Temple Mount, Shrine of the Book, Herodian, and Bethlehem

This was the big day! The day to visit Temple Mount. As one book states, “No other spot on earth is so politically volatile, nor spiritually vital.” The photo is of a sprawling outdoor model at the Israel Museum that covers about 2,000 square feet. Notice the temple in the middle of the huge platform that Herod built? It’s no longer there; it’s place has been taken by the Dome of the Rock, a mosque-like shrine built by the Muslims. You’ll see that soon. Also notice at the left end of the mount the long building? That was the Royal Stoa, the civic and commercial epicenter of Israel. It’s where they transacted business and where the Sanhedrin, Israel’s supreme court, held their daily meetings. The Royal Stoa was built by Herod and was magnificent with 168 50-foot pillars. It was also called the Royal Portico or porch.

If you were to drop over the far wall of Temple Mount near the end of the civic center you would be at the Western Wall, or “Wailing Wall,” which we will tour soon.

Between the Royal Stoa and the temple are two covered stair/tunnel entrances. There were 12 gates to this city, but only seven of them are useable today. These two stairways are rising from two of the entrances which are at the base of the wall under the civic center. You can see that Temple Mount was an easily defended fortress. Even if the enemy got past those gates, they would emerge single-file into the dazzling daylight in the middle of a courtyard full of defenders. This courtyard is the Court of the Gentiles which was a new feature added by Herod. Ironic, huh. God designed that Israel would be a royal priesthood calling all nations to worship, but it took an Edomite king to build a space for foreign worshipers. The Jews never seemed to grasp the idea of God’s love for all nations.

Notice also the large gate on this side of Temple Mount. It is the Golden Gate through which the Messiah was to enter the city. If this were the real Temple Mount, we would be standing on the Mount of Olives. Amidst the shouts of glad “hosannas,” Jesus would have paused here to weep over the city so impregnable to reform. Then He would have ridden His little donkey down the slope of the Mount of Olives, walked through the Golden Gate, and in time ended up in the Court of the Gentiles where merchandizing had spilled out of the civic center into the Gentiles’ place of worship. This is the part of the temple that Jesus cleansed. Knowing this brings new light to Jesus’ cry, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations!” Jesus was angry at the defiling of the temple, but apparently also at the disrespect shown to the Gentiles who came to worship. They could get no closer to the temple than this courtyard. This, then, would be their place of prayer and contemplation. Annas, in his greed had taken his livestock exchange right into their most sacred spot. Why? Certainly because Annas valued money, but even more, he didn’t take seriously Israel’s call to be the link between God and the rest of the world. Here a tiny portion of the world was coming to worship and he was showing his contempt for them by treating their holy ground as a marketplace. This shows again Jesus’ big heart for all of His creation, not just the elect.

I’m proud that we Adventists show a sincerity for righteousness and a commitment to purity, but our seeking after His righteousness must be matched by a desire for His kingdom. A kingdom is composed of many people besides ourselves. As we become narrowly focused on our pursuit of purity, we may dishonor the “less worthy” in the general population. When that happens we are selling our sheep in their sacred space. 

Our guide, Aran, does a lot of thinking about his country and countrymen. He believes that it was radical fundamentalism that destroyed Israel. As people became exclusive and focused on their own goodness, their own cause, they acted arrogantly and invited the retaliation of Rome. Today there are sects within Judaism that would militate towards the same hostility towards the Gentile world. And sadly Adventism also has its own blind subcultures that share this trait with the blind parts of Judaism. How would Jesus “cleanse His temple” within the beliefs and practices of our church?

So here is that very segment of wall where the devout pray. Though Israel controls the country, Islam holds the very heart of their sacred city. Jews are not allowed on Temple Mount. This segment of the wall is close enough to the now-obliterated temple to warrant their high regard and serve as a hope for the future.

This sign expresses the reverence they show towards this fragment of Temple Mount.

