Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

A Proposal for the Configuration of Solomon’s Temple Mount

by Marilyn Sams

The location and configuration of Solomon’s temple mount on the southeastern hill of Jerusalem (Mount Zion) can be ascertained from various descriptions, primarily from Josephus, the Bible, the Talmud, and other historical and literary sources. Melchizedek’s temple and Jacob’s pillar and altar preceded Solomon’s temple at the same site.

Josephus writes that Melchizedek established a city called Salem, ostensibly because it was a holy city of peace (Antiquities of the Jews I, 10, 179). He said it “was called Solyma, but afterwards they named it Hiersolyma, calling the temple (hieron) Solyma, which, in the Hebrew tongue means “security” (Antiquities VII, 3, 67, Loeb translation). This passage indicates an amalgamation of the city’s former name and the word for “temple,” creating the new name “Hierosolyma” or “Jerusalem,” began when Mechizedek built a temple there:

"But he who first built it was a potent man among the Canaanites, and is in our own tongue called [Melchizedek], the Righteous King, for such he really was; on which account he was [there] the first priest of God, and first built a temple [there], and called the city Jerusalem, which was formerly called Salem." (Josephus, The War of the Jews VI, 10, 438; information in brackets from Whiston’s version)

The Targum of Onkelos on the Pentateuch identifies Melchizedek as Shem (Genesis 14:18): “And Malka Zadika, who was Shem bar Noah, the King of Yerushalem, came forth to meet Abram, and brought forth to him bread and wine; and in that time he ministered before Eloha Ilaha.” Abraham’s ministration came about after receiving the priesthood from Shem, as set forth in Nedarim 32b:

"R. Zechariah said on R. Ishmael’s authority: The Holy One, blessed be He, intended to bring forth the priesthood from Shem, as it is written, and he [sc. Melchizedek] was the priest of the most high God. But because he gave precedence in his blessing to Abraham over God, he brought it forth from Abraham; as it is written, And he blessed him and said. Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the most high God. Said Abraham to him, ‘Is the blessing of a servant to be given precedence over that of his master?’

"Straightway it [the priesthood] was given to Abraham, as it is written, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit down at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool; which is followed by, The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek, meaning, ‘because of the words of Melchizedek,’ hence it is written, And he was a priest of the most High God [implying that] he was a priest, but not his seed."

Hence, the priesthood transference from Shem/Melchizedek to Abraham is effected in Salem, the location of Melchizedek’s temple and, later, that of Solomon’s temple on Mount Zion.

A 10th century version of Josephus by Josippon ben Gorion shows he believed the Tabernacle of God remained in Salem in the time of Josephus:

"Alas! Alas! Jerusalem the City of the Great King! How shall I call thee in this day?...Sometimes thou wast called Jebus…After this, thy name was Zedeck…Moreover in his time wast thou called Schalem, as the scripture witnesseth, and Melchizedek king of Schalem…For at that time Abraham our father…fell to worship God in thee, and take his inheritance, to plant in thee all wrought of good works. Whereupon the Tabernacle of God remaineth in thee to this day as twas revealed unto the same our Father Abraham in thee (I say) was the Sanctuary of the LORD."

Josippon claims Abraham had worshipped at the temple of Melchizedek in Salem, which was also the location of Jebus. The identification of Salem with the City of the Great King limits Josippon’s definition of Jerusalem to the southeastern hill, where the sanctuary still stood in Josephus’s day.

Fig. 1. Reconstruction of the Gihon Spring Excavations by Reich and Shukron

Fig. 1. The reconstruction shows the Middle Bronze Age II (2000 B.C.-1550 B.C.) wall with offsets (uncovered by Kathleen Kenyon), the Fortified Passage leading to and from the Spring Tower, and the Rock-cut Pool, also protected by walls on the east and south. The area above the Rock-cut Pool is likely where Jacob slept overnight, then set up his pillar and later, an altar. It is also the likely site of the Tabernacle housing the ark which David brought into the city (See. Fig. 2). The area at the top of the hill (not shown) is where the temples of Melchizedek, Solomon, Zerubbabel, Simon, and Herod stood. (Deror Avi, Wikimedia)

Genesis 28: 11-19 in the Bible next mentions the temple’s location, when Jacob left Beer-sheba for Haran:

"And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba…and he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night…and he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows…and he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said…the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it…And Jacob awaked out of his sleep…and said…this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob…took the stone…and set it up for a pillar…."

