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Page The Copper Scroll, the Anointing Oil, the Temple Incense and the Ashes of the Red Heifer
Jeremiah and the Five Guardians of Solomon’s Temple Treasures
Part Three
by Robert Mock MD
robertmock@biblesearchers.com
November, 2002
Topics
Mishnah 2
The Copper Scroll (Luach Nehoshet)
The Legacy of the Copper Scroll
The Holy Anointing Oil (Shemen Afarsimon)
The Holy Temple Incense (Pitum haQetoret)
Kalal, the Urn that contains the Ashes of the Red Heifer
The Nine Red Heifers in Jewish History
The Miphkad Altar
The Red Heifer and Y’shua - the Type/Antitype of the Sin Offering
Four Types of Sin Offerings
“Outside the Camp”
Symbols and Types of the Sin Offering
The Temple Ritual of the Red Heifer
The Trial of Jesus
Jesus as the Red Heifer
The Ashes of the Red Heifer and the Restoration of the Sanctuary/Temple
Introduction
In part one of this series we became acquainted with the fascinating document, Emeq HaMelekh and the roles of five worthy men, Shimur Ha Levi, Haggai (Chaggai the Prophet), Zechariah son of Iddo, Zedekiah (Zidkiyah), Hezekiah (Hizkiyah), Hilkiyah, Ezra the Cohen, and Baruch son of Neriah the Scribe for Jeremiah who were commissioned on a secret mission to hide the treasures of Solomon’s Temple.
Under the command of King Josiah, the Prophet Jeremiah as recorded in the Book of Maccabees secreted, with these Jewish revolutionaries for the God of Abraham, the museum archives of the Nation of Israel. These treasures possessions were stored in Zedekiah’s Grotto or Cavern under the Temple Mount (Hiram As-Sharif) below the Temple of Solomon (Beit HaMikdash). There the Sanctuary of the Congregation (Mishkhan) described in the Torah, the Ark of the Covenant, the Menorah, the Altar of Incense were stored in times of security.
These were taken to a safe haven several miles from Jerusalem in the Valley of Achor, near the caves of the Essene community of Qumran fames for the Dead Sea Scrolls and in site of Mount Nebo. This site was accessible by the extensive tunnels that extended from what is now known as Solomon’s (Schlomo’s) Quarries or Stables. Now in the Emeq HaMelekh, a group of Mishnahs, we can read the rest of the story of how the vast treasures that was saved for the future atonement of the chosen people of God at the time of the end.
Vendyl Jones and his Research Institute and the Temple Institute have been prominent in the quest to find the Qalal, a pottery jug containing the Ashes of the Red Heifer, the Wilderness Sanctuary (Mishkhan) and the Ark of the Covenant. This chapter we will be introduced to the discoveries of the of the Copper Scroll (Luach Nehoshet), the Anointing Oil (Shemen Afarsimon) which was used the anoint the prophets and the kings, the Temple Incense (Pitum haQetoret) and the special Incenses Spices prepared by the noted Jewish Avtinas family for the Jewish Temple.
The Qalal (Kalal) with Ashes of the Red Heifer still awaits discovery, for it was used according to the Seder Ha Olam during the dedication of the Sanctuary Tabernacle and without it the waters of purification needed to cleanse and purify a new Jewish Temple would not be possible. Here the story of the ten red heifers that were to be killed before the time of the messiah (Moschiach) and the nine red heifers that were sacrifices for a sin offering between Sinai and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE will be told. It was the officiating priests, Ezra the Cohen, Shemon HaTzaddik, Yochanan High Priest, Hananel Egyptian, Ishmael Piabi who took the heifers ‘outside the camp’, across the Kidron Valley and over the Bridge of the Red Heifer to the Miphkad anointed altar on the Mount of Olives.
Whereas in Christian theology, Jesus (Yeshua) has been seen as the Passover Pesach lamb, he is also an anti-type of the heifer that was slain as a sin offering on the Day of Atonement. Now we will see that the extensive Jewish temple ritual of the burning of the red heifer will be seen in literal detail to be prophetically reenacted by the trial of Yeshua by the Sanhedrin in the Chamber of Hewn Stones, the walk through the eastern gate of the temple, across the Kidron Valley and the crucifixion of Jesus (Yeshua) on a tree as a final reenacting the sacrifice of the red heifer on the Miphkad altar on the Mount of Olives. Omens prior to the destruction of the temple by the Roman forces on the massive door called Hekel, the crimson cord are also portrayed in the aborted attempt to sacrifice the tenth red heifer. With the discovery of the mikhvoat baths for the high priest above the Gihon Springs and the possibility of Solomon’s temple as being erected at this site, we will consider that the tenth red heifer has truly been sacrifices in the death of Jesus, the one called Yeshua son of Joseph brother of James the Just.
Mishnah 2
These are the holy vessels and the vessels of the Temple that were in Jerusalem and in every place. They were inscribed by Shimur HaLevi and his companions, on a "Luach Nehoshet" (Copper Plate/Sheet), with all the Vessels of the Holy of Holies that Shlomo son of David made. And together with Shimur were Hizkiyahu, Zidkiyah, Haggai the Prophet, and Zechariah, son of Berachiah, son of Ido the Prophet.