Women are not allowed to worship where the men do. This is a carryover of the segregated worship in the temple courtyard. In this picture you see the women at their more southern section of the Western Wall. In the northwest corner of this picture you can see into the men’s section which is much larger than the women’s.

We’re back in the men’s section, but look at those tourist women wanting to see what we manly men are doing over here!

Well, here’s a rather foreign-looking manly-man touching the wall. Strange that they would view goy little me as more worthy at this spot than their own daughters of Israel. Notice the slips of paper stuffed in the cracks of the wall. They contain prayers and petitions for the Almighty. I did put both palms on the wall and rested my forehead against its coolness as I prayed. For what? My prayer was not for all the people I hold in my heart and regularly pray for. I didn’t see this as a place where God was more obligated to grant my requests. Mostly I asked Him to help me make sense of the dance of the ages. So much history is here that it’s like an overstuffed closet threatening to burst. There’s the dance between profound commitment and simple obsessive/compulsive behavior; the dance between revering the tiniest things of God and obvious superstition; the dance between keeping oneself pure and shunning the rest of God’s children; the dance between “daring to be a Daniel” and blindly picking up a holy war; the dance between faithfully observing the minutest of God’s requirements and the pagan thought that by so doing we can cause Him to answer our prayers.

To the left of the wall is a small collection of libraries and reading rooms. Inside, men pore over the law and commentary on the law.

Still, amid all the solemnity life continues to hold its childish and joyous moments. This is a field trip that four or five of the ultra-orthodox men were leading. They certainly are using “hip” methods for keeping the little distractible boys from wandering.

You’re still looking at the Western Wall, but from across the adjacent plaza. The fixture is a hand washing station for ceremonial cleansing. It may be significant that this fixture is stone. Stone still attached to the ground is thought to be “living” as is water still in the river. Once water is drawn out, it ceases to be “living water.” But water channeled through stone retains its life. In my mind, this is where poetic imagery and superstition mingle.

The buckets are filled and then emptied in three rinses to the right hand and three rinses to the left hand. Even hotels and restaurants here will have a little bucket available for the observant Jews. Many Jews are secular and don’t use these.

We were permitted to enter Temple Mount and one of the early images was that of Palestinian women doing their own sacred study. How galling it must be to the Jews that these women can be up here on the Mount walking around freely (well, as freely as a burka allows) while the Jews must stay down on the lower level and outside the great temple grounds built by Herod.

This olive tree is growing in the Court of the Gentiles. Notice how spacious this area is. It’s only one of several spacious areas on the Mount.

Muslims are not to make any images of anything, so their writing has become very artist. It is designed to be enjoyed as the art which they are not allowed.

On the inside of the Golden Gate was this pile of scrapped timbers. They were, I believe, removed from the Towers of David during a recent renovation. Someone tested them and found them to be ancient cedars. I could have misheard this, but I believe they are 3,000 years old. That would place them as cedars sent by Hiram, the king of Tyra, for Solomon’s temple.

Just as the Jewish field trip for little boys keeps us in touch with today’s realities, so do these Muslim adolescents who fell in love with one of our tour mates. Despite her wedding ring, the boy in the white t-shirt lavished praise on her for her beauty. He is the one who asked for the photo to be taken. He planned to put it on his facebook page, because she looked just like a model to him. Other groups of school boys were playing soccer.

So here it is, the Dome of the Rock. Remember that Herod’s temple for the Jewish God was twice as tall! Both this Dome and the Holy of Holies were built around the exposed rock of sacrifice. That gave me a bit of a start to think that all through Jesus’ time, the Most Holy Place contained… nothing. The ark of the covenant was gone, and only the rock provided a focal point for that annual visit of the high priest. In a way that seems appropriate. God never gave us His name, nor has He allowed us to make images of Him. So in Jesus’ day, this nameless, faceless God was worshipped with an empty room. Accepting the invisibility and mystery of God’s nature is healthy. He is God. We can study what He values and how He does business, but just what He is has never been revealed.

