Quote:BOSTON: A previously unknown scrap of ancient papyrus written in ancient Egyptian Coptic includes the words "Jesus said to them, my wife," -- a discovery likely to renew a fierce debate in the Christian world over whether Jesus was married.



The existence of the fourth-century fragment -- not much bigger than a business card -- was revealed at a conference in Rome on Tuesday by Karen King, Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.



"Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married, even though no reliable historical evidence exists to support that claim," King said in a statement released by Harvard.



"This new gospel doesn't prove that Jesus was married, but it tells us that the whole question only came up as part of vociferous debates about sexuality and marriage."



Despite the Catholic Church's insistence that Jesus was not married, the idea resurfaces on a regular basis, notably with the 2003 publication of Dan Brown's best-seller " The Da Vinci Code," which angered many Christians because it was based on the idea that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had children.



King said the fragment, unveiled at the Tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies, provided the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus had been married.



Roger Bagnall, director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in New York, said he believed the fragment, which King has called " The Gospel of Jesus's wife," was authentic.



But further examination will be made by experts, as well as additional testing of the papyrus fragment, described as brownish-yellow and tattered. Of particular interest will be the chemical composition of the ink.



The fragment is owned by an anonymous private collector who contacted King to help translate and analyze it, and is thought to have been discovered in Egypt or perhaps Syria.



King said that it was not until around 200 AD that claims started to surface, via the theologian known as Clement of Alexandria, that Jesus did not marry.



"This fragment suggests that other Christians of that period were claiming that he was married" but does not provide actual evidence of a marriage, she said.



"Christian tradition preserved only those voices that claimed Jesus never married. The 'Gospel of Jesus's Wife' now shows that some Christians thought otherwise."



King's analysis of the fragment is slated for publication in the Harvard Theological Review in January 2013. She has posted a draft of the paper, and images of the fragment, on the Harvard Divinity School website.

Quote:End Note: Of course, we do not know if such a man as Jesus ever lived. The best Christian scholars have not been able to give us any proofs. And the history of the compilation of the Bible is now so well known that the Bible’s contents cannot be taken as factual. [color="#0000FF"]So whether Jesus had a wife — or two according to Biblical exegete and theologist Barbara Thiering – is really neither here nor there. He is described in pious tales as a rabbi and in Jewish society from ancient times till today, there is no such thing as an unmarried rabbi. But the evidence produced for Jesus’s wife — first or second we do not know — is not yet proved, and the scholars involved are feminists who may have a bone to pick with a misogynistic Church. Their perhaps unreal papyrus piece is timely evidence when there is a push to put ladies in the Roman pulpit. And there is the other angle: if Jesus had a real wife, then he must have been a real husband too. So a failing Christian Church in a Europe that has gone beyond belief gets an historical boon:[/color] a real historical Jesus and — never mind true believers! — a real historical wife too. As least she is historical and not hysterical. Socrates, the greater man altogether and the one we should follow, had to suffer a hysterical wife (who was also historical without need of a papyrus certificate). – Editor

Quote:On the left is the dancing Jesus illustration in The New Community Bible (Catholic Edition) for India published by The Bombay St. Paul’s Society, 2008, and released by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India. The “Indian Bible” as it is called, contains invented and interpolated phrases such as “he will dance with songs of joy for you” for Zephaniah 3:17, and numerous quotations from the Vedas, Upanishads, and Puranas. These slokas are described as sourced from “Indian Scriptures”, not Hindu Scriptures.

Quote:Tutankhamun's death and the birth of monotheism

05 September 2012 by Jessica Hamzelou



TUTANKHAMUN'S mysterious death as a teenager may finally have been explained. And the condition that cut short his life may also have triggered the earliest monotheistic religion, suggests a new review of his family history.



Since his lavishly furnished, nearly intact tomb was discovered in 1922, the cause of Tutankhamun's death has been at the centre of intense debate. There have been theories of murder, leprosy, tuberculosis, malaria, sickle-cell anaemia, a snake bite - even the suggestion that the young king died after a fall from his chariot.



But all of these theories have missed one vital point, says Hutan Ashrafian, a surgeon with an interest in medical history at Imperial College London. Tutankhamun died young with a feminised physique, and so did his immediate predecessors.



