God's Gold
Britain's "Minerva" magazine recently carried a eulogistic book review for what appears to be yet another attempt to cash in on the Dan Brown phenomenon. The book is called "God's Gold" by Sean Kingsley and it purports to tell the history of the treasures from the Temple of Herod.
Actually, there is very little that is new about the story. Historians have long known that most of the temple treasures disappeared when Titus captured Jerusalem in 70 AD. One of the attacking soldiers managed to set the temple on fire and molten gold ran down the walls of the temple and between the paving stones in the courtyard, where it was later dug up by soldiers greedy for loot.
A few objects, like the menorah or seven-branched candlestick (really a lampstand), escaped and were carried in procession in Titus' Triumph when he returned to Rome. The menorah is actually depicted on the Arch of Triumph which Titus erected, so there is no doubt about this stage in the journey.
Roman historians tell us that the surviving treasures were dedicated in the Temple of Peace in Rome, where they remained until the Vandals captured and sacked Rome in AD 455. The Vandals carried them off to north Africa and there the treasures dropped out of sight.
There is some evidence that when Belisarius reconquered north Africa, destroying the Vandal kingdom as he did so, he recovered the treasures and took them back to Constantinople, but that is definitely the last tantalising glimpse of them and no one knows what happened to them after that - if, indeed, they did make it to Constantinople. Other historians believe that the Vandals lived up to their name and melted the treasures down as soon as their fleet was out of sight of Italy.
Mr Kingsley, however, attempts to take the story further. Based on a story told by Procopius, to the effect that a mysterious Jew warned the Emperor Justinian that if the treasures remained in Constantinople ill fortune would follow them, Kingsley claims that Justinian sent them back to Jerusalem.
Unfortunately Procopius hated Justinian and his queen Theodora and historians are divided as to how much of his "Secret History" is based on fact and how much on malicious invention. It is entirely possible that this tale of sending the precious relics of the temple of Herod back to Jerusalem is yet another attempt by Procopius to blacken Justinian's memory.
Having ventured into the realms of fantasy, however, Mr Kingsley finds it difficult to stop. Without any evidence whatsoever, apart from his own vivid imagination, he goes on to suggest that Justinian built the Nea Church to house the temple treasures.
In AD 614 the Persians overran Palestine and found ready allies among the Jewish population. According to contemporary records, the Persians destroyed the Nea, as they did all the other churches, but that is not enough for Mr Kingsley. Somehow the destruction is transmuted into an unsuccessful search for the temple treasures - unsuccessful because in fact they had been spirited away before the capture of Jerusalem and hidden in the desert around the Monastery of Theodosius.
Of course there is no evidence for this chain of supposition, imagination and conspiracy, but that does not stop Dr Joan Taylor, a specialist in Roman Palestine, enthusiasing about the book. She doesn't actually say that it is the best thing since sliced bread was invented, but she clearly means it.
I guess that most readers of the magazine haven't bothered to read the company information inside the front page. If they did, they might discover the reason for Dr Taylor's eulogy: Sean Kingsley is the managing editor of "Minerva".
© Kendall K. Down 2007
