Caption transcript for Bearded Bible Brothers and the Third Temple of Doom!: “Finding Solomon,” Part 2 (7/8)

• 00:01 Joshua Colson: Previously on “Bearded Bible Brothers.”
• 00:03 Caleb Colson: This is magnificent, gentlemen.
• 00:05 Look at all this space here.
• 00:08 Here is the entrance to the
• 00:11 temple complex, the former entrance, southern steps.
• 00:13 Joshua: I cannot believe it.
• 00:15 Caleb tricked me again into going into a death tunnel.
• 00:18 It’s the one that has the passage that’s like 5 foot tall
• 00:20 and like 2 feet wide, of which I am neither.
• 00:22 Dr. Christian Widener: So the work that Solomon is–the Bible
• 00:24 tells us Solomon did, it would have taken Herod almost 2
• 00:27 centuries to do the same amount of work.
• 00:29 Yes, he started talking about Herod, but he’s now talking
• 00:31 about what Herod was building on, and that that was by
• 00:34 King Solomon.
• 00:35 Then I think that totally changes the testimony and you
• 00:39 see that Josephus is actually affirming Solomon as the builder
• 00:42 of the Temple Mount rather than Herod.
• 00:44 Joshua: That’s right.
• 00:45 Caleb: And I see Hirchie, you know, Rabbi Hirchie, off in
• 00:48 the distance.
• 00:50 He’s surrounded by 50 IDF soldiers, and I see that Hirchie
• 00:53 starts praying with everybody.
• 00:54 He’s shaking everybody’s hand.
• 00:56 He’s surrounded by these soldiers.
• 00:58 And that’s why we do our best to listen to the Holy Spirit and
• 01:01 not miss a single opportunity when we’re in Israel.
• 01:06 ♪♪♪
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• 01:16 ♪♪♪
• 01:26 ♪♪♪
• 01:36 Joshua: Help, somebody! Stop!
• 01:41 ♪♪♪
• 01:43 Joshua: Oh boy, we’re gonna need another temple.
• 01:48 Caleb: Come on, buddy, we are back in Israel and back
• 01:50 in action.
• 01:52 Last week, Dr. Christian Widener took us around the
• 01:53 Temple Mount, dropping truth bombs.
• 01:56 Joshua: Truth bomb? Brother.
• 01:58 Caleb: Sorry.
• 01:59 Joshua: Poor taste, poor taste.
• 02:01 Dropping truth bombs of archaeological proof to
• 02:02 demonstrate his thesis that the current Temple Mount complex was
• 02:06 actually constructed by King Solomon.
• 02:08 This earth-shattering theory flies in the face of decades of
• 02:11 assumptions that it was the infamous Herod the Great and his
• 02:15 superior work that expanded the complex that is visible today.
• 02:18 We saw a lot of compelling evidence that backs up
• 02:21 Christian’s claim.
• 02:22 I’m excited to see what he has in store for us next.
• 02:24 Let’s head to the David Citadel now.
• 02:28 Caleb: 1 Chronicles 22:5: “David said, ‘My son Solomon is young
• 02:33 and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord should
• 02:36 be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight
• 02:39 of all the nations.
• 02:41 Therefore I will make preparations for it.’
• 02:43 So David made extensive preparations before his death.”
• 02:48 Caleb: I find it interesting, Christian, that some say Solomon
• 02:51 was 15 years old when he became king.
• 02:53 Some say he was 20.
• 02:55 But literally he was pretty young, inexperienced.
• 02:58 Scripture just said he was not very experienced, yet 4 years
• 03:02 into his reign, he started this building project, the most
• 03:04 important building project, I believe, in history.
• 03:08 Now, when you look at the specs, the dimensions, the details of
• 03:13 building Solomon’s temple, you kind of see a comparison with
• 03:16 Phoenician temples and architecture, and that’s not,
• 03:20 you know, a confusing fact because King David was friends
• 03:23 with Hiram of Phoenicia of Tyre.
• 03:27 And so one would even wonder if David had a hand in building the
• 03:31 platform of the temple as well, or if it is all the genius of
• 03:35 the chief architect Hiram, but we know that that influence
• 03:38 carried over to Solomon.