Paintings and sculptures show that Smenkhkare, an enigmatic pharaoh who may have been Tutankhamun's uncle or older brother, and Akhenaten, thought to have been the boy king's father, both had feminised figures, with unusually large breasts and wide hips. Two pharaohs that came before Akhenaten - Amenhotep III and Tuthmosis IV - seem to have had similar physiques. All of these kings died young and mysteriously, says Ashrafian. "There are so many theories, but they've focused on each pharaoh individually."



Ashrafian found that each pharaoh died at a slightly younger age than his predecessor, which suggests an inherited disorder, he says. Historical accounts associated with the individuals hint at what that disorder may have been.





"It's significant that two [of the five related pharaohs] had stories of religious visions associated with them," says Ashrafian. People with a form of epilepsy in which seizures begin in the brain's temporal lobe are known to experience hallucinations and religious visions, particularly after exposure to sunlight. It's likely that the family of pharaohs had a heritable form of temporal lobe epilepsy, he says.



This diagnosis would also account for the feminine features. The temporal lobe is connected to parts of the brain involved in the release of hormones, and epileptic seizures are known to alter the levels of hormones involved in sexual development. This might explain the development of the pharaohs' large breasts. A seizure might also be to blame for Tutankhamun's fractured leg, says Ashrafian (Epilepsy & Behavior, doi.org/h8s).



Tuthmosis IV had a religious experience in the middle of a sunny day, recorded in the Dream Stele - an inscription near the Great Sphinx in Giza. But his visions were nothing compared with those experienced by Akhenaten. They encouraged Akhenaten to raise the status of a minor deity called the "sun-disk", or Aten, into a supreme god - abandoning the ancient Egyptian polytheistic traditions to start what is thought to be the earliest recorded monotheistic religion. If Ashrafian's theory is correct, Akhenaten's religious experiment and Tutankhamun's premature death may both have been a consequence of a medical condition.



"People with temporal lobe epilepsy who are exposed to sunlight get the same sort of stimulation to the mind and religious zeal," says Ashrafian.



"It's a fascinating and plausible explanation," says Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. However, the theory is almost impossible to prove, he adds, given that there is no definitive genetic test for epilepsy.



Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist at the New York University Langone Medical Center, thinks the theory must remain speculative.



"The exact timing of Akhenaten's religious conviction is not so clearly documented, and most cases of sudden religious conversion are not due to epilepsy," he says. "Monotheism could be related to epilepsy, or bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, or drug intoxication from a fungus - but this paper does not sway me to any of these options."



Markel agrees: "Do we know that a seizure led to monotheism? It's a nice idea, but we don't know," he says. "It's a very interesting hypothesis, but it's just that - there's no definite proof."

Quote:Old Testament prophet showed epileptic symptoms

19:00 17 November 2001 by Alison Motluk



The Bible may contain the oldest recorded case of temporal lobe epilepsy. Ezekiel, the prophet whose visions are recorded in a book of the Old Testament, apparently had all the classic signs of the condition.



Earlier in 2001, Eric Altschuler, a neuroscientist at the University of California at San Diego, claimed that the Biblical strongman Samson may have been the earliest known sufferer of antisocial personality disorder. Now he says that records in the Bible reveal that Ezekiel, who lived about 2600 years ago, showed extreme classic symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy.



People with the disease experience partial seizures, often accompanied by a dreamy feeling that things are not quite as they should be. Patients are often misdiagnosed with psychiatric problems. Neurologically, Ezekiel displayed some obvious signs of epilepsy, such as frequent fainting spells and episodes of not being able to speak.



The Biblical figure, who chronicled the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, exhibited other peculiarities associated with the disease. For instance, he wrote compulsively, a trait known as hypergraphia. Altschuler points out that the Book of Ezekiel is the fourth longest in the Bible - only slightly shorter than Genesis. "It's impenetrable," he says. "He goes on and on."



Aggressively religious

Ezekiel was also extremely religious, another characteristic associated with this form of epilepsy. While many Biblical figures are pious, none was as aggressively religious as Ezekiel, says Altschuler. Other signs of epilepsy can include aggression, delusions and pedantic speech - and the man had them all, Altschuler told a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego.



