It is the glory of the Lord to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. (Proverbs 25:2)
When I started my series of articles about the Hebrew people five years ago I thought it might take two articles to say the things I wanted to. My goodness! What a miscalculation. I will probably never be finished! This article in its original form was posted a year ago and was quite lengthy. I have divided it now into three separate parts – The Gihon , the Akra, and The Temple. I trust now the reading will not be so cumbersome.
When I began to investigate the early history of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. I found many fascinating facts, and in some cases much disagreement as to facts, among my sources. I have concluded that part of what we have accepted as the “gospel truth” pertaining to this ancient era is little more than tradition. Today I hold an admittedly unpopular opinion as to the location of Solomon’s temple and its successors. Does that matter? Maybe. But I want to say up front, at the top of the page: Opinions about the temple are nothing in light of Jesus, the One greater than the temple (Matthew 12:6) who said unequivocally Ye must be born again! (John 3:7) See my post from May 2016 “Marvel Not That I Say Unto You: You Must Be Born Again.”
Cuyp, Aelbert
Christ Riding into Jerusalem
Jesus was a Jew. His mother was a descendant of Abraham and his father the Creator of the universe. Yes! Jesus was no ordinary man, but he was a man. God came to us as a man. Think of that! He walked the streets of Jerusalem and the dirt roads of the countryside. He was a friend of sinners and political dissidents. He hung around with smelly fishermen as well as educated publicans. He dumbfounded priests, scholars and learned elders. And in the end he took our place, for we were under a death sentence for our sins. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:23) He gave his life for ours and God accepted his sacrifice, for he was sinless, an unblemished Lamb. And then he went back home, where he is waiting for those of us who accept and love him.
. . . .
From time to time during the three years of his public ministry Jesus had occasion to be in the city of Jerusalem. Perhaps you know some of the stories — how he was so furious they were selling animals and exchanging monies in the temple that he took a whip and drove the merchants from the temple courtyard. He was no wimp, even if he was a gentle man! Maybe you know that he was a miracle worker: he healed sick people, blind people, even raised the dead. One time he rode into town on a donkey as people spread their cloaks and palm branches in the road before him, rejoicing and saying, Blessed is the king of Israel! (John 12:13) But he said My kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36) Many high ranking Jewish teachers did not understand all the prophecies concerning Jesus. Isaiah clearly depicted Jesus as a suffering savior. (See Isaiah 53.) But the powerful Pharisees were looking for a political or military deliverer, which he certainly will be when he comes again. (See Psalm 2, and then Numbers 24 and Deuteronomy 19:10) It should be noted that the Jews today for the most part still do not believe Jesus was their Messiah. Nevertheless, he is. He is indeed King of kings and Lord of lords. (Revelation 19:6)
James Tissot
Disciples Admire Buildings of the Temple
In the New Testament is recorded an occasion when Jesus and his disciples were in Jerusalem. Jesus’ disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. (Matthew 24:1-2) The disciples were obviously impressed with the magnificence of the temple and attendant structures. These were remarkable, for Herod had spared no expense in building this new temple, using costly materials and employing the finest artisans. But here Jesus is saying that not one stone will be left in its place, not one! This is an important statement, for we find the same words repeated in the gospels of Mark and Luke — not one stone left upon another.
And further, there is a very ominous warning written in Luke’s gospel: And when he (Jesus) was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. (Luke 19:41-44)
As foretold by Jesus, the Romans attacked Jerusalem in 70 AD, and very soon all of Jewish Jerusalem was in ruins, including the whole of the splendid temple that Herod had built. Scavengers dug to the bedrock in various places, seeking melted gold and valuables. The toppled stones were eventually recycled into other building projects until what had been the city of Jerusalem was unrecognizable. So complete was the destruction that in time the hill where the temple and attendant buildings had stood was plowed for crops. The only remaining structure was the Roman fortress Antonia, on the hill overlooking the desolation. And that was pretty much the end of Jerusalem, for centuries.
