Torah In Middle Bronze Age Archaeology

Jewish Male Circumcision At 8 Days Old

Israelite rituals that preceded the Old Testament were transcribed into it and many have been retained through the ages including by today's contemporary Orthodox Jews. For example; post wedding celebrations are held by families and friends each day for seven days, the practice was first described by Jacob's father-in-law. Or male circumcision on the eight day after birth was instituted by Abraham for his son Isaac. Or the passage of Levite priesthood that continues to be passed from father to son in todays Jewish communities. Each of these rituals began hundreds of years before Moses transcribed the Old Testament. Ongoing practice of Biblical traditions underlie the authenticity of orthodox Judaism. 

One such glaring example relates temple worship and was recently discovered in a stone temple carved in the bedrock of Mount Moriah's eastern slope - we will call this complex Temple Zero since it precedes Jerusalem's First and Second Temple. Carbon dated evidence from the bedrock surface proves that Temple Zero has not been used for worship after1535 BCE around the time Jacobs Family emigrated from the region. The small number of artifacts discovered in Temple Zero and their periods obfuscated clues as too how the site was originally used, but its original Middle Bronze Age, bedrock bound, features strongly relate to Biblical writings, Jewish laws, customs and traditions.

This collection of videos captures the recent tour of Temple Zero

The most essential and uniquely Jewish feature, is Temple Zero's western orientation, precisely defined by the altar platform (Room 1 above) and matzevah (room 4). No other Middle Bronze Age cultic structure, with a western orientation, exists in Israel. All other cults, of this time, faced east to pay homage to the sun. Monotheism, attributed to Abraham and the high priest of Salem, Malchi-Tzedek to whom Abraham tithed, turned against the sun.

More than six hundred years later this orientation found its way into the western facing structure and priestly practices in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle that Moses built, then into Jerusalem's permanent Temples. Finally synagogues of the world expressed this by facing prayer structures toward the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and priestly services turned their backs to the entrance. The cultic origins of Christianity enshrined the orientation of its priests and altars toward the rising sun in the east and in modern churches priests face toward the entrance. 

Until the temple in Jerusalem is rebuilt, the daily Orthodox ritual is to verbalize the prescribed sacrificial offerings of Jerusalem's temples. However, well before contemporary prayer was instituted, the Book of Leviticus, as evidenced by the 2000 year old burnt Leviticus scroll described sacrificial rites in detail, yet Temple Zero already facilitated many of these. Mostly these sacrificial rites are expounded in Jewish law requiring animals, wine, flour, oil and water. These laws describe that purity was retained only in stone or bedrock vessels. The construct and features of Temple Zero facilitated these rituals hundreds of years before the Leviticus text was transcribed by Moses.

The main elements of Jewish sacrifice includes oil, flour, wine and young domesticated sheep. Only unblemished animals could be sacrificed for the holy altar, this always biased selection to younger animals. Carved low in the bedrock of the room 5 (see below) that was once used to process slaughtered animals for the offering altar, we found a place to tether animals. The tether was low (~30cm) to the ground which supports its primary use for younger, smaller animals. 

Animal tether. Simulated use seen in image below

Olives would have been pressed to protect purity by flowing oil into a bedrock or a stone vessel that was not connected to a pipe or channel, typically used for vollumous production. These features are evident in the oil press (room 2) carved into the bedrock of the mountain. Once pressed oil would have been cupped out of the bedrock vessel into a stone vessel and immediately poured over refined or parched flour and offered with a sacrifice.

Pouring liquids onto corners of the altar included wine, water or blood that once flowed into a liquids channel to a pit or onto dust that was cleared daily and deposited outside the area of the temple. During slaughter blood from the animals neck was captured in a convex based stone vessel. At the base of the altar, a convex vessel would rest in its concave counterpart carved in the bedrock (see Room 1 below) in preparation for sprinkling blood of the sacrificed animal on the altar.  

The South-East (SE) corner of the foundation of the First and Second Temple altar drew on a tradition (Zevachim 53b) sourced in the biblical verse that it was in the tribal territory of Judah, the other corners were in Benjamin: “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). Now, based on Ronny Reich's declaration that the Gihon Spring was known as Ein Shemesh, the tradition conclusively followed the altar at Temple Zero. 

