Under The Rock - New Evidence Proof For Temple Zero!

Seldom do senior archaeologists disagree over a hundred years let alone a thousand! A four roomed Bronze Age 'Temple Zero' complex, was discovered and named by Eli Shukron, but his boss, Ronnie Reich openly contradicted him by publishing a video in which he claimed the complex to be a creation of the Iron Age.

Orientation

Lower down the eastern slope under boulders on the bedrock, adjacent to the Gihon Spring was a missing layer of important evidence. Precisely two full missing strata, eight and nine - that can represent up to 1000 years! How did the evidence trapped under a boulder miss out from strata 10 through strata 7? After all it was trapped under the same rock, but nothing from strata eight and nine. How did this missing evidence phenomena occur? 

Sunken Round Chamber (closest) and present day platform suspended in quarry

One answer comes directly from Ronnie Reich who separately explained that a wooden platform was once suspended across the rock-cut-pool or quarry (south of the Gihon Spring) much like the platform on which people are sitting in the image above, only fully extended. The indentation for this platform can still be seen cut into the stone above the heads of the people who are standing.  (also see rendering below) 

Depicted, ancient wooden platform suspended above bedrock

Evidence trapped under the rock

If the ancient suspended platform was maintained in place for the entire period spanning strata eight and nine, evidence from that era would have been prevented from falling to the bedrock. Once the platform was built, during strata 10 it would have locked in strata 10 evidence on the bedrock and no later evidence could fall on top of it. In simple terms strata 10 is around late bronze age - ~3400 years ago, strata 7 late iron age, ~2600 years ago.

From this evidence we can conclude activity existed from the late bronze age. This critical dating is conclusive for the citadel complex built from boulders that most likely originated on the adjacent double wall north of the quarry. Further, it clarifies that water channeled from the Gihon Spring into the deep round chamber (feature of the quarry) was drawn from and processed on the platform for distribution to the people living +50 meters higher up on the mountain plateau. All this has been confirmed by Ronnie Reich.

Gihon Spring Citadel complex
Quarry (south), double wall (west) and guard tower (east) by Ronnie Reich

Since digging the quarry post-dated the deposit of strata 10 evidence, two possibilities emerge: 1) Either the designer hoped the quarry would dam up with water from the Gihon Spring, but never did because it's a geophysical impossibility since the spring is only 1 meter above the base of the Round Chamber, or: 2) The Citadel, double wall and quarry cavity, were the objective of the massive construction effort, if so why?  Its important to recognize that the quarry cavity forever changed the previous natural bedrock slope. Further if the the smaller diameter, round chamber were originally cut into the natural slope the much larger quarried cavity lowered natural access to the round chamber. This required the construction of a wooden platform to conveniently access and process water for distribution.

Perhaps the best clue to the construction objective is not in the quarry or the new water route through the double wall, but at the highest westerly point, at the termination of the double wall at the top of the 35m vertical rise, in a place now known as the Parker Tunnel.

Double Wall Termination

Parker Tunnel

Parker's "cyclopean" clearance

To highlight the steep rise on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, each color in the image below represents a 5 meter rise above sea level. Ronny Reich's Citadel complex is overlaid on the topography to give you an idea of the impassable access to and from the Parker Tunnel. The highest point, the termination of the double wall abuts the bedrock at an ancient wall section that blocked access to the Parker Tunnel, @670m.

Parker's excavation notes recorded that he removed one of the giant"cyclopean" boulders to improve access, but he failed to discover the complete Temple Zero complex immediately to the south. When Eli Shukron found it in 2011, it strengthened evidence that termination of the double wall, its construction, the quarry cavity and citadel watchtower served a dual purpose: 1) to cut the eastern slope of the mountain and prevent access to the southern end of the Parker Tunnel and the Temple Zero location @670m and 2) to protect the transport of water through the underground passage, now known as Warren's Shaft System.

Residents of Mount Moriah could not have completed this massive construction project without significant help. They relied on allies, imported workers, but what compelled their alliance. Blocking access to Temple Zero may sound a bit far-fetched, but not if you were living their at that time. The new, much enlarged Israel were rising up out of Egypt, nations living on land that was sacred to Jacob knew that Israel would return. If Temple Zero were exposed Israel would have been more compelled to conquer the mountain, like a red flag to a bull. Perhaps the occupants who built this construct knew that when Israel returned they would surely seek it out so they blocked and obfuscated access to Temple Zero!

