I find it fascinating...It may well be where the Garden of Eden was....
For arguments sake, lets say it IS....
Biblically speaking, there is no evidence that Adam and Eve built such a place, if fact, they would NOT have built such a place...they were only two of them....they had no children until AFTER they were kicked out...and God put a "lock down" on the place so they could not get back in...so it would have to be "close by" Eden...
However, soon after, idolatry became rampant as Satan continued his assault on God's plan... this idolatry was normally associated to the nature worship of the "high places" and the erecting of stone edifices to worship...they sacrificed children to Moloch...(all of which was condemned by God)
Lets say these are pagan temples of sort from antiquity...it seems to me as if it would further the authenticity of the biblical story...
How were they erected??? - if pagan, I believe with the aid of fallen angels...the same as the "sons of god" in Genesis who came down and married the "daughters of men" and produced "giants" (Rephaim-sort of souless mighty men who were worshiped for their knowledge and power--who the Greeks called "Titans"..
But if not, the bible relates that the early people were very smart..it is said that the lineage of Seth had "spiritual" concepts
Josephus - ""They ... were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars; the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar or brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day" (Antiquities of the Jews, ch 2).
Could these be similar erections or at least conterfits of the same?? ...used for their pagan worship or maybe even history books??
Another issue... if these are as old as they say why would we NOT expect them to be covered (buried)..?? If they are refering to the Genesis story, they are blatantly ignoring that it would have all happened BEFORE the Genesis flood.....which of course would have changed the entire global land mass on the earth..and undoubtly buried or destroyed them..
Did those guys really exist or...some think it mythology...I don't..
"The Rephaim are also mentioned in the Bible as real, living, historical beings. In fact, they were residents in the territory of modern Jordan and Syria, in the land that lies generally east of the Sea of Galilee. They lived in proximity with two other groups of giants, called “Emim” and “Zamzummim,” or “Zuzim.” In the ancient world, all of them were referred to generically as “giants.” Genesis 14:5 mentions them in conjunction with Abraham’s move to the promised land:
“And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim” (Gen. 14:5).
To this day, ruins may be found in this region that are of gigantic proportion. Here, and northward into Syria and Lebanon, there are the remains of ancient buildings and temples that stagger the imagination. For example, the ruins of Baalbek, in Lebanon’s Beqa’a Valley are so massive that some have suggested they could not be duplicated, even using modern building techniques. On the Acropolis of Baalbek, there once stood a temple dedicated to the storm god Hadad. It was 60 feet wide and 290 feet long, surrounded by 19 columns, each 62 feet high and over seven feet in diameter. But its flooring stones — still intact — are each larger than a modern railroad boxcar! No one has a clue about how they were moved into place.
And there are many other ancient examples of outsized ancient structures in the Middle East. We should not be surprised by their existence. Many times the early Israelites encountered people that they called “giants.”
Even later, when Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land, giants were seen. Perhaps the most famous incident is in Numbers 13, in which a 12-man reconnaissance party is sent in to spy out the land. Ten of the 12 men are so frightened by the presence of giants that they declined to enter the land again:
“And they brought an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
“And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Num. 13:32,33).
In early Hebrew manuscripts, these giants are called the Nephilim, and were apparently thought by the spies to be descendants of a long line of these creatures, whom we first read about in the days before the Flood.
But if the pre-Flood world, with the exception of Noah’s family, was entirely destroyed, how did the evil giants survive? Here, we can only speculate.
It seems likely that the lineage of the Nephilim, Emim, Zamzummim, and Rephaim were somehow restarted even in the days after the Flood. One thing we know: after the Flood their behavior was continually evil, just like that of the pre-Flood Nephilim.
The strong suggestion is that humanity’s interaction with the evil spirits of ancient paganism is capable of disrupting man’s genetic heritage. The result seems to be a monstrous offspring.
Still another branch of the Rephaim went by the name of “Anakim.” We see them in Deuteronomy 2:10,11, where Moab is described as their area of habitation:
“The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;
“Which also were accounted giants as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims” (Deut. 2:10,11).
Here, the word “giants” is once again the Hebrew word Rephaim. They were an abnormal race. All of them seem to have been hated and feared by normal men. God sanctioned their destruction and eventually their lineage entirely disappeared.
Even the Zamzummims were a subclass of the Rephaim. Deuteronomy 2:20,21 mentions their destruction from the land of Ammon, while at the same time, designating their origins:
“That also was accounted a land of giants: [Rephaim] giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;
“A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead” (Deut. 2:20,21).
As can be seen from the various Scriptures we have quoted, the Rephaim existed in Moses’ day."
I love it.....I been "preaching" this for years...I hope how soon they find some more... ;D
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