The Hauptmann's: Sun, Nov 7th

Ron and I decided to make some free time for ourselves and go explore. Since the Old City was just around the corner from our hotel we headed there.

This is New Gate into the Arab Christian quarter.

Ronnie, our guide.

First stop was the Mount of Olives to the east of Jerusalem. Mount Scopus (north east), where we were last night is to the right. Jerusalem is surrounded by valleys. To the east of the city and just below the Mount of Olives is the Kidron Valley. The Kidron Valley to the right is called the Valley of Johoshaphat, Joel 3:2, 12-14 it is called the valley of decision where Divine judgement will come upon the nations who afflicted Judah which fits with Matthew 25:31-46. The valley to the south is the Valley of Hinnom or Gehenna where the followers of Ba'al and Moloch sacrificed their children by fire (2 Chr. 28:3). There was the Outer Valley that separated Mount Moriah from Mount Zion. In ancient times there was the Zion bridge connected the palace to the
Temple Mount. Over the centuries vast amounts of rubble and debris has filled up this valley. The western wall of the Temple Mount rose up from the bottom of this valley to the height of 84'. During Jerusalem's long history, it has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52, captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium bc making it one of the oldest cities in the world. Egyptian records dating to 2000 bc references the city.

Ezekiel 43:4 "the glory of the LORD came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east." About 600 bc Ezekiel 44:1-3 prophesied "Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east but it was shut. And the LORD said to me, "This gate shall be shut it shall not be opened and no man shall enter by it, because the LORD God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. Only the Prince may sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; He shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate and shall go out by the same way" The east gate was walled up by Ottoman conquerors under Suleiman in 1530 ad then they put a cemetery in front of it. This was done to prevent the Jewish Messiah from entering through the east gate. But we already know Jesus entered Jerusalem through the East gate (long before it was blocked) Luke 19:28-28. He would have entered through the original gate in the wall which had been destroyed along with the city, by the Romans in 70 ad. The eastern gate is presently considered by the Muslims to be their exclusive property. However one day, the Messiah will land on the Mount of Olives, with all His saints, and walk down and right through the Eastern Gate and into the Temple. The high priest would have walked out the east gate into the Kidron Valley at the first ray of light to get a stalk of grain-1 Corinthians 15:20.

The Lion's Gate is one of the seven open gates in the Old City's walls. The four lions were placed there by Suleiman to celebrate the Ottoman defeat of the Mamluks in 1517. Eight surviving Israeli paratroops came through this gate during the Six Day War of 1967 and unfurled the Israeli flag above the Temple Mount. All of the walls of Jerusalem's Old City were built during the Ottoman Empire under the supervision of Suleiman in 1542. These are not the walls that stood at the time of Jesus.

The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount. The Second Jewish Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 ad. In 637 ad Jerusalem was conquered by the Rashisun Caliphate army during the Muslim conquest of Syria. The Dome of the Rock was erected between 689 and 691 ad. There is actually a rock under the dome. This is the foundation stone, the holiest site in Judaism. Jews pray toward the Foundation Stone and regard it as the site of the Holy of Holies during the Temple Period. The stone is the site where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. It is very interesting how the Catholic church, built on the Mount of Beatitudes, resembles the Dome in shape and structure. Keeping with the Muslim tradition of taking all Jewish sites and making them theirs, Jerusalem, while never visited by Mohamed nor is there mention of the city (Qum) in the Koran, Muslims retroactively gave Jerusalem a role in Mohammed's life, a role that was entirely fictional. The association of Jerusalem with Islam fits into a wider Muslim tendency to identify places with locations they covet and then claim it, and build a mosque to replace whatever was there before-note-the site of 911 in lower Manhattan.

Mount Moriah is where the Temple was located, the city was twice the size of the current Old City.

In the distance is the Hill of Good Hope. This is the traditional burial site of the biblical prophet Samuel. A church was on the site until Muslims claimed it and built a mosque. This hill was used by the Jordanian Arab League to bombard Jewish traffic during the 1948 siege of Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14 holds some incredible prophecy. "Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem...then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as He fights in the day of battle and in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west making a very large valley..." The Mount of Olives seems to be associated with division and separation. Jesus brought His disciples here to pray but separated Himself from them. In scripture Jesus separated Himself from other people to go to the Mount of Olives (John 7:58, 8:1 Luke 21:37-38). Jesus ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives-a bodily separation (Acts 1:9-11). In Matthew 24:3-5, while Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives talking to his disciples He tells them how division will occur, many will be deceived in the name of Christ, nation will rise against nation. He goes on with a series of parables to describe the division. Ezekiel noted the glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it (Ezekiel 11:23). There are some interesting parallels concerning David and Jesus. In II Samuel 15:29-30, 16 David continued up the Mount of Olives weeping and barefoot and riding a donkey. Luke 19:41-44 "as Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city , He wept over it and said, 'If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that would bring you peace but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." After the donkeys were brought to our Lord, He mounted up and rode toward the city.