The “certain place” was Beth-El, the former Luz (Ulam-Luz in the Septuagint version), the former Salem. A Jewish Haggada gives a few more details about Jacob’s experience:

"[During] Jacob's journey to Haran…He was following the spring that appeared wherever the Patriarchs went or settled. It accompanied Jacob from Beersheba to Mount Moriah…When he arrived at the holy hill, the LORD said to him: "Jacob, thou hast bread…and the spring of waters is near by to quench thy thirst…then Jacob perceived that the sun was about to sink, and he prepared to make ready his bed. It was the Divine purpose not to let Jacob pass the site of the future Temple without stopping…

"Jacob took twelve stones from the altar on which his father Isaac had lain bound as a sacrifice, and…the twelve stones joined themselves together and made one, which he put under his head…He dreamed a dream in which the course of the world's history was unfolded to him…From this wondrous dream Jacob awoke with a start of fright, on account of the vision he had had of the destruction of the Temple. He cried out, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, wherein is the gate of heaven through which prayer ascends to Him.

"He took the stone made out of the twelve, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it…and God sank this anointed stone unto the abyss, to serve as the centre of the earth, the same stone, the Eben Shetiyah, that forms the centre of the sanctuary, whereon the Ineffable Name is graven...Jacob cast himself down before the Eben Shetiyah, and entreated God to fulfill the promise He had given him…Then he vowed to give the tenth of all he owned unto God, if He would but grant his petition." (Ginzberg, 1909, The Legends of the Jews, Vol. 1, Chap. 6)

The legend includes a spring in the vicinity of the pillar, a salient detail because the Hebrew word “shetiyah” means “drinking” (Strong’s Concordance #8354). Also, the Eben Shetiyah compares to a pillow, not a stone measuring 58 by 51 feet, like the Sakrah.

The abyss of the Eben Shetiyah is somewhat muddled when described in Tosefta Sukkah 49a:

"Rabbah b. Bar Hana citing R. Jonanan stated 'The Pits have existed since the Six days of creation…The cavity of the Pits descended to the abyss…My well-beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. And he digged it, and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a vat therein. And planted it with the choicest vine refers to the Temple; and built a tower in the midst of it refers to the altar; and also hewed out a vat therein refers to the Pits.’”

However, Yoma 54b sheds some light on the concept:

"We were taught in accord with the view that the world was started [created] from Zion…for it was taught: R. Eliezer says: The world was created from its center…the sages said the world was created from Zion. And it was called Shethiyah: A tanna taught: [It was so called because from it the world was founded.]"

The center of the world in Zion concept is also mentioned in the Book of Jubilees 8.19:

"And he [Noah] knew that the Garden of Eden is the holy of holies, and the dwelling of the LORD, and Mount Sinai the centre of the desert, and Mount Zion -- the centre of the navel of the earth: these three were created as holy places facing each other."

The disparate passages describing the spring, the Eben Shetiyah, the pits, the abyss, the center of the earth, and a tower in Zion have counterparts in the tunnels of the Gihon Spring and Warren’s Shaft areas, above which the temples of Melchizedek, Solomon, Zerubbabel, Simon, and Herod stood. But more remarkably, recent excavations above the Gihon Spring, first carried out by Parker and Vincent in 1909-1911, then Reich and Shukron (Reich, 2011), have uncovered a well-preserved matzevah still standing within a cave on the mid-slope rock scarp of the southeastern hill in the City of David.

It is an oval stone measuring 3 cm wide, 50 cm long, and 30 cm high, standing amidst twelve stones fused together at its base, a startling representation of the description in the legend (Bermeister, n.d.). Though Eli Shukron believes the four excavated chambers constitute a sacrificial area of Melchizedek’s temple, because this area precisely fits where Jacob experienced his night vision, set up his pillar, and then built an altar after returning from Haran (Genesis 33:13; Book of Jubilees 32:16), the latter identification is a better fit than having a temple built on a steep hillside.

