Temple Zero - Melchizedek's Temple

Solomon Didn't Build Melchizedek's Temple

"But he who first built it was a potent man among the Canaanites, and is in our own tongue called [Melchisedek], the Righteous King, for such he really was; on which account he was [there] the first priest of God, and first built a temple [there], and called the city Jerusalem, which was formerly called Salem. However, David, the king of the Jews, ejected the Canaanites, and settled his own people therein." (Wars book 6, ch.10)

Today, we have so much more video evidence to correlate the truth, which tragically pours shame on certain previous church videos.

A lot of evidence came to light because of the Covid19 lockdowns. When there's nothing left to do, nowadays there's always YouTube. With travel bans in place, tour guides did a lot of filming instead, especially those in Jerusalem.

"The Temple" video by [redacted] was published on YouTube six years ago (as of 2024), and I wondered how [redacted] got Eli Shukron to agree that Solomon's temple was in the city of David?

It turns out that it was a very clever deception, where, if you watch and listen carefully, you'll find that Eli Shukron wasn't agreeing at all. Eli Shukron was explaining the temple of Melchizedek. [redacted] says he "saw a light" at the city of David tour, which led him to the temple. However, they're not connected.

I found two particular videos on YouTube: one is from Eli Shukron and two men can be seen and heard quizzing him and almost tricking him into to saying it was Solomon's temple, but he corrects them; the other video is from two similar looking men who seem to have crept into the dig site, and are saying that it's Solomon's temple. The video is from a "church of God" and ends advertising its DVDs "free" in exchange for donations. "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name," (Mt 24:4-5)

Eli Shukron in Melchizedek's temple

Shukron believes that this particular temple was that of Melchizedek. Melchizedek goes back to the time of Abraham when Abraham was returning from the defeat of the forces of Chedorlaomer:

"And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all" (Gen 14, 17-20).

Note "the king of Salem" - this was before Jerusalem, although the same place, but removed by rather a long time. It was to be 14 generations until king David conquered zion and called it Jerusalem.

This places Melchizedek in a valley, and Eli Shukron's discovery of what's believed to be Melchizedek's temple, is in the Kedron valley on the southern end of the city of David, and on the line of Hezekiah's wall, which was built outside the wall of the city of David. It is south of the Gihon spring.

But, is the king's dale the Kedron valley? If it is, what proof exists?

In the story of king David's son, Absalom, in 2 Samuel 18:18 we read:

"Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom's place."

We find in Smith's Bible Dictionary:

"Absaloms Pillar, Or Place - A monument of tomb which Absalom had built during his lifetime in the king's dale, i.e. the valley of the Kedron, at the foot of Mount Olivet, near Jerusalem, (2 Samuel 18:18) comp. with 2Sam 14:27 For his three sons, and where he probably expected to be buried. The tomb there now, and called by Absalom's name was probably built at a later date."

The tomb of Absalom is marked in the top right hand corner of PEF plate 3, in the Kedron valley.

Absaloms Pillar, or Place

So, the king's dale is the Kedron valley, and the Bible places Melchizedek there. That is proper evidence for the location of the temple discovered by Eli Shukron. And that temple being 14 generations before David, could never have been Solomon's temple. Solomon being David's son.

Are We Destroyed For Lack of Knowledge?

(Hosea 4:6)

Elsewhere in [redacted]'s video, he gives other misleading "evidence," like flipping Micah 3:12:

"Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest"

He shows a photograph implying that the temple - the mountain of the house - was plowed as a field, proving the temple was in the city of David. That was a really clever deception, and I didn't spot it on the first viewing, and I'm sure it will pass many by.

If you read Micah 3:12 again, you will see that it says "the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest." Not "plowed like a field."

Other so-called evidence includes that of the Bordeaux Pilgrim in 333 AD (see evidence page), where [redacted] says that the Bordeaux Pilgrim looked out from the tower of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Bordeaux Pilgrim never recorded that, and incidentally, the tower is from the 12th century AD.