Understanding that Ezekiel may have suffered from epilepsy helps put his writings into perspective, says Altschuler. "Once you appreciate that, you can see where he's coming from."

[color="#800080"](Yes, *everyone* can see where he was coming from....)[/color]



It also serves as further evidence that this disease is genetic in origin. "If there were no old cases," he says, "we'd have to ask if there was something wrong in our environment."

Quote:Sushuptiji,very good catch.The true nature of gora christism in its 'glorious' nakedness.Sikular Britain.Sikular West.



Christism by definition is political.



Watch out for this guy.Dr Richard Carrier.A Ph.D. in ancient history from University of Columbia.



Richard Carriers blog

Quote:my peer reviewed article on Josephus just came out: “Origen, Eusebius, and the Accidental Interpolation in Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 20.200” in the Journal of Early Christian Studies 
(vol. 20, no. 4, Winter 2012), 
pp. 489-514.



The official description is:



Analysis of the evidence from the works of Origen, Eusebius, and Hegesippus concludes that the reference to “Christ” in Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 20.200 is probably an accidental interpolation or scribal emendation and that the passage was never originally about Christ or Christians. It referred not to James the brother of Jesus Christ, but probably to James the brother of the Jewish high priest Jesus ben Damneus.



My proof of that is pretty conclusive. But this article also summarizes a sufficient case to reject the Testimonium Flavianum as well (the other, longer reference to Jesus in Josephus), in that case as a deliberate fabrication (see note 1, pp. 489-90, and discussion of the Arabic quotation on pp. 493-94). And I cite the leading scholarship on both. So it’s really a complete article on both references to Jesus in Josephus.



Further evidence that the longer reference is a Christian fabrication lies in an article I didn’t cite, however, but that is nevertheless required reading on the matter: G.J. Goldberg, “The Coincidences of the Testimonium of Josephus and the Emmaus Narrative of Luke,” in the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha (vol. 13, 1995), pp. 59-77. Goldberg demonstrates nineteen unique correspondences between Luke’s Emmaus account and the Testimonium Flavianum, all nineteen in exactly the same order (with some order and word variations only within each item). There are some narrative differences (which are expected due to the contexts being different and as a result of common kinds of authorial embellishment), and there is a twentieth correspondence out of order (identifying Jesus as “the Christ”). But otherwise, the coincidences here are very improbable on any other hypothesis than dependence.



Goldberg also shows that the Testimonium contains vocabulary and phrasing that is particularly Christian (indeed, Lukan) and un-Josephan. He concludes that this means either a Christian wrote it or Josephus slavishly copied a Christian source, and contrary to what Goldberg concludes, the latter is wholly implausible (Josephus would treat such a source more critically, creatively, and informedly).



That, combined with the arguments I assemble in my article for JECS, spells the final death knell for any hope of restoring any part of the Testimonium Flavianum. It is 100% Christian fabrication.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus



WE need to understand the Imperialist project that christism is ,that they will go to any lengts to fabricate history.It is these people who are talking about Aryans coming into India in 1500 BC.It is these people who are espousing dalits,muslims,dravidian idntity .



Let me make it clear that dalit emancipation is a challenge to Indian socirty.Indias linguistic pluralism is a fact.But we need to understand the white christist hatred of India.This is not to condone our inhumanity,corruption,inefficiency.



And some poster thinks there is some problem with consistency in early christian history and missing links in Jesus Life.



Jesus life has zero historicity.we hindus have no problem with the Jesus of Faith.If fellow Indians are morally elevated by this messenger of God,so be it and we respect that.



It is quite possible that the biblical christist establishment will kill this reaearch of Dr Carieer as they have done in general with all critical reaearch on Jesus.Atleast some Hindus must archive this material.

Quote:Turdesai,

Nothing can atone your sins.When you deliberately malign others just to hold on to your cushy jobs,you deserve the Hell that christism believes in.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_myth_theory

Quote: Joseph Hoffmann has stated that the issue of historicity of Jesus has been long ignored due to theological interests.