• 03:40 So I’m just trying to wonder, did he get his wisdom from God
• 03:42 to build all the temple projects?
• 03:44 Was it Hiram?
• 03:45 But we do see similarities, don’t we?
• 03:46 Christian: Oh yeah.
• 03:48 Yeah, and Scripture does say that not only did David make
• 03:51 tremendous preparations for the temple and helping Solomon to
• 03:54 get, you know, amass wealth, but he had this key relationship
• 03:58 with Hiram, right, that which just transitioned immediately
• 04:01 into Solomon’s reign because he went and asked for, you know,
• 04:06 stonemasons from Hiram.
• 04:07 And so it actually solves one of the mysteries about Baalbek in
• 04:12 Lebanon because in Baalbek they have these megalithic stones
• 04:16 that are, you know, equal to and even a little bit larger in some
• 04:20 cases than the Great Western stone that’s in the Temple Mount
• 04:23 underneath the walls, that one that’s 40 feet long and 10 feet
• 04:27 tall and 6 to 10 feet deep, you know, like that kind of stone,
• 04:30 500-ton stones.
• 04:33 Caleb: Baalbek, Lebanon, has been a top dream destination of
• 04:35 mine for years.
• 04:37 It’s home to the largest Roman temple ever constructed–to
• 04:40 Jupiter, no less.
• 04:41 But this city, which some historians claim date back
• 04:44 11,000 years, is shrouded in mystery due to massive megalith
• 04:48 stones that make up the complex.
• 04:50 The Romans built their temples atop an existing platform built
• 04:54 by an unknown civilization that shouldn’t have had the
• 04:57 technology to construct such fine work.
• 04:59 We’re talking about monolith stones such as the Trilithon.
• 05:03 This row of 3 megalithic cut limestones were over 62 feet
• 05:07 long each, 14 feet high, and 12 feet wide.
• 05:11 Each weighs approximately 880 tons.
• 05:14 According to written Ugaritic history, Baalbek was a high holy
• 05:18 site founded by the infamous Nimrod himself.
• 05:21 After building Babel, Erech, Accad, Nineveh, the ancient
• 05:25 history claims Nimrod traveled to present-day Lebanon, where he
• 05:28 used his army of giants to build the city of Baalbek and, of
• 05:32 course, these holy shrines.
• 05:34 All I know is that evil is always attracted to evil
• 05:37 high places.
• 05:38 Baalbek is considered to be part of Hezbollah’s heartland and was
• 05:41 known to be their political stronghold, which unfortunately
• 05:44 is why I cannot visit the terrorist hotspot today–
• 05:48 yet.
• 05:50 Christian: And so when he’s, you know, building with things like
• 05:54 that, like you see up at Baalbek, well, that, if people
• 05:57 think that Herod built the Temple Mount, then they start
• 06:00 going, “Oh, well, maybe Herod helped build Baalbek too.”
• 06:03 Caleb: No, no, it’s too old. Come on, guys.
• 06:05 Christian: But it’s not yet; it’s–the Bible is telling us,
• 06:08 right, that story, and that’s what’s giving us this account
• 06:11 that, you know, Hiram is the one who brought that technology to
• 06:14 here, but you can be sure that with the wisdom that God gave
• 06:18 Solomon, he didn’t stop where, you know, he started, right, and
• 06:22 continued to innovate.
• 06:24 And so I think a lot of the things that we see here still
• 06:26 reach a grandeur that you don’t necessarily see anywhere else in
• 06:29 the world, and I would call the Temple Mount still one of the
• 06:32 8th–you know, the 8th wonder of the world.
• 06:35 Caleb: Now we’re at the Citadel of David, Jaffa Gate’s
• 06:38 behind us.
• 06:39 There’s a very important find here that’s linked to
• 06:40 your story.
• 06:42 Let’s go take a look at it.
• 06:43 Christian: All right, let’s go.
• 06:45 Caleb: 2 Chronicles 8:1-2 and verse 6: “It took Solomon twenty
• 06:48 years to build the Lord’s Temple and his own royal palace.
• 06:52 At the end of that time, Solomon turned his attention to
• 06:54 rebuilding the towns that King Hiram had given him, and he
• 06:58 settled Israelites in them.