Since faith is only as good as the person in whom you place it, it is crucial you place your faith in the true Savior. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are synoptic gospels, John however present Jesus in a different light from the other three. A Jewish believer reading the gospel of John and Genesis would think the two are parallel-in the beginning, creation, the separation of light and dark-small light-great light, waters-baptism, God dwelling with mankind. John uses Genesis-like repetitions, "on the first day," John the Baptist is introduced, on the second day Jesus is baptized-God's Spirit moved on the water and brought forth creation, those born of water are of the Spirit-the Spirit moved on the water to bring forth a new creation, the next day Jesus calls His disciples. The first covenant marriage union of Adam and Eve 2nd covenant a new man and new woman at a wedding feast but they are never mentioned. Jesus', first miracle takes place at a wedding wedding. God promises a new covenant with man with His marriage to Israel forever (Hosea 2:20-21). The messianic blessings of the new covenant are symbolized by "new wine." At the Cana wedding, Jesus is presented as the Messiah, the divine bridegroom and provider of the new wine at the wedding feast of the new covenant. Jesus is the new Adam, the firstborn of a new creation. Mary's words "do what ever He tells you" is essentially the same phrase used when Israel accepted the covenant with the Lord on Mt. Sinai, "Everything the Lord has said, we will do." Adam's temptation foreshadows Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. The first time Jesus defeats Satan is not at the cross but in the wilderness, the second time is at the cross and the third time will be His return. Fig leaves are a metaphor for good works-"all good works are like filthy rags"-you become unclean before God when you rely on good works. You do good works because you are saved-not to get saved. Jesus cursed the fig tree because of Israel's works of righteousness concerning the oral law-Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves works to cover their sins. Only His righteousness saves us. Religion is man trying to reach God. The gospels are God trying to reach man.

There are further similarities to Genesis in the book of Revelation which was also written by John.

There are only two instances of someone being Satan possessed, everyone else in the bible was demon possessed. In Judas-who was Satan possessed, the Holy Spirit is telling us something about the anti-christ. Judas and the anti-christ are into money. He possessed Judas and then collected money to betray Jesus. Judas left the Passover just before Jesus made the new covenant (since he wasn't going to make that covenant with Satan). In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus is there, satan is there (in Judas) and there is a naked man (Mark 14:51-52) as in the Garden of Eden. He looses his garments of salvation. John 19:21-"Let these go, I AM He." In Hebrew there is no use of the present tense "I am." When Jesus said I Am, they picked up stones. John 16:6, "they drew back and fell to the ground." Eli fell backward off his chair and died. Falling backward is God's judgement, forward is God's favor. The people demand Barabbas-Barabbas is a picture of us all: the Just for the unjust. Bar Abbas, the son of the Father. We become sons of the Father because Jesus went to the cross in our place. Nicodemus came by night bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloe. Myrrh in the bible was used for one thing: anointing a corpse for burial. When Jesus was born they brought gold because He would be king, incense because he would be a priest, and myrrh because He would die. The place where Jesus was crucified was near a garden. The previous day they were reading Ha Shir Hashirim-to this day in the synagogue on the Saturday of Ha Matzot-Passover week they read Megilla-the Song of Soloman. Chapter 5, "I have come into my garden, my bride, I've gathered my myrrh." In Genesis they were kicked out of the garden.

1Corinthians 15:20, "But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." When you go to sleep you wake up again, the bible speaks of a believer's death as sleep. Lazarus was asleep, Paul says, "do not be overly grieved for the brethren who are asleep." The unsaved die, believers go to sleep. You wake up-the resurrection. The high priest would have walked out of the east gate, into the Kidron Valley at the first ray of light to get one stalk of grain the day after Shabat and wave it before the Lord. The rising of the sun is a metaphor for the rising of the Son. The theme of First Fruits is resurrection and salvation. Several important events happened on this day in the bible. Noah's ark rests on Mount Ararat (Gen 8:4), Israel crosses the Red Sea (Ex 14), Israel eats manna the first fruits of the Promised Land (Joshua 5:10-12), Haman is defeated (Esther 3:1-6), the resurrection of Jesus (John 12:24). Jesus is the First Fruits: the first born, first resurrected, the beginning of the creation of God, alive the first day of the week. The garden: man falls, man is cursed, kicked out, Jesus takes our sin, He is crucified, buried, and rises. John 20 is the resurrection chapter-Jesus is the First Fruits. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb while it was still dark. A woman got the bad news first in the Garden of Eden, a woman gets the good news first in the Garden Tomb, 2 angels sitting at the head where Jesus had been lying-two angels sitting on the Arc of the Lord, angel says leave the garden, God says to Eve, leave the garden. Jesus atones for sin-comes into the garden. We blew it in the garden. Jesus fixes it in the garden. The garden is a midrash-a Hebrew metaphor. God's peace is shalom. Shalom comes from the infinitive of the Hebrew verb, leshalem which means to pay, to fill and fulfill. We have shalom because Jesus came to leshalem, pay the price for our sin, to fill us with his spirit, and fulfill the law.

