�That upon you (Jerusalem) may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias �whom you slew between the temple and the altar�, (2 Chron 24:20-21). Zacharias was stoned to death by command of the Israelite King within the boundaries of the city Jerusalem on the temple mount, hence the lament of Matt 23:37, �O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets��. The entirety of the chapter of Matt 23 deals only with events occurring inside the city of Jerusalem in which verse 35 looks back in historical perspective of events having previously occurred at the site of the temple and altar, and as we are about to see as also being the site of Abel's altar from which the very first burnt offerring was ever made and becoming a foreshadow of future events to transpire on that exact site.
So why did God bring the murders of the two prophets, Zechariah (Zacharias) and Abel, into contextual comparison with one another in Matt 23:35? It seems doubtful God did this on a whimsical notion just to fill up some space in a scroll.
Zechariah (Zacharias) was a prophet to Israel, not the case with Abel however, as Israel did not yet exist in Abel�s time, therefore the title of prophet to Israel must not be the connecting factor in comparing the two murders to one another, the only remaining contextual comparison regarding these two murders is the geographic proximity of their murders to a temple and an altar, or as stated specifically in the case of Zechariah, �between the temple and the altar�, suggesting the same location of Abel�s murder also. The poignant question being: did both murders of these two prophets occur on exactly the same geographic site as the suggestive context of Matt 23:35 may be leading us to believe? If this is not the reason the two men are spoken of in side-by-side comparison, why then are the two murdered men brought into comparison with one another if only one was a prophet to Israel? The process of elimination leads to the conclusion it must have been the location of their deaths, it�s the only topic left under discussion in the verse, thus fulfilling the suggestive context that there were multiple murders of righteous men inside the city of Jerusalem on the temple mount, God has now placed the site of Abel�s murder on the location of the future site of Jerusalem.
Prior to the death of Abel, it appears only four humans populated the planet. By the time of the murder of Abel, the Garden of Eden was closed for access by anyone (but curiously in the present day, the location must be open to access because there doesn�t seem to be anyplace on earth man doesn�t have access to), but people being people like to hang around and live near home, thus placing Mt Moriah in close proximity to Eden, even as close as a few hundred yards. Presently the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are nowhere close to Mt Moriah, they are in Iraq; but so what, the Pison and Gihon are neither in Moriah or Iraq. Non-existent rivers in today�s world could mean that the Garden of Eden may never have been located in Iraq due to the fact it is short of the description of three confluences of rivers, or that Noah�s flood changed so many physical features of the planet that the Euphrates riverbed was drastically altered and the Pison, Hiddekel, and Gihon were eliminated from the land of Israel.
Noah�s Sacrifice
To further build upon Eden as the temple template in foreshadowing future Jerusalem, we move to the next recorded event concerning burnt offerring sacrifices, Noah�s sacrifice after the flood, Gen 8:20, �And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast and fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar.�. That Noah was knowledgeable concerning clean and unclean meats and presenting acceptable sacrifices to God is indisputable, long before the coming of Moses. So how did Noah know which animals would constitute an acceptable sacrifice and where to build an altar at an acceptable location to God? Somebody gave him the knowledge of sacrificial laws, he didn�t just stumble into them. This should leave one to ponder what more Noah may have known concerning the future Levitical priesthood and their duties in the future temple. Here is Noah, functioning in the capacity of the High Priest of future Israel, as was Abel prior to him.
Noah presented his sacrifice at a location not far distant from where the Ark came to rest. He presented his sacrificial offerings in a manner acceptable to God. We don�t know the exact geographic location Noah embarked upon the ark with his families. We do know the point of dis-embarkment, as it must have occurred at a location where Noah could present an acceptable sacrifice to God, in the manner of the High Priest of future Israel, and within the boundaries of the future temple. Noah�s sacrifice must therefore have been offerred from the same site Abel presented his sacrifice, this would be consistent with Eden as the temple template of future Jerusalem, subsequently becoming the law of the Torah and being transcribed onto clay tablets by the finger of God for Moses and the Israelites at Sinai.
It is complete fiction that Noah disembarked from the Ark somewhere in a mountain range located in present day Armenia. It was thousands of years after Moses presented the Torah to the Israelites in the wilderness that the nation of Armenia was founded and a name given to a mountain range spelled �Ararat� in modern languages. The word �ararat� has a definition, a definition that existed long before the existence of Armenia, it means �bitter�, an extended spelling of Strong�s Concordance word #779 (arar) the root from which #780 (ararat) is created. It is the height of silliness to search the world over seeking a name for a geographic location that is similarly spelled as some Biblical word and subsequently coming to a conclusion that the two coincidental spellings are the same geographical location on which Noah disembarked from the Ark. Across the globe today, there are many cities and towns of the same name, but none are in the same place.
The conclusion is this: Noah disembarked from the Ark very near, or on, Mt Moriah itself in the land of Moriah, otherwise he could not have disembarked from the Ark shortly thereafter on God's Holy mountain to offer an acceptable....(continued on next page, P.3).........
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