• 07:00 He built everything he desired in Jerusalem and Lebanon and
• 07:03 throughout his entire realm.”
• 07:05 Caleb: So we’re at the Citadel of David.
• 07:07 They say this fortress, this crusader period, Mamluk period,
• 07:11 destroyed, rebuilt over and over again.
• 07:13 You have a different story to tell.
• 07:15 Why are these stones here?
• 07:16 Christian: Yeah, so we’re here at what is, some people would
• 07:19 call the Herodian period, but is really the Solomonic period, but
• 07:23 you see the same bordered stones here, these giant
• 07:26 megalithic ashlars.
• 07:27 This is the oldest part of the citadel.
• 07:29 It’s been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times, but we see that
• 07:33 this is, you know, the remnants of a moat.
• 07:36 The stones are in their original location, and this is another
• 07:39 one of the projects for Solomon’s 150,000 men and the
• 07:43 building projects that he made around Jerusalem.
• 07:45 And there’s another place just like this over at the
• 07:47 Damascus Gate.
• 07:49 And so that really, I think, helps us set the extent of the
• 07:52 city in the days of Solomon in the 10th century, that it’s much
• 07:56 greater than what people thought, because we’re tying it
• 07:59 back to, you know, Solomon, not Herod.
• 08:02 The Damascus Gate is actually tied to Hadrian because when
• 08:06 after the city was conquered in the days of, you know, Hadrian
• 08:11 coming back in Aelia Capitolina, the 10th Legion put up a stone
• 08:16 and carved it to say this is dedicated, but you know, because
• 08:19 there’s a dedication of the great stonework of Solomon
• 08:22 doesn’t mean that it was built by Hadrian–by the 10th Legion
• 08:25 for Hadrian.
• 08:27 Caleb: That’s right.
• 08:28 Christian: So, you know, when we see this, this is what tells us,
• 08:31 really, where the city was extended to.
• 08:33 So then another evidence that we’re not talking about Herod
• 08:35 here is if we go to Masada, right, we could see some real
• 08:39 Herodian stonework.
• 08:41 Caleb: Well, I would like to see what Herod actually built
• 08:43 in Masada.
• 08:45 So let’s just jump there right now.
• 08:46 Christian: All right, let’s take a trip.
• 08:48 Joshua: Okay, if you are not a nerd, stick around.
• 08:51 It’s history time.
• 08:53 I promise it’s super-cool.
• 08:54 Look at me, clearly not a nerd, and I love this stuff.
• 08:56 Herod the Great was known for his many building projects
• 09:00 around Judea, as well as Solomon.
• 09:02 Now we do have evidence of those specific projects that we can
• 09:05 visit today.
• 09:06 He built a hilltop palace fortress of Herodium that would
• 09:10 become his mausoleum.
• 09:11 He built the port city of Caesarea Maritima to be the
• 09:14 headquarters of Rome’s dominion over Judea here, as well as
• 09:17 Churva Omri and Tel Sebastia.
• 09:19 He built temples to honor Caesar Augustus, but Masada, it’s a
• 09:23 special kind of indulgence.
• 09:25 This fortress of Masada is built at the Dead Sea on a mesa 1300
• 09:29 feet above the desert floor.
• 09:31 It showcases two spacious palaces, luxurious bathhouses,
• 09:35 well stocked storerooms, 12 enormous cisterns, mikvahs, and
• 09:40 a synagogue.
• 09:41 This was his home away from home.
• 09:43 King Herod could withstand an enemy army siege for months with
• 09:47 all of these resources.
• 09:48 In fact, Masada was the site of the infamous last stand of the
• 09:52 Jewish zealots against the Roman Empire in 72 AD, where the
• 09:56 hardcore rebels decided to commit mass suicide instead of
• 09:59 surrendering to their army.
• 10:00 Like I said, there’s a lot of history here.
• 10:04 And like, a lot of dirt.
• 10:06 It was wicked hot.
• 10:09 A lot of climbing.
• 10:11 Caleb: All right, this palace is pretty nice.
• 10:14 I mean, King Herod lived here.
• 10:17 It’s a Western palace, magnificent stonework.
• 10:20 I mean, look at this.
• 10:21 This looks just like the Temple Mount, right?
