A 2013 aerial view of Jerusalem\u2019s Temple Mount
(Click to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dan Bahat, an Israeli archaeologist who has long had important responsibilities for work in Jerusalem, began his presentation \u00a0this morning with a series of images of proposed reconstructions of the temple of Herod and the overall structure of the Temple Mount, coupled with images of what the area actually looks like today.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite being a Jew, Bahat says that he likes to think of Jesus<\/em> in connection with the temple. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because most of what we have from the ancient world about the temple is legal material and the writings of the elite. \u00a0In the New Testament, though, in the cases of Jesus and his disciples, we have accounts of the dazzling, indeed overwhelming, impression made by the massive temple of Jerusalem upon simple Jews coming to the city from very small Galilean towns such as Nazareth, Capernaum, and Bethsaida. \u00a0(An illustrative point from Jim Charlesworth\u2019s presentation earlier today: \u00a0The largest menhir<\/em>\u00a0at Stonehenge is thirty tons. \u00a0The largest stone in the Great Pyramid at Giza is probably fifty tons. \u00a0The largest stone in the Herodian structure is five hundred and seventy tons.<\/em>)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
We cannot, he says, imagine how important, how central, the temple was. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t merely the religious focus of Jews worldwide, but their economic, political, social focus, as well. \u00a0He relates a tradition \u2014 vastly exaggerated, of course \u2014 saying that when the gates of the temple were opened, the sound of their turning on their hinges could be heard all the way downward and eastward in Jericho. \u00a0And when incense was burned in the temple, the scent was carried to Jericho, at which the herds of goats sneezed. \u00a0When the new moon was sighted from the temple, signal bonfires were kindled on the adjacent Mount of Olives and the news was spread across Israel within minutes by a system of subordinate signal fires. \u00a0(The claim is also made that the news reached the entirety of the Jewish diaspora within hours, though that\u2019s difficult for me to imagine, given the nature of ancient communications.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
An interesting point for tourists to Jerusalem: \u00a0Bahat believes that he can demonstrate that the very young Jesus reasoned with the rabbis in the temple on the steps that descend from the southern end of today\u2019s Temple Mount. \u00a0(See them at the bottom of the photo above.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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