вефиль ("бэт эль", "дом божий"), как считают, - камни метеоритного происхождения; в "древней" Палестине и Финикии места падения таких камней становились центрами религиозного культа. Кстати, не слышится ли в названии имя Ильи Пророка, он же Фаэтон-Гефест-Петр, т.е. ярославский метеорит 1421 года? Иаков (см. Бытие 28) наблюдал некую лестницу от земли до небес, по которой восходили и сходили ангелы. При этом зашло солнце. Может быть, это образное описание падения камней метеорита? См. цитаты из летописей в "Пророке завоевателе" 5.3, как пишут, "взошла туча с полудня темная сильно весьма... с громом и молниями... было огненное видение... и камни являлись из облака, падающие на землю." ФиН считают, что сон Иакова - это отражение распятия Христа http://www.chronologia.org/evangelia/3_08.html . В то же время распятие Петра стремглав - это отражение падения метеорита. М.б. и "колыбель спасителя мира" - это отчасти места добычи неких ценных полезных ископаемых (так и говорят "месторождения")?

еще похожесть:
http://www.chronologia.org/evangelia/3_08.html
...Надо сказать, что этот "камень в изголовье Иакова" волновал позднейших комментаторов. Сообщается, например, следующее: "Околобиблейское предание повествует, что этих камней было двенадцать. НА НИХ КОГДА-ТО АВРААМ СОБИРАЛСЯ ПРИНЕСТИ В ЖЕРТВУ ИСААКА. Когда Иаков на следующее утро проснулся, то с удивлением обнаружил, что все двенадцать камней за ночь слились вместе" <878>, т.1, с.517.

а Плутарх, повествуя о падении медного щита - анцилия - в Рим, утверждает, что царь Нума собирался впридачу к этому щиту сделать еще одиннадцать подобных щитов, чтобы никто не узнал подлинного щита. Т.е. также речь о 12 щитах, при этом как бы единых, не отличимых один от другого.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancilia
The Ancile was, as it were, the palladium of Rome. - связан ли этот образ щита-палладиума с эгидой Афины и Зевса, сделанной из шкуры козы Амалфеи, вскормившей Зевса. Капли ее молока - по одной из версий, Млечный Путь. Возможно, это указывало на то, что чудесный метеорит упал с неба?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baetylus (also Bethel, or Betyl) is a Semitic word denoting a sacred stone, which was supposedly endowed with life. According to ancient sources, these objects of worship were meteorites, which were dedicated to the gods or revered as symbols of the gods themselves.<1> An example is also mentioned as Bethel in Genesis 28:11-19.<2>
The Emesa temple to the sun god El-Gabal, with the Baetylus "holy stone"
In the Phoenician mythology related by Sanchuniathon, one of the sons of Uranus was named Baetylus. The worship of baetyli was widespread in the Phoenician colonies, including Carthage, even after the adoption of Christianity, and was denounced by St. Augustine of Hippo.
In Greek mythology, the term was specially applied to the Omphalos,<3> the stone supposed to have been swallowed by Cronus (who feared misfortune from his own children) in mistake for his infant son Zeus, for whom it had been substituted by Uranus and Gaea, his wife's parents (Etymologicum Magnum, s.v.). This stone was carefully preserved at Delphi, anointed with oil every day and on festive occasions covered with raw wool<4>
In Rome, there was the stone effigy of Rhea Cybele, or Mater Idaea Deum, that had been ceremoniously brought from Pessinus in Asia Minor in 204 BCE and placed in the mouth of the statue of the chthonic goddess. Another conical meteorite was enshrined in the Elagabalium to personify Elagabalus Sol Invictus.
In some cases an attempt was made to give a more regular form to the original shapeless stone: thus Apollo Agyieus was represented by a conical pillar with pointed end, Zeus Meilicirius in the form of a pyramid. Other famous baetylic idols were those in the temples of Zeus Casius at Seleucia Pieria, and of Zeus Teleios at Tegea. Even in the declining years of paganism, these idols still retained their significance, as is shown by the attacks upon them by ecclesiastical writers. Among monotheists, the practice survives today with Islam's Black Stone. See also kami. - - - статья о камнях, и в конце, говорят, см. японское "ками" - не произошло ли оно от нашего "камень"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethel
Bethel is mentioned several times in Genesis. It is first mentioned in Genesis 12,<3> but the best-known instance is probably Genesis 28,<4> when Jacob, fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau, falls asleep on a stone and dreams of a ladder stretching between Heaven and Earth and thronged with angels; God stands at the top of the ladder, and promises Jacob the land of Canaan; when Jacob awakes he anoints the stone (baetylus) with oil and names the place Bethel.
-
The Second Book of Kings describes how Jeroboam, first king of Israel, set up centres for his Golden Calf cult at Bethel on the southern boundary of his kingdom and Dan on the northern boundary, and appointed non-Levites as his priests (1 Kings 12:25–33).

возможно не случайно здесь золотой телец появляется

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pessinus was a city in Anatolia, the Asian part of Turkey on the upper course of the river Sakarya River (Sangarios), from which the mythological King Midas (738-696 BC?) is said to have ruled a greater Phrygian realm.
According to ancient tradition, Pessinous was the principal cult centre of the cult of Cybele/Kybele. The Graeco-Phrygian Cybele is rooted in the old Anatolian goddess Koubaba whose cult spread over Anatolia during the second millennium BC.
Roman involvement in Pessinus however has early roots. In 205/204 BC, alarmed by a number of meteor showers during the ongoing Second Punic War, the Romans, after consulting the Sibylline Books, decided to introduce the cult of the Great Mother of Ida (Magna Mater Idaea, also known as Cybele) to the city. They sought the aid of their ally Attalus I (241-197 BC), and following his instructions, they went to Pessinus and removed the goddess' most important image, a large black stone that was said to have fallen from the sky, to Rome (Livy 10.4-11.18).

- главный образ великой богини в виде большого черного камня, упавшего с неба в Рим, т.е. метеорита

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_Cybele
a goddess "born from stone".<5>
At Pessinos in Phrygia, the mother goddess - identified by the Greeks as Cybele - took the form of an unshaped stone of black meteoric iron,<9> and may have been associated with or identical to Agdistis, Pessinos' mountain deity.<10>
Her associations with hawks, lions, and the very stone of the wild, mountainous Anatolian landscape,
Roman Cybele
The goddess arrived in Rome in the form of Pessinos' black meteoric stone.

Рэя Кибела-Кубаба - богиня, рожденная из камня. Глыба метеоритного железа. М.б. здесь связь также с образом Афины-воительницы. Илья (снова Илья) Муромец тоже умер, окаменев, да и в детстве-юности сидел, камню подобный (30 или 33 года?).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_Silvia
(also written as Rea Silvia), and also known as Ilia,
Etymology
Silva means woods or forest, and Rea may be related to res and regnum; Rea may also be related to Greek rheô, "flow," and thus relate to her association with the spirit of the river Tiber. Carsten Niebuhr proposed that the name Rhea Silvia came from Rea, meaning guilty, and Silvia meaning of the forest and so assumed that Rhea Silvia was a generic name for the guilty woman of the forest, i.e. the woman who had been seduced there.

а другое имя Реи Сильвии - Илиа (?!). Возможно, оно сокрыто в имени С-Иль-вия? А res возможно Русь? М.б. Реяс Ильвия = Русь+Илья? Илья может ли быть связано с oil, елей (мессия-машиах - мазаный, мащеный)