Donald Akenson, Professor of Irish Studies in the department of history at Queen's University has argued that, with very few exceptions, the historians of Yeshua have not followed sound historical practices. He has stated that there is an unhealthy reliance on consensus, for propositions which should otherwise be based on primary sources, or rigorous interpretation. He also holds that some of the criteria being used are faulty. He says that the overwhelming majority of biblical scholars are employed in institutions whose roots are in religious beliefs. Because of this, he maintains that, more than any other group in present day academia, biblical historians are under immense pressure to theologize their historical work and that it is only through considerable individual heroism that many biblical historians have managed to maintain the scholarly integrity of their work.



John Meier, Professor of theology at University of Notre Dame, has said "...people claim they are doing a quest for the historical Jesus when de facto they're doing theology, albeit a theology that is indeed historically informed..." Dale Allison, Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Early Christianity at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary too says, "...We wield our criteria to get what we want...We all see what we expect to see and what we want to see...."

Look at the methods at work-unsound historical practice,theological bias,reliance on consensus than on rigor or primary sources.Sounds familiar.isnt it ?



Even the biased wikepedia cannot but include this in its spin article.

Quote:we hindus have no problem with the Jesus of Faith.

Quote:...The paradox that stumps one in studying Jewish history-is that it presents a paradox that is the converse of what we find in Indian history. Our records have no mention of Alexander's invasion by which Western historians set such store in determining our chronology. On the other hand, al­though the Exodus is such a watershed for the Israelites, the Egyptian records are innocent of it. ....

Quote:Ancient Confession Found: 'We Invented Jesus Christ'

15/10/2013 14:58:51 http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11201273.htm



Ancient Confession Found: 'We Invented Jesus Christ'

Biblical scholars will be appearing at the 'Covert Messiah' Conference at Conway Hall in London on the 19th of October to present this controversial discovery to the British public.



London (PRWEB UK) 8 October 2013American Biblical scholar Joseph Atwill will be appearing before the British public for the first time in London on the 19th of October topresent a controversial new discovery: ancient confessions recently uncovered now prove, according to Atwill, that the New Testament waswritten by first-century Roman aristocrats and that they fabricated the entire story of Jesus Christ. His presentation will be part of a one-days ymposium entitled "Covert Messiah" at Conway Hall in Holborn (full details can be found at http://www.covertmessiah.com.



Although to many scholars his theory seems outlandish, and is sure to upsetsome believers, Atwill regards his evidence as conclusive and is confident its acceptance is only a matter of time. "I present my work with someambivalence, as I do not want to directly cause Christians any harm," he acknowledges, "but this is important for our culture. Alert citizens need to know the truth about our past so we can understand how and why governments create false histories and false gods. They often do it to obtain a social order that is against the best interests of the common people.



"Atwill asserts that Christianity did not really begin as a religion, but a sophisticated government project, a kind of propaganda exercise used to pacify the subjects of the Roman Empire. "Jewish sects in Palestine at thetime, who were waiting for a prophesied warrior Messiah, were a constant source of violent insurrection during the first century," he explains."When the Romans had exhausted conventional means of quashing rebellion, they switched to psychological warfare. They surmised that the way to stop the spread of zealous Jewish missionary activity was to create a competing belief system. That's when the 'peaceful' Messiah story was invented. Instead of inspiring warfare, this Messiah urged turn-the-other-cheek pacifism and encouraged Jews to 'give onto Caesar' and pay their taxes to Rome.



"Was Jesus based on a real person from history? "The short answer is no," Atwill insists, "in fact he may be the only fictional character in literature whose entire life story can be traced to other sources. Once those sources are all laid bare, there's simply nothing left."Atwill's most intriguing discovery came to him while he was studying "Wars of the Jews" by Josephus [the only surviving first-person historical account of first-century Judea] alongside the New Testament.



"I started to notice a sequence of parallels between the two texts," he recounts."Although it's been recognised by Christian scholars for centuries that the prophesies of Jesus appear to be fulfilled by what Josephus wrote about in the First Jewish-Roman war, I was seeing dozens more. What seems to have eluded many scholars is that the sequence of events and locations of Jesusministry are more or less the same as the sequence of events and locations of the military campaign of [Emperor] Titus Flavius as described by Josephus. This is clear evidence of a deliberately constructed pattern. The biography of Jesus is actually constructed, tip to stern, on prior stories, but especially on the biography of a Roman Caesar.



