Temple of Jerusalem

The Temple of Jerusalem is, according to the Torah, the religious building built by the Israélites to shelter the Ark of the Covenant. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times.

Successive temples according to the Bible

  • the First Temple or Temple of Solomon would have been built, according to the Bible, by the king Solomon (with). It was entirely destroyed by Nabuchodonosor II in 586 av. J. - C.

  • the Second Temple was built with the return of the captivity Juif S to Babylon, towards -536. It was finished the March 12th -515.

    • the Temple of Hérode was a massive extension of the second Temple , including a restoration of the Mont of the Temple. It was initiated by Hérode Ier Large the towards -19. This Temple was destroyed by Titus in 70, it remains about it today like vestige only the Western Wall said Wailing Wall.
However, this term of Wailing Wall is unsuitable. It was imposed on the wire time by anti-semites mediums which wanted to depict the Jews as being crybabies. The term “ Western Mur” is the suitable term, on the one hand because it is the exact translation of Hebrew Kotel hamaaravi , on the other hand because this wall is indeed the western wall of the Temple destroyed into 70 of our era.

Archaeological data on the Temple of Jerusalem

Archaeological data on the First Temple

  • We do not have any archaeological data on the Temple of Solomon . The name even of king Solomon does not appear nowhere, at the time of its reign, in the archaeological documents of the Middle East. However, as the house of David (i.e. his dynasty) is mentioned on the Stèle of Such-daN, archeology does not question the existence of a kingdom of Solomon with Jerusalem like capital. Only the extended of this kingdom poses a true problem. The most recent analyzes of the population of Jerusalem, made starting from the statement of the position of the tombs and their datings, result in thinking that the Jerusalem of Solomon, like that of David, had the size of a village of mountain, located at the site of what is called the Cité of David . If Solomon actually built a Temple in Jerusalem, it was not certainly about a vast construction.

  • the first archaeological trace proving the existence of a Temple in Jerusalem is indirect. On three sites, the fortress of Arad, Such Beersheba and Lakish, one noted that places of worship in activity in -800 (equipment for the sacrifices) are desacralized in -700. This observation proves that the will not to take place of decentralized sacrifices, will proclaimed in the Bible, is indeed in practice into -700. This practical application, at the same time, proves clearly that there exists a central Temple with Jerusalem towards -700, although there does not remain any material trace of the building. At the time of Ézéchias, Jerusalem became an important city and it is completely logical that a Temple of great proportions is there in activity.

Hard copies of the present, construction of the Second Temple

  • Between -800 and -700 one observes a rapid development of the writing, which accompanies the elimination of illiteracy by the population. Under Ézéchias (- 715, -687), the boring of the tunnel of SILOE, commemorated by an inscription engraved in the rock, is mentioned in the Bible: the present now leaves hard copies and the biblical accounts will have from now on a precise historical base. It is not at all the case when the writers of the Bible describe a mythical past where the writing did not exist at the Jews: neither the account of the Exodus, neither that of the conquest of Canaan, nor those of the reigns of David and Solomon have a precise historical base.

  • Jerusalem, with its First Temple, is destroyed by Nabuchodonosor II in -586. Part of the population-a quarter according to what the excavations allow of estimate-is exiled in Babylon. But Babylonia crumbles under the attack of Cyrus, founder of the Perse empire, which releases the prisoners into -538 and authorizes the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem. The Josué priest, to the return of exile, directs the construction of the Second Temple, which is completed into -516 according to Israel Finkelstein. The sources independent of the Bible thus confirm, essentially, the biblical account.

Archaeological data on the Temple of Hérode

  • Hérode Ier Large the carries out gigantic alteration work, building “with the Roman” an immense esplanade: the hill of origin was girdled of an enormous retaining wall, entirely levelled interior surface then filled with embankment. At the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, in 70, the Romans entirely shave the Temple of Hérode. After the defeat in 132 of a last rebellion led by Bar Kokheba, Jerusalem is prohibited to the Jews into 135 and one Roman city is built on the ruins of the Jewish city.

  • In 638, Jerusalem is conquered by armies from Arabia. “ Your lives will be saved, your protected goods, your respected churches as a long time as you will pay the tribute ”, said the caliph Omar (see http://www.aidh.org/faits_documents/jerusalem/jerusal.html). Temple of Hérode, destroyed by the Romans 568 years before, it remained only the Wailing Wall, which is respected during the construction of the Mosquée Al-Aqsa, set up on the ruins of the Jewish temple.

Structure according to the Bible

The structure of the Temple of Solomon and the invaluable materials used are described in particular in the first Book of the Kings (6,1-22). The prototype of this Temple is the portable device protecting the Ark of the Covenant as described in the Pentateuque. This model will be taken again for the Second Temple.

The Temple has a concentric structure, with public parts and parts increasingly more crowned and always more rarely accessible. In the sanctuary of the Temple, the “Holy of Holies ”, is preserved the Ark of the Covenant with, inside, the Tables of the Law (stones engraved with the text of the Ten Commands transmitted by God to Moïse on the Mont the Sinai, during the Exode).

