Temple in Jerusalem
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The Temple in Jerusalem or the Holy Temple (Hebrew: בית המקדש, transliterated Bet HaMikdash) was the primary resting place of the divine presence (shechina) in the physical world according to classical Judaism. It was located on the Temple Mount (Har HaBayit) in the old city of Jerusalem.
The first temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century BCE and was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. It was rebuilt seventy years later, in about 515 BCE, was renovated by Herod in about 20 BCE, and was subsequently destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.
It was the center of ancient Judaism and has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. There is currently a mosque on the temple site, and the only part of the temple complex still standing is the outer western wall (Kotel Hamaaravi). Orthodox and Conservative Judaism anticipate the Third Temple being built in the future.
The temple replaced the Tabernacle of Moses and the Tabernacles at Shiloh, Nov, and Givon.
[edit] Etymology
The Hebrew name given in Scripture for the building is Beit HaMikdash or "The Holy House", and only the Temple in Jerusalem is referred to by this name. The temple is also called by a variety of other names in the Hebrew Bible, such as Beit Adonai (House of God) or simple Beiti (My house) or Beitechah (Your House).
[edit] First and Second Temples
Image:TempleJerusalem.jpg Two distinct Temples, sometimes counted judiciously as three, stood in succession on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem:
- Solomon's Temple was built in the 10th century BCE (approximately 960 BCE) to replace the Tabernacle. It was destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, and thus stood for about 375 years. (Talmudic tradition gives the number as 410 years.)
- The Second Temple was built after the return from the Babylonian Captivity. The return took place around 535 BCE, and, after a number of delays, the Temple was completed in 515 BCE. The dimensions of the Temple Mount were then 150 metres x 50 metres : Hecateus of Abdere or pseudo-Hecateus of Abdere, transmitted by Josephus and Eusebius of Caesarea (Contra Appium : 1/22 ; Evangelic. Preparation : 9/4).
This second Temple was desecrated by the Roman general Pompey, when he entered it after taking Jerusalem in 63 BCE. According to Josephus (living at the Court of the Roman Emperor), Pompey did not remove anything from the Temple or its treasury. (But according to the indignant reaction of the Pseudepigraphic Litterature : Sybillic Oracles, Pescher of Habacuc, Qumran Rolls and Psalms of Solomon the Temple seemed to have been profaned and looted by Pompey).
- Herod's Temple was a complete rebuilding of the entire Temple complex, including extending the Temple Mount :
Herod the Great began his expansion project around 19 BCE : In order to build a completely new Temple in a larger and grander version, and before beginning the building of it, the second (Zorobabel-Hasmonean) Temple was completely destroyed (including its Foundations) by Herod : Cf. : Historian Flavius Josephus (of a Jewish Priestly Family of Jerusalem in the first Century, Governor of Galilee during the war against the Romans and eye-witness of the fall of Jerusalem and of the destruction of the Herodian Temple :) : Judaic Antiquities : 15/14 : and this information was confirmed, a few centuries later, by the Babylonian Talmud : Order Neziqin : Tractate Baba Bathra : 3b.
Therefore the Herodian Temple should be judiciously named the third Temple.
For full precise quotations, on this specific subject, of Flavius Josephus and of the Babylonian Talmud, one can consult Natan’s Book on-line at : www.jerusalem-4thtemple.org
The Herodian Temple was destroyed by Roman Empire troops under general Titus in 70 CE.
During the last revolt of the Jews against the Romans in 132-135, Bar Kochba and Rabbi Akiba (main architect of the Mishnah) wanted to rebuild the Temple : but Bar Kochba never succeeded to settle in Jerusalem, (see Letters of Bar Kochba).
A further effort at rebuilding the Temple took place in 363 when the Roman Emperor Julian ordered to restore the Jewish Sanctuary in Jerusalem : but this project failed.
[edit] Rebuilding the Third Temple
Ever since its destruction in 70 AD, Jews have always prayed that God will allow for the rebuilding of the Temple. This prayer is a formal part of the thrice daily Jewish prayer services.
The question surrounding the notion of NOT rebuilding The Third Temple is compounded by controversy and debate.
But all the last chronological Books of the Old Testament (Ezra, Nehemiah, Aggee, Zacharie) urge insinstently the Jews to rebuild their Temple destroyed by Nabuchedanazar and to restore gloriously the Jewish Cult .
And, in the same way, Rabbi Akiba, the main architect of the Mishnah, suffered the worse martyr for having supported with all his heart in 132-135 the attempt of Bar Kochba to rebuild the Temple destroyed by Titus.
