Sunday, June 3

This was a relatively easy day.  We did not have to be down for breakfast until 7 AM, only walked about 3 miles today and visited 2 bible sites.

The first stop was down near the South West corner of the Temple Mount.  Here we saw the other end of the Western Wall (saw the Northern end during the tunnel hike a few days ago).  It was above this point that the pinnacle of the temple mount was located.  A couple of items made this very interesting.  First here you could see large blocks which had been pushed from the top of the temple mount by the Romans when they destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.  You could tell they were from the wall because they had that same chiseled pattern on them.  Second, they were sitting on the original road surface that would have been used in Jesus’ time.  It is along this road that merchants would have had stalls set up to sell food as well as animals for sacrifice.

Around the corner is the southern entrance to the Temple Mount called the pilgrims entrance since this is where most visitors to the Temple would enter.  At the bottom of the steps are over 40 ceremonial bathing pools.  Worshipers had to spiritually cleanse themselves before entering the temple area.  They think the idea of baptism evolved from this practice.  The steps to the entrance were intentionally cut unevenly – different heights, different depths, etc – so that you had to concentrate on the walk up and not just casually climb them. 

It is believed that after Jesus ascended into Heaven (from the Mt of Olives), his disciples returned to the temple area to praise God.  The bible says that ‘they were together in the house’ but as I’ve been learning here almost all words from the time had multiple meanings and they often referred to the temple as ‘the house’.  It makes sense because it says that after the Holy Spirit descended on them they went out in front of the people there in Jerusalem from all over and began speaking and all heard them in their own language.  The main place that pilgrims from all over would have assembled in an area big enough to hold them (their streets are the size of small alleys) would be on the pilgrim gate steps.

After this we were free to go explore Jerusalem however we wanted.  A group of us decided to head over to the Israeli Museum where they have a 1:50 scale model of the city of Jerusalem as it would have been in 66 AD just before it was destroyed by Romans.  It also houses a sample of the dead sea scrolls.

Pictures and more to follow…