The Copper Scroll (Luach Nehoshet)
In this Mishnah, we now see the
five Temple treasury guardians as they work together laboriously inscribing on
what is called the “Luach Nehoshet” or the brazen, brass or copper sheet or
plate (Strong’s 5178 - nekj-o-sheth). This is our strongest evidence of
the origin of the Copper Scroll found at Qumran.
The Copper Scroll by the West Semitic Research Project
The picture is now beginning to unfold. Zechariah and his famed end of times Oracles, with Haggai and his five exhortations to encourage the speedy rebuilding of the temple of Zerubabbel, along with Zidkiyah, the 1st civil leader of the newly returned Jerusalem community and Hizkiyahu and Shimur HaLevi were all co-conspirators and accomplices in the secret spiritual and religious mission to preserve the sacred vessels of the Mishkon (Sanctuary) and the articles of temple service in the renown Temple of Solomon (Shlomo)
The Legacy of the Copper Scroll
The Copper Scroll was part of the collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in May, 1952 in cave Qvj3 in the caves of Qumran. It was first translated in 1956-57 after the archeologists designed a way to cut the copper sheets that had been rolled up into two copper rolls. Within the Copper Scroll it described the location of where the Qalal (the copper urn that hold the ashes of the red heifer) and the Temple treasures are hidden including possible cryptic references to the Ark of the Covenant, the Altar of Incense and other sacred furnishings of the Mishkhan, the Wilderness Sanctuary of the Congregation hid by the Prophet Jeremiah.
Yet most researchers believed that this scroll either was a forgery, or was part of the temple treasures of Herod’s Temple that were secreted away prior to its destruction from the Roman forces in 68-70 CE. So the Copper Scroll lay ignored for over twenty years in the Museum of Amman, Jordan. As M.A. Ben-Luria stated, “…the validity and authenticity of the Copper Scroll would remain in question until one single item mentioned in the scroll is discovered. Once something is found at Qumran that was listed among the 64 designated items and places in the Copper Scroll, the scroll’s validity would finally be unquestioned.”
The Holy Anointing Oil (Shemen Afarsimon)
And so it was. In April, 1988, the Vendyl Jones Research Institutes in collaboration with Professor Yoseph Patrich, Benny Arubas and Benny Agur of the Hebrew University made an astounding discovery. A juglet of the Shemen Afarsimon, the Holy Anointing Oil was discovered in Cave 13 (Jordan’s Cave #24). The Pharmaceutical Department of Hebrew University tested the substance inside the small juglet and gave their scholarly verification that it was the Shemen Afarsimon of Psalms 133.
Shemen Afarsimon, the Holy Anointing Oil
Psalms 133 - “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments: as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore.”
This Anointing Oil was used by the Prophet Eli to anoint King Saul and later King David and Solomon, but also the High Priests of the Temple of the Lord and the Prophets. This oil was also used as a fragrance that was poured on the oblation to provide a ‘sweet smelling savor’ on the sacrifices.
The Holy Temple Incense (Pitum haQetoret)
Also within the Copper Scroll, is documentation of the Holy Incense that was used to by the priests to sprinkle on the Altar of Incense in the Holy Temple. On April 8, 1992, the excavation team of Vendyl Jones Research Institute, was searching the strata in the Cultural Dome of the ‘hidden north entrance’ at the Cave of the Column”, when Glenda Hurst, a volunteer called out to Larry Banks, “Come over here and look at this. It’s some kind of red stuff that is very different.” The taste test and the smell test revealed an organic compound with a hint of cinnamon in it.
The samples, that were sent to Dr. Marvin Antelman with the Weizman Institute and Ya’acov Arkin at the Israel Institute of Geology, both determined that the substance was indeed organic, for the "density indicates that the material which is lighter than water is excluded from the category of red soil or red minerals......also the high percentage of ash is typical of plant source." In all, it was identified that this substance contained eight of the eleven spices present in the Pitum haQetoret (Temple Incense), all in a highly refined state. This was again confirmed again at the laboratories at Bar-Ilan University. With the addition of two additional inorganic ingredients, Karsina Lye and Sodom Salt, which was found near by in the same cave, ready to be mixed with the spices, the ingredients of the Holy Incense, the haQetoret, would be mixed to be used in the Temple services according to the Torah and the Talmud.
Later and more exhaustive testing and analysis by Dr. Terry Hutter, a paleo-botanist, who stated that not just eight ingredients, but ‘the red-brown spice sample is composed of nine different and unique plants. The plants are recognizable both by pollen and organic maceral types.” These plants types include.
· Three kinds of Cinnamon
· Saffron
· Balsam
· Myrrh
· Galganum
· Cassia
· Frankincense
There on the cave floor a total of eight hundred pounds of spices (600 kilos) were
waiting to be mixed and transported to the Temple. This quantity of spices is significant
because it is equivalent to the amount of spice used in one year of daily sacrifices in the
Temple. In the Torah, only four ingredients are listed for the haQetoret,
whereas the Mishnah lists eleven ingredients plus Sodom Salt and Karcina Lye.
It is also in the Mishnah that records that the Avtinas family were given charge and
custody of the secret recipe of compounding the pharmaceutical mix of these spices
and ingredients. The has been recorded that the fragrance of the haQetoret was so
powerful that when it was being mixed, one could smell it clear over to Jericho, twelve
miles north of Qumron.
