Solomon "filled up great valleys with earth." This means Solomon actually filled in with earth the

original Kidron Valley (to the height of 100 cubits) and then on top of this foundational "fill-in," his east wall ascended another 300 cubits exposed to the air up to the top of the Temple wall…

 

[End of quotes]

 

 

Matthew 4:5-7

 

Then the devil took [Jesus] to the holy city [Jerusalem] and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God’, he said, ‘throw yourself down. For it is written:

 

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    and they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone’.”

 

Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test”.’