Fig. 2. Mid-slope Rock Scarp Excavation in the City of David

Fig. 2. The figure represents four chambers carved in the mid-slope rock scarp in the City of David. The matzevah or possible pillar of Jacob features in the second chamber from the left. Stairs leading from the east of the chambers head toward the Rock-cut Pool (the “upper pool”), fed by the Gihon Spring. Stair-like wavy indentations on either side of the third chamber from the left may have been the route to the upper temple area of Solomon’s temple mount. The area just below the scarp matches or the chambers themselves matches the place where David temporarily established the Tabernacle and Ark and where Solomon’s anointing occurred at the Gihon Spring. (Courtesy of Kevin Bermeister)

Bermeister’s representation also indicates where he believes the boundary between Judah and Benjamin existed. Several sources describe this boundary, the first being Joshua 18: 16-17:

"And the border came down to the end of the mountain that lieth before the valley of the son of Hinnom…and descended to the valley of Hinnom to the side of Jebusi on the south, and descended to En-rogel. And was drawn from the north and went forth to En-Shemesh…."

The known locations of the valley of Hinnom, Jebus, and En-Rogel place the border at the southeastern hill, but probably up on the ridge, further west than Bermeister’s surmise. En-Shemesh or “Spring of the Sun” refers to the Gihon Spring, enclosed by the Middle Bronze Age II walls at Jebus. Reich (2011), in Excavating the City of David: Where Jerusalem’s History Began, includes a stunning picture of the sun shining on the stairs just above the emergence of the Gihon Spring (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. En Shemesh -- Spring of the Sun (the Gihon Spring)

Fig. 3. The Gihon Spring has had many names, including En Shemesh, the Well of Etam, Shiloah, Siloam, Gad Yawan, the Haker Well (Bor Hakar or Well of the Exiles), Ain Silwan, the Well of Job/Joab, and the Virgin’s Well. In this photo, the sun shines on the very spot of the waters’ emergence into the Gihon Spring cave.

The border’s relationship to the temple’s location figures in a discussion in Zevachim 54b in the Talmud:

"They [Samuel and David] sat at Ramah and were engaged with the glory [beauty] of the world. Said they, It is written, Then shalt thou arise and ascend unto the place [which the LORD thy God shall choose]: this teaches that the Temple was higher than the whole of Eretz Israel…They did not know where that place was. Thereupon they brought the Book of Joshua 12. In the case of all [tribal territories] it is written, ‘And the border went down’ ‘and the border went up' ‘and the border passed along,’ whereas in reference to the tribe Benjamin ‘and it went up’ is written, but not ‘and it went down.’ Said they: This proves that this is its site. They intended building it at the well of Etam, which is raised, but [then] they said: Let us build it slightly lower, as it is written, and He dwelleth between his shoulders. Alternatively, there was a tradition that the Sanhedrin should have its locale in Judah’s portion, while the Divine Presence was to be in Benjamin’s portion."

The passage presents two alternatives for the border, one at the Spring (the Well of Etam/En Shemesh/Gihon Spring) and one on the ridge, though both are possible, as both Solomon’s and Herod’s temple mounts included the spring and the ridge area. The location of the border/temple is inferred in Avoth 6:

"The sanctuary is one possession. Whence [Do we infer this?] Since it is said: ‘the Sanctuary, O LORD, which thy hands have established’ and it is said [also]: ‘and he brought them to his holy border, to the mountain, which his right hand possessed.’”

The mountain of the border would be Mount Zion, the southeastern hill. Additional descriptions of the border occur in Zevachim 118b, Megilah 26a, and Sanhedrin 37a. The last of these refers back to Jacob’s foundation stone at the center of creation or “navel” of the world.

