Difference between revisions of "Temple Mount"
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==Dimensions== | ==Dimensions== | ||
| − | Josephus gives the perimeter of the Temple Mount as "six furlongs around, including Fort Antonia." The temple and Antonia were both squares with sides of 1 furlong. A biblical furlong is 606.75 modern feet (185 meters). In modern terms, Josephus | + | Josephus gives the perimeter of the Temple Mount as "six furlongs around, including Fort Antonia." The temple and Antonia were both squares with sides of 1 furlong. A biblical furlong is 606.75 modern feet (185 meters). In modern terms, Josephus gives dimensions of 606.75 X 1,213.5 ft (185 X 370 m). The Temple Mount was substantially enlarged by Hadrian in the second century. The modern dimensions are 1,020 ft (313 m) across the north, 1,530 ft (470 m) in the east, 910 ft (280 m) in the south, and 1,578 ft. (485 m) in the west. |
==Location of the temple== | ==Location of the temple== | ||
Revision as of 13:14, April 1, 2020
| Temple Mount | |
|---|---|
| |
| Arabic name | |
| Arabic | الحرم القدسي الشريف |
| Romanization | al-Haram al-Qudsī ash-Sharīf (Noble Sanctuary) |
| Hebrew name | |
| Hebrew | הר הבית |
| Romanization | Har ha-Bayit |
The Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, was built by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik in 691. The al-Aqsa Mosque was built about 710. As the site of Muhammad's ascension to heaven, al-Aqsa is considered to be the third holiest site in Islam. Although the Temple Mount was captured by the Israelis in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, it is still managed by an Islamic religious authority called the Waqf.
Contents
Dimensions
Josephus gives the perimeter of the Temple Mount as "six furlongs around, including Fort Antonia." The temple and Antonia were both squares with sides of 1 furlong. A biblical furlong is 606.75 modern feet (185 meters). In modern terms, Josephus gives dimensions of 606.75 X 1,213.5 ft (185 X 370 m). The Temple Mount was substantially enlarged by Hadrian in the second century. The modern dimensions are 1,020 ft (313 m) across the north, 1,530 ft (470 m) in the east, 910 ft (280 m) in the south, and 1,578 ft. (485 m) in the west.
Location of the temple
The issue of where the Jewish temple stood has attracted both interest and controversy. Traditionally, the temple was said to have been at the location where the Dome of the Rock now stands. In modern times, various sites on the Temple Mount have been suggested.[1] The idea that the temple was located outside the Temple Mount has also received attention, but is rejected by specialists as a fringe theory.[2] Archaeological digs on the Temple Mount are banned by the Waqf, making the issue difficult to resolve.
Fortress Antonia, where Jesus was condemned by Pontius Pilate, was at a higher elevation than the temple, according to Josephus. In modern times, the Dome is the high point of the Temple Mount. If Antonia was located at what is now the Dome, that would place the temple at Al Kas fountain, according to Tel Aviv architect Tuvia Sagiv. This location is midway between the Dome and al-Aqsa. This area was landscaped and flattened by Hadrian. If the temple was at this site, it is now under 17 meters of earth.[1]
An alternative theory described by physicist Asher Kaufman is based on the tradition that the temple was due west of the Golden Gate. This gate was built by Justinian in the sixth century and sealed off by Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1541. It was sealed because there is a tradition that the messiah will enter using this gate.[3] If the location of this gate corresponds to the Herodian gate, that would put the temple at the Dome of the Spirits (or Dome of the Tablets), which is 330 feet north of the Dome of the Rock. This site is sacred to the Sufi sect. Hadrian more than doubled the size of the Temple Mount by incorporating Antonia to the north. So the gate could have been moved to the north in his time. The name Dome of the Tablets suggests that a tradition connected this site to the temple. But the dome was built in the tenth century, by which time the Golden Gate was already at its present location.[1]
Jesus
Several well-known episodes in the life of Jesus occurred at the Herodian temple. Mary brought Jesus to the temple forty days after he was was born.[4] He returned as a 12-year-old to debate the Pharisees.[5] During his ministry, Jesus visited the temple and was outrage by the sight marketers defiling it. He angrily overturned the tables of the money changers.[6] In the temptation narrative, the devil brought Jesus to the "pinnacle of the Temple" and challenged him to prove that he son of the God by throwing himself off.[7]
According to Matthew:
| “ | Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”[8] | ” |
This prophesy was fulfilled with the destruction of the Herodian temple by Titus in 70 AD.
Prophecy
Various prophecies in the old and new testaments foresee the rebuilding of a Jewish temple. For example, in a letter to a Christian community in Thessalonia, Paul prophesied as follows:
| “ | Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day [the day of the Lord] will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.[9] | ” |
Muhammad
According to the Koran:
| “ |
|
” |
This verse is conventionally interpreted to mean that Mohammad was miraculously transported to a "Further Mosque," in Arabic al-Masjid al-ʾAqṣā, as part of a one night journey in 621 and briefly ascended to heaven there. The al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is one of only three that are suggested as destinations for Islamic pilgrimage. The other two pilgrimage mosques are in Mecca and Medina.
Josephus
The Jewish historian Josephus was a solider in the war of 70 AD:
| “ | Now this temple, as I have already said, was built upon a strong hill....But in future ages the people added new banks, and the hill became a larger plain.[11] | ” |
| “ | Accordingly, in the fifteenth year of his reign, Herod rebuilt the temple, and encompassed a piece of land about it with a wall, which land was twice as large as that before enclosed. The expenses he laid out upon it were vastly large also, and the riches about it were unspeakable. A sign of which you have in the great cloisters that were erected about the temple, and the citadel which was on its north side. The cloisters he built from the foundation, but the citadel he repaired at a vast expense; nor was it other than a royal palace, which he called Antonia, in honor of Antony.[12] | ” |
In the time of Jesus, Antonia was a Roman fortress. Like the Herodian temple, it was destroyed in 70 AD.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Dolphin, Lambert and Kollen, Michael, "On The Location of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem."
- ↑ Ruth Schuster and Ran Shapira, "Were There Jewish Temples on Temple Mount?", Haaretz, Jul 24, 2017.
- ↑ As Jesus has already passed through, sealing the gate fulfills Ezekiel 44:2: And the LORD said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut" (ESV).
- ↑ Luke 2:22–2:40.
- ↑ Luke 2.41-52.
- ↑ Mark 11.15-19; Matt. 21.12-17; Luke 19.45-48; John 2.13-25.
- ↑ Matt. 4.1-11; Luke 4.1-13.
- ↑ Matthew 24:1-2 (ESV).
- ↑ 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 (ESV).
- ↑ Koran 17:1, Arberry, A.J. The Koran Interpreted: A Translation, 1996, Oxford World's Classics.
- ↑ Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book V, 5:1.
- ↑ Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book I, 21:1.
