>>20606078Solomon built his temple on a threshing floor. In the past threshing floors were not only used for threshing and winnowing, but were also used as solar observatories and for ceremonies which were part of a solar cult. The entrance to the First Temple was oriented towards true east, towards the area of the horizon where the sun rises, this is because it was a temple dedicated to the sun and built by sun worshipers.
>...He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east." - Ezekiel 8:16Josiah did the major cleanup of the First temple. In 2 Kings 23:11 we read:
>"He (Josiah) removed from the entrance of the Lord's Temple the horse [solar symbol] statues that the former kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun... He also burned the chariots [kings and gods ride those] dedicated to the sun...The zodiac wheel of Helios, with him in the center, is to be found in a sixth century synagogue (Beth Alpha) aswell as in contemporaneous ones. This sun god only appears in the Holy Land, not in synagogues from Jewish diaspora.
>pic related: The royal seal of the Kingdom of Judah from the time of the King Hezekiah (739 - 687 BC) bearing the symbol of a winged sun and two ankh symbols, which symbolize life.This means that the solar cult was not a minor religious curiosity. It was a state religion whose main temple was the First temple. A state religion supported by at least a significant part of the Judah's population
https://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/09/sun-god-from-first-temple.html?m=1 