When the time arrived for Solomon to build a temple, the site he chose was on Mount Zion, a hill at the top of the ridge of Melchizedek’s former Salem, where David had erected an altar on Ornan’s threshing floor on the border between Benjamin and Judah, below which Jacob had erected his pillar and altar, above the Gihon Spring. Although some of today’s scholars designate the whole southeastern hill as the City of David, a preponderance of evidence in descriptions indicates it occupied only the lower half of the southeastern hill, with its northern boundary probably at the bottleneck where Kathleen Kenyon uncovered two walls of Middle Bronze and Jebusite age. [i]

According to 3 Kings 2:35 (Septuagint version), Solomon built the temple, his palace, and the “wall of Jerusalem,” before he made a breach in the wall of the City of David, in order to bring Pharaoh’s daughter up out of it and install her in her own house. The “wall of Jerusalem,” therefore, may be considered as a new wall surrounding either the upper half of the southeastern hill or the whole hill. This new “City of David/Jerusalem” had a peculiar shape, described in several accounts as having its towers arranged “in the manner of a theater,” [ii] or being the shape of a “moon when she is horned,” [iii] or “bending back,” [iv] or like an “arc.” [v] Hence, the city’s notable curvature -- the same as that of the southeastern hill -- eliminates any northerly extension containing an acropolis, because the temple was built in the city.

The location of Solomon’s temple above the Gihon Spring coincides with its being the only spring in Jerusalem and the many accounts of a spring within the temple precincts. [vi] The hill of the temple or Mount Zion pervades the scriptures and historical sources. [vii] Josephus speaks of this hill in Antiquities of the Jews XV, 11, 397: “The hill [of the temple] was a rocky ascent, that declined by degrees towards the east parts of the city, until it came to an elevated level.” This passage affirms the temple’s residence in the city and above its eastern parts (note that no city has ever stood on the east parts of the alleged temple mount). The “elevated level” must refer to the mid-slope rock scarp which forms a belt on the eastern slope (See Fig. 2).

The passage also infers the temple area stopped at the elevated level, whereas having a spring within its precincts would require it to descend further east toward the valley. This seeming problem dissolves in the next verse (Antiquities XV, 11, 398), where Josephus continues: “He also built a wall below, beginning at the bottom, which was encompassed by a deep valley….” This declares the lower part of the temple area had its east wall in the Kidron Valley, affirmed by other descriptions in Josephus, the Talmud, and the Bible. [viii] In the Antiquities passage quoted, Josephus mixes descriptions of both Solomon’s and Herod’s temples, but the eastern wall of each of them stood in the Kidron Valley.

We know from the excavations at the Gihon Spring by Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron that walls already encompassed the Spring and the Rock-cut Pool in the time of Solomon, the Spring Tower wall measuring 60 feet wide (See Fig. 1). However, in his description of Solomon’s Temple Mount, Hecateus of Abdera (4th century B.C.) [ix] declared the wall in the middle of the city was 150 feet, implying the wall built by Solomon enclosed the existing Middle Bronze Age II structures. Hecateus fails to comment on the wall’s height.

Josephus describes the top of Mount Zion where Solomon constructed the temple as “hardly sufficient for the holy house and the altar…,” because the ground was “uneven and like a precipice” (War V, 5, 184). This coincides with the bottleneck bedrock measuring only 60-100 meters wide, while a hill on top of it would have been still narrower. Hence, Solomon did not construct the temple on a large, leveled rock, but on the ground soil of a tel. In addition to the sanctuary and altar, Solomon built a wall “on its [the temple’s] east side” and added “one passage founded on a bank cast up for it,” while the other parts of the temple area “stood naked” (War, V, 5, 185).

The “passage” probably means a portico. Eusebius, writing of Solomon’s construction in Preparation for the Gospel (9.34), says: “He [Solomon] made a porch also on the north side of the temple, and supported it on forty-eight pillars of brass.” Hence, it appears the first portico stood on the north side of the temple.

As for the east wall mentioned, it may have been an inner court wall or a temporary outer court boundary, separating the completed areas (with banks) from the still-unfinished land toward the mid-slope rock scarp. When Kathleen Kenyon uncovered her Middle Bronze Age II and Iron Age II city walls, they were both built on rock scarps, with the Middle Bronze Age II wall below the 8th century one, which was probably built on the mid-slope rock scarp. In Jebus, the Middle Bronze Age II wall probably abutted the north wall of the Fortified Passage and no wall stood on top of the mid-slope rock scarp. Solomon may have retained the Fortified Passage’s north wall or he may have built a new one, which would have incorporated or submerged part of the Middle Bronze Age II wall.