The evidence trapped under the rock and the quarry proves the quarry construction from the Bronze through the Iron Age. It dates the entire complex on the eastern slope of the Gihon Spring, including Temple Zero to the period around 3400 years ago, around the time Israel rose up out of Egypt and not to the Strata 7 Iron Age.

Shalem, Luz, BeitEl, Jerusalem - City of David!

Once a small, quiet, undisturbed hill among many, the rock that constitutes Mount Moriah lies in a north-south direction. In a recent presentation I tried to compress more than 10 years of experiences in archaeological excavations and spiritual pursuit to capture a better understanding. Why this rock, and what compelled King David, in the seventh year of his reign to leave his base in Hevron to establish a kingdom from this Mountain?

The presentation, which is available in the video link below, lacks one additional point that I wanted to emphasize: In his book, In Ismael's House Martin Gilbert told of the men who entered Jerusalem with Calif Omar in 638 CE, one of whom was a Jewish convert to Islam, Ka'b al-Ahbar [whose Hebrew name was Akiva]. Some 600 years after the Herodian Temple destruction, at Omar's request, Ka'b pointed out the rock where the Jewish Temple had been built by Solomon and after some misgivings, identified the holiest spot where the shrine to Calif Omar was built. That shrine today known as the Dome of The Rock, the Golden Dome occupies a prominent location on the Temple Mount selected by a Jewish convert. That particular location on the Temple Mount has no special designation in Jewish law, only in Jewish tradition.

The presentation lasts around 40 minutes.

Jerusalem's 3800 Year Old Water Bottling Plant!

Between 1923 and 1925 archaeologists MacAlister and Duncan, for the Palestine Exploration Fund and The Daily Telegraph excavated on the Mount of Ophel, Mount Moriah, Jerusalem: Their extensive report included an aerial photo of the area they called the Jebusite City, now known as the City of David. That image (below) was marked by them to illustrates the location of the Fields 5 (north of),7 and 9 they excavated.  To the east, the Gihon Spring in Valley of the Kidron, which they referred to as the Virgins Fountain they wrote: "In fact we have come to the conclusion that there are no Jebusite cisterns at all in the city, but that the Jebusite city was dependent entirely on the Virgins Fountain ([the Gihon Spring] and possibly other springs since dried up) for their water supply."

1925 R.A.F. reconnaissance photo over City of David. 

Of their bedrock discoveries in Fields 5,7 and 9 which rise to between @680-700 meters above sea level they wrote: "We thought, when they were first uncovered that they were cisterns and in the original draft of this report we described them as such. We have now definitely abandoned this theory. There is no trace of a water line on the walls. There is no cup-hollows such as usually exists in the bottom of rock-cut cisterns to catch the last dregs of the water. We now hold that these carefully hewn chambers were tombs of a very early date, presumably belonging to notables of the Jebusite city." Pottery discovered and reported from the grave caves in these Fields dated back well before Biblical Jebusites to neolithic and early bronze ages.

How did life, development and water use evolve from the "very early date" these "notables" were buried on the mountain ridge? We have ample evidence of the embedded bedrock implements that were used for processing food or worship, the cave dwellings carved into rock, quarried bedrock structures and foundations that supported stone houses and walls. However, we must find the main route and the way water was transported from the Gihon Spring or we will not understand how 1000-2000 people began to live on the ridge of the mountain.

Bedrock of eastern slope in context Parker, Reich and Eli Shukron expeditions

Occupation was initially clustered close to or at the level of the Gihon Spring. Moving heavy water from the spring up mountain slope would have required substantial effort. The steep grade of the eastern slope rises 50 vertical meters from the Gihon Spring @634m to Field 9 starting @680m above sea level and within a walking distance of 100 meters from the Kidron Valley floor. Enterprising solutions must have been required to service populations once settlement moved above 650 meters. (Sea level heights are indicated in the image above.) To resolve this problem a King, attributed to the Emorites, Jebusites or one of the seven Canaanite tribes, during the period circa 1800-1700 B.C.E ordered work to expand an east sloping, natural underground tunnel that once ran from around @660m toward the Gihon Spring and Kidron Valley below.

In the video below Ronny Reich explains this underground tunnel now known as a water system or the Warrens Shaft System. There are several important points to note: 1. The iron steps, on which Ronny stands marks the termination of the tunnel and no evidence of steps, at that point has ever been found. Ropes may have hoisted water up the vertical shaft where the iron steps are now built. 2. Ronny indicates the system was used by common people to obtain their daily water, I dispute that, it was used by professional water carriers only. 3. The tunnel route evolved in three stages initially via the natural cave entry-exit to or from the water source immediately north of the double wall fortress and after it was constructed, between the double walls. The final route was more direct through an entry to the tunnel system immediately south of the double walls. These indications support a royal, efficient enterprise that controlled water from the Gihon Spring that had been channeled into the Round Chamber for 'bottling' and distribution.

