The historical past of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Second Jewish temple
A supply of main resentment within the Israeli-Palestinian battle is the non secular divide between the Israeli Jewish individuals and the Palestinian Muslims. This resentment stems from the truth that Jerusalem, one of many holiest websites in each Judaism and Islam stays the bone of competition behind the battle. The Temple Mount, the holiest website in Judaism the place Jews flip in direction of throughout prayer is within the Old City of Jerusalem. The Temple Mount complicated is residence to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest website in Islam, the Western Wall, the holiest place the place Jews are allowed to worship, and the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine that’s immediately recognizable due to its gold-plated dome.
However, earlier than the development of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, there was a grand Jewish temple on the identical location on the Temple Mount. This Jewish Holy Temple, referred to as the Second Temple, was the holiest Jewish website of worship till it was destroyed by the Roman Empire within the 70 A.D. as punishment for a Jewish revolt. The Second Temple was constructed in 516 BCE after the First Temple or Solomon’s temple was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE.
The Foundation Stone, the holiest website for the Jews at current, is situated on the ground of the Dome of the Rock. However, the Jews will not be allowed to go to it because it situated contained in the Islamic shrine.
The Western Wall, which is now the holiest website Jews are allowed to worship because of the restrictions on entry to Temple Mount, is a remnant of the retaining wall erected by King Herod as a part of the enlargement of the Second Jewish Temple. There is intensive bodily proof confirming the existence of the Second Temple on Temple Mount.
Evidence confirming the existence of a Jewish temple on Temple Mount
In 1871, a stone pill engraved with Greek letters was found close to a courtroom on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This stone pill was recognized by French archaeologist Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau as being the Temple Warning inscription. The stone inscription outlined the prohibition prolonged unto those that weren’t of the Jewish nation to proceed past the soreg (a low wall) separating the bigger Court of the Gentiles and the inside courts. The inscription goes on for seven strains.
Jerusalem Temple Warning InscriptionThe translation reads, “Let no foreigner enter within the parapet and the partition which surrounds the Temple precincts. Anyone caught [violating] will be held accountable for his ensuing death.” Today, the stone is preserved in Istanbul’s Museum of Antiquities. The inscription confirms the existence of a temple past a shadow of a doubt. A partial fragment of a much less well-made model of the inscription was present in 1936 by J. H. Iliffe, who was Keeper of the Palestine Archaeological Museum from 1931-48, through the excavation of a brand new highway outdoors Jerusalem’s Lions’ Gate. The inscription is now held within the Israel Museum.
Another historic inscription, referred to as the Trumpeting Place inscription, was partially preserved on a stone found under the southwest nook of the Temple Mount. The inscription reveals two full phrases and a 3rd incomplete phrase within the Hebrew alphabet. The translation of the 2 full phrases reads, “To the Trumpeting Place”. This has been interpreted as belonging to a spot on the Mount described by the 1st-century historian Josephus, “where one of the priests to stand and to give notice, by sound of trumpet, in the afternoon of the approach, and on the following evening of the close, of every seventh day…” carefully resembling what the Talmud says.
The numerous partitions and gates surrounding the Temple Mount, constructed by King Herod are all proof of the Second Jewish Temple. These partitions and gates embrace, the Western Wall, the Southern Wall, Robinson’s Arch and even buildings like Solomon’s Stables are all proof of the existence of the Second Jewish temple.
On September 25, 2007, Yuval Baruch, an archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority introduced the invention of a quarry compound which can have offered King Herod with the stones to construct his Temple on the Temple Mount. Coins, pottery, and an iron stake discovered proved the date of the quarrying to be about 19 BCE. Archaeologist Ehud Netzer confirmed that the massive outlines of the stone cuts are proof that it was an enormous public challenge labored by lots of of slaves.
The Magdala Stone, a carved stone block unearthed by archaeologists from an historic synagogue, dates earlier than the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D. It is notable for detailed carvings depicting the Second Temple, carvings made whereas that Temple nonetheless stood and due to this fact assumed to have been made by an artist who had seen the Temple earlier than it was destroyed by the Roman army. Some archaeologists describe the carvings as enabling a brand new, scholarly understanding of the synagogue conceptualized as a sacred area even through the interval whereas the Temple was nonetheless standing.
All of the above-mentioned inscriptions, stone tablets, and so forth. are proof of the existence of a Jewish Holy temple on Temple Mount, lots of of years earlier than the Al-Aqsa Mosque, or the Dome of the Rock, or any Islamic presence for that matter. The thought of spiritual Palestinian nativism is inaccurate as a result of it ignores the historic actuality of Jerusalem’s Jewish roots.
According to Jew Theology associated to occasions related to the top of days, a Third Temple can be constructed the place as soon as the Second Temple stood. Several makes an attempt had been made prior to now to assemble the Third Temple, however they weren’t profitable, and several other Jew organisations have been shaped in fashionable occasions with the objective of developing the temple. Israeli Jews maintain speaking about constructing a Third Temple on Temple Mount to succeed the First Temple and the Second Temple, and it stays a significant topic of rigidity between Muslims and Jews within the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian battle.
Even although the Jerusalem metropolis is a part of Israel since 1967, the Islamic Shrines situated on Temple Mount are managed by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. Moreover, presently the Israeli authorities prevents non-Muslims from getting into the world as a safety measure.