Ferrell Jenkins reports on what looks like fake tombs on a small plot of land near the Siloam Pool in Ancient Jerusalem:
New Tombstones above the Pool of Siloam. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.
They certainly look fake, as normally tombstones are added after first a stone or concrete enclosure has been constructed. In a previous post I wrote about this problem which appears to be a land grab. Ferrell writes:
Ancient burial places create serious problems for archaeologists. Ultra-Orthodox Jews often create a scene at digs when they know or suspect that there may be Jewish tombs in the area.
The cemeteries of the Holy Land have become a ground for religious and political skirmishes. Leen Ritmeyer reported on fake Arab tombs near the Temple Mount here.
Muslim tombs have been on the eastern wall of the Old City for a long time. This photo was made looking south from outside the Lion’s Gate (or St. Stephens’ Gate). Perhaps every reader knows that this is across the Kidron Valley from the Mount of Olives which we mentioned in the previous post.
In early February I noticed a large number of new tombstones with Arabic inscriptions in a small plot above the Pool of Siloam. Suspicious, to say the least.
In a previous post, we reported on the opening of the Small Kotel as a place for Jewish prayer. Now, however, it has been reported in IsraelNationalNews (Arutz Sheva) that the State of Israel has decided that the site is not holy:
The State’s representatives have determined that the “Kotel HaKatan” (“Small Kotel” or “Small Wailing Wall”), a wall which is a continuation of the Kotel in Jerusalem, is not a holy site. The statement was submitted to the court as part of the reply to a damages lawsuit filed by a group of Jews who prayed at the Small Kotel on Rosh HaShana of 5767 (2006).
One member of the group, Elihu Kleiman, was arrested after he blew the ram’s horn, or shofar. The group of Jews who sued for damages also said they were beaten by police, who denied them their freedom to worship at a holy site.
The “Small Kotel” is nothing but “an inner courtyard of several residential homes in the Muslim quarter,” the State determined in its response.
Like the Kotel, the Kotel HaKatan is an exposed face of the original western wall of the Temple Mount, built by King Herod over 2,000 years ago. However, compared to its famous “bigger brother,” the Small Wall is less accessible and looks less impressive: it is barely 10 meters long, less of its height has been exposed and its plaza is much narrower.
In fact, however, the Kotel HaKatan can be considered holier than the better known Kotel, because it is located 200 yards to the north – and therefore practically opposite the actual site of the Holy of Holies in the original Holy Temples.
Attorney Daniel Robins, who represents the group of Jews who were praying at the site in 2006 and who sued the State, told Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew-language service that Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, the Kotel Rabbi, testified before the court as to the sanctity of the site, but the State rejected the power of Jewish Law to determine the site’s sanctity.
Robins said that he hopes the State is not acting out of political considerations in rejecting the sanctity of the Kotel HaKatan. He noted that the site is included in the area that Defense Minister Ehud Barak wants to hand over to the Arabs in a peace deal.
Response to our existing CDs has been heartwarming, with many requests for more teaching tools like these. Having visited the Seven Churches of Revelation in 2010 and having been immersed in this subject before and since, we had to make this the subject of our next CD. It is the fact that the letters of Jesus to these representative churches were written with full knowledge of the circumstances and environment of each group of believers that make this subject so edifying and compelling.
The latest CD of Ritmeyer Archaeological Design
This presentation has 105 pictures and captions, making it suitable for a two-part talk (or a shorter one, if some slides were left out). It begins on the beautiful Greek island of Patmos, where the Apostle John was told to write the visions which he saw in a scroll and send them to the Seven Churches (Greek singular:”ekklesia”) which were in Asia. We visit these sites: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea in order, with additional slides devoted to Laodicea’s sister churches in the Lycus Valley: Colossae and Hierapolis, (without reference to these neighbouring churches, in particular their water supply, the letter to Laodicea would be unintelligible).
