Answer to Questions

To answer two questions I saw:

BCE refers to “Before the Common Era” and CE refers to “Common Era.” These designations are equivalent to “BC” and “AD,” but I prefer them because they don’t shape time in explicit terms of Christ, which many of our Jewish, Muslim, and other friends might not appreciate. You can use BC/AD, I don’t really care, but in my world, we say BCE/CE.

Mike, haven’t talked too much about the crusades here. In Istanbul, of course, that was a major topic, as the crusaders took over the city for about 70 years and re-established Christian rule. I’ll see if I can scrape up some more details.

Dad, they do let anyone in the mosques, but not during the 5 times of prayer each day. Also, the Christian symbols are only in that one building (Hagia Sophia) which is not an active mosque, but is just a museum (since 1935).

They know those are Neb’s gates because they were found on the site and they match the description in Babylonian literature. Likewise, they know that the stone is from the temple because it was found on the site.