• 10:22 I mean, it’s beautiful.
• 10:24 I mean, what do you think, Christian?
• 10:25 Christian: It does.
• 10:26 And actually, so we’re in Herod’s royal residence in the
• 10:28 Western palace, and this is true Herodian stonework.
• 10:32 And you can see it right behind us on the walls.
• 10:34 It’s actually just, you know, assembled stonework that’s
• 10:38 actually fast and cheap by comparison to the Temple
• 10:40 Mount walls.
• 10:42 It’s covered in plaster, but it was carved to look exactly like
• 10:45 the Temple Mount walls, and that’s the thing that tells you
• 10:48 that he’s trying to look like the Temple Mount.
• 10:50 He didn’t build the Temple Mount.
• 10:52 If you could have built that kind of work, surely you would
• 10:55 have seen some of it here and instead we see copycat work.
• 11:00 Caleb: So he’s a poser.
• 11:01 Christian: That’s what I see.
• 11:03 I see here True Herodian stonework is not what everybody
• 11:06 says it is.
• 11:07 They’re calling Solomon’s work Herodian.
• 11:10 Joshua: Because if you don’t do it in your own house, you don’t
• 11:12 really care that much.
• 11:13 That’s what you can’t do.
• 11:14 Christian: I mean, it’s your palace, right?
• 11:16 Caleb: You want the best in your palace just like we saw the best
• 11:18 throughout Masada, the best bathhouse, the best terrace,
• 11:21 northern palace.
• 11:23 So yeah.
• 11:25 Herod in all his glory.
• 11:27 There it is, hm.
• 11:30 Caleb: It’s time to call a spade a spade.
• 11:32 Herod the Great had some great ideas, but his execution was
• 11:36 rushed and flawed.
• 11:38 He wanted monuments built to his glory to stand for all time, but
• 11:42 they now are in ruin.
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• 12:52 Caleb: Genesis 23:19-20: “Afterward Abraham buried his
• 12:57 wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre
• 13:01 [which is at Hebron] in the land of Canaan.
• 13:04 So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the
• 13:07 Hittites as a burial site.”
• 13:10 Joshua: Now I’m not gonna lie, when Christian asked us to go to
• 13:12 Hebron again, I had to think twice, aside from being an
• 13:16 ancient stronghold of the Nephilim giants, and people
• 13:19 always kind of think that I’m a part of their team, when I’m
• 13:21 not, modern Hebron is quite a tumultuous place because, well,
• 13:25 pockets of Jewish communities are surrounded by hostile
• 13:27 Islamic occupiers.
• 13:29 This is the West Bank, the wild, wild, wild West.
• 13:32 There’s all three wilds here, I promise you.
• 13:34 I hope things don’t get too wild this time around.
• 13:38 That makes four wilds, it’s redundant.
• 13:39 I need other words in my vocabulary.
• 13:44 Hirchie Schaffner: That’s cool. I’ve seen that place before.
• 13:46 Caleb: I have.
• 13:48 It looks different in the daylight though.
• 13:50 Hirchie: You know, we’re right here, outside of the Tomb of the
• 13:54 Patriarchs also built on top of the cave of Machpelah, right,
• 13:59 that Abraham actually purchased from the Hittites.
• 14:04 Yeah, he bought that land, and here it is.
• 14:06 They built this right upon that memorial there.
• 14:08 Joshua: It’s funny that you can buy a piece of land like that in
• 14:10 a place like Israel, and here we are thousands of years later and
• 14:14 because of who’s buried in that cave that you’re talking about,
• 14:17 it’s such a holy place for the Jews here.
• 14:19 You have the bones of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, you have Sarah,
• 14:22 Rebecca, Leah, and even people believe that Adam and Eve’s
• 14:25 bones are there too.
• 14:26 That’s a sacred place for everybody to be in that
• 14:29 one tomb.
• 14:30 Caleb: Yeah, it is interesting, but it looks quite different
• 14:33 from what they saw back then, which was a cave.
• 14:36 What we’re seeing right now, this giant structure, many
• 14:38 attribute it, you see these giant stones, to Herod that he
• 14:42 built this Herodian monument on top, and then by the time the
• 14:46 crusader knights come here, they build this extra layer on top.