"How could this go unnoticed in the most scrutinised books of all time?" Many of the parallels are conceptual or poetic, so they aren't all immediately obvious. After all, the authors did not want the average believer to see what they were doing, but they did want the alert reader to see it. An educated Roman in the ruling class would probably have recognised the literary game being played." Atwill maintains he can demonstrate that "the Roman Caesars left us a kind of puzzle literature that was meant to be solved by future generations, and the solution to that puzzle is 'We invented Jesus Christ, and we're proud of it.' "Is this the beginning of the end of Christianity? "Probably not," grants Atwill, "but what my work has done is give permission to many of those ready to leave the religion to make a clean break.



We've got the evidence now to show exactly where the story of Jesus came from. Although Christianity can be a comfort to some, it can also be very damaging and repressive, an insidious form of mind control that has led to blindacceptance of serfdom, poverty, and war throughout history. To this day, especially in the United States, it is used to create support for war in the Middle East." Atwill encourages skeptics to challenge him at Conway Hall, where after the presentations there is likely to be a lively Q&A session.



Joining Mr.Atwill will be fellow scholar Kenneth Humphreys, author of the book "Jesus NeverExisted." Further information can be found at

http://www.covertmessiah.com.



About Joseph Atwill: Joseph Atwill is the author of the best-selling book"Caesar's Messiah" and its upcoming sequel "The Single Strand."



*Contact Information* *Ryan Gilmore* http://www.covertmessiah.com +44 7854966520

Quote: Hindu

16/10/2013 04:29:17 this one

It is a very Good News. Allah(Mo) also Blabbered about Jesus. So that also will be debunked. <smiley>

Quote:Ancient Confession Found: 'We Invented Jesus Christ'

15/10/2013 14:58:51 uk.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11201273.htm

Quote:Turkey to Convert Hagia Sophia into Mosque

Turkey's Islamist-leaning govt is planning to convert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque:



washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/turkish-leaders-want-to-convert-the-hagia-sophia-back-into-a-mosque/2013/12/04/0d84411e-5d27-11e3-8d24-31c016b976b2_story.html



huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/04/hagia-sophia-mosque_n_4386401.html



The Hagia Sophia was a prominent Christian church of Constantinople which was turned into a mosque after the city fell to the Turkish Ottomans. It was later turned into a museum under Ataturk's rule.



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia

Quote:The most effective way for Julian to further his cause was to do all he could to ensure that the worship of the gods was firmly linked to the material prosperity of the Empire in the minds of his subjects. That, above all, was [color="#FF0000"]what Constantine had done for the Church[/color]. Behind the success of his reforms had stood the brute force of money.135 Vast sums were spent on [color="#FF0000"]the building of basilicas, [/color]and there were grand endowments of land to the Church. That land, moreover, was to be exempt from tax. Clerics were excused the burden of costly public offices, even personally subsidized. There were food allowances for Christian widows and nuns. To pay for it all, Constantine looked to a source of funds accumulated over centuries: the huge treasure house of precious metals lying to hand in the ancestral temples. Pagans, it has been nicely said, had financed their own destruction. 136 [color="#0000FF"]Julian[/color]'s most pressing task in this connection was to do the same in reverse, to restore the temples as the perceived focus of public beneficia at the expense of the Church.137



A clear step in this direction came as early as 4 February 362. [color="#0000FF"]An edict decreed that temples of the gods that had been put to improper use should be rededicated, and that those which had been destroyed by the Christians should be rebuilt at the Church's expense.138



Owners of land which had formerly belonged to the temples were to give it back, and a special tax was levied on those who had used the fabric of sacred buildings in the construction of new ones.[/color] The importance Julian attached to the issue is clear from a further edict of 29 June: the rebuilding of temples was to take priority over all other building projects in the provinces. 139 In parallel, in March, the clergy's tax exemptions were revoked, and their judicial power and exemption from service as decurions withdrawn.140

Quote:[...]