And then, two thousand years later — Amazement! Israel officially became a nation, recognized throughout the world, in 1948. The rest is history — recent history. But by that time, for the most part, we (Christians and Jews) had lost the centerpiece of our heritage, the place where God put his name, the holy hill of Zion and the temple of his presence. Oh, there is a presence for sure, erected by the Muslims in 691 AD within the perimeter of the old fortress. But God’s house and David’s citadel seem to be misplaced. We don’t know where they are……
Stepped Stone Structure
Omerm/Wikimedia Commons
Archaeologists are digging and looking, and a lot has been found, and artifacts dated. It is wonderful to see the ancient stones exposed, and to know the era to which they pertain, even if we don’t know for certain what some of them mean structurally. But, in our desire to assemble the puzzle as quickly as possible, we have forced some pieces into places where they do not belong. Then, we have empty spaces that will never be filled until we dislodge those ill fitting places and move them to their proper locations.
…..
It is an easy thing to move a name. Moriah, for instance, or Zion. People do it every day. Read my article Whatever Happened to Whetstone Gap? A land developer liked the name of that place apparently, and so he moved it eight miles to the west and named the road into his housing project Whetstone Gap Road. Within fifteen to twenty years everyone knew Whetstone Gap Road and where it went — to the cul-de-sac at the border of that man’s subdivision, never mind there wasn’t a hint of a gap there. In silent witness however, the little whetstones for which Whetstone Gap was originally named remain to this day, right where they always were, eight miles east, strewn across the slopes of the Whetstone Ridge. There, every day, hundreds of travelers on a busy highway pass through the Whetstone Gap. A name is nothing. It is the ground that tells the story.
I don’t know where Ornan’s threshing floor was, but I promise you the coordinates of that landmark have not moved! Was there really a threshing floor up there on that rugged wild mountain that they call Moriah, or was it within the perimeter of the walled settlement of Salem? Certainly the pockmarked stone under the Dome of the Rock does not qualify as a threshing floor. Some day that ground will give up its secrets, or lack thereof.
Gihon: The Key and Center Piece
In modern times, water from various sources supplies the city of Jerusalem. But that has not always been so. In ages past when King David and his men conquered the walled Jebusite city of Salem, the mighty Gihon spring supplied an abundance of water for that entire city. In that era the Gihon was an intermittent gushing spring whose waters washed away from the Temple the blood of the many animals sacrificed there on a regular basis. (See my article on the Gihon Spring for more information.)
The Hebrew word gihon is a verb which means to burst forth, as applied to giving birth for instance. This was the nature of Gihon in its periodic gushing. We are fortunate to have ancient documents, wherein are recorded (1) the eye witness account of Aristeas, an Egyptian official who visited Jerusalem https://www.ellopos.com/blog/4508/letter-of-aristeas-full-text-in-greek-and-english/34/and (2) the account of the historian Tacitus (The History of Cornelius Tacitus, V,11), both stating there was water springing up within the confines of the Jewish temple.
Old Water Tower
Frostproof, FL
These accounts are summarily dismissed as false or impossible. After all, the springs we are accustomed to flow from the surface of the ground downhill to lower elevations. Very well, but now think of the thousands of small towns that are served by water tanks or towers standing high above the level of the structures. The water flows down out of the tank into pipes below ground level, and then up from the ground into spigots in the various buildings. How does it do that?
