Author: Leen Ritmeyer

Tunnel east of Siloam Pool extended

The tunnel east of the Siloam Pool (not the stepped Siloam Reservoir) has been extended to the north. Inside the tunnel a beautifully preserved Herodian street has been found. This Jerusalem Post report has a silent video showing the beautifully carved steps. This side street runs parallel to the main street west of the Siloam Pool and continues further to the north. It apparently linked up with the main Tyropoeon Valley Street further up the valley. Further north, the same street can be seen near the Temple Mount, below Robinson’s Arch.

We reported in an earlier post that this main Herodian street has a huge drain below its pavers, which may have been used by some Jews trying to escape the Roman destruction. Those that escaped were unaware of the unfortunate lot that befell most of them, namely having their bowels cut open by Roman soldiers, who were in search for golden coins.

plan
side street
Plan and photograph of the street in the tunnel which is now being extended to the north

Temple facade shown on Bar-Kokhba coins

A large cache of rare coins has been found by archaeologists in the Judean Hills. “Leaders of the Jewish resistance imprinted and dated coins for each year of the rebellion with, for example, images of the exterior of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and poetry for reclaiming Jerusalem as a means for spreading the rebellion via currency.”

Of special interest is the coin shown in the Jerusalem Post report, which dates from the third year of the Maccabean revolt. The Temple coins show a facade with four columns, a foundation course, a central entrance and a wavey line on top, perhaps representing the entablature. It was clearly an indication that the Jewish rebels against the Roman domination wanted to rebuild the Temple, once their freedom was regained. I once used a similar coin to reconstruct the facade of the Temple for an Israeli scholar and later used the information to design a reconstruction model of the Temple.

webcoin

A Bar-Kokhba coin of year 3 showing the facade of the Temple

webfacadecoin

The reconstruction drawing of the Temple facade is based on the coin’s image

Facade

A reconstruction model showing the facade of Herod’s Temple

New Model of the Second Temple in Jerusalem

A model of the Second Temple has been placed on the roof top of the Aish haTorah Yeshiva building overlooking the Temple Mount. It appears to have been modeled on the Holyland model of the Second Temple, built in the 1960’s. This latter model was built at a scale of 1:50, so the new model with its scale of 1:60 is slightly larger. This report includes a video showing how the 1.2 tonne model was lifted into its place.

The most dramatic aspect of the model is its location, just 300 yards from where the original Temple stood. Paradoxically, this has turned out to be a drawback, as, in order to allow ease of access, the model Temple faces west instead of east. Although this is hugely disorienting, the model with its hydraulic system, which allows the interior of the Holy of Holies to be seen, provides another rich experience for lovers of Jerusalem.
model
Source: Joe Lauer

Building a Sacrificial Altar on Tisha B’av

Here is some really exciting news for those who are watching Temple Mount events. Arutz Sheva, a daily news report from Israel, reports that the Temple Institute plans to build an altar on Tisha b’Av – the 9th day of the Jewish month called Av. That is tomorrow, at 5.30 pm on Thursday 30th of July.
The stones for the Altar were gathered from below the water line of the Dead Sea, wrapped in plastic and transported to Mitzpe Yericho, located some 15 miles east of Jerusalem, as can be seen in this report. According to Yehudah Glick, the Temple Institute director, the altar will be kept small, so that eventually it could be transported to the Temple Mount. According to him this is the “ideal time to begin to build the Temple.” It will be interesting to see when that happens.

The historical location of the altar on the Temple Mount was just to the east of the Dome of the Rock. We reported on this location in a previous post, when we published a section through the Dome of the Rock and the Temple of Herod the Great. Today we publish a plan of the location of the Altar in relation to the Dome of the Rock, which is one of the slides in our latest CD, In Search of Solomon’s Temple:
Temple Plan Coltn
Not everybody finds it easy to understand plans, so here is a view of the Dome of the Rock from the east, looking west, with the historical location of the altar indicated:
Altar
We can hardly imagine the day that again an altar will be built on the Temple Mount!

