|
entire period of our Lord?s life on earth (John 2:16, 19-21), and the temple
was completed only A.D. 65. But it was not long permitted to exist.
Within forty years after our Lord?s crucifixion, his prediction of its
overthrow was accomplished (Luke 19: 41-44). The Roman legions took
the city of Jerusalem by storm, and notwithstanding the strenuous efforts
Titus made to preserve the temple, his soldiers set fire to it in several
places, and it was utterly destroyed (A.D. 70), and was never rebuilt.
Several remains of Herod?s stately temple have by recent explorations
been brought to light. It had two courts, one intended for the Israelites
only, and the other, a large outer court, called ?the court of the Gentiles,?
intended for the use of strangers of all nations. These two courts were
separated by a low wall, as Josephus states, some 4 1/2 feet high, with
thirteen openings. Along the top of this dividing wall, at regular intervals,
were placed pillars bearing in Greek an inscription to the effect that no
stranger was, on the pain of death, to pass from the court of the Gentiles
into that of the Jews. At the entrance to a graveyard at the north-western
angle of the Haram wall, a stone was discovered by M. Ganneau in 1871,
built into the wall, bearing the following inscription in Greek capitals: ?No
stranger is to enter within the partition wall and enclosure around the
sanctuary. Whoever is caught will be responsible to himself for his death,
which will ensue.?
There can be no doubt that the stone thus discovered was one of those
originally placed on the boundary wall which separated the Jews from the
Gentiles, of which Josephus speaks.
It is of importance to notice that the word rendered ?sanctuary? in the
inscription was used in a specific sense of the inner court, the court of the
Israelites, and is the word rendered ?temple? in John 2:15 and Acts 21:28,
29. When Paul speaks of the middle wall of partition (Ephesians 2:14), he
probably makes allusion to t
|
