To introduce our New Testament studies, we had a field trip today into the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. The old city of Jerusalem is found beneath parts of the Jewish Quarter, including many burned remains of old Jewish aristocratic houses. They call these ruins, excavated when Israel took over the Old City after the 1967 War, the Herodian Quarter. This, of course, refers to King Herod and much of the things we saw were built in his time period. The coolest part of the tour, however, was the recent excavations around the Temple Mount or as the Arabs call it, the Haram al-Sharif (the noble sanctuary). If you look in the picture above, you can see the dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the mosque that shares the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock. The wall that Herod built to elevate the second temple is the only remaining part of the old Temple Mount. The bottom part of the wall still has the huge Herodian stones that they used. The biggest ones were 60 tons and 24 feet by 12 feet!!! They still don't know how they moved these huge stones. Currently, the Western Wall or Wailing wall is only a tiny section of the ancient western wall. Houses and shops were built by the Muslim Mameluk rule
rs hundreds of years ago. So when the Israelis came in, they began to dig out underneath these houses (they actually all belong to Muslims, so they freaked out when they found out what the Jews were doing) along the Western Wall, creating a tunnel. It is the coolest thing to walk inside of it only inches from the ancient Herodian stones, all along the wall to the end of the old Temple Mount Complex. The Jews go to this tunnel to pray, because there is a section that is directly across from where the Holy of Holies of the ancient temple would have been which is the closest the Jews can get to it. They aren't allowed
to enter the temple mount by rabbinic law because they believe it is so holy. To finish the day, we went to an archeological park on the southern end of the Temple Mount where they have uncovered stones that were knocked over by the Romans during the destruction of the second temple. Also, ancient steps that led up to one of the many gates into the temple mount and a huge stone underneath an ancient arch. Jesus would have passed over the stone every time he entered the temple through that southern gate. Neal Armstrong came to Jerusalem and stood on that stone and said that though he has been to the moon, the place where he was standing is the most holy place of all to him.
To introduce our New Testament studies, we had a field trip today into the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. The old city of Jerusalem is found beneath parts of the Jewish Quarter, including many burned remains of old Jewish aristocratic houses. They call these ruins, excavated when Israel took over the Old City after the 1967 War, the Herodian Quarter. This, of course, refers to King Herod and much of the things we saw were built in his time period. The coolest part of the tour, however, was the recent excavations around the Temple Mount or as the Arabs call it, the Haram al-Sharif (the noble sanctuary). If you look in the picture above, you can see the dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the mosque that shares the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock. The wall that Herod built to elevate the second temple is the only remaining part of the old Temple Mount. The bottom part of the wall still has the huge Herodian stones that they used. The biggest ones were 60 tons and 24 feet by 12 feet!!! They still don't know how they moved these huge stones. Currently, the Western Wall or Wailing wall is only a tiny section of the ancient western wall. Houses and shops were built by the Muslim Mameluk rule
rs hundreds of years ago. So when the Israelis came in, they began to dig out underneath these houses (they actually all belong to Muslims, so they freaked out when they found out what the Jews were doing) along the Western Wall, creating a tunnel. It is the coolest thing to walk inside of it only inches from the ancient Herodian stones, all along the wall to the end of the old Temple Mount Complex. The Jews go to this tunnel to pray, because there is a section that is directly across from where the Holy of Holies of the ancient temple would have been which is the closest the Jews can get to it. They aren't allowed
to enter the temple mount by rabbinic law because they believe it is so holy. To finish the day, we went to an archeological park on the southern end of the Temple Mount where they have uncovered stones that were knocked over by the Romans during the destruction of the second temple. Also, ancient steps that led up to one of the many gates into the temple mount and a huge stone underneath an ancient arch. Jesus would have passed over the stone every time he entered the temple through that southern gate. Neal Armstrong came to Jerusalem and stood on that stone and said that though he has been to the moon, the place where he was standing is the most holy place of all to him.
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