Their (christians') failure to sacrifice had long been a central complaint of pagans, and Julian reiterates it with vehemence: the inexhaustible blessings of the gods need to be acknowledged by public worship: 'it is our duty to adore not only the images of the gods but also their temples and sacred precincts and altars.'91

The demand that sacred places be revered bears on a last charge.Against the Galilaeans speaks with disgust of the veneration by Christians of the tombs and relics of the martyred saints.

You keep adding more corpses to the corpse of the past [Jesus]. You have filled the whole earth with tombs and sepulchres ... and yet Jesus himself said that tombs were full of pollution

(akatharsia). How is it, then, that you invoke God at them? (335bd)



In this practice Julian saw only 'the work of sorcery and foulness' (340a). The accusation of magic was a common one, but Julian's polemic seems to have been the first to level a charge against the cult of saints. (Notice the real=christian superstition in the modern i.e. christist sense: the worshipping of fake so-called christist "godmen" aka saints/church fathers and their fraudulent fictional "miracles", when the only things any historical saint did - though most were simply unhistorical - was to destroy Hellenistic temples and take these over for christianism and/or to brutally convert-or-kill masses of Hellenes, such as the famous saint/church father Inquisitors did when they pulverised the Greco-Roman world.) It responds to a developing practice among Christians, and behind it there is a compelling feeling which transcends all philosophic argument. To a pagan, the ascription of holiness to the graves and remains of the human dead involved a monstrous ritual pollution:

'On this point, the rise of Christianity in the pagan world was met with deep religious anger.'92 By replacing the divine helpers of the sublunar regions with privileged dead persons, the cult of saints merely compounded the 'atheism' of Christians.



The strength of Julian's abhorrence of pollution through the dead is evident both from the funeral decree of February 363 - a 'confirmation by law of an ancient custom' by which daytime funerals were forbidden93 - and from particular actions he took in 362. His brother Gallus, as Caesar, had had the bones of the Antiochene martyr Babylas transferred from the city to a new sepulchre built adjacent to the temple of Apollo at Daphne, and columns from the temple had apparently been used in the construction of the Christian monument. En route to Antioch, Julian gave orders that the columns be restored to the temple;94 having arrived, he was dismayed to find that Apollo's oracle was still silent. The cause was plain to him: in October, he had the remains of Babylas removed, and the sanctuary at Daphne purified.95 The episode is further evidence that the palpable well-being of pagan cult ritual was central to Julian's hostility to Christian belief and practice - and it is not to be reckoned an eccentric act of a theurgist obsessed with purificatory rites: in various cities,96 pagans quickly followed Julian's lead, dealing similarly - and less gently - with the tombs of local martyrs.



As we have it in the standard modern edition of its fragments, Against the Galilaeans gives out in the midst of criticism of Christian indolence in the matter of sacrifice and divination.97 That is chance, but it is an apt chance. If my account holds good, the driving force behind Against the Galilaeans will be found in a keen defence of ancestral cultic practice focused upon sacrifice by one to whom it seemed, in all its diversity, the very cement of a civilized world. This verdict gains support not only from the emphasis Julian places on the point, but also from the brute fact that so much of what he says belongs to the stuff of popular pagan polemic.

[...]

Quote:Constantine's Church



Known as the “Great Church” or “Magna Ecclesia” in Latin, the first church was built at the same location where there had been a pagan temple before. It was Constantius II who inaugurated Hagia Sophia on 15 February 360. From the chronicles of Socrates of Constantinople, we know that the church was built by the orders of Constantine the Great.



This first church was a wooden-roofed basilica with a nave flanked by two or four aisles, each carrying a gallery storey. It was preceded by an atrium. This church was largely burned down in 404 during riots since patriarch John Chrysostom was sent into exile by the Emperor Arcadius.

Quote:The nave is paved with marble panels, which were revealed after the prayer rugs were removed in 1934. Its porphyry and verde antico columns, which were gathered from pagan temples of Western Anatolia, are crowned with elaborately carved capitals that bear the monogram of Justinian I.

[color="#800080"][etc. blablabla][/color]

Quote:There are many Ottoman additions visible in the nave, many of which were transformed during the Fossati restoration. Among earlier Ottoman work are two 16th century tile panels to the right of the mihrab, which depict the Holy Ka'aba and the other, shows the tomb of the Prophet. A band of blue tiles with Koranic inscriptions, signed 1607, wrap the sanctuary apsis below the window level. The marble minbar also believed to be of this period.