The Temple includes/understands moreover gantries, furnace bridges (perfumes, sacrifices of animals), basins of Ablution.

The Temple of Jerusalem and three great monotheisms

Judaism

The destruction of the second Temple and the end of the sacrifices and priesthood marked a crucial stage in the constitution of the " judaïsme" such as it today is known, with a practice of the nonsacrificial public worship but centered on the Book (worship synagogal), in addition of the family worship.

The Kotel or Western Wall known as Wailing Wall, place of prayers and pilgrimages since the destruction of the second Temple, became since 1967 like a vast synagog with open sky, with a section reserved to the men and a section reserved to the women.

For the majority, the religious Jews abstain from putting the foot on the Esplanade of the Mosques, site of the Temple, to avoid putting the foot on the crowned site of the Holy of Holies. Indeed the Mount of the Temple is regarded as the first holy place of the Judaism (followed Tombeau of the Patriarchs).

A possible rebuilding of the Temple, the Third Temple , is promoted and prepared by certain groups and is disputed by other currents of the Judaism. This question is related to that of Messianic waiting. (A rebuilding had been tried by the emperor Julien the Apostate, but it was ruined by an earthquake; one lends to Napoleon i a similar intention.)

Christianity

The Temple is mentioned in the New Testament: Jesus Christ was presented there ritually like oldest son, went there in pilgrimage with Marie and Joseph (episode of the " covering in Temple" , Jesus child speaking to the Doctors), purified it by driving out the merchants, cried his destruction in advance.

The Temple belonged to the advanced elements at the time of the lawsuit of Jesus. At the time of its Passion, according to the Gospels, the curtain of the Temple tore at the very moment of died of Christ.

The Apôtres continued to attend the Temple after its miraculous resurrection. When Jerusalem became a Christian city, the site even of the Temple, ruined, was left in the state but a church " Holy-Marie-the-Neuve" , commemorating the Presentation of Jesus to the Temple, was built at the edge of the esplanade; it will be destroyed by the Moslems who built with the same place the El-Aqsa mosque.

The Croisés installed there their king Baudoin Ier. Then, the Templiers transformed it into house den mother and seat of their kind. They made there build a church, with the sloping roofs and not in terrace. Jerusalem was their capital and it is starting from the Temple of Jerusalem that this Christian order of knighthood took the name of Ordre of the Temple (1129-1312).

While recognizing in the site of the Temple a holy place, the Christianisme does not formulate a claim on this place. The " center monde" Christian in Jerusalem is not any more the Temple but a point, materialized (called " Compas" or " Omphalos") in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, halfway between the Golgotha and the vault of the Tomb. More basically, each baptized becomes " Temple of the Saint" Spirit; and the " presence; matérielle" most perfect of God is, for the catholics and the orthodoxe ones, in the Eucharistie.

Certain American Christian groups evangelic support the Jewish groups promoting the construction of a Third Temple.

Islam

The Mosque Al-Aqsa (" the lointaine") is one of the principal holy places of the Islam (after the mosque of Mecque and that of Médine). It has a form characteristic of the mosques, with a cupola in the silver plated beginning, and which is currently blackened by oxidation.

The Dome of the Rock, covered with a gilded cupola, is one of the most famous monuments of Jerusalem. It overhangs the rock that Mahomet visited and directed (Imam) the Prière with all the Prophètes and Messagers that Allah had sent on ground since Adam. It is also the place from where it flew away towards the paradise, crossing the 7 ciels, on the winged horse Bouraq, to meet Allah which during this visit ordered to him to make the Prière 5 times per day. This Voyage is known at the Moslems by Isra and Miraj or the night Voyage.

The Qibla , direction of the Moslem prayer was directed towards Jerusalem at the beginning of the prophetic mission of Mahomet, before being definitively modified by Allah towards Mecque in order to put to the test the faith believers.

The Coran never mentions explicitly Jerusalem. However, according to a common interpretation, one of its verses would indicate this city like the place of the night voyage of Mahomet: Glory and Purity with That which of night, made travel Its servant Muḥammad (Mahomet), of Mosquée Al-Haram (with Mecque) with the Mosquée Al-Aqsa (" the lointaine") (with Jerusalem) We blessed the surrounding, in order to show to him some of Our wonders. It is Him, really, which are Auditent, the Clear-sighted one (Sourate 17: Al-Isra (the night Voyage); Verse 1).

Lastly, according to some exégètes of Islam, the site of the Temple of Jerusalem is related at the end of times, or more precisely to the return of Jesus, as well as the judéo nazaréens which made use of Arabic as back-up troops in order to take again Jerusalem thought it: Jesus, wire of Marie will return by the " Carry Dorée" , name of the 8th door of Jerusalem (walled today) which gives on the Esplanade of the mosques and faced the Mount of Olives). The balances of the Last Jugement (religion) will be suspended on the gantries which surround the Dome of the Rock.

Internal bonds

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