• 14:50 You see the stonework is different and it’s a church.
• 14:54 Then here comes the Muslim invaders and they convert it
• 14:56 into a mosque and then now it’s kind of split in between today
• 15:00 between a mosque and a synagogue but it’s still a very
• 15:03 holy site.
• 15:05 Now, Christian, I know you have a different theory about who
• 15:07 constructed these stones here.
• 15:10 What is it?
• 15:11 I mean, what are we looking at?
• 15:13 Christian: Well, that’s right, Caleb.
• 15:14 It’s another case of urban legends about the accounts of
• 15:16 Josephus, you know, to say that Herod built this place, but
• 15:20 historians actually openly admit that he didn’t, you know, that
• 15:24 he’s not even mentioned in the accounts, right?
• 15:26 It’s just completely assumed from the similarity of the
• 15:30 construction with the Temple Mount.
• 15:32 And, you know, like, here’s just a quote from Duane W. Roller,
• 15:37 the building program of Herod the Great.
• 15:39 So if anybody should know something about it, right, and
• 15:41 he’s–what does he write?
• 15:42 “The ancient city of Hebron, renowned as the home and burial
• 15:45 place of Abraham, is somewhat of a puzzle for the student of
• 15:48 Herod’s building program.
• 15:49 It was described by Josephus with particular emphasis on its
• 15:52 fine marble tombs, but there’s no mention of Herod.”
• 15:57 And so, like, how come we’re so confident that Herod built it?
• 16:00 Only because it looks like the Temple Mount.
• 16:03 And so–
• 16:04 Joshua: You’re trying to say that Herod’s humility wouldn’t
• 16:06 have kept his own name out of it if he’d been the one that
• 16:07 built it?
• 16:09 Christian: Absolutely.
• 16:10 Caleb: I say we prove it. I want to go see a closer look.
• 16:14 Caleb: 1 Kings 9:17-19: “So Solomon rebuilt Gezer and the
• 16:18 lower Beth-horon and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the
• 16:22 land of Judah, and all the storage cities which Solomon
• 16:26 had, even the cities for his chariots and the cities for his
• 16:29 horsemen, and all that it pleased Solomon to build in
• 16:32 Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land under his rule.”
• 16:36 Christian: All right, so guys, what I think we’re looking at
• 16:38 here is the most untouched and pristine structure that Solomon
• 16:42 built that remains to this day.
• 16:45 It was never besieged, you know, and attacked like the walls of
• 16:49 Jerusalem were.
• 16:50 And so when we look up at this, you know, you’re seeing, I
• 16:54 think, all the way back to the time of Solomon.
• 16:57 You’re seeing work that was done to, you know, memorialize and
• 17:01 commemorate this place because, outside of the temple, you know,
• 17:05 like the birthplace of the patriarchs that, you know, where
• 17:08 they’re buried is one of the most important things that could
• 17:11 have been memorialized.
• 17:12 And when we hear about Solomon, you know, he continued to work
• 17:16 and build for over 20 years after he finished the temple.
• 17:20 So, you know, as he’s doing that, he’s still got 150,000
• 17:25 men, that’s another 3 million man years of labor.
• 17:28 And so that’s why we should expect to find some amazing
• 17:31 things outside also of Jerusalem.
• 17:34 And I think by connecting this to Solomon, you also say 100%
• 17:38 this is the site of the temple, I mean, of–
• 17:41 Caleb: Very cool. Yes, very nice.
• 17:44 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 17:54 Joshua: I’m not going to say that I told you so, but I told
• 17:56 you so.
• 17:58 This place is so sacred, so volatile, that we were stopped
• 18:01 by the police force that was supposed to be protecting the
• 18:03 Jews at this site.
• 18:05 Of course it didn’t help that they were Arab police officers
• 18:07 and that they were 2 feet shorter than me, and that little
• 18:10 man complex, and very well-read up on Freud.
• 18:12 No matter how you feel, it’s not kind of anybody to shove an
• 18:15 assault rifle in anyone’s face just for filming a Bible story
• 18:18 or touch their camera or to have atrocious breath…
• 18:28 Caleb: Genesis 13:18: “Then Abraham moved his tent, and went
• 18:32 and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron,
• 18:36 and built an altar there to the Lord.”