The circular postal route of the messenger is mapped, with a separate map given to highlight his journey from one city to the next. Each section includes a slide containing the full message to each church (quoted from the NKJV) with a useful summary given in its caption. The church and its city is then placed in its geographical and historical setting, with links made to the local background in each letter. Images providing Scriptural insight, accompanied by detailed captions, are given of each city. In Ephesus, you can disembark at the ancient harbour and walk with the messenger up the Harbour Way to the Theatre where the great riot had taken place about thirty years earlier in the time of Paul. With reference to Smyrna, see a possible modern remnant of the “crown of life.” In Philadelphia, ponder the poignancy of the promise to the “overcomers” of that city, never more to have to “go out.” This was to a group of people who were used to always having to flee the city, in an area notoriously prone to earthquakes.
And there are pictures that show the truly stunning location of some of these cities: the lofty acropolis of Pergamum, Sardis’ gentle glen of the Pactolus, in which King Midas is reputed to have washed off his “golden touch” and the breathtaking beauty of the travertine cliffs of Hierapolis. With the photographs having been taken in April, some of them cannot escape being framed with poppies or Judas Trees.
Not living at the time these letters were written, we cannot expect to fully appreciate their force. However, with the help of this presentation and the many illuminating links made to the background of each church, we can better appreciate the message of these letters which are still so remarkably relevant today.
The CD cover slide shows the Temple of Trajan in Pergamum, where the cult of Emperor worship made the city the place of “Satan’s Throne.”
Reading about the on-going renovations in the Dome of the Rock made us turn to the magisterial work of the recently deceased Oleg Grabar on Early Islamic Jerusalem: “The Shape of the Holy.” Within its pages, you can appreciate, much more than on a site-visit, the brilliance of the mosaics of the Dome of the Rock, photographed from scaffolding at all the right angles. Dome of the Rock, NNW panel of the upper drum. Photo: Saïd Nuseibeh
Grabar reminds us that “the 1280 square meters (or 12,800 square feet) of mosaics in the Dome of the Rock make it the largest repository of medieval wall mosaics before the Norman church in Monreale” (in Palermo, Sicily).
He points out that: “It is important to recall that, in addition to its continuing forceful presence, the Dome of the Rock was the first monument sponsored by a Muslim ruler that was conceived as a work of art, a monument deliberately transcending its function by the quality of its forms and expression.”
It is fascinating to read about the purpose of the construction of this monument that is such a feature in the advertising of Jerusalem by both Jews, Muslims and Christians. Muqaddasi, a native of the city in the 10th century wrote:
“is it not evident how the caliph Abd al-Malik, noting the greatness of the dome of the Qumamah (refuse, a vulgar pun on qiyamah or resurrection, the Arabic term for the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem) and its magnificence, was moved, lest it should dazzle the minds of the Muslims, and hence erected above the Rock the Dome which is seen there?”
The Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority report the following:
For those of you who will be in Israel on Tuesday, June 21st, 2011, please join us at the festive opening ceremony for the First Temple Period Archaeological Site recently excavated, conserved and made accessible to visitors in the Jerusalem Archaeological Park.
This fabulous project, near the southern wall of the Temple Mount enclosure, is made possible through the exemplary generosity of Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman.
The announcement is accompanied by this video:
The site was first excavated in the 1970’s under the direction of the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar and in the 1980’s and onward, Eilat Mazar has further excavated the site. The site has remains from the Israelite, Herodian (dismantled), Roman, Byzantine and Ummayad periods.
The plan shows the walkways (brown) to be used by visitors, once the site is open.
A plan for the renovation of the Mughrabi Gate bridge, which leads from the Western Wall plaza to the Al-Aksa Mosque and the Temple Mount, received final approval from the Jerusalem Municipality last week, enabling construction to begin at any time.
Previous work on the bridge has sparked widespread rioting and violence in both east Jerusalem and the Arab world due to the sensitive location.
The wooden replacement bridge to the Mughrabi Gate and the excavations of the ramp. Photo: Leen Ritmeyer
We reported on the problems of the construction of a new bridge here, here and here.
“This drawing is a section through the dirt ramp leading up to the Mughrabi Gate. The ramp is in the middle of the drawing. On the left is the Western Wall Plaza, reserved for Jewish worship. On the right of the section is the excavated area with, on the bottom, the Herodian street, with the stones which were thrown down by the Romans in 70 AD. Immediately above this level, remains of the Byzantine period were found, including a water channel cut into the Herodian stones for use in a bath house. Above this level, the remains of a large Ummayad palace was found, which used a similar water channel, cut higher in the Herodian stones of the Western Wall. No Crusader remains have so far been found in this area.”