These rich features on the bedrock of Temple Zero support the Jewish origins of our pre-Biblical Israelite (Jacob) heritage and are uncannily aligned with the declaration in Deuteronomy 33:4 that:  

תּוֹרָ֥ה צִוָּה־לָ֖נוּ מֹשֶׁ֑ה מוֹרָשָׁ֖ה קְהִלַּ֥ת יַעֲקֹֽב׃ 

The Torah Moses charged us with is the heritage of the congregation of Jacob.

 

This Discovery Will Eventually Change The World!

Organic fragments 

in open water pipe

Enlarged view of open pipe

On the eastern slopes of Mount Moriah, in the City of David, a significant Middle Bronze Age water system, remnants of a reservoir and a water channel were discovered. Organic samples were carbon dated by Cambridge University and Weizmann Institute to the water channel's last use in 1535 BCE. The water system supplied two of four rooms, hollowed from the bedrock, of the ancient rock-cut-temple located 35m above the Gihon Spring. The water once flowed to the rooms, more than 3500 years ago, as is now evident in landscapes mapped by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The organic samples were extracted nearest the remnant plaster that formed an open drain, running from the elevated reservoir, above and along the bedrock down the slope into the rooms. The date of the samples closest to the underside of the drain and those immediately above it exclusively overlaps the orthodox biblical chronology of Jacob's last 30 years in the homeland of his ancestors. After that he and his family immigrated to Egypt. This means the water system was constructed and only ever used during this time. Once Jacob left for Egypt, unattended, the water system and the entire rock-cut-temple went out of use and was consumed by falling sand and natural debris on the steep slope.

The water system was built to flush water onto the floor to clean blood and excrement from a room that was used to slaughter and process animals and another used to offer animal sacrifices on stones forming an altar. Between these rooms, a room with a standing stone or matzevah that, relative to the dating of the water channel, is undoubtedly the one Jacob erected as his Covenant at Beth El on Mount Moriah, after which he assumed his name Israel (Genesis 35:7-15). 

Count the fused stones on the front?

Compare the view from the back!

Senior archaeologist Ronny Reich opened his recent book "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, bellow the rock-cut-temple was never called Gihon, instead the Bible called it En Shemesh (Sun Spring). The spring is a perennial, intermittent gusher, resembling a pump, sometimes gushing, other times flowing, descriptively a gihon (meaning; bursting forth or gushing in Hebrew). To this day the morning sun shines brightly on the spring's entrance. 

Ronny used En Shemesh to reconcile a difficult passage from the Book of Joshua that defined Israel's tribal boundaries. We found that it perfectly describes the prerequisite intersection of the altars raised bedrock foundation, on the northern boundary of tribe Judah with the southern boundary of tribe Benjamin. 

Note the South East corner of the altar foundation

This is important and controversial because the first and second temple altars were built further up on the summit of the mountain, in the area of the temple mount, but that location does not comply with Ronny’s En Shemesh boundary. Surprisingly the rock-cut-temple and the location of its altar foundation at the  intersection between En Rogel and En Shemesh, on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, is compliant with Ronny Reich’s boundary. Further, the altar foundations westernmost construction also  complies with Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed (Part 3 45:1):- Undoubtedly all people turned then to the East [worshipping the Sun]. Abraham turned therefore on Mount Moriah to the West, that is, the site of the Sanctuary, and turned his back toward the sun.

The altar foundation is and by Jewish law must be of bedrock. Back then loose boulders would have been assembled on it, each time it was used, to form the actual altar the Bible is likely talking about in Genesis 35:7:- There Jacob built an altar and named the site El-bethel, there God had first revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother, 22 years earlier, when he experienced his stairway to heaven dream and first erected a Matzevah. 

How is it then possible that the altar location of the first temple of Solomon and second temple could differ with the water system of an altar, dated 700 years earlier to Jacob, biblical forefathers Isaac and Abraham or even the high priest of Salem - Malchi-Tzedek?

The altar of the first temple, at the summit was not selected by Solomon, but by his father David. 1 Chronicles 21:17 (also 2 Samuel 24) tells us: David said to God, “Was it not I alone who ordered the numbering of people? I alone am guilty and have caused severe harm, but these sheep, what have they done? O Lord my God, let your hand fall upon me and my father’s house, and let not your people be plagued. Then the prophet Gad told David to go up to the summit of Mount Moriah and set up an altar and sacrifice on it. David acquired the summit from the Jebusite King who prior to David controlled the lower southern section of Mount Moriah. The summit of Mount Moriah became the temple mount as we know it today. David’s altar location was selected to rectify his personal sin.