• 18:39 Caleb: Guys, we made it to our final destination here at
• 18:42 Ramat el-Khalil.
• 18:44 This is the biblical site of Mamre.
• 18:47 So much stuff happened here.
• 18:50 This is where Abraham sojourned.
• 18:52 He was a stranger in a foreign land.
• 18:54 He set up camp here.
• 18:56 He built an altar to God.
• 18:57 He made a covenant with God here.
• 18:59 He even met with two angels in a theophany of Yeshua here.
• 19:03 A lot happened.
• 19:04 Joshua: That is a lot of stuff for one place.
• 19:06 This place has been verified by so many people, by so many
• 19:09 ancient archaeology,
• 19:10 little things that have been found here.
• 19:12 Josephus says, boom, this here is special.
• 19:14 Obviously we know that’s because this is where God and Abraham
• 19:18 made that covenant, where God walked through those
• 19:19 bloody-boned animals.
• 19:21 Those massive potholes over there, that’s what those giant
• 19:23 oaks came out of.
• 19:24 I mean, it’s just a crazy site that obviously has been coveted
• 19:28 by the world for a long time.
• 19:30 [Muslim call to prayer]
• 19:33 Caleb: And on cue, we have to stop filming again.
• 19:37 This time, Muslim prayer calls interrupt our pristine audio.
• 19:42 Joshua: We’re still in Hebron, a different part.
• 19:44 We’re at the location where Abraham was told by theophany
• 19:48 that Sodom was gonna be destroyed.
• 19:51 This place, the ruins, it’s really cool.
• 19:54 They talk about the tall oaks.
• 19:55 There you can see those holes right there showing the
• 19:59 circumference of what that tree was like.
• 20:02 The well over here, the water source they believe Abraham dug
• 20:04 originally for this area.
• 20:06 So much history.
• 20:08 If you don’t believe, I’ll say it again in case I got cut off,
• 20:11 if you don’t believe spiritual warfare is real.
• 20:15 We got kicked out of our first site.
• 20:16 We went around to the other side, the Arabic side.
• 20:19 Complete silence.
• 20:20 We got out here to film and the prayer calls begin.
• 20:22 But as they saw us filming, they cranked up the volume on the
• 20:25 prayer calls so loud that we can barely hear ourself and then
• 20:29 projected it through multiple speakers.
• 20:31 Caleb: It’s crazy.
• 20:32 Joshua: Spiritual warfare is real.
• 20:35 They don’t like what we’re doing.
• 20:37 Caleb: All right, Satanic prayer time is over.
• 20:40 Not today, Satan.
• 20:42 Not today.
• 20:43 Now back to your regularly scheduled Bearded Bible
• 20:45 Brothers teachings.
• 20:48 Hirchie: And even like right over here is where Abraham’s
• 20:51 altar was built.
• 20:52 I mean, we’re standing on the ground that is really holy,
• 20:56 really amazing.
• 20:57 Later on we know good old Constantine came in and tried to
• 21:01 shift some things around and take all the Jewishness of
• 21:04 Yeshua out of the sequence.
• 21:06 And so he built a basilica right over here to kind of shift the
• 21:09 whole gears.
• 21:10 But the important thing is what happened with this altar in this
• 21:13 area and I know, Christian, you got a lot of information
• 21:15 on that.
• 21:16 Christian: Yeah, well, and this was also the place where, you
• 21:18 know, God made that promise to Sarah that she would bear a son,
• 21:21 you know, when she’s long past the years of childbirth, and so
• 21:25 this is also the birth of the nation of Israel and, you know,
• 21:28 to be here at this place and just sort of, you know, the
• 21:32 importance of the archaeology that’s here to commemorate this
• 21:36 is just, you know, it’s amazing.
• 21:38 And when we look at that, we go, okay, this happened here, but
• 21:41 what else happened here?
• 21:42 I mean, this has been commemorated since even the time
• 21:45 of David, even earlier, and then especially these great walls
• 21:49 with these giant ashlar stones, I think tell us that somebody
• 21:52 else was here too, and it was Solomon.