The newer 8th century wall stood on top of the mid-slope rock scarp that passed through the temple precincts. On the eastern slope further south in his areas E and D, Yigal Shiloh discovered the 8th century wall on the mid-slope rock scarp, incorporating remnants of the Middle Bronze Age II wall. [x] The Seder ha-Dorot ( p. 9b) claims Melchizedek initiated the first complete wall circumnavigating the city, requiring he exit it in order to meet Abram and his men. Therefore, Melchizedek likely oversaw the building of the Middle Bronze Age II wall and the Gihon Spring fortifications.

The Israelites augmented the temple mount’s size over the years, as Josephus says “in future ages the people added new banks, and the hill became a larger plain” (War V, 5, 185). However, the earliest major fill-in occurred not to the temple precincts, but to the south, where a valley separated the hill of Ophel/Mount Zion from the hill on which the citadel stood. This fill-in was engineered to make the temple “on a level with the narrow streets of the city” (War V, 5, 189). It also created an “Ophel” area or acropolis, including the citadel and the royal palace. Hence, even though there is an east gate described for Solomon’s temple, the main access to it appears to have been from the south.

Fig. 4 The Mid-Slope Rock Scarp Dividing the Temple Precincts

Fig. 4. The map indicates approximately where the mid-slope rock scarp divided the two temple areas. The mid-slope Middle Bronze Age II wall abutted the north wall of the Fortified Passage or a newer wall built by Solomon. The area to the left constitutes the upper part of the temple where the sanctuary stood and where construction continually altered the terrain. The area to the right provided access to the Rock-cut Pool, fed by the Gihon Spring.

Fig. 5 Nehemiah’s Jerusalem

Fig. 5. This best-guess-with-flaws representation of Nehemiah’s Jerusalem at least gives some idea of the configurations of the City of David and Solomon’s temple. Note the mid-slope wall indicated would be the 8th century city wall.

The account in Nehemiah helps affirm the configuration of the City of David and the temple mount after the Babylonian destruction. The descriptions of the city wall repairs reach the royal palace in Nehemiah 3: 25, where the “tower which lieth out from the king’s high house, that was by the court of the prison” stood. A “tower lying out” means an architectural feature of the palace which projects toward the steep east-side slopes of the City of David.

Nehemiah then mentions the “Ophel” (a synonym for Mount Zion after the destruction), where the Nethinims (temple servants) lived, apparently close to the Water Gate on the east and the aforementioned projecting tower of the royal palace by the prison. In fact, the Water Gate had a twin gate called the Prison Gate, which Nehemiah will describe in Chapter 12. Josephus also describes twin gates in the Loeb translation of Contra Apion I, 198, which says:

"Nearly in the center of the city stands a stone wall, enclosing an area about five plethra long and a hundred cubits broad, approached by a pair of gates. Within this enclosure is a square altar…beside it stands a great edifice containing an altar and a lampstand….”

The “pair of gates” fits the description of the Water and Prison Gates, two city gates which opened onto the acropolis in front of the temple’s south gate (See Fig. 4). The term “enclosure” accurately reflects the unfinished, un-filled-in, two-part temple complex.

We can infer the 8th century city wall, which had replaced the Middle Bronze Age II wall of the city, joined to the Water and Prison Gates on either side, and that it may have been necessary to carve stairs into the mid-slope rock scarp to admit entrance into the City of David through these gates. Nehemiah 3:27 continues with the repair accounts and mentions a piece “over against” (opposite) the “great tower that lieth out, even unto the wall of Ophel.” The “great tower that lieth out” describes the lower walled temple area, which enclosed the Gihon Spring and the Rock-cut Pool and had walls which must have mounted up to meet with the 8th century city wall atop the mid-slope rock scarp.

After entering the city through the Water and Prison Gates, people may have accessed the temple area above the mid-slope city wall through a small corridor wall which led to a postern gate entering into this upper area of the temple where the east gate of the temple could be accessed or where stairs going down the scarp would lead to the Rock-cut Pool. Since “Ophel” can be a synonym for Mount Zion, the “wall of Ophel” mentioned in Nehemiah 27 may refer to any or all of the walls surrounding the temple area, including the upper and lower parts.