In a previous article I detailed how the Warrens Shaft System had transformed the sanctity of the ancient bedrock on the lower eastern slope, specifically how it cut the four room worship complex from growing populations on the northern mountain ridge. The water enterprise of the Jeubusites, its capture and continued use by King David, its transformation to industrial zone and food market for the city, by the kings that followed forever changed the ancient character of the eastern slope.

Beit El Proof Text Locates Ai!

Refugees who fled the Assyrian army that had attacked the northern tribes of Israel arrived in Jerusalem only to swell its already burgeoning population. In the months following resettlement, their different religious practices immediately became abhorrent to the resident priests in Jerusalem's temple.  King Hezekiah acted to remove idolatry, centralize worship and focus the attention of his subjects on the task at hand, to strengthen the city. Hezekiah sent Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah and Joah to appease Sennacherib's generals, they obtained only temporary reprieve. He sent lavish gifts to Sennacherib, the Assyrian King hoping to stave off an attack, but it soon became apparent the Assyrian army would advance on Jerusalem.

During the reprieve Hezekiah was attributed with 6 decrees, the first three were considered good; (1) he concealed the book of healing because people, instead of praying to God relied on concoctions; (2) he broke in pieces the brazen serpent of Moses; and (3) he dragged his father's remains, instead of giving them an honorable burial. The second three, which were not good: (1) he re-directed the water of Gihon into the city; (2) he cut the gold from the doors of the Temple for a gift to Sennacherib; and (3) he moved Passover celebrations to the second month to meet the demands of northern refugees. Around this time Hezekiah fell gravely ill (Isaiah 38:6).

The king's stress was palpable, but we cannot imagine how that was exacerbated when workers, commissioned to strengthen the walls of the city and build watch towers stumbled across a discovery that shocked the king to his core (2 Chronicles 32:5). On the eastern slope of Mount Moriah @657m (above sea level), directly above the path, @634m of the water tunnel being constructed workers cleared rubble and stumbled upon the ancient, permanent temple of Beit-El carved out of the buried bedrock. As the king grappled with the discovery, its potential impact to centralized worship and its contradiction with Solomon's temple he went into a state of shock, infection took over the boils on his body and he began to die. He lamented, prayed and ordered the ancient temple to be sealed between a false wall that was filled with soft sand. Then the prophet Isaiah announced a miracle, the king was granted a 15 year life extension, following which the Assyrian invasion of Jerusalem collapsed. 

"C" marked on map below - standing on bedrock
Hezekiah's wall behind matzevah

Hezekiah's wall behind Jebusite
 wall (built on bedrock)

Tower marked "A" on the map was ~4m above bedrock, in the South corner (see middle image below)

Until Hezekiah, the general area of Beit-El in Jerusalem had been forgotten. Biblical reference was first made more than 1000 years earlier during the time of Abraham and again by Jacob, then nothing until Joshua. By the time King David arrived it's association with Jerusalem had mostly been forgotten. Commentators of the bible vary in their opinions, most refer to the later city of Bethel that was built by Jeroboam north of Jerusalem, but for some reason they are compelled to refer it back to Jerusalem. Some 67 years after Hezekiah, his great, great grandson King Josiah ordered The High Priest Hilkiyahu to remove idolatry from the temple and destroy it in the plains of the Kidron Valley. Hilkiyahu promptly carried out the mission and carried the smashed pieces to Beit-El (2 Kings 23:4) adjacent to the Kidron Valley where it's thought he deposited them in a pit behind Wall NB or Wall 3, discovered by archaeologist Kathryn Kenyon (see images below). This is the last time Beit-El of Jerusalem was accurately mentioned in Biblical texts.

Spring citadel - double wall

The ancient temple of Beit-El remained buried, untouched until it was re-discovered by Eli Shukron for the Israel Antiquities Authority in 2011. 2 Kings 23:4 is a proof text that resolves the mystery of Beit-El's original Shalem, Jebusite City, City of David, Jerusalem location. With this it establishes a new basis for archaeologists looking for its counterpart city Ai, which was to its east.

Ancient Jerusalem - A Sacred Burial Site?

