I ask this because i am arguing with my father about it, i think he is going into the deep end of conspiracy theories. He came to me today and told me he was reading Acts in the Bible and came across this:
Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them
This is St. Stephen talking to the Jewish tribunal before he was stoned to death, accusing them of idolatry. After some "research" he discovered that King Solomon brought this star from Egypt after marrying the pharaohs daughter, my dads words:
"The star belonged to Saturn who is Satan. Solomon built temples for this star god and used it as his seal. The star has 6 sides clockwise and counter clockwise and the inner hexagram has 6 sides, which is 666. This was never the symbol of Jewish poeple in the old or new world. Only until 1894 the first Zionist congress who adopted it as their symbol. Then Israel placed it on their flag and worshiped it. The star god satan."
As you can tell, he is not a fan of Israel. We are Palestinians, so that part makes sense. But this reeks of youtube conspiracy theory bullshit and he is almost 70, so i'm worried he is being duped because of his bias. I tried to convince him that it's a transliteration of Hebrew and should read:
For you lifted up the shrine of your king (i.e., pagan god), and the pedestal of your idols, [even] the star of your gods which you made for yourselves.
But he says that the star was also a seal of King Solomon, mentioned in the Quran.
I'm not a theologian, so it's hard for me to speak to him about this, let alone telling your own father that they are wrong. Can someone give some background into this? Anything is appreciated. Thanks!
i think he is going into the deep end of conspiracy theories.
You're right.
The "Star of David" was only a decorative motif for the Jews of the Old (and New) Testament era. You see six pointed stars used in a lot of places, including in Islamic architecture, the six pointed star is frequently used in tiling patterns in the Arab world, including at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It's not particularly associated with Judaism until the middle ages in Europe; previously the most commonly found graphical "branding" for Judaism was the menorah.
So you can google up "six pointed star" and "Islamic architecture" and present him with quite an extensive library of such designs as used in the Islamic world-- and send him off down another conspiracy theory.