If you think about that for a little while you might get some idea of how Solomon’s temple could have been supplied with fresh water. Gravity! Pressure! Water can and does flow uphill! Under the right conditions it does so without any assistance from us. And when it doesn’t, there’s always man’s ingenuity. Ever heard of a ram pump? Or how the Romans were able to pull water uphill into their city, using siphons they created? “Workers dug winding channels underground … to span a valley, they built a siphon … a vast dip in the land that caused the water to drop so quickly it had enough momentum to make it uphill.” https://sage-answers.com/how-can-i-make-my-water-flow-uphill-without-a-pump/
In my article about the Gihon Spring I mentioned a small (less than ten feet across) spring in South Carolina that reportedly gushed periodically as much as six feet in the air. That little spring in South Carolina worked on the same principle as the Gihon, and like the Gihon, it has ceased its spouting. But, here is a fascinating article about another of these springs — The Bubble, a man made lake in the community of Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania. https://www.fandm.edu/news/latest-news/2017/07/06/f-m-researchers-find-ground-water-runs-deeper-than-hydrologists-thought
This lake is fed by a group of about 30 springs arising from a whopping 1800 feet below the surface. Furthermore a recent study has determined the main source of the springs’ water (the catchment area) is some 50 miles away, on the other side of the mountain. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017GL073790
Based on this study, water is gushing into The Bubble at the rate of 16 million gallons a day. (Figure appears to be correct. I double checked.) A 13 minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_r9y_abG2w shows two of the bubbling inflow sites; one is bubbling rapidly. Note in the following article that water under pressure is forced to the surface, creating the bubbles. https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC680XC_the-bubble?guid=0c346836-34df-40db-9489-3bf8da62a433
Both the Gihon and The Bubble are karst springs, which means the subsurface rock is pretty much limestone, a soft rock that forms caves, pipes and cisterns due to percolating water over the millennia. Great quantities of water can be stored in these underground compartments. Karst waterways can be quite complex; and, they can be connected over long distances. In the case of the Gihon, an additional feature was present — a natural siphon which drained a large subterranean cavern, which, when refilled to a certain level, would activate the siphon and drain again, resulting in periodic gushing.
Hezekiah’s tunnel
Presently the Gihon is no longer pulsing. http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10040-010-0600-6
However the yield is quite significant, witness the photo of Hezekiah’s tunnel. Some time before 700 BC, in response to a threatened attack from the Assyrians, King Hezekiah stopped up the old watercourses and diverted the waters of the Gihon spring from its exit into the Kidron Valley through a new underground channel that emptied into a pool inside the city walls. Second Chronicles 32:4 tells us they stopped up “springs” and then the brook (Kidron). The new channel, known today as Hezehiah’s tunnel, is a prime tourist attraction in Jerusalem. The threatened Assyrian invasion came to naught as a result of Hezekiah’s earnest intercession and the Lord’s intervention.
Now let us go back to the old days, when the Gihon was a gushing spring, that is during the time of the kings of Judah/Israel. There must have been a lot of water originating at the Gihon spring. At eight pounds a gallon, even a little water can exert a lot of pressure. Now, think about The Bubble — the lake in Pennsylvania. Hydrologists have determined that water bubbles up from 1800 feet under the ground! Even if the pulsing of the Gihon had not been sufficient to raise its waters to the surface of the Jebusite ridge, some simple engineering could have, and if necessary did remedy that problem. I am not alone in this belief. Remember the Romans! (above)
And now, just for fun, here is an example of some simple engineering. Andrews Geyser, near Old Fort, North Carolina is a man made fountain whose waters flow downhill about 500 feet and spray through a half inch opening. Pretty impressive! https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/north-carolina/andrews-geyser-old-fort-nc/
The Gihon spring is the key to the temple location. Think about how many thousands, tens of thousands, of animals, even big animals such as oxen, were sacrificed on feast days, when the twelve tribes gathered in Jerusalem. How do you suppose they got rid of all that blood and gore? In the early days there were no aqueducts to Jerusalem. And the only other water was the relatively insignificant little watering hole of En Rogel which lay well outside the city. Pity the hundreds of poor donkeys that (theoretically) would have had to trudge for days on end up and down hill from the Gihon all the way to the Dome of the Rock! No, no, no! There was a better way!
Next: The Puzzle of Jerusalem, Part 2, The Akra
toxawaytellit 