"Jesus the Messiah Returns"
ISBN 1-59196-730-9 at Barnes and Noble .com
"Where Jesus Preached, Taught and Healed"
From boyhood, Jesus visited the Temple. Luke 2:41-51...At times during his ministry he walked daily in the Temple area. Matthew 26:55..He preached, taught and healed in the Temple. Matthew 21:14..........From Jerusalem: The Dead Sea is 14 miles (23 kilometers) east..... The Jordan River is 19 miles (31 kilometers) east.....The Mediterranean Sea is 34 miles (55 kilometers) west.....Bethlehem is 5 miles (8 kilometers) south. ..... Nazareth is 63 miles (102 kilometers) north. .... Samaria is 30 miles (49 kilometers) north. .... Hebron is 19 miles (31 kilometers) south. .... Egypt is 300 miles (485 kilometers) southwest .... Assyria and Babylon are720 miles (1,170 kilometers) east. .... Persia or Iran is 1,050 miles (1,700 kilometers) east. .... Greece is 825 miles (1,340 kilometers) northwest..... Rome is 1,550 miles (2,510 kilometers) northwest.Herod began to build the Temple in 20 B.C. The New Temple was one of the largest and most magnificent building complexes in the ancient world. Some construction was still going on when Jesus preached, taught and healed there. The main building was finished in 9 B.C. Herod employed 1000 priests as masons and carpenters for the inner area, never stopping the Temple services The entire Temple complex was completed in A.D. 64. It was twice as high as Solomon's Temple and was made of white marble. The Eastern front was covered with plates of gold,.a dazzling sight as the bright sun rose over the Mount of Olives. Today the Wailing Wall remains as part of Herod's Western retaining wall. The most impressive feature was the platform which is still in existence today. A walk around this platform would measure as follows: 1601 feet on the west, 530 feet on the east, 1024 feet on the north and 922 feet on the south. ... Around the Temple area were double colonnades. "All the cloisters were double, and the pillars to them belonging were twenty-five cubits in height, and supported -the cloisters. These pillars were of one entire stone each of them, and that stone was white marble; and the roofs were adorned with cedar, curiously graven. The natural magnificence, and excellent polish, and the harmony of the joints in these cloisters, afforded a prospect that was very remarkable; nor was it on the outside adorned with any work of the painter or engraver. The cloisters -(of the outmost court) were in breadth thirty cubits, while the entire compass of it was by measure six furlongs, including the tower of Antonia; those entire courts that were exposed to the air were laid with stones of all sorts" (Josephus -Jewish War 5.5.2
There were eight gates leading into the temple. The two Huldah Gates or "mole" Gates from the south, which passed underneath the Royal Porch. To the east was the Gate of Susa, still visible as the Golden Gate which was walled up by the Byzantines. In the western wall was the main gate named the Gate of Coponius after the first procurator; it was decorated with the golden eagle as a sign that the Temple had been placed under the protection of Rome. Fourteen steps led through the Beautiful Gate to the Court of the women where the poor boxes were, into one of which the widow cast her two mites (Luke 21:1-4). Another fifteen steps led up to the famous Gate of Nicanor, to which Mary had brought the child at the time of his presentation; this led through the Court of the Men to that of the priests, which had in its center the altar for the burnt offerings and to the left of it a large basin called the Brazen Sea resting upon twelve bulls cast in bronze. Further steps led up to the actual Temple, It contained the golden altar at which incense was offered and next to it the seven-branched candelabrum and the table with the twelve loaves of shewbread, which were replaced by fresh ones every sabbath. Behind another large curtain, lay the Holy of Holies, which none except the high priest was allowed to enter, and only on the Day of Atonement. A stone designated the place where once the Ark of the Covenant had stood.
The main entrance from the south led to the court of the Gentiles where everyone could enter. The next court was the court of the women. The Temple was enclosed by a balustrade, and at the entrances to it were warning notices in Greek and Latin , one of them is now in a museum in Istanbul. It says that foreigners have freedom of access provided they do not go beyond the balustrade which no uncircumcised could cross without incurring the death penalty. Notices also forbade anyone entering the Inner Court but the Jewish men - under the pain of death.
The Levites accompanied the daily sacrifice service with songs specifically chosen for the day or holiday. The signal for them to assemble was the clatter when the rake used to clean the altar was dropped when cleaning was finished.... There were a dozen singers, playing nine lyres and two harps. The choir conductor held the cymbals and two trumpeters stood on either side. The children of the singers stood at the foot of the dias. The public sometimes sang with the choir, such as Psalm 118, when the congregation gathered in the courtyard chanted responsively "His mercy endures forever"
THE ALTAR that sat on top of the Rock was made of wood plated with brass and was 30 feet square and 15 feet high.
Herod built the altar on the same large rock that Solomon had used. This large rock is 58 feet by 51 feet and called Rock Moriah. This is the site where Abraham offered Isaac and was part of the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite (Araunah) purchased by David for 600 shekels of gold. David called the place "the House of the Lord God" and designated the Rock as the place for the burnt offering of Israel .... I Chronicles 21,22
The Western (Wailing) Wall is all that remains of the Jerusalem Temple where Jesus ministered. This wall formed part of the Plaza within the Temple area. King Herod's incredible remodeling project continued long after his death. It was finally completed only seven years before the Romans came and destroyed the Temple in 70 AD..
