“From the rising of the sun even to its setting, My Name will be great among the Gentiles,” says Yahweh Sabaoth.

(Malachi 1: 11)

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Anyone Who Thinks Yahweh’s Temple was Not on the Temple Mount will have to Address these Issues

Below are several problems with alternate theories about the location of Yahweh’s Temple. They need to be addressed convincingly:

#1

If Yahweh’s Temple was not on the Temple Mount as most people believe, then someone needs to explain why the paving stones at the base of the southwest corner of the Temple Mount have been crushed by very heavy stones that were tossed off the top of the Temple Mount.

See the picture above the title. Imagine the size of the stones that did the damage to those paving stones. They were huge. Many of the stones are still there.

Antiquities experts sifting through the debris at the base of the southwest corner of the Temple Mount found the stone below:

That’s not an ordinary stone. It was part of the cornerstone of the Temple Mount at the southwest corner. It marked the place where priests would stand when they blew the shofar announcing the arrival of Shabbat. It was thrown off the top of the Temple Mount along with all the other stones.

I don’t think they blew the shofar on Antonia Fortress before each Shabbat.

See “To The Place Of Trumpeting”:

The “house (or place) of trumpeting” indicates the official location where a Temple priest would blow a trumpet (or perhaps a ram’s horn = shofar) to “announce” the beginning and end of the Sabbath and festivals. Thus, the meaning of the second suggested word – “to distinguish” – namely, to distinguish day from night, sacred from profane. This trumpet blast was a signal to the merchants in the marketplace below to close their shops, since business was forbidden on the Sabbath. The 1st century Jewish historian Josephus refers to this practice in passing in his description of Simon of Gerasa’s capture of Jerusalem:

But having the advantage of situation, and having withal erected four very large towers aforehand, that their darts might come from higher places, one at the north east corner of the court, one above the Xystus; the third at another corner, over against the lower city; and the last was erected above the top of the Pastophoria where one of the priests stood of course, and gave a signal beforehand, with a trumpet at the beginning of every seventh day, in the evening twilight: as also at the evening, when that day was finished: as giving notice to the people when they were to leave off work, and when they were to go to work again. (Josephus, The Jewish War 5.9.12)

How did that stone get there if the Temple was not on top of the Temple Mount?

#2

Alternate theories suggest that during the Bar Kochba Rebellion in about 135 AD when Jewish people took control of Jerusalem, they dismantled Antonia Fortress and tossed it over the side.

If the Temple was not on the Temple Mount, the structures that made up Antonia Fortress could have been put to good use. Instead, alternate theories suggest that the Jews took the time and spent the money to wipe the Temple Mount clean.

Why?

#3

As you can see in the picture above the title, tossing the stones off the top of the Temple Mount did a lot of damage to an area at the base of the Temple Mount. That area was in daily use. Why would the Jews do that and why would they not have repaired the damage?

#4

Building the retaining wall around the Temple Mount was a monumental undertaking. Some of the stones in the wall are gigantic. They are much larger than the largest stones in the pyramids. Cutting them and moving them into position with incredible precision took time and a lot of money.

Would Romans spend that much money building a fort? Possibly, but if they did, there should be other examples of Roman forts that cost a fortune to build. Are there any?

#5

If Antonia Fortress was on the Temple Mount and Jewish people razed it to the ground during the Bar Kochba Rebellion, why did they leave a large piece of bedrock sticking up near the center?

Demolishing the exposed bedrock would have been an easy undertaking compared with razing Antonia Fortress, but they left it in place. If it didn’t have value/significance, it would have been an constant eyesore and an obstacle. It would be like leaving a pimple on the end of your nose. Someone needs to explain why it’s still there.

#6

Why did Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik build the Dome of the Rock over the exposed piece of bedrock at great expense? It was the centerpiece of something important, or he would not have built the Dome of the Rock over it.

#7

The artifact in the picture below was found in a pile of rubble at the southern end of the Temple Mount:

This isn’t an ordinary piece of stone. It’s a warning sign:

Two millennia ago, the block served as one of several Do Not Enter signs in the Second Temple in Jerusalem, delineating a section of the 37-acre complex which was off-limits for the ritually impure — Jews and non-Jews alike. Written in Greek (no Latin versions have survived), they warned: “No foreigner may enter within the balustrade around the sanctuary and the enclosure. Whoever is caught, on himself shall he put blame for the death which will ensue.”

How did it get there along with other rubble that was tossed off the top of the Temple Mount?

See “Ancient Temple Mount ‘warning’ stone is ‘closest thing we have to the Temple’”.

#8

Several years ago, Muslims enlarged the capacity of Al-Aqsa Mosque by digging down into the Temple Mount inside the retaining wall surrounding the Temple Mount at the southeast corner. In the process, they did a lot of damage to the retaining wall. Repairs took years to complete.

Thanks to the removal of the fill-dirt behind the retaining wall at the southeast corner, the integrity of the wall was compromised. The damage was so extensive that experts feared it might collapse and kill Muslim worshipers inside.

Below is a picture that I took in 2003 of the repair work underway at the southeast corner of the Temple Mount retaining wall.

During the expansion project, they unearthed tons of debris and dumped it in the Kidron Valley. What the Muslims did was illegal, but for political reasons no one called their hand.

A group of Jewish antiquities experts started The Temple Mount Sifting Project to painstakingly sift through the debris to identify artifacts associated with the Temple. It was a bonanza. They found thousands of artifacts, and they are still sifting through the debris and finding more artifacts.

How did those Temple artifacts get there if the Temple was not on top of the Temple Mount?

See the articles below:

Show Me

We live in a world where anyone can say anything and where anyone who says anything expects to attract a following. As far as I am concerned, if you challenge what most people think is a well-known fact, you have an obligation to prove your case.

Show me the evidence. Simply saying “I’ve figured it out” isn’t good enough. If you think Yahweh’s Temple was not on the Temple Mount, you’ve got some work to do.

I’m sure there are more issues to address. I just haven’t thought of them yet.

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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)