The Temple Mount and Jesus' last hours

Today we focused on Jesus' last hours. We began our day by visiting the Temple Mount, built on Mount Mariah, which is where the Dome of the Rock is now located. This is the same place where Abraham is said to have been willing to sacrifice Isaac, his long-awaited child. It is also where Elijah ascended to heaven. The Muslims change the story a bit, claiming that Ishmael was the son Abraham was going to sacrifice.  According to their tradition, this is also where Mohammed received the revelation of the Koran. (This gives you a good feel for why there is such conflict over this site.) We passed through security and walked a narrow walkway that took us above the Wailing Wall where Jews pray and often place prayers on pieces of paper into the cracks of the wall. This is the western wall of the Temple Mount and remained standing when Jerusalem as sacked by the Romans in 70 AD. As we entered the area held by Muslims, we found groups of men and women studying the Koran (separately, of course). They were still cleaning up after Ramadan, when a quarter of a million people visited. The Dome of the Rock is built over where the Jewish Temple stood before it was destroyed by the Romans. It was first built by King Solomon 3,000 years ago, then destroyed by the Babylonians. Ezra and Nehemiah brought the people back from the Babylonian captivity and rebuilt the temple. Herod the Great expanded the temple area and added a garrison and quarters to the Temple Mount (called "the Antonia fortress"). This is the temple that existed at the time of Jesus. We saw a life-sized model of Jerusalem before the conquest of Rome in 70 AD at the Jerusalem Museum. It gives you a real feel for how things were at the time of Jesus. Recall that Jesus was arrested in the olive grove of Gethsemane. He was taken by the temple guard to the Herodian fortress that abutted the temple area to be tried. Then he was taken to Caiaphas, the high priest. We visited the ruins of what may have been the high priests' house in the Jewish quarter of the old city and saw a water cistern similar to where Jesus may have been kept as a prisoner while they were deliberating his fate. We then walked the Via Delarosa (the way of suffering) to the traditional location where Jesus was crucified. A couple of observations...the way is completely dominated by shops selling anything and everything. And, of course, a church has been built around the traditional site of his execution and burial. In the church, there is the slab where tradition says his disciples laid his body after his death. We watched many people kneel down and kiss the slab as part of their devotion. It was also interesting to watch a Korean tour group carrying a life-size cross down the way, giving different participants a chance each to bear the cross. There is also a large Lutheran church very near the traditional site of Golgotha. There is, however, debate as to the real site of Golgotha. Today we saw the site venerated by Catholics. Tomorrow we will study the site that has been identified by Protestants. We finished the day with a time for prayer and reflection at the western or Wailing Wall. Men pray in one area and women in a separate area. We explored the full expanse of the western wall through underground visits that took us to the level of the time of Jesus and to excavated parts outside...which shows us where the day of Pentecost happened when 3,000 people were baptized. We also saw the pool of Siloam where Peter said to the beggar, "silver and gold have I none, but what I have, I give you." The man was healed and immediately entered the temple ground, leaping and shouting and praising the Lord. At the end of our day, we viewed an exhibit of the Dead Sea scrolls, the discovery of which has shown that we have incredibly faithful translations of the Bible even today. In other words, the Old Testament scriptures we have today are incredibly accurate to the original texts. 

that existed in the 100 years of the time before Jesus...which makes a strong case for the truth of scripture.