The Legacy of Solomon Read online



  THE LEGACY OF SOLOMON

  the Temple of the Jews

  a novel

  by

  John Francis Kinsella

  Banksterbooks

  LONDON-PARIS-NEW YORK

  The Legacy of Solomon

  (revised)

  Copyright John Francis Kinsella 2016

  [email protected]

  John Francis Kinsella has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication my be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

  This book may not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated by telecommunication or other means without the publishers consent.

  to

  Tilla, Selma, Eléonore, Noé, Xaver, Elyas, Adéle & Camille

  There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

  Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

  The water, why I do not know, was unusually cold, so that we could only bathe in it in the afternoon when the sun had stood on it a long time. As for the hill, it was a favorite walk of half an hour: a height called, certainly from the old days and most inappropriately, Mount Zion.

  Thomas Mann ‘Doctor Faustus’ 1947

  Contents

  1 A Jesuit

  2 San Francisco

  3 Rue Montbelliard

  4 The Underground Cisterns

  5 An Outline

  6 A Little Researchers

  7 Water and Purification

  8 Purification in the Temple

  9 The Trust

  10 Hertzfeld

  11 Tel-Aviv

  12 The High Priests

  13 de Lussac

  14 The Promised Land

  15 Jerusalem

  16 The Wall

  17 Archaeology in the Bedrock of the Haram

  18 The Ramp

  19 Religion and Archaeology

  20 The Temple

  21 A Documentary

  22 Sacrifice

  23 A Visit to London

  24 The Palestine Exploration Fund

  25 New Discoveries

  26 Menorah Press

  27 Seville

  28 Caesarea

  29 The Hittites

  30 Bethlehem

  31 The Aqueducts

  32 Minimalist or Maximalist

  33 Petra and the Nabateans

  34 UCLA

  35 Rhodes

  36 Syria

  37 A Secret Site

  38 Persians

  39 The Palace of King David

  40 The Bulla

  41 Masada

  42 The Origins of the Wailing Wall

  43 Cuneiform

  44 Manipulation

  45 The Destruction of Jerusalem

  46 The Exodus

  47 David and Solomon

  48 A Question of Interpretation

  49 Exploration

  50 Myths and Legends

  51 Muslims

  52 Akhenaton

  53 The Koran

  54 A Jesuit in Angkor

  55 Philistine and Babylonian Gods

  56 Ancient Egypt

  57 The First Egyptians

  58 Texts

  59 The Christian Bible

  60 Sects

  61 The Covenant

  62 King David

  63 An Incident at the Wall

  64 The Temple Mount Dispute

  65 The Pool of Siloam

  66 Palestine

  67 The Archaeology of Jerusalem

  68 Folklore and Legends

  69 Tel-Aviv University

  70 Aisha Barghut

  71 Gaza

  72 Flight from Gaza

  73 Fighting Breaks Out

  74 Sympathy and Identity

  75 The War Against Terrorism

  76 Stranded

  77 Reason

  78 Willing Helpers

  79 The Legacy of Solomon

  80 Another Theory

  81 Aliyah

  82 The Wandering Jew

  83 Paris

  84 On a Bridge

  Acknowledgements

  Other books by the author

  1

  A Jesuit

  And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

  Nietzsche