Gethsemane means the garden of the oil press. The church of All Nations at the Garden of Gethsemane is above. In side this church is enshrined a section of rock where they believe Jesus prayed before his arrest. There was nothing holy about this church. Idolatry-as discussed by a secular resource, Wikipedia, is where an image or object is worshiped as if it is God, the belief that the object of worship is the diety whose power is inside the image, or the use of an idol to worship God. The bible clearly denounces the use of or giving honor to any statue of Jesus, Mary, Joseph or any other dead person, or to pray to anyone other than Jesus, especially the dead. The Catholic Church is idol worship at is greatest. They believe objects-such as water, candles, an altar, cup, vestments, plate, incense, wine, bread...are holy and filled with God's grace and power. People who believe this have been completely conned and brainwashed. How can a human man make anything holy? It is impossible! A human man has NO power to do anything-no more power than you or me. (For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 3:23) There are NO magic words to make water holy. They kneel to statues and say prayers to them as if God is in the statue, they pray to Mary and other dead people. They believe statues cry, bleed, and can heal so they pray to them, they believe if they crawl a certain distance and up these steps that will make them good and closer to God. In this church at that rock people were hysterically crying, rubbing themselves tenderly on the rock, wiping it, kissing it-THAT is idol worship-it is a ROCK-it is not Jesus. A crucifix is an IDOL-you are breaking the Second Commandment. An idol as anything that takes your attention, time, and love away from Jesus-so a car, job, the computer, another person, money, shopping, sport, hobby...

Thought to be Absalom's tomb.

Possibly Zacharias' tomb.

This is Zion gate, also known as David's gate, Bab el-Daoud in Arabic. It is believed the tomb of King David is on Mount Zion. The gate was built in 1540 by Suleiman. Upon entering the gate the Armenian Quarter is straight ahead and the Jewish Quarter to the right. As you can see the gate is heavily pockmarked from the 1948 Arab Israeli War. On Mount Zion stood a Jebusite fortress that was conquered by king David and was renamed City of David. At the time of Jesus this area was the "Upper City" where the Sanhedrin lived. The term Sanhedrin means assembly or council and was the supreme court in ancient Israel. The concept goes back to God commanding Moses to "assemble for Me (Espah-Li) seventy men of the elders of Israel, who you know to be the people's elders and officers," (Numbers 11:16).

Archaeology in Israel has become a political battlefield. For instance, in the early 90's, tunneling under the Temple Mount-clearly a well documented Jewish structure, resulted in rioting and violence in the Muslim areas. Their fear is the remains of Solomon's Temple and the Arc of the Covenant will be found under the Temple Mount. From 1948-1967, the Jordanian authorities and military forces engaged in "calculated destruction" in the Jewish Quater and the Old City. Jordan's policy of wanton vandalism, resulted in all the synagogues being blown up or used as stables, tens of thousands of tombstones dating as early as 1 bc in the ancient historic graveyard on the Mount of Olives were torn out, broken, used for building material in Jordanian military installations, large areas were leveled and used as parking lots. The Temple Mount was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger List by UNESCO because of work carried out by the Islamic Waqf since the late 1990's. They dug huge pits and tunnels to make entrances for an underground Mosque in the Temple Mount. Artifacts from the First Temple Period (960-586 bc) were destroyed when thousands of tons of ancient fill from the site were dumped in the Kidron Valley making it impossible to do an archaeological examination. The Waqf was trying to destroy evidence of Jewish remains. Officials of the Palestinian Authority deny the existence of the Jerusalem Temples.