However, it may also refer to the city wall which passed through the middle of the temple precincts. This is inferred for more than one reason. The first is Nehemiah’s not mentioning any repairs to the wall of Ophel itself. Nehemiah 3:28 describes the last repairs on the south side of the temple as those above the Horse Gate (located in the valley below the royal palace). The description then jumps to repairs on the city wall on the north side of the temple at the East Gate (Nehemiah 3:29), inferring that no repairs were needed for any of the temple enclosure walls or that these weren’t completed in the same period, because of enemy threats and the temple walls being sufficiently intact to give adequate protection for the city.

Nehemiah 12 clarifies the configuration set forth above by describing the two celebratory companies on top of the walls circling around the southeastern hill in opposite directions to reach the Water and Prison Gates. The south-marching company first passed the Dung Gate and then the Fountain Gate by the stairs of the City of David (at the southern tip of the southeastern hill). They then trekked northward along the 8th century mid-slope wall top to the point where it turned upward (west) toward the royal palace, near to their final goal of the Water Gate.

The other group started north of the Tower of the Furnaces (in the lower Tyropoeon Valley), continuing past the Broad Wall (the back side of the temple), then past the Gate of Ephraim, the Old Gate, the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananeel, and the Tower of Meah, until they reached the Sheep Gate. At this point, they either (1) descended the wall and walked down stairs into the Kidron Valley, passing the East Gate and the “great tower that lieth out,” then walking upward toward the Prison Gate, or (2) they continued on the wall top, passing the East Gate (though there is no mention of this) and through the temple precincts, until they reached the Water Gate, which they passed in order to end at the Prison Gate.

Hence, it strangely appears that each of the parties went past the gate nearest to their end point and halted at the gate just beyond. The south-marching party ended at the northern Water Gate and the north-marching party ended at the southern Prison Gate. In any case, Nehemiah 12:40 says: “So stood the two companies of them that gave thanks in the house of God, and I, and the half of the rulers with me,” implying they had together entered the temple precincts at the south gate.

The proposed divided temple precincts may also be inferred from a passage in Eruvin 10:14 of the Mishnah, which refers to the temple area at the time of the exiles’ return:

"It is also permitted to draw water from the well Gola and from the large well by means of the rolling wheel on the Sabbath and from the cold well (on festivals)…“And from the cold well on festivals.” What is meant by the cold well?...Said R. Na’hman bar Itz’hak: “That well was filled with spring-water.” Whence does R. Na’hman adduce this? From the passage [Jeremiah vi. 7]: “As a well sendeth forth its waters.”…We have learned in a Boraitha: It was not permitted to draw water from all cold wells but only from the one mentioned; because when the Israelites returned from exile they together with their prophets who lived in that day drank there-from and made it lawful to draw water from that well on Sabbath forever" (Trans. Rodkinson, 1918).

The passage explains the limitations on priests for drawing water from the temple precincts on the Sabbath. The rolling wheel refers to a contraption created for drawing water from the Golah cistern in the court of the priests. The priests could also draw water from the cold well or Bor Hakar on festival days. This refers to the Gihon Spring, the only spring in Jerusalem. The Judahite tradition for the Bor Hakar or Well of the Exiles holds that they drank from it on their return to Jerusalem. This would imply its accessibility from the Rock-cut Pool.

Archaeologists have found remains from the Israelite age in the Gihon Spring area and the area above it, another reason for inferring the divided temple area. Reich and Shukron uncovered a structure built inside the Rock-cut Pool, underneath which lay many 8th century items, including bullae with Hebrew names, pottery sherds, and fishbones. In addition, the two pillars uncovered by Parker and Vincent and the loom weights in Area G were dated to the Israelite age (the former from a photograph).

Some of these finds and others indicate the lower area of the temple remained open to the air until Herod constructed his temple, whose platform extended out from the ridge and over the spring, the east wall standing in the Kidron Valley, like Solomon’s had. However, Reich and Shukron’s identification of the Israelite structure as a common house built after the Rock-cut Pool went out of use infers this area was no longer considered as part of the temple in the 8th/7th century.