Qalal, the Urn that contains the Ashes of the Red Heifer
In March, 2002, in a farm in Galilee, an Israeli rancher had
a cow that gave birth to a red heifer that was born without blemish that is no
white hairs on her body and face. After the heifer was a 
month old the Temple Institute was contacted and Rabbi Menachem
Makeover and Rabbi Chaim Richman to inspect her. There they found this young
heifer to be kosher and a potential candidate to become the 10th red
heifer in Hebrew history.
The world press was abuzz with the news of the birth of a pure red heifer in the Land of Israel. The orthodox community of Israel was all astir, and the topic of discussion was when was the era of the Last Days and the 10th Red Heifer about to begin? In the Siddur, called the Four Parshiot in the Parah, it states, “The hiding place of its (the red heifer) ashes will be revealed” and in the Mishnah, Tractate Parah it states that the tenth red heifer that will be burned will be done in the time when the Messiah (Moschiach) comes and restores a new Temple for His people.
This young heifer was only a month old, yet within two to three years, if no more than three white or black hairs are found on her body, the orthodox Jews would have sufficient reason to take possession of the Temple Mount, where most of them feel the Temple of Solomon had been built and begin the construction of a new temple there.
The reports of the birth of a potential red heifer, though genetically rare in this age of advanced genetic knowledge and artificial insemination, are becoming more frequent. According to an article in The Mid-East Dispatch, issue 237, the 16th of March 1997, that a six month old red heifer had been born to a black and white cow and a dun colored bull, in the religious kibbutz, Kfar Hassidim, near the northern Israeli port of Haifa. This heifer called Molly, was also declared kosher, but within a year blemishes and imperfections were noted.
This arcane piece of Biblical knowledge on the purification rites of the red heifer has left the Christian community puzzled and the Islamic community in consternation. In the beginning of the Israelite nation, Moses (Moshe) was standing on Mount Sinai and was given not only the two tablets of the Decalogue engraved on stone, but the Written Torah in which the letters (Words) were given one by one by the Lord of hosts to Moses for him to write down. This was the Written Torah of the Hebrews which included the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture called the Pentateuch, which he was to write down as dictated to by the Lord of hosts. On the other hand, the Lord spent 120 days, 40 days on three separate ascents by Moses, in which he revealed to Moses how the these ordinances and commandments of the Lord were to be put or lived out in human life. This was called the Oral Torah.
The Mishkhan, the Tabernacle of the Congregation, built in the wilderness by the skills given to noble craftsman, called Bezaleel under the supervision of Moses, was dedicated according to the Seder Ha Olam on the 1st day of the 1st month (Nissan) in the second year of the Exodus (Jewish year 2449 from Adam). The first day of services was completed and according to the Seder Olam, on the second day, Moses was instructed by the Lord of hosts to have the priest Eliezar, the priest, take a perfect red cow, under the age of three and who had not had a yoke put to her neck, and lead her out of the camp of Israel into the wilderness and slaughter her.
Numbers 19: 1-8 -
19:1 - “And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
19:2 - “This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:
19:3 - ‘And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face:
19:4 - ‘And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times:
19:5 - “And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:
19:6 - ‘And the Priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
19:7 - “Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even….
19:8 - “And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even.
19:9 - ‘And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel (“as a keepsake for Israel’) for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.
19:10 - “And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute forever.”
There in the wilderness that is outside the camp of the Israelites the red heifer was then burned with a mixture of cedar, hyssop and scarlet covering. Here the cedar, oil from the juniper bush in the Sinai desert, would cause a skin irritation, which would stimulate the applicant to vigorously rub the solution in their hands. The hyssop oil was known for its antiseptic properties, as Hyssop oil contained 50 percent carvacrol, and antifungal and antibacterial medicinal agent.
Note carefully that we say burned, as this demonstrates that whole body of the heifer, even the blood and organs were burned to ashes. The ashes would then be made into a liquid paste and used in the water of purification that a Jew or Israelite must undergo in a ceremonial purification cleansing before they can enter the Temple complex. The ashes were then gathered by another priest who was recognized to be ritually ‘clean’ and kept in a vessel in a place outside the camp of Israel that was also kept ritually ‘clean’.
After that a small fragment of these ashes could be placed in water in a vessel or thrown upon a body of water. How do we know if this water was purified? According to the rabbinic tradition, if the surface of the water became disturbed when the ashes touched the water, then purification had occurred.
The Nine Red Heifers in Jewish History
According to the historical records kept by the Jews in their Mishnah, a total of nine perfectly red heifers have been burned. In the Mishnah 5, called the Tractate Parah, these nine heifers burned in the sacrificial history of the Israelites and the Jews have been recorded.
“The first heifer that was burned was under the supervision of Moses on that 2nd day of Nissan in the second year from the Exodus. The second heifer was burned under the supervision of Ezra; two were burned by Shimon Ha Tzaddik; two were burned by Yochanan, the High Priest, the seventh by Eliehoenai, the son of He-Kof, the eighth by Hanamel, the Egyptian, the ninth by Ishmael, son of Piabi and the tenth will be burned in the time of the Moschiach.”
In this same tractate, Mishnah 5, it uncovered the conditions that would be vital to purify the future generations of Jews and Israelites at the end of times. The oracles of God state over and over that the chosen people were to be a Holy People and a Holy Nation. The rites of purification were therefore applicable not only to the people of God but also to the Land. For the rites of purification to exist in the End of Times, the ashes of the tenth heifer must be mingled with the ashes of the previous nine heifers.