Quote:Constantinople (Ä°stanbul): Hagia Sophia



The main church of Constantinople was the famous Hagia Sophia, the Church of the Divine Wisdom. It was built near an older Christian sanctuary, the Church of Heavenly Peace or S. Irene. The two shrines were also called "the old church" and "the new church", for example in the Notitia Urbis Constaninopolianae.



The Hagia Sophia was built for the first time by the emperor Constantine the Great (306-337), but was not finished until the end of the reign of his son Constantius II: in 360, to be precise. Although the church was used by the patriarch, it was probably not yet the city's main church; when the emperor Theodosius invited the bishops to discuss the Nicene Creed (in 381), this First Council of Constantinople took place in the Church of Heavenly Peace, and not in the Hagia Sophia.



It was in the church of Constantine, situated directly to the north of the imperial palace, that patriarch John Chrysostom in 399 offered asylum to Eutropius, the right-hand man of the emperor Arcadius (395-408), when the powerful consul was attacked by the empress Eudoxia I. Although Eutropius was dead before the end of the year, Eudoxia now hated John, and did not test until she had him exiled. In 403, she was successful, when the Synod of the Oak condemned the patriarch for his support of several Origenist monks. When he was exiled to Bithynia, there was a riot, there were riots, and John was recalled.



Six months later, a silver statue of the empress was erected at Augusteôn Square near the Hagia Sophia. The patriarch protested against this pagan excess and Eudocia's vanity, and on 20 June 404 he was - rather predictably - sent into exile again, this time to Armenia. During the night of his departure, the Hagia Sophia burned down. In October, Eudoxia died of a miscarriage, soon followed by John. The rebuilding of the church was left to Arcadius' son Theodosius II (408-450) and his sister, Pulcheria.



This "Theodosian Church" was inaugurated on 10 October 415. In front of the current entrance of the Hagia Sophia, some remains of this monument are still visible in the garden before the entrance, and archaeologists believe that the cathedral of Theodosius II had more or less the same map as the third phase - which became necessary when the Theodosian Church was burned down during the Nika Riots (13 January 532). The first stone of the third Hagia Sophia was laid on 23 February, just forty-one days after the Theodosian Church had been pillaged and destroyed.



The architects of the new church, which is connected with the name of the emperor Justinian (527-565), were [...]

Quote:Hagia Sophia



Before the first Hagia Sophia was built there was a pagan temple on the same spot and Constantine The Great planned to build the first church there .Same place different door!!



The first Hagia Sophia was built by the Emperor Constantius,son of Constantin the great in 360 AD and it was a basilica planned church with a timbered roof.When the emperor Arcadius exiled the patriarch of Constantinople,John Chrisostom for his open criticism of the empress Eudoxia,people got angry and arsoned the first church in 404 AD.



11 years later emperor Theodosius II [color="#800080"](wait, of Theodosian code fame?)[/color] built second Hagia Sophia at the same site.The second church was again basilica planned and again had a timbered roof.The second church lasted a little bit longer than the first one but its destiny was almost same with the first one.People were having some fun with chariots in Hippodrome and two factions;The Blues and The Greens , had a fight and it turned into a big riot;NIKE RIOTS.Since the rioters shouted ''NIKE,NIKE,NIKE'' repeatedly during the riot ,it is known as NIKE RIOTS or NIKA RIOTS.They arsoned many public buildings and tried to depose the emperor JUstinian I [color="#800080"](again, he of "The Codes of Theodosius and Justinian"?)[/color].Actually he was scared to death and about to leave the city but his wife Theodora made a speech and changed the destiny.She convinced Justinian to stay and fight instead of leaving like a coward.And Justinian send his famous and glorious general Belisarius to handle the rioters.And he did it very well, killed them all in Hippodrome in 532. But it was too late for second Hagia Sophia.



10 days after the riots Justinian started to build a new church,a much bigger one and brought the best architects and workers of the country.They completed the work in five years and ten months and the third Hagia Sophia was opened for services in 537.It was the greates church of the Eastern Roman Empire at that time and used as a church till 1453.