• 21:55 A lot of people have said it’s Herod because, you know, Herod
• 21:58 must have done this kind of same work because there’s stones over
• 22:01 here that we’ll look at in a minute that match the stones
• 22:04 that we just saw at Machpelah, right?
• 22:06 But it’s Solomon, I think, that we’re looking for, not Herod.
• 22:10 There’s no mention of Herod by Josephus.
• 22:13 There’s no reason for him to have been here except for the
• 22:14 similarity of the stone.
• 22:16 But if we see that as Solomon, then this changes, you know, our
• 22:20 understanding of this site, and we know for sure this is also
• 22:22 where Abraham was at.
• 22:23 Caleb: Well, I want to see those stones you’re talking about.
• 22:25 Christian: All right, let’s go take a look.
• 22:26 Caleb: Sweet.
• 22:29 Caleb: Psalm 102:13-14: “You will rise up and have compassion
• 22:33 on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her–the appointed
• 22:36 time has come.
• 22:38 For your servants take delight in its stones and favor in
• 22:41 its dust.”
• 22:42 Christian: All right, so guys, come up here and take a look
• 22:44 at this.
• 22:45 We again see some very large ashlar stones.
• 22:48 They have the border that we see like at the Temple Mount in
• 22:50 Machpelah, which is what, you know, points to a Herodian
• 22:54 stone, but since we’re talking about Herodian stones being
• 22:57 really Solomonic stones and, really, this whole series of
• 23:01 giant ashlars that goes around here then it encompasses this
• 23:04 whole spot, that’s what points us back to Solomon’s time
• 23:08 instead of looking at Herod.
• 23:09 Caleb: That’s a huge perimeter I see around here.
• 23:11 It’s like a fortress almost.
• 23:13 Christian: It’s amazing.
• 23:14 Caleb: It’s like, what were they protecting in here?
• 23:16 Had to be important, I think.
• 23:18 Christian: This is the birthplace of Israel right here.
• 23:21 Caleb: I get it.
• 23:22 Let’s go see some more.
• 23:24 Christian: All right.
• 23:25 Very fortified nursery for a baby country waiting to be
• 23:28 God’s chosen.
• 23:32 Caleb: Mamre was a holy site even to the Jews back during the
• 23:35 time of biblical Joshua and Caleb.
• 23:37 The first evidence of a shrine or holy site being built here
• 23:41 after Abraham was during the beginning of the tribe of
• 23:44 Judah’s residency after the conquest of Canaan.
• 23:47 Then, according to Christian’s research around the Iron Age
• 23:49 during the reign of Solomon, we see these massive walls of
• 23:52 ashlar stones were built to encompass the site where
• 23:56 Abraham’s altar and his well were located.
• 23:59 The stone wall was 6.5 feet thick, 160 feet by 213 feet.
• 24:05 Not surprisingly, this became a cultic site to honor the dead
• 24:08 ancestors of the Jewish people.
• 24:10 Was that a good idea?
• 24:12 I’ll leave it to you.
• 24:20 Hirchie: That was an amazing adventure, to go and see all
• 24:23 these things, Christian, that Solomon built, seeing all his
• 24:26 construction sites.
• 24:28 Thank you so much for taking us around Israel to see these
• 24:30 amazing things.
• 24:31 Christian: Thank you for letting me come with you guys.
• 24:33 I mean, this has been awesome.
• 24:34 Caleb: It is amazing, and I think we can draw a very
• 24:36 important moral from this whole situation because we see around
• 24:39 us these structures.
• 24:41 You have an altar, you have a church.
• 24:43 Man is always trying to build a edifice, a temple, some place to
• 24:49 connect them to God.
• 24:50 And yeah, God originally had that.
• 24:52 A temple was a way to meet with him, to commune with him.
• 24:55 Now we have Yeshua where we can commune with him directly, but
• 24:58 ever since that moment happened, man just started building bigger
• 25:02 temples, bigger churches, and it’s like they’re worshiping
• 25:04 that structure instead of worshiping God.
• 25:07 They all try to outdo one another and make the
• 25:09 biggest thing.
• 25:10 And Satan likes that.
• 25:12 If he can get your focus off of God, onto man, onto the
• 25:15 structure, onto the gold, onto the opulence, it’ll eventually
• 25:18 go toward him, and he’s waiting for that moment, the
• 25:21 final moment.