In the days of the first and the second temples, the ashes were divided into three parts. The first lot of ashes was kept by the Levites who guarded the entrance of the Temple. The second lot of ashes was kept on Anointment Hill, now called the Mount of Olives. It was on that sacred mount that the prophets and the kings were anointed. It was also on that site that the priest would be purified in a ceremony that was deemed necessary before he could burn the body of another red heifer. The third lot was placed in the chail, a portion of the wall approximating the Women’s Gallery of the Temple.
Yet a puzzle still exists. If you will notice, from the time of Moses and the dedication of the Sanctuary of the Congregation at Mount Sinai until the fall and destruction of the Temple of Solomon, the ashes of only one red heifer was used in the purification of the priests and the temple. This suggests that the Wilderness Tabernacle (the Mishkhan) until the end of the days of Solomon stayed in a state of ritual purity in which very little of the ashes of the red heifer had to be used. After the death of Solomon and the split of the House of Judah from the House of Israel, the Temple services still remained a strong moral force in the Land of Judah, until the days of King Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, a king with such evil in his heart that he sold the physical and moral fiber of the Kingdom of Judah to the Devil.
2 Chron. 33:2-4,5-7,9 (parts)- “He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abomination of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. …he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God….so Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitance of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
It was the reforms with the subsequent purification and dedication of the Temple, plus bringing the Ark of the Covenant from its hiding place in the bowels of Solomon’s Grotto a thousand feet under the Temple by the twelve year old King Josiah, it appeared that the ashes of Moses’ Red Heifer were almost fully used up. At the end of Josiah’s reign, the Prophet Jeremiah advised that the Ark and the Wilderness Sanctuary be hidden permanently.
After the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon, the second Red Heifer was sacrificed, apparently to rededicated the new Zerubbabel’s Temple to the Lord. During the years from 520 BCE (350 BCE by Jewish yearly calculations), until 70 CE when Temple of Herod was ransacked and destroyed, eight more heifers were slaughtered. This suggests that from 1585 BCE to 538 BCE, over one thousand years, ritual purity was maintained within the Sanctuary and the Temple complexes, yet for the last 420 years until the destruction of Herod’s Temple, there was a constant and repetitive breeches in the rites of purification of the priests and the temple as given by the Lord of hosts to Moses.
According to the traditions of the Jews, after the death of Jesus, the hierarchy of the temple priests became more and more aware that the sacrificial system within the temple was corrupted and not accepted in the eyes of the Lord of hosts. Note what the Talmud states occurred at the time of the death of Christ.
Shabbat 15a - “Forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin was banished (from the Chamber of Hewn Stones in the Temple) and sat in the trading Station (in the Temple to the east of the former Chamber)”
Yoma 39b - “Our rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the lot (‘For the Lord’) did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson colored strap become white; nor did the western most light (the three lamp shaft with seven lamps each on the right side of the Menorah nearest the Holy of Holiest) shine; and the doors of the Hekel (the large doors into the Holy Place) would open by themselves.”
The Miphkad Altar
The altar upon which the Red Heifer would be burned is called by the rabbis as the Miphkad Altar. In Nehemiah 3 we see the historical description of the reparations done to the gates of Jerusalem. The Miphkad Gate was one of the gates into the city which was near the corner of the city near the Sheep Gate.
Nehemiah 3:31-32 - “After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith’s son unto the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over against the Gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the corner. And between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.”
The Hebrew meaning of Miphkad is ‘appointed’, which is also referenced in Ezekiel 42, which talks of the bullock being burned as the sin offering at the appointed place (Miphkad).
Ezekiel 43:21 - “Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place (Miphkad) of the house, without the sanctuary.”
Combining the burning of a cow (bullock) as the sin offering at an appointed place (Miphkad) which was outside the sanctuary, we can now see combines all the elements of the crucifixion of Jesus, who also was crucified as a sin offering for all the sins of the world and according to some scholars was crucified on a ‘tree’ on the Mount of Olives, without the sanctuary, at an appointed place designated by the temple priests and the Romans. This crucifixion was also for the future purification of the saints and remnant of the chosen ones of Israel at the coming of Y’shua, the messiah.
The Red Heifer and Y’shua - the Type/Antitype of the Sin Offering
The author of the Book of Hebrews make an interesting analogy between the Red Heifer and Y’shua.
Hebrews 13:9-13 - “We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the gate. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside, the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”
As all the other offerings in the temple services were also utilized as food for the priests and Levites, the bodies of the bullock, goat and the red heifer were to be burnt with their whole bodies were reduced to ashes.
Four Types of Sin Offerings
There were four types of sin offerings. Three of these were killed or slaughtered at the slaughtering arenas within the temple proper, “before the presence of the Lord. (Lev 4:4) All three had their blood sprinkled seven times before the Inner Curtain which veiled the Holy of Holiest. All three sin offerings had their bodies carried out of the camp to be burned to ashes on the altar outside the camp.