Much of the Old City was covered in trash from years of occupation. In 1975 the Cardo in the Jewish Quarter was excavated. The cardo was a north-south oriented street in Roman times and an integral component of city planning. It was lined with shops and vendors. After the Jewish rebellion was crushed by Hadrian in the 130's ad, Jerusalem was destroyed. Hadrian built a Roman colony in its place, naming it Colonia Aelia Capitolina. The main north-south thoroughfare, the Cardo, was a paved avenue 22.5 m wide (a six lane highway) which ran from the Damascus Gate to an unknown point. The southern addition to the Cardo was constructed under Justinian in the 6th century ad, extended the road further to connect the Church of the Holy Sephulchre with the new Zion gate. Shaded porticoes were on both sides of the road.

This is a copy of a part of the Madaba Map, a floor mosaic in the Byzantine Church of Saint George at Madaba, Jordan. The Madaba Map is the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and Jerusalem. It dates to the 6th century ad. The mosaic depicts an area from Lebanon to the Nile Delta and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Eastern Desert. The largest and most detailed element is Jerusalem. It is of major use for finding and verifying biblical sites. In 2010, large paving stones were discovered 4 m below ground when infrastructure work was done at Jaffa Gate, further substantiating the map's accuracy.

Oh no, I missed a picture of the shopping area using some of the remaining ancient porticos.

In the middle of the street there are wells looking even further below. The Cardo is 2.5 m under the Ottoman era street which is the current street level. Under the Cardo, from the Byzantine Era, are even earlier layers: pillars from the Hellenistic and Roman periods (1-2 bc) can be seen.

There is a water cistern below that.

Further below that is a wall from the first temple period (8th century bc). As you can see the city at the time of Jesus is a good 20' below street level. Most of what is seen now was built during the Ottoman period using old stones. Religious Christians, not bible reading ones, like to travel along a route called the Via Dolorosa which they say Jesus traveled along. They have marked the street with something called the "14 stations of the cross." The current street configuration does not resemble that of the time of Jesus.

A sign that made Linda and I laugh.

My friend Ely (Ellie)-a temple scribe. I was so excited to meet and get to hang out with him our two days in the Jewish Quarter. He was so sweet even gave me a gift! Besides being in awe of his amazing talent, I learned the coolest thing from him: a name to a Jew is more than just a name, it is an identity and has a deeper meaning, such as Adam-meaning red, blood, earth, man. Names were very important to God, He often changed names or chose a name for a person. A Jewish person is given a verse based on the first and last letter of their name. If the name is Mindel, their verse is Numbers 24:5. The first letter of the first word-Mah, in the verse is Mem. The last letter of the last word in the verse-Yisroel is the letter Lamed. It gives a special verse to pray over a person.

His work, he uses real feather pens. He is super humble too. A group of Hebrew children were standing at the window watching him work and oohing and aahing. I kept saying, "show them the scroll," he was all bashful and wouldn't so I moved it for them to see and they went nuts! A real scroll is a pretty cool thing.

Tefillah and shel rosh or phylacteries, means guard, protect, are the Jewish prayer boxes worn on the head and arm which contain scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses.

The Temple Institute, known in Hebrew as Machon HaMikdash, is an organization focusing on rebuilding the Third Temple. It's aim is to build the third temple on the Temple Mount and reinstate sacrificial worship. They have developed all the actual temple ritual objects, garments, and building plans in accordance to scripture. There are over 90 ritual items used in the temple, the menorah is above. This would all be so sad because they as so blind to the truth of their salvation except for the fact it's all prophesied Matthew 24:1-2, 15, 2 Thessalonians 2;1-4, Daniel 9:26-27, Revelation 13:14-15.

Half of the lintel stone and arch of the Herodian gateway is visible above. Above and to the right is a stone with an inscription mentioning Hadrian's son (138 ad). It's upside position shows it was used in secondary construction.

The original western flight of stairs leading to the main entrance of the Temple Mount was 200' wide. Excavators uncovered the easternmost part of this staircase with its alternating long and short steps. It's possible the 15 Psalms of Ascent were sung on the 15 long steps. This is our very cool group. I miss you guys! The demographics of our group: 4 Australia, 1 Canada, 15 England, 1 Ireland, 2 New Zealand, 2 Scotland, 3 South Africa, 4 US, 1 Wales, 2 Zimbabwe.

The Hulda Gates, this is the double gate, southern section.

A very huge single Herodian stone. The largest stones weighed up to 400 tons. The word rock in Hebrew is eben (pronounced Evan) and is comprised of three characters: the Aleph, the first character in the Hebrew alphabet and represents God or Heavenly Father. The second, Bet, combined with the third, Nun, means Son in Hebrew or Jesus Christ. Stone in Hebrew means the Father and the Son. When we are told in the New Testament (Luke 6:48) to build our house on a rock and not sand, we should build them on a foundation made up of the Father and the Son. The two main features of a rock are solidity and weight. The father gives his children solidity-firm faith in God and the children give their father weight-potency and mass to his presence. Words in the Hebrew language have such a deeper meaning-exactly what the scribe I met was teaching me.

