The verse in Vaeyra, Genesis 22:9 states "אֶת־הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ", (et-ha-mizbei-ach) "the altar", using the absolute noun.
וַיָּבֹ֗אוּ אֶֽל־הַמָּקוֹם֮ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָֽמַר־ל֣וֹ הָאֱלֹהִים֒ וַיִּ֨בֶן שָׁ֤ם אַבְרָהָם֙ אֶת־הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ וַֽיַּעֲרֹ֖ךְ אֶת־הָעֵצִ֑ים וַֽיַּעֲקֹד֙ אֶת־יִצְחָ֣ק בְּנ֔וֹ וַיָּ֤שֶׂם אֹתוֹ֙ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ מִמַּ֖עַל לָעֵצִֽים׃
They arrived at the place of which God had told him. Abraham built the altar there; he laid out the wood; he bound his son Isaac; he laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
The 13th century commentator Chizkuni states: 'את המזבח', 'the altar'. The Torah did not write: 'altar' without the prefix letter ה which meant that it was the altar that had previously served such a purpose. According to our tradition, Adam, Abel, Noah and his son, had all offered offerings to G-d on that same altar.
Why would Abraham have to build an altar if this verse refers to the altar by absolute noun? Every altar is designated by its bedrock foundation, a bedrock plinth, which later became a requirement under Jewish law. The plinth connected every boulder and stone assembled on it, by the builder, to the bedrock foundation together constituting "the altar" on which a sacrifice would be offered. So, where is this altar?
Ronny Reich opened his recent work "Excavations in the City of David" with a chapter, "A moment in which to be born", by explaining that the spring, east of the City, was never called Gihon, instead the Bible called it En Shemesh (Sun Spring). I completely agree, but the spring was also known as a gihon. The spring is a perennial, intermittent gusher, resembling a pump, sometimes gushing, other times flowing, appropriately and descriptively a gihon (meaning; bursting forth or gushing in Hebrew).
Ronny related En Shemesh to sun worshippers of Jeremiah 8:2 and "horses...of the sun abolished by Josiah" (2 Kings 23:11) and that "perhaps at that time the name En Shemesh (Sun Spring) was abolished" along with idolatory. Well Ronny, that is entirely possible, but equally unnecessary because the morning sun still shines on that spring, to this very day and the name En Shemesh does not necessarily denote its association with idolatry.
Having said all this, Ronny used En Shemesh to reconcile a difficult Biblical passage describing the intersect, critical to the altar, on the northern boundary of tribe Judah with the southern boundary of Benjamin. Why is this important? Because the first and second temples did not comply with this map, but a recently discovered rock-cut-temple and its altar foundation or plinth, on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, at the compliant location does. Could this be Akeida?
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| Map from Excavations in the City of David by Ronnie Reich and Eli Shukron |
The Gemara (Zevachim 53b) asks: What is the reason that there was no base on the southeast corner of the altar? Rabbi Elazar says: Because it was not in the portion of land of the one who tears, i.e., the tribe of Benjamin, as he is described in the following manner: “Benjamin is a wolf that tears apart; in the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening he divides the spoil” (Genesis 49:27). As Rav Shmuel, son of Rav Yitzḥak, says: The altar would consume, i.e., occupy, one cubit of the portion of Judah. The part of the altar in Judah’s portion was the southeast corner of the base, and therefore there was no base on that corner.
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| SE corner of the altar base or plinth. Dotted line marks the boundary of Judah and Benjamin |
In addition, there are numerous important Kabalistic or mystical concepts and references to the southeast. But, here Ronny Reich conclusively resolved that the only portion of Judah's land that can possibly intersect the southeast corner of the altar plinth was recently found at the rock-cut-temple, in the City of David and that was used at the time of the patriarchs. Further, the only water system at this site, an essential requirement for frequent temple sacrifices, was last used in 1535 BCE, which overlaps with the last 30 years of Jacob's life in the region.
The 12th Century commentator Rashi, rendered the the altar base:
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| North is on the right of this image and the image above |
Shockingly, the southeast and all corners of the altar of the first and second temple, that were built further north, on the summit of Mount Moriah, The Temple Mount, fell entirely within Benjamins territory. No portion of those altars fell in Judah's territory as depicted by the outline of todays, so called, 'Old City' in Ronny Reich's map above and as stated in the Gemara.
The fundamental and indigenous, tribal right to a permanent temple, on their land, belonged to Benjamin. Why? Because, Benjamin did not participate in the sale of Joseph. But, it was not clear to tribe Benjamin which end of its land the temple would be built and that opened grounds for the fiercest tribal competition. Ephraim (Joseph's son) demanded it be on its southern border with northernmost Benjamin, Judah demanded it be on its northern border adjacent to Benjamin's southernmost border.