The first sin offering was a young bullock which was slain for the sins of the high priest. (Lev. 4:3-12) and the final burning was in a clean place outside the camp. The second type of sin offering was also a young bullock which was slain for the corporate community of Israelites, the entire assembly (Lev. 3:13-21) The ritual separation of the fat and certain organ was the same as the first bullock. The third sin offering was on the Day of Atonement in which a young bullock and a goat were carried outside the camp and burned in the entire carcass of the animals. (Lev. 16:27)
The holiest of all the sin offerings, was the fourth sin offering, the Red Heifer. The red heifer, offered as a sin offering for purification of the collective congregation of Israel, was slaughtered according to the dictates of the Lord of hosts to Moses outside the camp of Israel. (Num 19:3) Unlike the other sin offerings, the Red Heifer was walked over to the Altar on the Mount of Olives and there burnt in its entirety. The difference of the red heifer and the other sin offerings is that the other three were absolving sin, giving the recipient freedom from sin or in a sense, salvation. On the other hand, the ashes of the red heifer were to bring holiness. The blood of the red heifer was sprinkled outside the camp, the body burned to ashes and then the ashes through some mystical process that left even the wisdom of Solomon bewildered, bestowed holiness and purification with the pure spring water as its was sprinkled over not only people, but over the land. They purified the temple with it. They could purify the entire city of Jerusalem if needed or the entire Land of Israel.
Let us let Alfred Edersheim explain the deep meaning of the Red Heifer.
“As the first manifestation of sin which separates man from God, defilement by the dead required a Sin-offering, and the ashes of the red heifer are expressly so designated in the words: “It is a sin-offering.” (Num. 9:17) But it differs from all other sin-offerings. The sacrifice was to be a pure red color; one “upon which never came yoke; and a female, all other sin-offerings for the congregation being males….But what distinguished it even more from all the others was, that it was a sacrifice once for all, (at least so long as its ashes lasted); that its blood was sprinkled, not on the altar, but outside the camp towards (westward) the sanctuary; and that it was wholly burnt, along with cedar wood, as the symbol of imperishable existence, hyssop, as the of purification from corruptions, and “scarlet” which from its colour as the emblem of life. Thus the sacrifice of Highest Life, brought as a sin-offering, and, so as far as possible, once for all, was in its turn accompanied by the symbols of Imperishable existence, freedom from corruption, and fullness of life, so as yet more to intensity its significance. But even this is not all. The gathered ashes with running water were sprinkled on the third and seventh days on that which was to be purified. Assuredly, if death meant “the wages of sin,” this purification pointed in all its details, to “to the gift of God,” which is “eternal life” through the sacrifice of Him in whom is the fullness of life.” (The Temple, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Michigan. 1987, pages 348-349)
The High Priest was forbidden to offer the sacrifice of the Red Heifer. In the same manner and in the same location, only Y’shua, the son of God, and as our High Priest, could offer His life as a ‘sin offering’ for the entire planet would also be sacrificed ‘outside the gate” or “outside the camp”. This strongly suggests that the place where the red heifer was slain was also near the site where Jesus was crucified. This was the Holiest area surrounding the city of Jerusalem. (Berakoth 9:5)
“Outside the Camp”
What does “outside the camp” mean? In Numbers 15:35-36, it is clear that the death penalty under the Torah was to be administered “outside the camp.” Yet what were the limits or how far away from the camp of the Israelites was this to be?
As the children of Israel were moving throughout the wilderness, they kept a certain distance between the Wilderness Tabernacle and the encampment or their places of habitation according to their clans each with their standards and ensigns. (Numbers 2). When they were to follow the Ark of the Covenant around the city of Jericho, this ‘distance’ that they were to keep away from the Ark of the Covenant was specified.
Joshua 3:3 - “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord you God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it (ark)…”
So they needed 2000 cubits or 3000 feet or 1000 yards in order to maintain the sanctity of the ark and for the preservation of their own lives. According to the Hebrew law, the place of residence for an individual, whether a tent or a house, would extend out from its abode for 1000 yards. If the place of dwelling was in a corporate site such as a walled village, a Levitical town or walled city, then the city limits was 1000 yards from the outer walls of the village, town or city. The House of the Lord, wherein rested the Holy of Holiest and the Ark of the Covenant, was the symbolic dwelling place of the Lord of hosts. To be “outside the camp” or “outside the gate”, it would have to be over 1000 yards (2000 cubits) from the Temple Proper or the residence of God.
During the days of Christ, the Sanhedrin, who governed from the Chamber of Hewn Stones, which was on the left side of the Holy of Holiest facing east, or the north side of the Temple proper, used the same calculations to determine the corporate city limits of the city of Jerusalem. Since the court of the Sanhedrin stood as the center, a radius of 1000 yards determined the limits of their encampment. Outside this perimeter was ‘outside the camp’. As such the traditional sites of Jeremiah’s Grotto, the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and a small hill north-east of the Damascus Gate would be excluded from this definition of “outside the camp” and thereby excluded as potential sites for the crucifixion of Jesus.
Symbols and Types of the Sin Offering
The Hebrew author takes it a bit further. He recognized that the Torah (Law) was but a shadow of the future saving power to be brought by the Son of God. Jesus, as the ultimate ‘sin offering’ for the world would give His body to pay the penalty of sin in order that sin could be eradicated forever from this planet and this universe. Yes, Y’shua as the Living Torah, would fulfill all these shadow and types imbedded in the sanctuary services.
Hebrews 10:11-13 - “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. But his Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. (Ps. 110:1, Eph.1:22, ‘the last enemy that will be destroy is death” 1 Cor 15:26)
This typology was inclusive of the both the bullocks and the goats which were used as sin offerings and the red heifer which was used for purification and holiness (from sin or defilement) of the Levites and the temple premises.