The discovery of this altar, further down Mount Moriah, above En Shemesh or the Gihon Spring, as it is known today, must be the location associated with Jacob, his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham. These dueling locations present very complex questions that have now emerged before us.

The temple location is the forefront of Israel’s wars. Homes of violent Islamic Jihadists contain images of the Golden dome and Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. Every Jew believes, by tradition, that the Temple Mount once contained the site where Jacob’s father was bound and offered as a sacrifice by his grandfather. With this discovery perhaps Israel will shift from its Temple Mount tradition toward Mount Moriah's rock-cut-temple, defined by its compliant location, altar's raised foundation, matzevah, that is undoubtedly Jacob’s and its western orientation in order to build its final Temple on Mount Moriah.

Timeline of Jacob at Jerusalem's Stone Temple

Biblical events and archaeology, on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah are complex.  Here, I constructed this dual timeline, from creation with Gregorian dating.

According to Biblical chronology Jacob's first encounter on Mount Moriah took place in 1573 BCE. Twenty two years later, in 1553 BCE, he returned with his family to Mount Moriah. Later Jacob immigrated to Egypt, where his descendants remained for 250 years before they returned to their ancestral land.

The overlapping 100 year use of the water channel (1535 BCE) with time of Jacob makes this discovery remarkable particularly because of its exciting context with the rock-cut-temple and matzevah, stone pillar found within the stone temple location. According to the Bible Jacob erected a matzevah at this location (Genesis 35:14).

Part One
Biblical Dating

Part Two
Archaeology

The video weaves the time bound elements of this remarkable discovery at the City of David, Jerusalem.

My Journey to Israel.

Of the roughly 100 trips I have made to Israel over the last 20 years, this one was the most challenging, physically, mentally and spiritually. The day I landed, a ceasefire had come into effect and on the following day I visited the shiva home of Eitan Dishon z’l a brave combat soldier. His mother and father could not stop thanking me enough for expanding the neighborhood of Nof Tzion where they live. Eitan had come home the weekend before, his Dad proudly showed off pictures standing proud with his son. He visited his grandparents and friends before returning to base. On the fateful day, driving the troop carrier, he popped his head through the hatch to observe broader surroundings only to be hit at the back of the head by a sniper in a nearby building. After that the IDF flattened more buildings to protect troops in vehicles like Etian’s. 

The ceasefire produced days of quiet and reflection. We had held BBQ’s in the north where it is often difficult to secure meat supplies, but Sydney resident Louis Goldstein’s son Yossi and his platoon got to eat a meal fit for a king. I filled most days with meetings, property, technology, visiting half empty offices, Jerusalem, TelAviv dealing with a busy schedule. One of my meetings was with my close friend Didi, one of my lawyers, for the past 20 years, a member of Jerusalem’s city council. His brother, an absolute lion of a man, Yossi Hershkowitz z’l had been killed in the days before I arrived. We spent time talking about his great achievements and how sorely he would be missed. 

Through the week I began to sense how traumatized people were, even the toughest people closest to me, lawyers, accountants, counsellors, politicians, business associates. Everyone was affected, but no-one knew how far reaching this would be.  

I spent some time with the legendary Dovi Meyer, he was running from pillar to post handing out tzedakah checks to families whose kids had fallen in battle, or running concerts, BBQ’s and other events. Still he and I found a few times to catch up, with the usual crew at the cigar shop in Mamilla. 

On my first Friday, just before Shabbat I made my regular trip to the City of David’s, Gihon Spring, a mikvah tucked in a crevice of a cave at the base of Mount Moriah adjacent to Silwan. The mikvah has been there since the dawn of time. Midrashim states that Adam sat in that mikvah, continuously for 130 years, after ‘the sin’ in Gan Eden. There I met my friend Moshe Weiz, a giant in Torah, Rosh Yeshiva and General in the IDF, responsible for troop movements in Yehuda and Shomron. He said something that stuck: These are great days we are living through. Immediately I understood what he was saying. How can we know anything of the reasons for a demonic massacre of our people, or of our hostages caged in tunnels, or spreading voices of denial and abounding antisemitism? Are we so blind not to see the awakening consciousness behind the common morality of the Jewish people. 

Afterall it was Bilam, the world’s greatest demon who was once compelled to pronounce: “How precious are your tents O’Jacob, your dwelling places O’Israel”.

