393 myths · Page 8 of 14
On one mountain two patriarchs were shown the same house in three tenses at once: standing, in ruins, and rebuilt in a time still to come.
A flame from heaven lodged on Moses's altar and stayed four hundred years. In the same Tabernacle, gold was plated in one place no human eye would ever find it.
Three hundred priests carried one curtain to be washed. A handbreadth thick, woven on seventy-two strands, the parokhet guarded the holiest room.
Haman came to the palace at dawn to ask for a hanging. The king spoke first and asked how to honor a favored man, and Haman described a parade for himself.
Shiloh stood between tent and Temple, open to the sky. Just outside Jerusalem, Molekh's seven enclosures took children the priests could not stop.
In Midrash Panim Acherim, Purim does not begin in a palace. It begins at a Jerusalem construction site Haman had already moved to stop.
Targum Jonathan counts sixty-four faces and 256 wings on the throne. Ezekiel watches the glory move out through the east gate and waits for it to return.
Something drank from the boy's thumb every night until he could not lift a chisel. Solomon gave him a ring with God's name cut into it.
Solomon set Beelzeboul and the powers of darkness to dig his Temple while Benaiah met a queen on the road and shone like the morning star.
Seven of her sons wore the eight garments of the High Priest. Jerusalem watched them climb the Temple steps, and the sages came to her door to ask why.
The report reached him and the light went out of his face. Alone in his house he forged a blade two spans long, short enough to vanish under a robe.
The boy was hidden in the Holy of Holies and lived. Years later his princes called that proof he was a god, and Joash believed them.
A schemer wrapped himself in lamps to steal a golden ass from the Temple, and Josephus answered by putting the accusers' own gods on trial.
Summoned before Solomon's seal, a restless demon confesses it is what became of the Nephilim, and the wise king binds it to labor on his Temple.
Ahab's daughter married into the house of David, and when her son died she slaughtered the royal seed to seize the throne. One infant escaped.
In exile beside a Babylonian canal, Ezekiel is shown a Temple no hand will build, and a river from its threshold that wakes the dead salt sea.
Once a year he walked nine steps into the Holy of Holies with a gold cord on his foot, in case the Presence struck him dead and no one else could enter.
Jacob came into the tent in goat skins and borrowed clothes. He walked out crowned like a bridegroom, his bones strengthened by dew from heaven.
Between the pieces Abraham saw Babylon, Greece, and other powers march through sacrifice. He also learned how study would stand in for a fallen Temple.
Men from Israel sought a covenant with the nations, built a gymnasium, and hid the covenant mark. Judas answered with fire, siege, and a hard order.
After the night raid that freed Lot, Abraham sorted spoil for Shem, son of Noah. Angels answered his prayer and named God his shield.
Out of silver for his wars, Antiochus turned on the Temple while Judas fought through famine and a sabbatical year that left Judea without stores.
Rumor said the Temple held Alexander's gold shields. Antiochus came to strip it, met battle, and left for Babylon with heaviness in his gut.
Banished as a slave's son to desert pastures, David learned to feed lambs first, then stored war gold for a Temple while a famine starved his people.
The Temple stood finished and its doors stayed shut for almost a year. The streets laughed at Bath-sheba's son. Then fire fell from heaven.
Manasseh filled the Temple with a four-faced idol and chased Isaiah into a tree. They sawed the cedar until the blade reached the prophet's mouth.
A priest of Aaron's line came to Jerusalem with a Greek army. The men who wanted peace trusted his family name. He swore no one would be harmed, and lied.
The high priest who served Greek power locked hostages in the birah, smashed the sanctuary's inner wall, and fell paralyzed before he could finish the crime.
Zerubbabel and Jeshua got the first courses laid before the Cutheans mustered. Then came the friendly invitations to meet Nehemiah in a village.
Antiochus billed Judea a thousand talents, five hundred for the cities and five hundred for harm done. Athenobius found a cupboard of gold and silver plate.