Hebrews 9:13-14: “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God.”
That the early church believers recognized the relationship between the Jesus and the Red Heifer is depicted in the Letter of Barnabas (8:2) written about 90 CE which stated, “The calf is Jesus: the sinful men offering it are those who led him to the slaughter.”
The Temple Ritual of the Red Heifer
The whole temple services which revolved around the sin offerings and the ashes of the Red Heifer has been studied extensively by the late Ernest Martin. In his book, Secrets of Golgotha, the forgotten history of Christ’s crucifixion, (ASK Publications, Alhambra, CA. 1988, 0 945657 77 3.), he documents in the Jewish records that describe the ritual of preparation of the ashes of the red heifer.
In the Mishnah, the early Jewish records describe the positioning of the Temple as facing east, with the Holy of Holiest on the western end of the temple premises. Note that this is the same pattern of the Garden of Eden, in which Adam and Even approached God by traveling west and were cast out of the garden by being sent out of the eastern gate. Here we see the Lord of hosts residing in His residence, and He is envisioned as looking from His dwelling place or Throne facing east towards the Mount of Olives.
The Giant Menorah is standing on His right hand side, with all the symbolism of Jesus, as the Light of the World standing on the right hand side of the Father and as we have noted above, after the crucifixion of Jesus, the three lamp poles on the western end of the Menorah, or those nearest the Holy of Holiest, failed to light, as thought the Light or the Glory of the Shekinah, which Y’shua was a reflection was extinguished from the Inner Sanctum of the Holy Place.
During the special ceremony of slaughtering the red heifer, which we need to be reminded occurred only nine times between Sinai and the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, the red heifer was led out of the eastern gate, across the doubled tiered arched bridge called the Bridge of the Red Heifer, to the Mount of Olives and led up to an altar near the summit of the mount. (Middoth 1:3; 2:4; Yoma 7:2 plus the Talmud in Yoma 68a and Zebahim 105b). Here on this altar called the Miphkad (Appointed) Altar, the ceremony of preparing and burning the red heifer was performed.
The Trial of Jesus
Adding the typology of the Hebrew Jewish Nazorean believers of Y’shua, under the leadership of James (Yacob) the Just (Tzaddik), the brother of Jesus (Y’shua), we can now see the shadows and symbols of Jesus as the Passover Lamb in which every detail of the selection, preparation and slaughter of the Pesach Lamb at Passover matched with every detail of Christ as he was interrogated, inspected by Pilate and then crucified.
While Jesus was being investigated and interrogated, it was done in the Hall of the Sanhedrin housed in the Chamber of Hewn Stones in the Temple on the left side of the Altar of Burnt Offering. (Shabbat 15a and Rosh haShanah 31a.b) During the Passover season the High Priest Caiphas as President of the Sanhedrin and Annas, the Sagan, his deputy left their homes probably in the aristocratic section of the southwest hill of Jerusalem and went to live for seven days in their official ‘house’ in the temple compound. (Middoth 5:4; Encyclopedia Judaica iii.991) The residence of the High Priest in the temple, was called the “House of Stone” (Parah 3:1)
This seven day residency included every weekly Sabbaths, the new moons, the annual festivals, especially the Day of Atonement and for seven days prior to offering the Red Heifer. It was here in their temple residences that they walked across to the Chamber of Hewn Stones to interrogate and judge Jesus.
Think carefully the meaning of this whole scenario. In as much as the trial of Jesus occurs just before a High Shabbat (Sabbath) during the Passover week, Jesus was judged by the High Priest, his deputy and the chief priests and then condemned by the Sanhedrin, all within the Temple proper itself. The judgment for Jesus’ death was to be in His own Father’s House, in the presence of God, His Father, who was symbolically dwelling on His Throne in His dwelling in the Holy of Holiest. Since Jesus was now accursed as a condemned man, He had to be taken away from the presence of God out the eastern gate. He followed the route of Adam to the east and away from the Garden of Eden and the presence of God.
Jesus as the Red Heifer
The same pattern of fulfillment is seen in the relationship between Y’shua and the Red Heifer. The Red Heifer was examined and inspected on the temple proper to determine if she was a perfect or blemishless a heifer with no more than three white or black hairs on her body. So also Y’shua was examined and interrogated by the High Priest, then the whole Sanhedrin and then Pilate, who could find ‘no fault in Him’.
The Red Heifer was then led out the eastern gate of the temple, so also Y’shua was led away from the temple out the eastern gate, also away from the presence of His Father. As an accused man of sin, Y’shua followed the route of Adam and Eve as they were driven from the Garden of Eden and away from the presence of God because of their sin of disobedience.
The Red Heifer was led across the Kidron Valley, walking over the Bridge of the Red Heifer to the summit of the Mount of Olives, and up to the summit of the mount where she was slaughtered, so also Jesus was led by the same route to the place where He is crucified.
Notice again how the author of Hebrews depicts this scene.
Hebrews 13:12-13 - “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”
Carefully look at this text. In order to sanctify us with his death, Jesus, guided by His Father, meticulously fulfilled every detail of the ritual of the red heifer in which his crucifixion occurred outside the gate (walls of the city) and outside the camp. In order that his death would not defile the temple itself, the location was beyond the limits of 1000 yards (2000 cubits) outside the city walls. The closest location beyond the limits of 1000 yards was near the summit on the southern hill of Mount of Olives.