It will be interesting to see what will happen now. Approval may have been granted, but the building of a new bridge may not be accepted by all:
“[Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel] Rabinovitch dismissed any suggestion of renewed tensions, even with the Arab world in a state of unrest.
“We don’t see any reason for conflict, because we’re talking about a bridge renovation,” Rabinovitch said on Monday.
“In Jerusalem, you never can tell,” said Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran. “There are things we think will cause riots and don’t do anything, and there are things that we don’t understand why they suddenly riot.”
Gil Ronen & Yoni Kempinski report in Arutz Sheva on the monthly Circling of the Gates, which includes a video clip:
Thousands of people took part Sunday evening in “The Circling of the Gates” – Sivuv Shearim in Hebrew – a renewal of an ancient custom that expresses, in our age, a yearning for the Holy Temple.
Sivuv Shearim involves making pilgrimage to Jerusalem, walking around the Temple Mount and stopping at each of its gates.
The event takes place every Hebrew month on Erev Rosh Hodesh, the eve of the first day of the month. The route followed by the participants passes through the Muslim quarter of the Old City. The participants stop at every gate and recite a section of the Tenth Psalm.
The event usually draws about 3,000 participants. Its organizers dream of the day in which 20,000 people take part, placing the Temple Mount on the public agenda for the entire Jewish nation.
It reminds us of two beautiful Psalms:
“That in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.” (Ps. 9.14 ESV)
“Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.” (Ps. 48.12-14 ESV)
Zeev Lewy published an interesting article about the use of stone from Solomon’s Quarries during the building of Herod’s Temple. These underground quarries are located near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. At the conclusion of his article he wrote:
Subsurface quarrying of building stones in biblical times which formed the Zedekiah Cave in Jerusalem while numerous quarries operated nearby on the ground is explained by geological criteria and religious aspects which also date the opening of the cave as a quarry. The peculiar qualities of this rock type in subsurface facilitated its rapid quarrying in blocks of different sizes and shapes for the grandiose construction of the Second Temple by King Herod. These could be fitted to each other on the Temple Mount without using metal tools according to the religious restrictions. The combined experience of Jewish quarrymen and Roman engineers enabled them to keep the religious spirit in this holy mission and complete the monumental construction of the Second Temple in a short time (Lewy, 2005).
Several quarries have been found in the last few years, but they were all surface quarries. There are many references in the Bible to stones and stone cutting, e.g. 1 Kings 5.17, Matthew 21.42 and 1 Peter 2.5. The mountains around Jerusalem are composed of limestone that has a characteristic layering. To quarry this limestone, the face of the stone first had to be straightened.
In the picture, we see the stonecutter on the right cutting 4-inch wide channels on all sides of the rock except the bottom. Another worker pours water over dry wooden logs that have been jammed into the channels. The water causes the wood to swell and the lateral pressure on the stone block makes it split away from the rock. Because the limestone lies in natural horizontal layers, the blocks would split along relatively clean horizontal lines.
The first known physical sample of tekhelet (the Biblical “blue” that was used in the Tabernacle and the High Priest’s garments) has been identified among finds from Masada. Read the full story here.
Thought I would share with you the following poignant memories of Anson Rainey, which I received this morning from Emanuel Hausman of Carta, Jerusalem:
Anson was hospitalized on his eightieth birthday. A few days later he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, that had advanced far beyond the possibility of surgical intervention. Anson refused alternative treatments such as radiation, chemotherapy or life prolonging medication. Resigned to his fate, he asked for some letters to be written and messages to be sent to friends. His one wish was that his life’s ambition, the collection of The El Amarna Letters, be completed and brought to publication.
Anson passed away on Saturday 02/19/2011 and according to his last wish was buried at Barkan overlooking the hill country of Samaria that he loved so much. Attended by family and many of his friends his funeral took place in weather as turbulent as his life and eponymously RAINY.
You may have heard this from Anson before but he often joked that the first thing on facing GOD was to ask Him how he pronounced YHWH -.- May he rest in peace.
Carta was our joint publisher who published Anson’s The Sacred Bridge, which we reviewed here.