[edit] Physical Layout
According to the Talmud, the Temple had an Ezrat Nashim (Women's Court) to the east and main area to the west. The main area contained the butchering area for the sacrifices and the Mizbaeach (Outer altar) on which portions of most offerings were burned and blood was poured or dashed. An edifice contained the Ulam (antechamber), the Heichal, and the Kodesh Kodashim (Holy of Holies. The Heichal and the Kodesh Kodashim were separated by a wall in the First Temple and two curtains in the Second Temple. The Heikhal contained the Menorah, the table of Showbread and the Incense alter.
The main courtyard had thirteen gates. On the south side, beginning with the southwest corner, there were four gates: Shaar Ha'Elyon (the Upper Gate); Shaar HaDelek (the Kindling Gate), where wood was brought in); Shaar HaBechorot (the Gate of Firstborn, where people with first-born animal offerings entered and fathers and children entered for the Pidyon HaBen ceremony); Shaar HaMayim (the Water Gate, where the Water Libation entered on Sukkot). On the north side, beginning with the northwest corner, there were four gates: Shaar Yechonyah (The Gate of Yechonyah, where kings of the Davidic line enter and Yechonyah/Yehoyachin left for the last time to captivity); Shaar HaKorban (The gate of the Offering, where priests entered with kodshei kodashim offerings); Shaar HaNashim (The Women's Gate, where women entered into the Azaryah or main courtyard to perform offerings<ref>Sheyibaneh Beit Hamikdash:Women in the Azarya?</ref>); and Shaar Hashir (The Gate of Song, where the Levites entered with their musical instruments). On the east side was Shaar Nikanor, the Nikanor Gate between the Women's Courtyard and the main Temple Courtyard, which had two minor doorways, one on its right and one on its left. On the western wall, which was relatively unimportant, there were two gates that did not have any name.
[edit] The Temple in the writings of the Prophets
The Biblical prophets used florid and sometimes explicitly anthropomorphic imagery to describe visions of a mysterious presence of God occupying the Temple.
Isaiah wrote "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the Temple." (Isaiah 6:1). Jeremiah implored "Do not dishonor the throne of your glory" (Jeremiah 14:21) and referred to "Thou throne of glory, on high from the beginning, Thou place of our sanctuary" (Jeremiah 17:12). Ezekiel spoke of "the glory of the God of Israel was there [in the Sanctuary], according to the vision that I saw in the plain."
Isaiah spoke of the importance of prayer as well as sacrifice in the Temple, and of a universal purpose:
- Even them will I bring to my My holy mountain, and make joyful in My house of prayer,
- Their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon Mine alter
- For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. ([[Isaiah 56:7, JPS translation).
- "My House shall be a house of prayer for all peoples." (Isaiah 56:7)
[edit] Temple Services
The Temple was the place where where offerings described in the course of the Hebrew Bible were carried out, including daily morning and afternoon offerings and special offerings on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. Levites recited Psalms at appropriate moments during the offerings, including the Psalm of the Day, special psalms for the new month, and other occasions, the Hallel during major Jewish holidays, and psalms for special sacrifices such as the "Psalm for the Thanksgiving Offering" (Psalm 100).
As part of the daily offering, a prayer service was performed in the Temple which was used as the basis of the traditional Jewish (morning) service to recited this day, including well-known prayers such as the Barchu, the Shema, and the Priestly Blessing. The Mishna describes it as follows:
- The superintendent said to them, recite the Barchu, and they read the Ten Commandments, and the Shema, "And it shall come to pass if you will hearken", and "And [God] spoke...". They pronounced three benedictions with the people present: "True and firm", and the "Avodah" {"Accept, Lord our God, the service of your people Israel, and the fire-offerings of Isreal and their prayer receive with favor. Blessed is He who receives the service of His people Israel with favot" (similar to what is today the 17th blessing of the Amidah))), and the Priestly Blessing, and on the Sabbath they recited one blessing ["May He who causes His name to dwell in this House, cause to dwell among you love and brotherliness, peace and friendship"] on behalf of the [weekly] Priestly Guard that departed. (Mishna Tamid 5:1).
[edit] Role in Jewish services
As noted above, the heart of the traditional Jewish morning service, the part surrounding the Shema prayer, is essentially unchanged from the daily worship service performed in the Temple. In addition, recitation of the Amidah prayer, which traditionally replaces the Temple's daily tamid and special-occasion Mussaf (additional) offerings, must be recited today during the times that the offerings they substitute for were performed in the days of the Temple, in both Orthodox and Conservative Judaism.