The last part of the verse above, one must question, where this is a symbolic or literal interpretation. If symbolic, then the interpretation “bearing the stigma that he bore”, would suggest that we would give up the approval of the world and accept the reproach of Christ. And as such, going ‘outside the camp’, would suggest that we would be willing to be excluded from religious and social acceptance.
Yet is there a literal interpretation? Would not the Hebrew author suggest that the reader retrace the footsteps of Jesus. In order for Christ to use His own blood for the saving grace and sanctification that it offers to all believers, He would have to suffer and be crucified outside the gates and walls of the city, as preordained since the days of Moses. Not only that, the author urges the readers to mentally go watch the crucifixion outside the camp on the Mount of Olives, and watch Him bear ‘His reproach’, or the cross beam of the crucifixion.
The Ashes of the Red Heifer and the
Restoration of the Sanctuary/Temple
So the puzzle still continues. According to rabbinic opinion, future temple construction cannot begin unless the ashes of the red heifers that have been mixed since the days of Moses also have been found. Though this fact is overlooked by many evangelical Christians who in their beliefs of dispensationalism, await the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem as a sign of the End of Times, the soon to be abomination of desolation and the imminent coming of Jesus. This fact is not overlooked by the ultra-orthodox Jews. For three decades, a former Baptist minister, now amateur archeologist, Vendyl Jones, has been searching for the K’lal, which according to the Copper Scroll is the urn or vessel that contains the ashes of the red heifer that was used in the Mishkhan or Wilderness Sanctuary and in Solomon’s Temple. These ashes were from the first heifer that was slaughter by Eliezar in the days of Moses.
According to Jones, in order for the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) to be restored, this vessel of ashes from the first Temple ashes of the red heifer must be found. This is not just a fantasy of a lone Texas archeologist, but was shared by the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, whom some believe also to be a messiah, plus the rabbinic giants of Adin Even Israel Steinsaltz and Reuven Grodner, formerly from the Hebrew University. Even Menachem Burstin, who is a known botanist of the Middle East flora and expert on Biblical chemistry has also stated that only the ashes of the red heifer remain of all the ingredients needed to prepare for the water of purification.
As we shall soon see, this unique metal document, the Copper Scroll according to the translation from the Hebrew linguists of the Vendyl Jones Research Institute, state that “under the spices, is the purification.” According to the meaning of this translation, buried beneath the site where the Temple Incense called the Pitum haQetoret was discovered near the ‘hidden north entrance’ at the Cave of the Column is the site where the ashes of the Red Heifer are buried.
But what is
the importance about the furor on the Temple Mount? In 1967, just a month
after the Jews on the six-day war and took over possession of the Temple Mount,
the custody of the mount was given to the Moslem Grand Mufti of Jerusalem by the
Jewish government as a statement of peace. To a secular Jewish
perspective, this was not particularly significant as the Jewish people did not
have access to walk on the mount for fear that they would be treading over the
ground where the Most Holy Place of the Temple stood with the Ark of the
Covenant. This ground was sacred and holy and as such the Temple Mount was
useless to the secular Jew. With the Mosque of Omer on the mount since
1600’s, the Moslem people now accept this site
to be their own possession. At this site where they believe a vision in
the Koran that Mohammed was miraculously transported from Mecca to Jerusalem,
gives them justification that outside of a holy jihad, no non-Muslim religion or
nation will ever take over control of the third recognized holy spot in the
Moslem religion.
Yet not only the
Muslim faith, but the Jesuits of the Roman Catholic Church have been eying the
control of the Temple Mount a symbol of their being the legitimate
representative of the World Christian faith and what they feel is their rightful
responsibility as the custodian of the Mount, to make it a place where the
faithful of all religions can come to worship. This surreal idealism, to many
prophetic scholars, has the germ of reality, for what place could best represent
the idealism of a One World Order with a One-World Faith, than to have the
Catholics broker this mount as Mount of worship for the three largest religions
in the world.
Yet Jewish tradition records that the birth of a pure red heifer has not occurred since the destruction of Herod’s Temple in 70 CE by the forces of the Roman emperor Titus. To the tzaddiks of Israel, if such a calf were truly to grow up and remain unblemished, it would herald the beginning of the Messianic era with the rebuilding of the Holy Temple as envisioned by the prophet Ezekiel. According to the rabbinic sages, the redemption of Israel will be like the morning dawn, "In the beginning, it progresses very slowly...but as it continues, it grows brighter and brighter."
Yet not
all orthodox or biblical scholars share the idea that the Temple Mount is the
site where the Temple of Solomon once stood. There is a growing body of
Christian and Jewish scholars that believe that Solomon’s Temple actually stood
on a site south of the 
present Temple Mount, over the area
of the Gihon Springs and the recently excavated tunnel staircases ascending from
mikhvoat
baths that possibly were used by the
High Priest and the temple Levites.