A series of public ritual baths or mikveh were found on the south side of the Temple Mount. Because of the laws regarding purity before entering holy places the demand for the mikveh would have been high. The structures were carved out of the rock.

Caretaker's apartment, a tiny place under a series of walkways and behind debris, tools, and a fig tree.

Original stones from the Temple Mount. The foundation is 20' below ground level. No cement was used. All stones were cut a mile away. The stones fit so well and tight a credit card can't be slipped between them. To keep the walls from buckling each layer was placed about 1/2" in from the layer below.

Future Emperor Titus and Tiberius as second in charge, surround the city with three legions on the western side and a fourth on the Mount of Olives laid siege to the city. Josephus wrote that over 1,100,000 Jews were killed in "indiscriminate carnage" that "legionaries had to clamber over heaps of dead to carry on the work of extermination." How were the Romans able to completely destroy such a massive structure? If limestone is heated it will crack. Water poured on it gets trapped and causes the rock to burst. Hannibal did it in the Alps, he used vinegar-cheap wine. Mount Moriah is one big limestone mountain. There is also a very unique water system under the mountain. The romans went to the Mt. of Olives, cut all the trees, placed them on the temple mount and started a fire. The trees burned for 4 days because of all the oil. The fire was so intense a house burned down 100 m away. The Romans dammed the cisterns. The water under Mount Moriah heats up, building pressure.

The top stone on the southwest corner of the Temple Mount bore an inscription "Lebeith Hatkiah Lehach," to the place of trumpeting." The priests would signal the start of Shabbat and festival days by blowing the shofar from this point. Another stone tossed down by the Legionnaires.

This street dates to decades before the destruction in 70 ad. It was covered with the massive stones from the Temple Walls. The openings would have been where shops were at the base and under the stair case and bridge that connected to the Robinson Arch.

The "Robinson arch" was connected here. It was part of a wide pathway that led from the street level, up through a staircase, over the street, then into the south western entrance of the temple mount. This is one of three bridges that led into the temple.

Stones from the destruction.

The remains of the "Robinson arch" was part of the structure of the bridge and staircase between the temple mount and the lower city.

Security to the western Wall.

The Western Wall, HaKotel (Ko-numerical value of God's name and tel-meaning mount), is a remnant of the ancient wall of the Temple Mount dating to the Second Temple period, 19 bc. There are 17 courses of the wall below street level. The remaining layers were added after the 6th century. After the 1948 Arab Israeli War Jews were barred from the site until Israel captured the Old City in 1967. It is as close to the Temple Mount as Jews are allowed to get. The term Wailing Wall is actually an Arab name for the Western Wall. In 2000 the Palestinian Authority said, "not a single stone in the Wailing Wall is related to Jewish history. The Jews cannot claim this wall religiously or historically. The League of Nations recommended allowing Jews to pray there to keep them quiet." In 2006, "the Jews' connection to the Wall is recent, not ancient like the roots of the Islamic connection." In 2010, the PA Ministry denied Jewish rights to the Wall stating "it is the western wall of Al Aksa Mosque."

Next we went into the western wall tunnel. There is an underground tunnel exposing the full length of the wall. The western wall is one of the 4 retaining wall laying the foundation of the temple mount. In the 1864 two British men started digging shafts and a tunnel. The tunnel exposes the total 485 m of the wall revealing the methods of construction. Charles Wilson dug 150'. The Turks sealed him in. Wilson was able to escape and started digging somewhere else. he kept careful drawings of all he saw. He was looking for Solomon's tunnel under the first temple. Solomon built a series of tunnels and dead ends in which to hide the Arc because he knew the first temple would be destroyed.

The Temple Mount as it looked during the time of Jesus. The Western Wall is the one in the foreground.

This stone is the largest one in the western wall. It has a length of 13.6 meters, estimated width of 4.5 meters and estimated weight of 570 tons.

Along the tunnel are old cisterns, Herodian street, quarry, a series of arches to fill in a valley,

Herodian columns,

and an aquaduct.

The men praying at the Western Wall rock to keep cadence with their prayers. The lady giving us the tunnel tour said the rocking is like the flickering of a flame and the soul is like a wick. She also said of the water system beneath the Temple Mount causes the walls to cry, they are tears.