Wayne Stiles has never recovered
from his travels in the Holy Land. Follow him on Twitter (@WayneStiles) or on his blog at www.waynestiles.com.Abraham saw the acreage. David bought the lot. Solomon built the house. Nebuchadnezzar tore it town. Zerubbabel rebuilt it. Herod the Great expanded it. Titus flattened it again.
Before
these temples stood on Mount Moriah, it was nothing but a hill used for
threshing wheat. Hardly worth noticing. But today, the Temple Mount
remains the most precious piece of real estate in the world. And the
golden shrine that graces its crest has become an icon for the Holy City
of Jerusalem itself.
After Abraham, it took 1,000 years for the
second domino to fall—for David to build. But the dominoes have not
stopped falling yet.
Abraham saw the acreageThe
site of the Temple Mount first appeared on the scene when God told
Abraham to go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice Isaac there (Genesis
22:2).
The Binding of Isaac climaxed with the Lord providing a
ram for Abraham to sacrifice in the place of his only son. Thus the
saying began: “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided” (Genesis
22:14).
David bought the lot and Solomon built the houseOne
millennium after Abraham, King David purchased the threshing floor of
Araunah the Jebusite as a site to offer sacrifices after his David’s
sinful census (2 Samuel 24:18-25).
In the same area where Abraham
came to offer Isaac, and on the very hill where David offered burnt
offerings for his sin, Solomon began to build the First Temple on Mount
Moriah in 966 BC (1 Kings 6:1; 2 Chronicles 3:1).
The
original size of the Temple Mount was smaller than the outline we see
today, which is Herodian. Leen Ritmeyer has convincingly argued in his
excellent volume,
The Quest, that the Mishna’s measurements of a 500-cubit square Temple Mount fit with the archaeological evidence.
•
At the bottom of a staircase to the northwest of the Dome of the Rock
lies a large step precisely 500 cubits (750 feet) from the eastern wall.
Ritmeyer points to this step as the top of the pre-Herodian western
wall. The step since has been covered over with new pavement.
•
Along the outside of the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, a seam in
the wall clearly joins two sections of wall built at different eras. If
the older part of this seam forms the pre-Herodian corner of the
500-cubit square Temple Mount, then the Dome of the Rock covers the spot
where the Temple stood—including, of course, the Holy of Holies.
Nebuchadnezzar tore it down and Zerubbabel rebuilt itThe Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar tore down the First Temple on the 9th of Av in 586 BC. It had stood for 380 years.
The
exiled Jews returned to their land after 70 years when Cyrus the Great
allowed them to rebuild the Temple. The structure Zerubbabel erected
seemed modest in comparison to Solomon’s magnificent edifice. Following
the first Maccabean triumphs, the Jews improved it even more.
Herod the Great expanded it and Titus flattened it againThe
most elaborate reconstruction and renovation occurred when Herod the
Great began his extensive building project that would crown the Second
Temple.
Herod expanded the Temple Mount north, west, and south
to its present dimensions of thirty-five acres. After Herod the Great
expanded the hill, its topography lay hidden beneath acres of backfill
and retaining walls. The construction of Herod’s marvelous temple began
in 20 BC and continued for 83 years.
This was the Temple Jesus
knew, whose destruction he predicted (Matthew 24:1-2). The Southern
Steps of the Temple Mount where pilgrims walk today would have felt
Jesus’ sandals too.
In AD 70 Titus rolled in his Roman legions
and destroyed in a matter of days what had taken decades to construct.
Stones from the Second Temple still lay in the first-century street
where archaeologists found them.
The rest is history The
Muslim ruler Abd el-Malik built the shrine called the Dome of the Rock
on the Temple Mount between AD 688-691. Its golden veneer is a
20th-century addition.
The Central Valley and the Kidron Valley
have risen in elevation due to centuries of debris from wars and
renovations. What’s more, Muslims forbid any archaeology on the Temple
Mount today.
As
a result, archeologists and historians do their best to piece together
history from the plentiful remains surrounding the Temple Mount. In
addition, after years of sifting through tons of bulldozed rubble from
the Temple Mount—that was dumped in the Kidron Valley—the Temple Mount
Sifting Project has discovered finds from the Second Temple period
including arrowheads, paving tiles, ancient seals, coins, combs,
jewelry, game pieces, weights—and more.
The Holy Land and the
Holy City owe their designations to a hill where the Holy of Holies
resided for centuries. The Temple Mount remains the most photographed
spot in Jerusalem and the goal of many pilgrimages—even to today.
It’s
amazing that the most important religious site in the world was for
centuries a mere elevated hill north of Jebus where farmers threshed
wheat. The ordinary was made holy.
Wayne Stiles has never recovered
from his travels in the Holy Land. Follow him on Twitter (@WayneStiles) or on his blog at www.waynestiles.com.