If so, one would expect more than one “house” to have been built in the area, but no other similar finds have been uncovered, while walls and house remains to the north (Shiloh’s Area G) and south of the Gihon Spring (Shiloh’s Areas B, D, & E) attest to the population explosion in Jerusalem after the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom, an explosion which, according to current excavations, did not touch the area where Solomon’s temple stood, but for a sole “house.”

Josephus described Herod’s temple as encompassing “a piece of land which was twice as large as that before enclosed” (War I, 21, 401). However, since Hecateus’s measurement of Solomon’s temple as 150 feet by 500 feet would not “double” the temple’s size to four furlongs square, presumably Simon the Hasmonean had effected a previous expansion. Josephus describes in part how Herod expanded Solomon’s temple mount in Antiquities XV, 11, 398-401:

"He also built a wall below, beginning at the bottom, which was encompassed by a deep valley; and at the south side he laid rocks together, and bound them one to another with lead, and included some of the inner parts, until it proceeded to a great height, and until both the size of the square edifice and its altitude were immense, and until the vastness of the stones in the front were plainly visible on the outside, yet so that the inward parts were fastened together with iron, and preserved the joints immovable for all future times. When this work [for the foundations] was done in this manner, and joined together as part of the hill itself to the very top of it, he wrought it all into one outward surface, and filled up the hollow places which were about the wall, and made it a level on the external upper surface, and a smooth level also. This hill was walled all around, and in compass four furlongs, [the distance of] each angle containing in length a furlong; but within this wall, and on the very top of all, there ran another wall of stone also, having, on the east quarter, a double cloister, of the same length of the wall; in the midst of which was the temple itself."

Josephus describes Herod’s temple, but the “wall built below” appears to be a new wall and the “inner parts” probably included Solomon’s wall (also “built below”) and the Spring Tower, Fortified Passage and Rock-cut Pool walls. Special attention must be devoted to the manner of the temple’s construction, in order to compare it with the alleged temple mount.

Josephus’s order for the construction includes: (1) Building the east and south wall foundations first, from the valley floor and binding them together with lead, (2) Building the other foundation walls in the same manner, joining them to the hill to the very top [of the walls], (3) Filling in the hollow places, (4) Smoothing the external upper surface to equal a four-furlong square, (5) Building a wall of stone on top of the smooth external surface measuring four furlongs square, which wall had a double cloister on its east side, measuring one furlong. All this created a tower whose height could not be looked down from “without pain” (Antiquities VIII, 3, 97), “the most prodigious work that was ever heard of by man” (Antiquities XV, 11, 396).

The description of this order of construction eliminates the alleged temple mount as the site of Herod’s temple because: (1) The south and east wall foundations do not stand in the valley, (2) Differing types of stones for the east wall indicate two or three different eras for building, (3) The south wall foundations date to a period later than the east wall foundations, notably at the seam, (4) There is no indication of a four furlong box, which was then filled in and on whose surface at the top a stone wall of four furlongs square stood -- instead the final outcome of the alleged temple mount is a 7.7 furlong trapezoid, (5) There is no indication of a double cloister of one furlong’s length on the east side of the four-furlong square (the outer court), as the Haram’s east wall measures 2.3 furlongs, and (6) The north wall of the temple mount consisted of masonry from the ground up, while the alleged temple mount’s north wall consists partly of sculpted rock. In short, nothing about the alleged temple mount’s construction or location compares with Josephus’s eyewitness description of Herod’s temple.

In the same way, the descriptions of Solomon’s temple mount do not in any way relate to an acropolis north of the southeastern hill. Solomon constructed the temple on Mount Zion, in the middle of the city, above the Gihon Spring, with its eastern wall standing in the Kidron Valley and its main entrance accessed via the Water and Prison Gates, city gates also in the middle of the city.

End Notes:

[i] Margreet Steiner (2002), Excavations by Kathleen M. Kenyon in Jerusalem 1961-1967, Vol. III: The settlement in the Bronze and Iron Age

[ii] Letter of Aristeas

[iii] War V, 5, 137. In Antiquities XV, 11, 410, Josephus again uses “in the manner of a theater.”