Well here it is again looking a bit smaller in the distance. Again, this view gives you a sense of the size of this huge platform Herod built for the temple.

Here’s a detail of the glass tiles and the inlaid stones in the walls. Pretty, but the ornate and astounding inlay of the Taj Mahal makes this look relatively primitive. Both are Islamic structures.

I saw this as we left Temple Mount. I think it’s local talk for “Got fun?”

Our next stop was at the Shrine of the Book, a part of the Israel Museum. Inside the shrine were some of the thousands of fragments found in Qumran. So this is home to the Dead Sea scrolls, except that many fragments are off being analyzed by super-high-tech equipment elsewhere around the world.

Our next stop was the Herodian. Hmm… what makes you think it was another palace/fortress/hideaway built by Herod? The name? His huge presence in this region? Whatever it is, you’re right. The interesting thing about this manmade mount is that Herod saw two mountains, but neither were high enough. So he moved one on to the top of the other. So Jesus’ talk of moving mountains was something they had seen.

Inside is quite a charming little complex.

You can see how nice this small palace would have been. The curved shape where the pillars are most plentiful is where Herod would have sat enthroned while greeting guests.

More tunnels? Yes, the Herodian has several tunnels worming their down closer to the base of the manmade portion of the mountain.

Next we traveled into Palestinian-occupied territory so that we could visit Bethlehem. This is a picture of graffiti on the partitioning wall surrounding that territory. Was this portrayal of the Lion of Judah coming from an artist with a peaceful heart or an angry tense heart? What do you think? 

Unfortunately, our Israeli tour guide was not allowed to enter this area, so he hitchhiked back to Jerusalem as we saw sites in Bethlehem.

The first site we visited was the hillside where they fancy the shepherds heard the angel chorus. And low and behold! At the foot of that hill shepherds still tend their flocks by day.

This is the shrine which commemorates the message of peace and goodwill.

The inside is beautifully done with lofty space, arches, and painted scenes from that night.

We sang Christmas carols in the beautifully resonant and cavernous space.

Emerging from the shrine we see that it’s only five miles to Jerusalem from Bethlehem.

Next stop is to visit the place they claim Jesus was born. This door way used to be huge, but then Crusaders made it smaller to make it easier to defend, and then Christians made it even smaller so that Muslims couldn't  ride their horses into it.

Inside the dimly lit shrine is a doorway into the grotto where they say He was born. Above that doorway is one of those “put your face in the picture” things. Or so it appeared. On closer inspection there was very dim painting of Mary and Jesus’ faces behind all the bling. That’s a fitting metaphor for much of the pilgrimage sites. You have to look through lots of marble, gold, icons, etc. to catch any glimpse of what they are trying to memorialize.

Here’s another great example. This is supposedly marking the spot where he was born. Doesn’t it look a bit like He came down the chimney? I wonder if the designers were trying to suggest that. The 14-point star on the floor marks the exact location. It takes a very active imagination to strip away all the heavy, glitzy additions to envision the cave that this was. Yet, despite the distraction of so much manmade hoopla and reverential superstition, there is still a sense of reality to being where Jesus actually lived and spoke. It makes you wonder how people can refer to Jesus as a fantasy or a fabrication. But then if some today can claim that the holocaust never happened (and there ARE some who claim that) I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that some say Jesus didn’t exist. So, shrine or no shrine, it is grounding to see these sites that the world has flocked to for centuries.

Notice the Christmas ornaments hung from chandeliers in the larger part of the shrine.

Local Palestinians capitalize on their English-speaking guests to get in a political plug.

Meanwhile the police watch for trouble.

Now is this mangled English or an attempt to fit the Bethlehem theme? “Stars” we understand from the Jesus story, but “Bucks” would have to come from Santa (or if they are American bucks, from tourists.)

Fortunately, they’ve solved the “no room at the inn” problem.