The Temple is mentioned extensively in Orthodox services, and, to a lesser degree, in Conservative ones as well.
[edit] Orthodox Judaism
Mentions in Orthodox Jewish services include:
- A daily study session of biblical and talmudic passages related to the korbanot (sacrifices) performed in the Temple. (See korbanot in siddur)).
- References to the restoration of the Temple and sacrificial worships in the daily Amidah prayer, the central prayer in Judaism.
- A traditional personal plea for the restoration of the Temple at the end of private recitation of the Amidah.
- A prayer for the restoration of the "house of our lives" and the shekhinah (divine presence) "to dwell among us" is recited during the Amidah prayer.
- Recitation of the Psalm of the day (the psalm sung by the Levites in the Temple for that day) during the daily morning service.
- Numerous psalms sung as part of the ordinary service make extensive references to the Temple and Temple worship.
- Recitation of the special Jewish holiday sacrifices, and prayers for the restoration of the Temple and their offering, during the Mussaf services on Jewish holidays.
- An extensive recitation of the special Temple service for Yom Kippur during the service for that holiday.
- Special services for Sukkot (Hakafot) contain extensive (but generally obscure) references to the special Temple service performed on that day.
The destruction of the Temple is mourned on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av. Three other minor fasts (Tenth of Tevet, 17th of Tammuz, and Third of Tishrei), also mourn events leading to or following the destruction of the Temple.
[edit] Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism retains mentions of the Temple but removes references to the restoration of sacrifices. The study session of Temple sacrifices is removed or replaced, the passages in the daily Amidah, the weekday Torah service, and elsewhere referring to restoration of the Temple are retained but references to sacrifices are removed. References to sacrifices on holidays are retained, but made in the past tense, and petitions for their restoration are removed. Special holiday services, such as special prayers at Yom kippur and Sukkot, are retained in Conservative prayer books, but are often abbreviated or omitted by Conservative congregations. Some Conservative Congregations omit all references to sacrifices, and the Conservative Sim Shalom prayer book has alternate versions of the Amidah prayer, a version mentioning sacrifices in the past tense and one without reference to sacrifices at all.
Conservative Judaism has retained the four fasts relating to the destruction of the Temple, although only Tisha B'Av is widely observed.
[edit] Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism
Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism have removed all direct references to the Temple, although some indirect or ambiguous references (e.g. "Happy are those who dwell in your House", Psalm 84:5) are retained.
The Reform movement in the United States has taken to calling its places of worship, not synagogues or shuls, but temples. This is due to their belief that when prayer replaced sacrifice as a the main mode of Jewish worship and that in a world where that is the case, there is no need for The Temple, only temples.
[edit] Modern controversy over location of the Temple site
In 1999 Dr. Ernest L. Martin published a controversial book called The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot based upon the idea of Ory Mazar, son of Professor Benjamin Mazar of Hebrew University. In 1995 Dr. Martin wrote a draft report to support this theory. He wrote: "I was then under the impression that Simon the Hasmonean (along with Herod a century later) moved the Temple from the Ophel mound to the Dome of the Rock area."
However, after studying the words of Josephus concerning the Temple of Herod, which was reported to be in the same general area of the former Temples, he then read the account of Eleazar who led the final contingent of Jewish resistance to the Romans at Masada which stated that the Roman fortress was the only structure left by 73 C.E. "With this key in mind, I came to the conclusion in 1997 that all the Temples were indeed located on the Ophel mound over the area of the Gihon Spring". This theory implied that Judaism was fighting to preserve the wrong location, which in turn sparked reactions from Muslims.
The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot by Dr. Martin was made even more controversial due to the fact that he had previously spent five years engaged in excavations near the Western Wall in a joint project between Hebrew University and Ambassador College, publisher of The Plain Truth magazine edited by Herbert W. Armstrong.
While Dr. Martin's theory is decidedly outside mainstream, he has brought attention to the fact that most modern reconstructions of the Herodian Temple Complex are in direct conflict with the eyewitness accounts given by Josephus. For example, in both Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War Josephus states that the Temple enclosure was a square with each side being a stade (about 180 metres). This corresponds neither with the size nor shape of current Haram structure that is generally accepted as being the remains of the outer temple enclosure. While one could easily forgive Josephus for an moderate error in estimating lengths, one finds it hard to imagine that he could not distinguish a square from the Haram's irregular quadralateral containing only one right angle.