• 25:22 That’s why he sinned.
• 25:24 That’s why he was cast out of heaven, because he wanted
• 25:25 worship for himself.
• 25:27 And then you find out during the Tribulation, he finally gets it,
• 25:29 his heart’s desire when man finally bows down to worship
• 25:32 him incarnate.
• 25:34 Joshua: For like a few seconds.
• 25:36 Yeah, yeah, just a few seconds, but, yeah, for him.
• 25:39 Stay tuned next week, Dr. Christian Widener, this
• 25:41 gentleman right here who’s been dropping knowledge that’s
• 25:43 exploding my brain this entire trip, is going to literally blow
• 25:47 up your paradigm of understanding of the end times,
• 25:50 of the Tribulation, the Second Coming, the Rapture, all the
• 25:52 stuff, he’s gonna turn it on its ear, but you can’t find out
• 25:55 unless you watch next week’s episode.
• 25:57 Better check back in.
• 26:05 Joshua: Next week on “The Bearded Bible Brothers.”
• 26:07 Joshua: We are back in Jerusalem, the city of Yeshua.
• 26:11 This is where he set up his first temple.
• 26:13 This is where he put his second temple, which unfortunately was
• 26:15 destroyed in 70 AD.
• 26:17 Hirchie: But then you’ve got these 7 years that still show
• 26:20 up, and most teachers will say that that’s the Rapture coming
• 26:23 and then the 7 years of Tribulation to follow.
• 26:26 Christian: Then this 2027 that’s coming up will be then another
• 26:31 year of Jubilee, and is a time that we should be watching for
• 26:34 the return of the Lord.
• 26:38 Caleb: This is fantastic.
• 26:39 I’m so excited and I’m so proud that I finally booked a trip to
• 26:43 Israel to walk where Jesus walked.
• 26:45 Joshua: It’s about time.
• 26:46 I told you, brother, it’s about time.
• 26:48 Joshua: Oh wow, look at that.
• 26:51 The figs taste like figs, the olives taste, well,
• 26:54 like olives.
• 26:56 Oh, it’s incredible.
• 26:59 Caleb: Oh man.
• 27:00 Joshua: Mike, I told you to double zip-tie.
• 27:04 Hey everybody, I’m Joshua.
• 27:05 Caleb: And I’m Caleb.
• 27:06 Joshua: And we’re the Bearded Bible Brothers.
• 27:08 Clearly we’re not in Israel now, but that’s okay, because we do
• 27:11 film in Israel all the time.
• 27:12 And guess what?
• 27:14 We want to bring you along as well.
• 27:16 Caleb: That’s right.
• 27:17 I remember my first visit to Israel.
• 27:18 The terrain looks completely different than it does on
• 27:21 camera–the depth, the height, the smells, Josh, even the
• 27:25 spiritual climate.
• 27:26 When you go to Jerusalem, you can visit the ruins of the
• 27:29 places where Yeshua and the apostles taught and learned
• 27:32 about the kingdom of heaven.
• 27:33 You can sail the same Sea of Galilee where Yeshua calmed
• 27:37 the waves.
• 27:38 You can even visit the Valley of Armageddon at Megiddo to see
• 27:42 where the final battle of the ages is going to be fought.
• 27:44 Joshua: So turn off that Zoom background, click on the link
• 27:47 below, and book your trip today, not just to Israel.
• 27:50 You can also add Petra and Jordan or go to Greece, where
• 27:53 Paul went all around and we go to those places as well.
• 27:56 Schedule your tour today.
• 28:00 Caleb: Did you know the Bearded Bible Brothers is an outreach of
• 28:02 Zola Levitt Ministries?
• 28:03 That means we are entirely donor funded.
• 28:06 Consider giving at Levitt.com.
• 28:07 You can also join the Bearded Bible Bonanza to access
• 28:10 additional content at Patreon.com/BeardedBibleBonanza.
• 28:15 Please support our mission to spread the gospel of Yeshua by
• 28:17 subscribing to our social media and sharing our online messages.
• 28:21 Join the Bearded Brothers in person on a study tour of
• 28:23 Israel, Greece, and Petra and see the Bible come alive.
• 28:27 And as always, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.