Following the 300 years of settlement, and a plague that ravaged the nation, King David opposed the ancestral claims of Ephraim and on Prophet Gad's advice he built 'an altar', on the summit of Mount Moriah at a location inside Benjamins land, close to the border with Judah. The language difference for 'altar' used in Tanach is startling - מִזְבֵּ֔חַ (miz-bei-ach) without the ה (ha) prefix; not 'the altar', but he built 'an altar':
2 Samuel 24:18
וַיָּבֹא־גָ֥ד אֶל־דָּוִ֖ד בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֑וּא וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֗וֹ עֲלֵה֙ הָקֵ֤ם לַֽיהֹוָה֙ מִזְבֵּ֔חַ בְּגֹ֖רֶן (ארניה) [אֲרַ֥וְנָה] הַיְבֻסִֽי׃
Gad came to David the same day and said to him, “Go and set up an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
David's altar was not described using the absolute noun because it was built where no altar had previously existed yet, after the national pandemonium, all the other tribes agreed with David and contributed to acquisition of the land. David's son Solomon built the First Temple on the summit of Mount Moriah, Jerusalem. In the late second temple period Herod ordered that the summit be walled in by the Temple Mount.
Searching for the place of the original Akeida altar was forgotten, lost for more than 3500 years. Now that we have found it, we are compelled to build the altar, for the Third Temple, at the location of this bedrock plinth on the boundary between Judah and Benjamin that intersects its South East corner.
The following exchange occurred on this same subject on Facebook:
ReplyDeleteMahlon Marr
But Reich could be correct (and probably is) if the First and Second Temples were nearby, or even directly over, the rock-cut temple in the City of David. The evidence keeps mounting.
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Author
Israel's Hidden Ancient Facts
Mahlon Marr on the steep eastern slope it would not have been possible…
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2d
Mahlon Marr
Israel's Hidden Ancient Facts, Josephus says the S/E corner of Herod's Temple wall was 450' high and went all the way down into the floor of the Kidron Valley (which the traditional Temple Mount doesn't). And the inside of the walls were packed with fill, forming a level 600'x600' floor. Josephus says that even Solomon's first Temple required fill, and Simon the Hasmonean leveled Mt. Zion (in the City of David) for fill for the Temple, and to make it visible to pilgrims arriving from the South.
The rock-cut temple was apparently rediscovered by Hezekiah during his build up of Jerusalem, and reverently reburied.
You say the Temple couldn't have been on the steep eastern slope of the City of David. But with a retaining wall from the floor of the Kidron Valley, and fill, it could well have been. When the Romans tore down that retaining wall, with the ashlars being dispersed to other parts of Jerusalem over the centuries, the fill would have been eroded away over the next 2000 years.
ReplyDeleteNot possible at that location and there is no evidence of such a significant construction that would have suspended the temple 100m above the valley floor.
DeleteThere's no seeming evidence because the Romans so completely demolished the Temple that, as Josephus puts it, you couldn't even tell it had been there. The stones were repurposed elsewhere in Jerusalem, and the southeast ridge, the City of David, was, for much of the following 2000 years, a garbage dump. The only thing spared (inadvertently) by the Romans was the rock cut MBA temple, which had been discovered and then reverently reburied, apparently by Hezekiah.
DeleteThere is a dearth of evidence, mikvaot, mini ampitheatre, access corridors, Robinsons arch, Hulda gates etc. that cannot be ignored in the present Temple Mount lication.
DeleteInteresting
ReplyDeleteI wanted to comment on the video on youtube about bet el being the city of David.
ReplyDeleteThere are several issues here.
1. Joshua 12 . 9 the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Beth-el, one; 10 the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one;
We see clearly bet el and Jerusalem have different kings so they cannot be considered the same place.
2. Benjamins southern boundary is jerusalem in joshua 18. And his north boundary is bet el which also is josephs southern boundary . Since you are saying the old city is jerusalem and the city of David is bet el this would make the length of benjamins south north border less than a kilometre. .
Another key fact that you forgot is that when jacob bought land from shechem he was buying bet el. So bet el is more associated with shechem not jerusalem
On kings, please state the time periods of the kings you mention? Old city, meaning ancient Jerusalem and Beit El are synonymous. The present Ottoman Old City is only 500 years old. Its not a fact that buying Shechem included Beit El, not sure where you get that from?
DeleteThere's no evidence because the Romans so completely demolished the Temple, that as Josephus put it, you couldn't even tell it had been there. The stones from the Temple were repurposed elsewhere in Jerusalem, and the site, the City of David, was for most of the 2000 years following, was a garbage dump. But the Romans (inadvertently) spare the hidden rock cut MBA four room temple, which had been uncovered the reverently reburied, apparently during the time of Hezekiah.
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