My moments under the cold waters of that mikvah were special, they always are. 

Before I could blink it was Shabbat. At Beis Menachem, we made kiddush and sat through a very reflective fabreing. At 6AM the next morning we jumped into my CEO’s car heading south. Along the way we stopped in Netivot to catch the 7:30 AM Shacharit Minyan. Driving through the town, you could spot the missile hits that had previously damaged the odd building. Along the way we stopped at the graveyard of 2300 cars that had been destroyed by the more than 3000 terrorists, blood thirsty Gazan’s and the journalists who accompanied them. Each car tagged, many had burned to a rusty shell. Zaka volunteers had searched and carefully logged every car for clues of body parts that would identify victims. 

We stopped at Kibbutz Alumim where 60 terrorists had been eliminated by brave residents, a skeleton crew of IDF and citizen responders among whom two heroic brothers, who had rushed to the rescue only to be killed al pi’ kiddush Hashem. 17 Thai and Nepalese farm workers were slaughtered, the rest kidnapped. Of the 17, 8 were knifed to death in a safe room. The others shot and burned in their bunks. Farm equipment was torched, milking facilities destroyed, clearly an objective was to destroy the symbolisms of Israel infrastructure. For the next few hours we sat watching security system videos that were time-sync edits of the camera captures from the first terrorists entering the kibbutz and the brave battles to contain them.

As we drove past the forest of the Nova festival site a road-sign over the bridge informed us we were in “Eretz Gerar ”, the very place Philistine King Avimelech and his General Phichol had once come to demand a peace pact with Isaac after they had attacked Isaac and stopped up his wells. Why did they come to demand peace? Because Isaac had been blessed, they were defeated by his continuous success in everything he did and their moral ineptitude scared them. Perhaps, here is a lesson to be learned through Israel’s abundant modern day successes, perhaps we should terrorize them with our most successful people, in all areas of life, until they fear that God is with us. 

At Tzehilim infantry base we arranged a BBQ for a few hundred soldiers. There I was shocked to discover the degree of our resolve. Religious or secular, men and women soldiers who had been living in tents, on the ground or on foam mattresses for the past 54 days, I asked them whether they wanted to go home. Their answers reflected a consistent almost monotonous tone; “yes, but we’re not ready until we finish the job. 

The next day, a special group convened to give birth to Project “Israel Slingshot”. Fundraisers, web developers, intelligence, media buying experts and marketers all came together with one common goal; defeat online antisemitism! A few days later Amichai Chikli, Diaspora and Hasbara Minister met with us to endorse the initiative and provide initial matching support. We’re raising donations to buy media impressions, via open-web exchanges, presently reaching audiences with ads for Stand With US and other pro-Israeli messaging on sites like Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, CNN Arabic, Sky News, etc. Imagine getting an Israel activist message that celebrates successful Jews, 3 times a day or more, everyday, wherever you are on the open web, for years to come! Every $1 raised buys 1000 impressions, with matching 2000. With the right pro-Jewish messages, over time, that will reduce ignorance, make a dent and break the cycle of social media echo chambers. 

Besides this action packed agenda, it was very special to host Malcolm and Dani Daitz on a tour of the excavation I have been very close to for the past 14 years. The place I believe everyone will one day recognize as being the stone that Jacob erected the night after his famous stairway to heaven dream. In context, that stone sits among four bedrock rooms of a stone temple, carved into the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, immediately above the Gihon Spring. 

Then the inevitable, the ceasefire was lifted and before I knew it, Shabbos was upon us, back to the Gihon spring. A very special Shabbos, Yud Tes Kislev, The holiday of redemption. Yahrzeit of the Maggid, the day the Alter Rebbe was released from prison. The Kiddush and fabreing continued until Ma’ariv, if only we could have taken some pictures of Chassidim slouching on tables filled with empty plates, bottles and l'chaim. 

The news after Shabbos wasn’t good, several soldiers fell. Sadly, along with thousands, I attended the Levya of 22 year old Sergeant First Class, Ben Zussuman from Jerusalem. The words of Ben’s mother Sarit echoed through Israel and world media - in Hebrew she said: 

“We are a people who want to live, not like our enemies, who are lowly and miserable, cowards, Nazis, who together with their accomplices sanctify death. We will live, and thrive, and build…We have to be successful. It's either us or them. Either the Nazis and their accomplices, or us.

Do you hear, people of Israel?  World, do you hear? Or do you hear, our cowardly and evil and death thirsty enemies?

