I have written about the Mecca-Petra theory before. I’ve always cast doubt on it. I don’t believe that a major religion could change their holy site over 1,000 kilometres and no one blinks an eye. Wouldn’t all the Christians at the time tell them how much a joke they are for that?
St. John of Damascus would have been living at the time when they had made the change from Petra to Mecca but he mentions none of this in his polemic. That’s one of the major arguments that I could use. However, I didn’t use that in my recent video on the Mecca-Petra theory.
In the video above, I focus on the writings of St. Theophanes the Confessor. Jay Smith has pointed out that some mosques were built facing Petra as late as the 770s. Theophanes was born in 760 so this was during his lifetime. Obviously he would have been young but keep in mind, Muslims would have continued praying towards Petra in the years afterwards. Obviously they would have known the theological reasons for this if the Mecca-Petra theory is true.
Theophanes the Confessor was a competent monk in Constantinople. He wrote chronicles that for the most part collaborate with the history that we know. According to Dan Gibson’s documentary, the Kaaba(in Petra) was destroyed and rebuilt in Mecca. Theophanes narrates the destruction of the Kaaba. He also narrates other things going on in that time such as the changing of the coinage under Caliph Adbul Malik. This is an event that all sides agree on and it’s mentioned by Theophanes. He gets this right but omits the 1,000 km Kaaba move?
In addition to this, Theophanes mentions that Abdul Malik was going to dismantle a Christian holy site to use its columns to rebuild the Kaaba. Some Christians who knew Abdul Malik proposed an alternative scenario. They would get the nearest Christian emperor to send columns for the rebuilding of the Kaaba. This was Justinian II who was the Roman Emperor at the time. Justinian II agreed to this and the Christian holy site was not dismantled.
So Theophanes knows about the specific materials that went into the reconstruction of the Kaaba and how Abdul Malik received those materials. Yet, he somehow doesn’t know about the 1,000 km holy city change.
This theory has too many holes in it. Unless there is a huge breakthrough on the part of Gibson and the others who propose this theory, I won’t be writing on this topic anymore. I encourage Christians to stay away from this theory. I hope that you enjoy my video.
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