When the Ottoman conquered the city,as a tradition, it was converted into a mosque and was a mosque till 1935 .



It was converted into a museum by the order of Ataturk ,the founder of the Turkish Republic, and is a museum now.

[...]

Quote:528

Emperor Jutprada (Justinianus) outlaws the "alternative" Olympian Games of Antioch. He also orders the execution (by fire, crucifixion, tearing to pieces by wild beasts, or cutting by iron nails) of all who practice "sorcery, divination, magic or idolatry" and prohibits all teachings by the Gentiles ("..the ones suffering from the blasphemous insanity of the Hellenes").



529

Emperor Justinianus outlaws the Athenian Philosophical Academy, which has its property confiscated.



532

The inquisitor Ioannis Asiacus, a fanatical monk, leads a crusade against the Gentiles of [color="#FF0000"]Asia Minor[/color].



542

Emperor Justinianus allows the inquisitor Ioannis Asiacus to convert the Gentiles of Phrygia, Caria and Lydia in Asia Minor. Within 35 years of this crusade, 99 churches and 12 monasteries are built on the sites of demolished Pagan Temples.



542

Emperor Justinianus allows the inquisitor Ioannis Asiacus to convert the Gentiles of Phrygia, Caria and Lydia in Asia Minor. Within 35 years of this crusade, 99 churches and 12 monasteries are built on the sites of demolished Pagan Temples.



546

Hundreds of Gentiles are put to death in Constantinople by the inquisitor Ioannis Asiacus.



556

Justinianus orders the notorious inquisitor Amantius to go to Antioch, to find, arrest, torture and exterminate the last Gentiles of the city and burn all the private libraries down.



562

Mass arrests, burlesquing, tortures, imprisonments and executions of Gentile Hellenes in Athens, Antioch, Palmyra and Constantinople.

Quote:2 Pagan symbols in Hagia Sophia

Posted on 1 Jul ’12 by Giulia Tweet As many of you know, Hagia Sophia was once a Bizantine church. It was converted to a Mosque by Sultan Mehmed II and nowadays it is a museum.



Most of the Christian features were removed but many others are still there, together with some pagan symbols that we can often find in churches. This is because Christians have adopted and converted pagan symbols since the early times of its expansion.



[color="#800080"][photo caption:][/color] Cross and trident symbols in Hagia Sophia

The trident and the dolphins (on the right) are related to the God Neptune (or Poseidon in Greek) and the dolphins are always associated to this God as well as to the legend of Atlantis.

(In Hindus' Bharatam, shoolam is Shiva's laanChanam and, though not a River God himself, his sacred hair is associated with dolphins and many other famous water animals since these are found in the sacred Ganga running down from his head/the Himalayas the great shivalingam.)



[color="#800080"][photo caption:][/color] Temple signs on the entrance of Hagia Sophia

On the main gate there are embossed columns, indicating the entrance to the temple.



[color="#800080"][photo caption:][/color] A typical Pagan altar in Hagia Sophia

In the Pagan rituals, the altar was (is) used for offers to the Deities. This is something that Christianity has adopted for its worship.



[color="#800080"][photo caption:][/color] Another trident and dolphins, symbols of Atlantis, in Hagia Sophia

Another representation of tridents and dolphins, indicating some form of worship to Neptune/Poseidon and a reference to Atlantis.

[color="#800080"](Christians only left alone remnants of such original Hellenstic temple parts used in the illegal church because christians typically didn't know these were all sacred symbols and how they were intimately associated with the Olympic Gods.)[/color]



[...]

[color="#800080"](Then the site notices some freemasonry symbols tattoed onto remains. Don't know why the writer of the blog entry expressed mild surprise at their presence: freemasons are the separate christo cult that "built" christian churches/were called in to convert temple remains to christian churches. They are called freemasons for a reason.)[/color]



[...]

Quote:False Accreditation

"Every one knows that the Evangeliums were written neither by Jesus nor his apostles, but long after their time by some unknown persons, who, judging well that they would hardly be believed when telling of things they had not seen themselves, headed their narratives with the names of the apostles or of disciples contemporaneous with the latter."



– Bishop Fauste (Manichean heretic, 3rd century AD)