The Nation of Israel lives, Am Yisroel Chai, for all of eternity, for ever and ever, standing tall, head held high, now more than ever. Be strong, believe, pursue goodness -- demand goodness, and we will win.”

Happy Hanukkah! 

Water, Water Everywhere, Will Archaeologists Drink?

On the eastern slopes of the City of David, a Middle Bronze Age water system, remnants of a reservoir and a water channel was carbon dated to 1515 BCE. There is no other later evidence of water supply to rooms of the rock-cut-temple. No alternative water system exists, yet despite the absence of later evidence some archaeologists, still insist that the rock-cut-temple, in its present form, should instead be dated to the Iron Age. Academic isolation and over simplification of context, distorts understanding at this complex, ancient location. However, the video below offers the most comprehensive explanation. Before viewing, it's important to illustrate the passage of water as it once flowed to the rooms, more than 3500 years ago (follow the Area U/C map below). 

Room 2 (with tethered animal for slaughter) 

Room 1 (with impression of sacrificial altar on platform)

Water passage. Room 2 (center-foreground)
 Room 1 (upper right-background)

 

Area U water system leading to Area C rooms (1 and 2)

The video explains that the rock-cut-temple was active up until 1500 BCE (Middle Bronze), then buried, out of site until 700 BCE (Iron), exposed at that time, reburied during wall construction and finally excavated 13 years ago.

Eureka! Have We Have Found “The Altar” of Akeida?

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?

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. 

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:

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.

 

Jerusalem's Temple Zero Opposes The Sun!

A brief about key Biblical events and their consistent interpretations, in Judaism, will help you to better consider the remarkable archaeological discoveries on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, Ancient Jerusalem in the City of David. If the developing story continues it will be impossible to contain the importance of the location to the realm of special interests and tourism. 

Jerusalem's perennial water source, the Gihon Spring played a central role in ancient Jewish teachings about that unique location. After the events that diminished Adam and Eve's heightened spiritual state, it is taught Adam purified himself in the waters of the Gihon Spring for 130 years before they reunited and populated the pre-flood world. The olive branch of Noah's dove is said to come from the same mountainous area where Noah planted a vineyard. The Bible informs us that Abraham arrived to the "ancient hill" where he pitched his tent east of Beit El, west of Ai and built an altar, to which he returned. He tithed his wealth to MalchiTzedek, the high priest of Salem. It's taught that Abraham contributed "yira", meaning awe of that place, to constitute the name Yira-Salem, Jerusalem.

Unanimously teachers identify ancient Jerusalem's Mount Moriah as the place Abraham offered his son Isaac, as a sacrifice. That's where where Abraham turned to the West, that is, the site of the Sanctuary, and turned his back toward the sun contrary to common practice. The Bible writes that Isaac's son Jacob "stumbled upon that place", he had realized it's inherent sanctity. There he erected a 'standing stone' on which he made a covenant to build 'Beit El" The House of God, the name he gave to that place. According to Biblical scholars, Jacob made his covenant in 1576 BCE.

Around 3250 years ago, 1250 BCE, Joshua restored the fledgling Jewish nation to its inherited land. 

300 years later, the Bible relates that King David reigned in Hebron for 7 years. Then, his army took control over the strategic water passage, underground in Mount Moriah. Water carriers used it daily as their route from the Gihon Spring into the upper city where the main population lived. With control over water David became King of this mountain. He established his palace and united his tribal Kingdom before his son King Solomon realized King David's dream to build Israel's first permanent temple.

Paleolithic through the Early Iron Age 

Development of Mount Moriah and greater Jerusalem

Paleolithic and chalcolithic discoveries at Mount Moriah are few and concentrated around the Gihon Spring at the areas it emptied into the eastern valley. Toward the end of the Middle Bronze Age the scant populations in the eastern valley moved up the hill and the city began periods of expanded development. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob coincided with abundant Middle Bronze archaeology and Joshua with Late Bronze Age archaeology. King David coincided with the onset of the Iron Age (image of city top right).   

Iron Age terraces on
the steep easter slope

Cut through the mountain at the Gihon Spring
 and Iron Age, Israelite City Walls

In 2010 a major discovery was found under 20,000 cubic meters of rubble, half-way up the eastern slope. Buried under the Israelite City Wall lead archaeologist Eli Shukron discovered the remnants of a rock-cut temple, it surprised everyone. After several years of excavation insufficient evidence failed to establish the last used date of the temple. But, in 2018 a study by Weizmann Institute and Cambridge University conclusively resolved the 'last use' issue, by dating organic matter found under and on top of the man-made plaster layer lining a water channel that fed into one or more of the rooms.