Solomon’s Temple and Herod’s Temple Mount

This is a post I am thrilled to be able to write! Followers of this blog will know that over the years, we produced educational slide sets that lecturers and teachers used to give presentations or to enhance their own presentations. We updated two of these to CD format and many of you wrote to say how helpful you found these. In fact, we received many communications begging us to transform the remaining slide sets into CDs. Pressure of other projects delayed this until recently, when further CDs were requested for a lecture tour.

We are pleased therefore to inform you that two more of these are ready, in time for the beginning of the academic year: Volume 4: The Archaeology of Herod’s Temple Mount and Volume 6: In Search of Herod’s Temple Mount. Do click on CDs under Product Categories to have a look.

Vol 4 web

Vol6 web

If you follow Temple Mount matters, you will know that this coming Thursday, July 30th, is Tisha be’Av, (the ninth day of the Jewish month Av), which commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples on this same date (the First by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., the Second by the Romans in 70 A.D.). With the help of these presentations, you can, wherever you are, “Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following” (Psalm 48:12,13).

Hopefully, we will soon post news of the remaining two CDs.

A new Bible program

During the last eight months or so, we have worked as archaeological and historical consultants for a new digital Bible program, called GLO.

On the introductory page of the new website, it says: “Glo is an interactive Bible with a world of media, resources and tools to help you get closer to the Word of God”. The program will soon be available. GLO will prove to be very helpful for the Bible student who wants to know more about the Bible and the physical background on which the stories are played out.

Through 5 main “lenses”, Bible, Atlas, Timeline, Media and Topical, the Bible student will be able to browse the contents of this very useful program.

There are numerous virtual tours, high-res photos, vidoes, articles and maps which help bring the Bible to life. You can even share your personal notes with friends online.

More information will follow.

German Lecture Tour

From June 19-27, 2009 a lecture tour in Germany has been planned. My wife Kathleen will join me.

The first series will take place on June 19, 20 in Schwäbisch Gmünd, for see details here.
The lecture titles are:
1. Reconstruction of Herod’s Temple (Saturday 20, 9.30 – 11.30)
2. In Search of Solomon’s Temple (20.00 – 22.00)

Next some lectures will be given at the Freien Theologischen Hochschule (FTH) Giessen
(Giessen School of Theology) on June 23 and 24. The three lectures are entitled:
1. The Role of the Herodian Temple in Jerusalem (23 June, 11.10 – 13.00)
2. The Archaeology of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (June 23, 19.30 – 21.15)
3. Solomon’s Temple in the Books of Kings and Chronicles (June 24, 14.10 – 16.00)

Finally, two lectures will be given at the Saxon Conference for the German Friends of Israel at the Pavillon of Hope, Puschstr. 9, Leipzig on Friday 27th (15.00) and the titles are:
1. What did Herod’s Temple Mount look like?
2. Where on the Temple Mount stood Solomon’s Temple?

Western Wall conservation

The Israel Antiquities Authority has embarked on a conservation project on the stones of the Western Wall. According to the IAA, “The work is focusing on the conservation treatment of the stones in the Western Wall and their stability, in accordance with their degree of preservation and the level of risk they present to the visiting public.”

ESV Study Bible Award Winner

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association has recently awarded the ESV Study Bible the “2009 Bible of the Year” and the overall “Book of the Year”!
The top scoring book in each category is named the Christian Book Award winner. The Christian Book of the Year is chosen among the finalists based on its overall impact on the consumer as measured by sales.

It is a wonderful tool for Bible Study and it was a privilege to have been able to contribute to it.

Historical Jesus

Some of you may be interested in the following 8-part series on the historical Jesus:

http://dod.org/Products/DOD2121.aspx

It features the scholars of the IBR Jesus Study Group (Darrell Bock, Craig Evans, Grant Osborne, Michael Wilkins, et al.) discussing the conclusion of 10 years of research. It’s filmed on location in Israel, and it’s very well done.

Passed on by Justin Taylor