The First Temple
In the 10th century BC, after King David captured the city of Jerusalem and made it the capital of the Israelites, he chose this high place as the site of a great temple to house the Ark of the Covenant (2 Samuel 24:18-25). Prior to this, the Ark had moved among several sanctuaries, especially those of Shechem and Shiloh. The construction project was undertaken by David's son, King Solomon, and completed in 957 BC.
The Temple's two main purposes were to house the Ark of the Covenant and provide a place for people to worship, so the Temple was a fairly small building with a large courtyard. The courtyard included a huge bronze basin for priestly ablutions and was surrounded by storehouses. The Temple itself was a rectangular building oriented east and made up of three parts: a porch (ʾulam); a main room for services (hekhal, Holy Place); and the devir, or Holy of Holies.
The First Temple was looted of its treasures - including the Ark of the Covenant -between 604 BC and 597 BC and totally destroyed in 587-86 BC by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. (Incidentally, Nebuchadnezzar's palace gates can be seen at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.) The Jews were deported to Babylonia between 586 and 582 in what is known as the Babylonian Exile.
In 538 BC, the Persian king Cyrus II (who had conquered Babylonia) allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. This was completed around 515 BC as a modest version of the original, without the Ark or any other ritual objects. But the Temple resumed its role as the religious center of Judaism, with elaborate rituals conducted by priests and Levites.
The next few centuries saw Jerusalem subjugated to a number of foreign rulers. The Temple was respected by these (Persian and Hellenistic) rulers until Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who plundered it in 169 BC and desecrated it in 167 BC, by commanding that sacrifices be made to Zeus inside. This sparked the Hasmonean revolt, after which Judas Maccabaeus rededicated the Temple. This event is still celebrated in the annual festival of Hanukkah.
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| The South Wall, Jerusalem. |
Jesus and the Temple
According to the New Testament, the Temple of Jerusalem played a significant role in the life of Jesus. After his birth (around 4 BC), Jesus was dedicated at the Temple in accordance with the Law of Moses (Luke 2:22-28). When he was a boy, he impressed the Jewish teachers with his knowledge (Luke 2:41-52). Jesus was later tempted by Satan to jump off the Temple to prove his status (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13) and he angrily overturned tables of moneychangers during the "Cleansing of the Temple" (Matthew 21:12, Mark 11:15-19, Luke 19:45-48, John 2:14).
Destruction of the Temple
In 66 AD, a Jewish rebellion against Rome began and culminated in the near-complete destruction of the Temple (and the entire city) by Titus on August 10, 70 AD. This event is commemorated (complete with a relief showing the looting of a menorah by Roman soldiers) on the Arch of Titus in Rome. All that remained was a portion of the Western Wall, which is the focus of Jewish pilgrimage in Jerusalem today. Ever since this destruction, Jews around the world have continued to cherish the hope that it will one day be rebuilt.
The Arabs In Denial.
Chief Palestinian justice: The Temples Never Existed
In a interview, Chief Palestinian Justice Sheik Taysir Tamimi declared the Jewish temples never existed and Jews have no historic connection to Jerusalem. He also claimed the Western Wall really was a tying post for Muhammad's horse, the Al Aqsa Mosque was built by angels, and Abraham, Moses and Jesus were prophets for Islam.
Tamimi is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem.
"Israel started since 1967 making archeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the city, and they found nothing. There is no Jewish connection to Israel before the Jews invaded in the 1880s," said Tamimi.
"About these so-called two temples, they never existed, certainly not at the [Temple Mount]," Tamimi said during a sit-down interview in his eastern Jerusalem office.
The Palestinian cleric denied the validity of dozens of digs verified by experts worldwide revealing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temples throughout Jerusalem, including on the Temple Mount itself; excavations revealing Jewish homes and a synagogue in a site in Jerusalem called the City of David; or even the recent discovery of a Second Temple Jewish city in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
Tamimi said descriptions of the Jewish Temples in the Hebrew Tanach, in the Talmud and in Byzantine and Roman writings from the Temple periods were forged, and that the Torah (The first Five Books of The Old Testament) was falsified to claim biblical patriarchs and matriarchs were Jewish, when they were prophets for Islam.
Now...how can there be ANY peace with these deluded people! Their allies in the Western media along with the Left are more than happy to further the PLO and Hamas disinformation machine. The Arabs revisionist version of a history (that they were not part of) is always well received in the offices of the many anti Israel governments of the world. These Arab myths must be continually countered by the historical facts. And that is up to all of us who need to stand up and be counted.
I wish that the Obama Administration could just for once actually GET IT!
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/jerusalem-temple-mount