 

North end

South end

The Temple Zero excavation (map below) illustrates the significant undertaking that produced the necessary elements for dating. The thick red wall on the northern end, W20005 is the remnant of the Israelite City Wall first built around the time of King Uzziah and Hezekiah, 2600-2700 years ago, 600-700 BCE. Originally the wall continued south, over the bedrock of the Temple Zero complex and joined remnant W20001 on the southern end.

The seeds and organic material from the water channel were located immediately adjacent to wall W17081, and Structure 17044. They were carbon dated to 1500-1600 BCE, 3500-3600 years ago indicating that the channel was last used at that time because the sample above the plaster was undisturbed until sometime in the Iron Age boulders (the red structures) secured it until its recent discovery. The carbon dated material clearly established 1500-1600 BCE as the water channels last date of use, which coincides with Biblical Jacob, the finding was contextual to other dated material, a  stunning result! 

Of thousands of artifacts discovered in the City of David only the standing stone or matzevah of Temple Zero remained complete and in situ, despite the massive Iron Age defensive wall that was built right over it the constructors preserved it in soft soil. It is the significant artifact in the temple that includes an oil press, grain press, altar for sacrifices, holding pen, animal processing, storage, water channel and all the features required of the Jewish temples that were built by and after King Solomon. 

Matzevah on Western Wall

Whether this is the standing stone Jacob, used to enter his covenant, is difficult to assess but, similar to the first and second temples, Temple Zero is oriented to oppose sun worship, which was the common practice of Bronze Age nations.

Altar platform on Western Wall

Priests performing morning services on the altar would have to have turned their backs to the sun, which would be an insult to sun-worshipers. Therefore, its unlikely the installation of this unique matzevah would have been inconsistent with the orientation of the altar and other features. 

Low tethers for young animals, below knee height.

Rituals adopted into Jewish culture emanated 1000 years before the formal establishment of the Torah Nation at Mount Sinai around 3300 years ago. The following 300+ years, before King David, the nation became more familiar with their Biblically prescribed laws, one of which prohibits the erection of a standing stone or matzevah, because of its post-Biblical association with idolatry. For Temple Zero to be Biblically compliant with Jewish law, its erection would have to precede Biblical law, when use of a matzevah was still permitted.

Another law requires that animals, offered as a sacrifice, must be older than 8 days old and unblemished. Typically this meant animals in their first year because they still retained perfect physical features. Tethers secured small animals, tied low on the bedrock walls (images above) and aided their inspection by priests prior to them being sacrificed and offered on the altar. 

The principal features of Temple Zero parallels Biblical law and Jewish ritual emphasized by dating the last use of the water channel to Jacob. The case for Temple Zero's existence and use prior to Jacob and the final form of its features, as recently discovered, invite complex questions related to Biblical events at this ancient location and whether the Jewish people and the modern nation of Israel are obligated by its emergence.  

 

Jerusalem's Critical Evidence

Matsevah or standing stone found in room2 

Water channel outlets in room 1 and 3

Seldom does a "terminus post quem", the earliest date an item came into existence, and a "terminus ante quem", the latest, perfectly sandwich an artifact to define its absolute archaeological age. 

In ancient Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah's eastern slope, a crucial study by Weizmann Institute, Tel Aviv University and Israel Antiquities Authority dated evidence in a water channel, beneath and above a plaster layer that was built on top of clay-rich, virgin soil in a natural bedrock cavity. 

Directly beneath the plaster (its earliest date), small charcoal flecks were dated separately (sample  9965 and 10293) between 1615–1545 BCE, a "terminus post-quem" for plaster in the channel. At the end of the channel, above the plaster (the latest date) several grey and white laminations were found with charred material (sample 9964 and 10292), "ante-quem", understood to represent the channel was last used between 1535 and 1445 BCE.

Samples above and closest to the plaster declare that the system was only ever used, during 30 of these maximum 80-100 years, to propel water (by gravity) onto the bedrock floor of at least one of two rooms (1 and 3) of the Temple Zero complex immediately below (east of) Area U. The water channel was not used previously nor has it been used since. Slaughtered animals would have frequently been processed and offered as a sacrifice, thus requiring water be flushed via the channel to clean blood and excrement. Almost 600 years later similar hydraulic systems were engineered and used in the first and second temples further up the mountain.  