[iv] Tacitus, Histories 5.11, as cited in Dissertation 3 by Josephus

[v] The Venerable Bede, as noted in De Locis Sanctis (A. vander Nat, Trans.)

[vi] Accounts of water and a spring under the temple include Psalm 29:3, Psalm 29:10, Psalm 36:9, Psalm 42:7, Psalm 46:4, Psalm 68:26, Psalm 87:7, Psalm 93:l, 2-4, Psalm 104:13, Jeremiah 2:13, Jeremiah 17:13, Ezekiel 47:1, 2, 8, Joel 3:18, Zechariah 13:1, Revelation 21:2, 6; 22:1, 17, Letter of Aristeas, Book of Enoch, Tacitus, Philo, Erubin 10, Eusebius, Odes of Solomon, Cyril of Jerusalem, Avoth de Rabbi Nathan, Arachin 10b, Sibylline Oracles 5:281-282, 2 Baruch 35:1; 36: 3-5

[vii] Sources for Mount Zion include Psalm 2:6-7, Psalm 48:1-2, Psalm 48:9-13, Psalm 132:13-14, Psalm 78:68-69, Psalm 51:18, Psalm 64:1-4, Psalm 74:2, Psalm 76:2, Psalm 87:1-2, 5, Psalm 132:13-14, Isaiah 2:2-3, Isaiah 8:18, Isaiah 10:24, Isaiah 10:32, Isaiah, 18:7, Isaiah 33:5, Isaiah 33:14, Isaiah 35:10, Isaiah 37:32, Isaiah 51:3, Isaiah 64:9-10, Isaiah 10:32, Joel 3:17, Obadiah 17, Obadiah 21, Micah 3:12, Zechariah 8:3, Hebrews 12:22, Revelation 14:1, 1 Maccabees 4:36-38, 1 Maccabees 4:60, the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel on Isaiah, the Targum of Jeremiah 31:12, passages from the Talmud, including Pesachim 5a, Bikkurim 3:2, Berechoth 58b, Baba Bathra 75a, Sanhedrin 95a, Mo’ed Katan 29a, Zevachim 119a, Eusebius, Proof of the Gospel, VIII, 3, 405-406. In addition, 133 references to “Zion” must be considered, as Strong’s Concordance defines it as “a mountain of Jerusalem.”

[viii] The east wall foundations being within the Kidron Valley is attested in Antiquities XV, 11, 398; War I, 7, 141; War VI, 3, 192; Nehemiah 3:27, Zevachim 54b, Josippon Ben Gorion, p. 62

[ix] Josephus, Contra Apion I, 22, 198

[x] “Excavations Directed by Yigal Shiloh at the City of David, 1978-1985,” p. 36

References:

Bermeister, K. (n.d.). Jerusalem’s origin: The thesis. Retrieved from Scribd website: https://www.scribd.com/document/141272607/Jerusalem-Origin-The-Thesis

Cahill, J. M., & Tarler, D. (1994). Excavations directed by Yigal Shiloh at the City of David, 1978-1985. In H. Geva, (Ed.), Ancient Jerusalem Revealed. (pp. 3l-45). Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

Eusebius of Caesarea. (c. 312 A.D./ 1903). Evangelicae Praeparationis. Trans. E. Gifford. Retrieved from Early Christian Writings website: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/fathers /eusebius_pe _00_intro.html

Ginzberg, L. (1909). The legends of the Jews. Retrieved from Sacred Texts website on July 2, 2014: http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/loj/loj406.htm

Josippon ben Gorion. (c. 9th or 10th century A.D./1684 A.D.). The wonderful, and most deplorable history of the latter times of the Jews: with the destruction of the city of Jerusalem (Trans. James Howell). London: Printed for William Thackeray in Duck-lane. Presented by Early English Books Online.

Reich, R. (2011). Excavating the City of David where Jerusalem’s history began. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

Steiner, M. (2002). Excavations by Kathleen M. Kenyon in Jerusalem 1961-1967, Volume III: The settlement in the Bronze and Iron Ages. London: UK: Sheffield Academic Press.

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