The archeological data accumulated by the late Ernest L Martin and published in his book, The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot, was that the Temple of Solomon and Zerubbabel were located over the Ophel Mound near and above the Gihon Springs. Also the present Haram esh-Sharif, the present Temple Mount was actually the Fort of Antonia, where the judgment hall of Pilate was located. This site would also be in harmony with the futuristic message of Jesus to his disciples just before his crucifixion when he and his disciples were overlooking the temple complex, “Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.” (Matt. 24:2)
The Tenth Red Heifer
Also according to Josephus, just before the final days of Jerusalem, when the forces of Vespasium and Titus were heading toward Jerusalem, the high priest prepared a tenth red heifer for slaughter in hopes of re-purifying the temple and save the city when the heifer gave birth to a lamb in the temple premises. The very animal that represented a ‘sin offering’ for the congregation of Israel, now defied the laws of genetics and gave birth to a lamb. The heifer had been defiled and the temple was destroyed. Was the Lord of hosts trying to tell the Jewish leadership that He had already sent His own son, Who became the literal Passover Pesach Lamb and also had fulfilled all the requirements of the Red Heifer?
Obviously the message was not accepted by the High Priest and Sadducean leadership in Jerusalem, who had seven years earlier, stoned the brother of Jesus, James the Just, who not only served at the leader of the Jerusalem Nazorean Party, but also due to his righteousness performed the duties of the High Priest during the Day of Yom Kippur. It appears that someday, a Red Heifer will be found, if not already and the ashes of the prior Red Heifer will be discovered. Will this lead to an apocalyptic confrontation between the Jews and the Moslems? The Sharon government with its new mandate from the orthodox Jewish community could reassume possession and control of the Temple Mount igniting the spark that could erupt in the future Gog-Magog War of Ezekiel.
As one BibleSearcher commented, “What if the new 10th Red Heifer was prepared for slaughter to obtain the ashes to purify the site for a Sanctuary or New Temple and this time she foaled a ‘cub lion’.
Would the Orthodox Jewish rabbabim accept that the Messiah ben David, the Lion of Judah, was also the Messiah ben Joseph, who gave Himself as the Pesach Lamb in the 1st century CE? This drama still has a few pages left to unfold.
Credits and Links:
Bible Searchers Sites
The Oracles of Zechariah by Robert D. Mock MD
Jeremiah and the Five Guardians of Solomon’s Temple Treasures by Robert D. Mock MD
Jesus as the Passover Lamb by Robert D. Mock MD
Vendyl Jones Research Institute Sites
Vendyl Jones Research Institute Home Page
Emeq HaMelekh by the Vendyl Jones Research Institute
The Copper Scroll and the Excavations at Qumron by Vendyl Jones
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part One by Vendyl Jones
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part Two by Vendyl Jones
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part Three by Vendyl Jones
The Ark of the Covenant by Vendyl Jones
A Door of Hope by the Vendyl Jones Research Institute
Ashes for Beauty--The Mysterious Ashes of the Red Heifer by Jim Long
The Gate Between Two Walls, by Vendyl Jones
Vendyl Jones and the Ark of the Covenant by Gerard Robins
Temple Mount Sites
The Temple Institute on recreation the Furnishing for the New Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem by the Temple Mount Organization
The Gihon Springs Temple Site by Ernest Martin
Emeq HaMelekh Sites
Emeq HaMelekh by Robert D. Mock MD
Emeq HaMelekh by the Vendyl Jones Research Institute
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part One by Vendyl Jones
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part Two by Vendyl Jones
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part Three by Vendyl Jones
The Temple and the Copper Scrolls by the Order of the Nazorean Essenes
Emeq HaMelekh and the Ark in King Tut’s Tomb by Andis Kaulins
The Copper Scroll Sites
The Copper Scroll by the West Semitic Research Project
A Door of Hope by the Vendyl Jones Research Institute
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part One by Vendyl Jones
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part Two by Vendyl Jones
Dead Sea Scroll Deception Part Three by Vendyl Jones
The Copper Scroll and the Excavations at Qumron by Vendyl Jones
The Copper Scroll translations by Ian Hutchesson
The Mysterious Treasure of the Copper Scroll by Lee Krystek
Shemen Afarshimon, the Holy Anointing Oil by the Order of the Nazorean Essenes
The Process of Writing the Copper Scroll by Meir Bar-Ilan
The Ashes of the Red Heifer Sites
The Red Heifer by the Temple Institute
Ashes for Beauty--The Mysterious Ashes of the Red Heifer by Jim Long
The Mystery of the Red Heifer Sacrifice by Grant Jefferies
Ashes of the Red Heifer by Stephen M. Yulish Ph.D. of Messianic fellowship, Chayim Chadashim
Moschiach and the Red Heifer by Rabbi Abram Stone
Parshat Parah by Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov
Making Some Sense of the Red Heifer by Rabbi Goldie Milgram
Red Heifer is Born in Israel April 5, 2002 by the Temple Institute
Cloning the Red Heifer by Guy Cramer
The Ashes of the Red Heifer by Don K. Preston the Preterist Archives
The Mystery of the Red Heifer by Rabbi Chaim Richman (book order)
Links on the Red Heifer by Ron Graff
Go to Part Four
The Exile of Judah and Babylon the city of Wonders
Topics
Mishnah 3
The Recording of the Mishnayots in Babylon
The Empire of Neo-Babylon
The Destruction of Jerusalem and the
Booty taken from the Temple of Solomon
The Princes of Judah
The Destiny for the Vessels of the House of the Lord in Babylon
The Fabled City of Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar II built
The Hanging Garden of Babylon
The Babylonian Religion
The End of the Era of Nebuchadnezzar II
Cyrus the Great and the First Charter of Human Rights
Return to Part Two