 Water Channel in blue -South (Top)

According to Biblical chronology Jacob and his family arrived on Mount Moriah in 1553 BCE at that time he also became known as Israel. 30 years later they left the region, for Egypt in 1523 BCE, where they lived in exile for 210 years before the nation of Israel journeyed back to their land. Based on the strata position of evidence, closest to plaster in the channel, a more precise 30 year use of the drainage channel would overlap Jacobs final 30 years in the region. This finding  becomes spectacular because of its exciting context to the Temple Zero location.

Strata of W and V samples closest to plaster.

In the Biblical context of Area U, the rock-cut-rooms of Temple Zero and the Gihon Spring, Bible commentators relate events of Adam, Noah, Shem or Malchi-Tzedek, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, King David and subsequent kings. Spanning thousands of years, the area on Mount Moriah is also referred by many names including; Salem, Beit El, Yireh (Yireh-Salem), Luz, Tzion, Jebus, City of David and Jerusalem. 

Temple Zero South (Top)

Immediately after King Solomon, King Jeroboam mis-directed and split the nation in part by leveraging confusion over Jacob's Beit El. Therefore, his actions and motivations must be understood before one can truly appreciate the magnitude of  discoveries being made at Temple Zero, Jerusalem. The recently discovered, possible City of Ai (associated with Beit El) is located just 1.3 kilometers east of  Temple Zero, resolves Jeroboam's Bethel ruse, 17km north, establishing Jerusalem's Temple Zero the exclusive, common Beit El of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-8, 13:3-4) and Jacob (Genesis 28:11, 35:14).

By aligning the city of Ai and Biblical events with the 100 year overlapping use of the drainage channel, confidence rises that Temple Zero is the location Jacob erected the recently discovered matzevah on which he made a covenant, to which he returned and accepted upon himself the name "Israel". 

For the modern nation to rediscover the original beacon, erected by Jacob on which he accepted the name of their national identity would be nothing short of miraculous, perhaps too much for the archaeological fraternity to acknowledge.

 

Jerusalem's Middle Bronze Yeshiva

    

Reconciling the Biblical record with archaeology is complex. Sometimes it exposes ambiguities in  interpretations of various commentaries. In contrast to mainstream commentators, Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba clarified Genesis 25:17 that Jacob spent 14 years in the school of Shem and Ever after leaving his father Isaac, but before arriving at his uncle Laban, who lived in Haran (northern Syria). This distinction helped align the archaeology on the eastern slope of ancient Jerusalem. 

An event described by the word "va-yi[Ph][G]ah" explained that Jacob "stumbled" upon a certain "place". The place is unanimously considered to be on Mount Moriah, the mountain on which ancient Jerusalem was built. It was also named Beit-El (House of God), which became common and caused mainstream commentators to bestow a super-rational explanation on the "va-yi[Ph][G]ah" place.

All commentators associate the "va-yi[Ph][G]ah" place with the landmark that Adam, Noah, Malchi-Tzedek (Shem), Abraham, Isaac and Jacob identified with the holy mountain. The Bible calls it SaLem (completion), and Abraham called it Yi-Reh (vision), in combination YiReh-SaLem became Jerusalem meaning 'complete vision'. Today we may loosely infer it as that flash of insight that crystalizes a 20-20 vision on the subject in the recipients mind. 

Jacob stumbled on the place, then experienced a powerful dream, a vision that he memorialized using a standing-stone as his permanent covenant to build and dedicate the House of God. Right after that he hid for 14 years in the school of his ancient relatives Shem and his great-grandson Ever learning the folklore and ancient mystical secrets before he departed for Haran. 

Jacob's standing-stone also known as a matzevah?

It follows the events that caused him to react; "How awesome is this place!" also attracted and compelled him to stay on the holy mountain where the school of Shem and Ever may have been located. Recent excavations in the cavernous bedrock of the east facing slope of Mount Moriah have revealed Middle Bronze Age facilities that may very well have accommodated residents and students who may have frequented the area.    

In Finding Zion, I provide a detailed account of the discoveries in the immediate vicinity of the "va-yi[Ph][G]ah" place, adjacent to the Gihon Spring where much of the Biblical account is being clarified through archaeological discoveries and insightful interpretations.