11-17-08

 

Sanhedrin—the Supreme Court of 71

Rachel Imance

Jerusalem, Israel 93228

Email:  info@thesanhedrin.org

 

Temple Institute

19 Misgav Ladach

Old City, Jerusalem, Israel 97500

Email:  temple@temple.org.il

 

Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement

Gershon Salomon

PO Box 18325

Jerusalem, Israel 91182

Email:  gershon@templemountfaithful.org

 

Biblical Archeological Society

Hershel Shanks

4710   41^st St NW

Washington, DC 20016

Email:  bas@bib-arch.org/webmaster@bib-arch.org

 

Gentlemen:

 

If Moshe Dayan would have sent bulldozers in to take out the Muslim buildings on the Temple Mount in the summer of 1967, research and study of the Mount could have been done by trained archeologists to determine precisely where the First and Second Temples stood.  But this didn’t happen and we today struggle with the question of location for the coming Third Temple.  Since we do not have access to the possible sites on the Mount, why shouldn’t we instead broach it from the viewpoint of the Eastern Gate which led directly into the Temple? 

 

Encyclopaedia Judaica (v. 15, p. 964) cites the Mishna (Shek. 4:2) as revealing two gates in the Eastern wall in 2d Temple days—one was the heifer’s gangway and the other was the scapegoat’s gangway (yet, the Mishna’s Mid 1:3 only cites one gate on the east, the Shushan gate, which was surely the primary entrance gate for the people from the east).  From the Eastern gate, going east, a bridge spanned the Kidron to lead to the Mount of Olives for the sacrifice of the heifer—at its summit and as visible from the Temple.  Topographical, inferred or other technologically advanced studies of the area from below or near the summit of the Mount of Olives to the believed gates in the Eastern wall might reveal evidence of this bridge/pathway (Perhaps part of the collapsed structure is still today under the soil of the Kidron valley.  If such studies have not been made, this is something which Israeli archeologists might look into). 

 

From the other gate, there was a causeway, staircase or bridge of some sort which led south-southeast into the desert/ravine for the removal of the scapegoat.  This scapegoat pathway clearly did not go to the Mount of Olives.  The exterior of the Eastern wall now reveals two gates, both closed—the famous Golden Gate to the north and another closed one near the southern end of the Eastern wall which is present in Herodian stonework.  This southern one is believed to be the scapegoat’s gangway (possibly this was an arch type stairway to offset the one on the west side at Robinson’s arch).

 

Allegedly, in their excavations under the Mount, the Muslims found evidence of another Eastern wall gate just south of the Golden Gate.  Some believe that it is the Shushan or true Eastern gate leading into the Temple.  If this is true, then this gate might be the red heifer’s gangway to the Mount of Olives.  And if so, what about the Golden Gate or Mercy Gate?  What is it?  Its structure shows that it goes all the way back in time to the First Temple.  Does this mean that we actually had three gates in the Temple Mount’s Eastern wall in 2d Temple days? 

 

I submit that the answer is no.  There were always just two gates in the Temple Mount’s Eastern wall in 2d Temple days, like the Mishna asserts.  My solution is that if the Muslims did discover a closed gate south of the Golden Gate, then it probably would be an earlier scapegoat’s gangway which went back to either the 1st Temple or perhaps the early, pre-Herodian, 2d Temple. 

 

It’s very logical that when Herod extended the Temple Mount plaza south to encompass the Stoa that the decision was made to close the former scapegoat gangway (which would have been in pre-Herodian stonework) and create a new one in the Herodian extension to the south.  This southern gateway would also serve to make the shops and facilities in the Stoa accessible from the south-southeast.  Since the Eastern wall sat on top of a steep mountain slope, it is unlikely that there was any particular need for more than two gates in the Temple Mount’s Eastern wall, as the Mishna asserts.

 

While Israeli archeologists could not presently gain access for any excavations inside the Eastern wall, one must wonder if the government would allow excavations outside the Eastern wall—like at a site just east of the Dome of the Rock to see if that alleged gate can be located from the external wall (assuming there is no presence of the Moslem cemetery this far south).  If found, could it be a 1^st Temple or early pre-Herodian 2d Temple structure (closed by Herod), and does it lie on an axis leading to the Dome of the Rock? 

 

The Golden Gate is interesting because it leads to no place of significance presently on the Temple Mount (except the Dome of the Spirits).  It is of Byzantine construction, probably in the 5^th or 6^th centuries.  There was a Byzantine church allegedly in the south where the Al Aqsa mosque sits.  Hadrian’s statute could have been any place.  The temple of Jupiter built by Hadrian was probably at the present site of the Dome of the Rock.  Likely, Helena’s Christian monastery was built over the Jupiter site.  Apparently, there has been nothing in the northern site for the last 1600 years to justify the Golden Gate and its linkage to 1st or 2d Temple days.  So why did the Byzantines build it where they did?  And what purpose did it serve in 1^st or 2d Temple days if it did not lead into the Temple? 

 

I think that the whole question of the Temple must be addressed from the standpoint of the Temple Mount’s  two Eastern gates.  For sure, the logically further north one would have led from the Mount of Olives across the Kidron directly into the front of the Temple.  The other gate would have been to the south of this one and it would have led south-southeast to the desert/ravine.  I recommend that you reassess the Third Temple location question and address it from the standpoint of the Temple Mount’s two gates in the Eastern wall.

 

Shalom,

 

R. D. Bradshaw

PO Box 473

Calder, ID 83808

Phone 208-245-1691 and email: rd.idaho@gmail.com