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    Keeping knowledge safe – No’ach

    Pillars of the Temple – Jachin and Boaz

    Ancient cultures believed that their knowledge and wisdom had to be protected from destruction by fire or flood. Some thought that Yachin and Boaz, the two columns outside the Temple, were archive repositories.

    What was in the archives? We know that Adam and Eve had a sense of spirituality. From the time of Enosh people used God’s name. Early ages developed arts and crafts like music and sheep-tending. Calculating time was worked out by means of the sun, moon and stars. The story of Cain and Abel shows there were elementary ethics. This was presumably the basic content of the archives.

    How was the information recorded? Moses knew how to write. The Book of Jubilees advocated etching the data on stone.

    The Second Book of Enoch thought that God appointed angels to protect the archives. Josephus said that the sons of Seth put the information on two pillars, one of brick and one of stone.

    We know there was a massive flood, and God promised (Gen. 9:15) never again to engulf the world in water, and rabbinic works such as Tractate Sanhedrin speak of ways of fire-proofing.

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