The
Third
Temple
Sometime around 1000 BC, Solomon the son of David king of the United Kingdom of Israel, began the construction of a temple to the Lord in the City of David also called Jerusalem. This temple served as the center of Israelite and later Jewish religious life until the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BC. The Babylonians destroyed the temple and deported the Jews to Babylon.. After the Babylonians were in turn conquered by the Persians under Cyrus the Great, the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. This work was done about 517 BC when Darius the Persian king commissioned Ezra to go to Jerusalem with instructions to rebuild the Jewish temple. Thus the temple constructed by Solomon is now known as the first temple. This new temple built by Ezra and later enlarged and embellished by King Herod is known as the second temple.
In the 37th chapter of the book of Ezekiel, this prophet prophesied that the Lord would take the Children from among the heathen nations and bring them back into their own land. The Lord also says that he will set His sanctuary, His temple, in the midst of them. Inchapters 40 through 43, the prophet is shown this temple in a vision and he gives a description of it. The prophet Zechariah also prophesied that the House of the Lord shall be built in the last days in Jerusalem. Following the description given by Ezekiel, a new temple has been designed and the sacr4ed objects to be used in this temple have already been made. This latter-day temple has been called the third temple and the Jews are ready to begin construction.
The traditional site for the temple is on the spot where the Muslim Dome of the Rock stands today. The Israelis will not destroy a building sacred to another people and so the plans for constructing the third temple are currently on hold. Some of the Jews expect that when the time is right, the Lord will clear away the Dome and thus they will be able to build on the site. The only problem is this may not be the site where the first two temples were built. The only evidence that this is where the temple should be built is tradition.
The first time we have a record of the temple mount being identified as the site of the first two temples was during the crusades, about 1,000 years after its destruction at the hands of the Romans. In order to enlarge the platform surrounding the temple, Herod constructed a retaining wall from megalithic stones. Tens of thousands of these stones, the lower courses of the stones holding up the temple mount have been identified as Herodian or stones constructed at the time and under the direction of Herod. The Western Wall, the holiest site to the Jews today is part of this retaining wall.
During His earthly ministry, Jesus told His disciples to look at the temple. He then prophesied that not one of these stones would be left standing on another. All of them would be thrown down. Josephus a Galilean Jew and was the commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee during their revolt against the Romans was defeated and captured. He then joined with the Romans and wrote several histories. One of these was an account of the revolt. In his account, Josephus tells us that the city of Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, thus confirming the prophecy of Jesus. The leader of the Jewish Zealots who were holding out in Masada wrote that Jerusalem had been completely destroyed and the only thing that remained in his day was the Roman fort.
If the only structure remaining in 72 AD was the Roman fort, and the thousands of stones laid by Herod 42 years earlier are still standing today, then it is clear that the platform known today as the temple mount was not the location of the Jewish temple. Rather, it was the location of the Roman Fortress Antonia. This was the base of the Roman Tenth Legion. This was not the temple, in fact it was likely the site at which Jesus was put on trial and condemned. So why do most people accept this as the site of the first two temples? The answer can be given in a single word, Tradition.
If then the first two temples were not built on the temple mount, where were they located? Josephus tells us that the temple was 600 ft. to the south of the Fortress Antonia. Having lo0cated the Fortress Antonia by the retaining walls supporting it, we simply have to look for a site 600 feet south of it. The Bible tells us that the temple was originally built in Zion, also called the city of David or Jerusalem. 6oo feet south of the temple mount scientists have located the site of the ancient Jebusite city which was captured by King David, renamed Jerusalem and in which his son Solomon built the first temple. Originally they believed that Jerusalem was located on the hill to the west, but here they discovered the Gihon Spring and Hezekiah's tunnel proving that this was the location of the City of David. But where exactly in this city did the temple stand?
Several people have proposed the City of David above the Gihon Spring as the true location of the earlier temples. This is where all the Biblical evidence points to them being located. This is not enough. The exact site of the temples must be located and, because the tradition locating the temples on the temple mount is so strong, indisputable proof of this exact site must be found. Many people have looked for traces or remains of the Temple of Herod but this is an exercise in futility. As Jesus, Josephus and the leader of the Zealots told us the temple of Herod was destroyed so completely that no trace of it remains today. At least not in its proper location. We simply cannot locate the second temple but we may be able to locate the first, the temple built by Solomon son of King David.
In the the ancient Middle-east cities were destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly. When it was rebuilt it was not necessary to clear the remains of the old city away before rebuilding. The builders simply leveled the site and began again right on top of the ruins of the previous city. Many sites in the region were destroyed and rebuilt so many times that today these remains form a hill known as a tell. Archaeologists today can determine between these various layers of occupation and construct a sequence of events based upon them and the artifacts found within each layer. It is very likely that when Ezra returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, he followed this exact pattern. The foundations of the Temple of Solomon, the first temple, when located will give us the exact spot on which the third temple must be built.
In recent excavations in the City of David, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a Canaanite temple believed to have predated the temple of Solomon. The temple dates to the Middle Bronze Age and thus is believed to have been built centuries before Solomon began construction of his temple. In other writings on this site, this author has demonstrated the the ancient chronology and thus the archaeology of Palestine is badly in error because it was based on the erroneous Egyptian chronology. In those other pages, I have identified the Middle Bronze Age II as the time of David and Solomon. The "Canaanite" temple now being excavated dates exactly to the time of David and Solomon when the errors in Millde-eastern chronology are corrected.
The temple now being excavated in the City of David is likely no other than the Temple of Solomon. Of course, it will take the aforementioned indisputable evidence to convince both scholars and those bound by tradition to admit the error of their ways. This may come in the form of a foundation deposit which clearly identifies the builder as Solomon. Even then there will be those who will dispute this evidence and refuse to accept it. Nevertheless, the truth will eventually prevail and the construction of the third temple will be able to proceed without the necessity of destroying the Dome of the Rock.