In 2006 N. Natan conducted a demonstration based on the Study of the Haram rocky underground Water System which revealed itself as having been the grandiose WaterTower of the Temple, in order to provide the Sanctuary with puriying living Waters conveyed by aqueduct from the sources of Etam (Tractate Middoth, and Tractate Yoma in Talmud of Jerusalem and in Babylonian Talmud) (See also Aristeas). These Purifying Waters required by Biblical Prescriptions for the Cult flowed by sole gravitation into the Mikwehs of the Grand-Priest, located at the UPPER storey of the Parvah Chamber in the Temple (Tractate Middoth), and in the Mikvehs of the Priests among which was the huge brazen laver ; and, in any case, the use of any transfering recipient for purifying immersion waters was strictly forbidden (Tractate Mikwaoth).
The Natan Study scientifically demonstrates that the Temple could only stand downstream of its gigantic underground Water Tower (capacity 50 millions liters), that is to say downstream of the nowadays Haram (which was previously the ancient Jewish Citadel which dominated and protected the Temple).
See all references and documentation at www.jerusalem-4thtemple.org
[edit] Archaeological evidence
Archaeological excavations have found one hundred mikvaot (ritual immersion pools) surrounding the area known as the Temple Mount or Har HaBayit. This is strong evidence that this area was considered of the utmost holiness in ancient times and could not possibly have been a secular area. However, it does not establish where exactly within the area was the Temple located.
[edit] Recent artifact controversy
On December 27, 2004, it was reported in the Toronto-based The Globe and Mail that the Israel Museum in Jerusalem concluded that the ivory pomegranate that everyone believed had once adorned a scepter used by the high priest in Solomon's Temple was a fake. This artifact was the most important item of biblical antiquities in its collection. It had been part of a traveling exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in 2003. Experts fear that this discovery is part of an international fraud in antiquities. The thumb-sized pomegranate, which is a mere 44 mm in height, bears an inscription incised around the shoulder of the pomegranate in small paleo-Hebrew script. Only 9 characters remained complete, and were incomplete - if any sense were to be made of the inscription, it seemed likely that several more were missing. The surviving part of the inscription was transcribed לבי...ה קדש כהנם (Only the lower horizontal stroke of the yod and the upper horizontal stroke of the ה he remain).
The following restoration of missing letters was proposed: לבית יהוה קדש כהנם
This reconstruction resulted in the following transliteration, now accepted by the vast majority of scholars: lby[t yhw]h qdš khnm, which led to the translation: "Belonging to the Temp[le of Yahw]eh, holy to the priests."
[edit] References
Talmud Bavli (Schottenstein Edition), Masechet Shekalim, 6:2 (17a). Mishnayoth: Seder Kodashim. Translated and annoted by Phillip Blackman. Judaica Press, 2000
[edit] Further reading
Important Articles on the subject of the location of the Jerusalem Temple are found in the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review, in the following issues: July/August 1983, November/December 1989, March/April 1992, July/August 1999, September/October 1999, March/April 2000, September/October 2005. Several of these articles support the theory of Professor Asher Kaufman that the Temple was located on the Temple Mount, but a bit to the north of the Dome of the Rock (which actually was "The Stone of Losses" in the days of the Second Temple).
[edit] See also
- Western Wall
- Al-Aqsa Mosque
- Dome of the Rock
- Solomon's Temple, or First Temple.
- Second Temple
- The Third Temple
- Leontopolis
- Summary of Christian eschatological differences
[edit] References
<references/>
- www.jerusalem-4thtemple.org [1]
[edit] External links
- Resources > Jerusalem
- Resources > Second Temple and Talmudic Era > Second Temple Jerusalem Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Emperor Julian the Apostate (r. 361-363 CE) plan to rebuild the Temple
- Julian the Apostate and the Holy Temple
- Location of Temples
- Jewish Temple to be Rebuilt?
- Haaretz article describing contemporary Muslim views
- See Powerpoint of Temple Mount
- The Temples of Jerusalem in Islam Qur'anic and other references analyzed, by Martin Kramer
- Paul,The Temple And New Covenant Sacrifices
- Seek Out the Welfare of Jerusalem Analytical studies by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson on the Rambam's rulings concerning the construction and the design of the Beis HaMikdosh.
- www.Tempelmodell.de Reconstruction of the second Temple
- jerusalem-4thtemple.org [2]de:Israelitischer Tempel
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