From the excavation report by MacAlister and Duncan - Excavations on the Hill of Ophel, Jerusalem 1923-1925: "We thought, when they were first uncovered that they were cisterns and in the original draft of this report we described them as such. We have now definitely abandoned this theory. There is no trace of a water line on the walls. There is no cup-hollows such as usually exists in the bottom of rock-cut cisterns to catch the last dregs of the water. We now hold that these carefully hewn chambers were tombs of a very early date, presumably belonging to notable of the Jebusite city. In fact we have come to the conclusion that there are no Jebusite cisterns at all in the city, but that the Jebusite city was dependent entirely on the Virgins Fountain (and possibly other springs since dried up) for their water supply."

The statement above related to burial sites in Field 5, but also 7 and 9 of the excavation, which is the upper east facing elevation along the north-south ridge of Mount Moriah (west of and between the modern Area G and E). It is testimony to the use of at least some of these areas as cultic worship sites established around sacred burial caves in the early and mid Bronze Age periods.

Presenting my tomb theory to members of the Israel Antiquity Authority

The vigil seen at sacred grave sites in Israel today may resemble an early form of the tradition that continues by devotees who recite psalms and other prayers at the place the spirit of the deceased returns.

Prayer vigil at Joseph's tomb 

As I have previously written, shaft tombs were common in the region during the early through middle Bronze Age.  Arguably Jerusalem's most ancient and important tomb may have existed for 1000 years or more before it was hacked when an Iron Age quarry cut the north-south passage on the lower eastern slope of the mountain. The path between two significant Bronze Age features, the upper floor blocked cave and the lower floor cave house (Parker), that exists either side of the quarry may have been purposely separated in order to prevent ("stop or cancel" - see video) the continuous traditions of occupation and organized worship.

Plan of Gihon excavations
The Rock-cut pool disconnected bidirectional north-south access 

Along the rim of the quarry the slope of the bedrock's south face can be seen below. It is now known that water could not be contained in the quarry because the low degree geophysical slope from the Gihon spring, north of the quarry could never build sufficient hydraulic pressure to raise water into any section of it.

Cut quarry often confused as - upper Gihon Pool

The remnant round chamber (as it is known today) is contained in the bedrock of the rock-cut quarry visible below. It may once have been a much taller shaft connecting the burial chamber at the base to the surface (as illustrated top left of image).

Remnant of shaft to round chamber in rock-cut quarry 

The confirmed discovery of early and mid-bronze burial sites, in vicinity on the eastern slopes of Mount Moriah, as it descends toward the Kidron Valley and Gihon spring offer strong support for the theory that the round chamber in the rock-cut quarry once was a shaft-tomb leading to a sacred burial chamber. Eventually, at its base the abandoned burial chamber was connected to the Gihon Spring source through a series of cut channels.

On the adjacent, north face of the quarry the partly collapsed massive bronze age double wall rises from the east, near the Kidron Valley up the steep bedrock slope to the west. At the top (west), the double wall once connected with the city wall built at the time of King Hezekiah to further and completely block passage from north to south. around 100 years ago Montague Parker cleared sections of the wall to provide passage through a tunnel as seen in the next two images.

Double Wall looking east - quarry to the immediate south.

Top of wall was dismantled by Parker - looking north
(Kevin's gate can be seen in background left).

Before it was dismantled by Parker, the top of the double wall abutted the city wall, which in conjunction with the quarry entirely blocked the north to south passage across the lower section of the east face above the Gihon Spring. In addition to sacred graves, we need to understand the time periods and long-standing motivations to undertake this massive construction.

Drawing (looking to the west) from Ronnie Reich's book
 demonstrates how the double wall, above the
Fortress of Zion and quarry blocked passage.

Parker dismantled the top section of the double wall, that abutted the city wall to obtain access room 3 and 4, (image below) but he never made it to the adjacent rooms 2 and 1, they were discovered in 2011 by Eli Shukron.

Temple Zero complex facing east near the Gihon Spring

If these four rooms comprised a Bronze Age temple, the quarry, double walls and city wall may have been specifically constructed to prevent successive populations from practicing sacred rites in the four rooms. Herein may lie the long-standing negative motivation to construct such significant barriers that surround this important four room feature and prevent its use.

As MacAlister and Duncan suggested in their detailed report the story of the Lame and the Blind at the Fortress of Zion may further explain such long-standing motivations. The fortress refers to the stone construction immediately south of the Gihon Spring, extending west up the steep east face of Mount Moriah.

All city walls depicted in this image
have not been located in archaeology

This Jebusite fortress is referred to in 2 Samuel 5:7-8 and 1 Chronicles 11:5. King David's troops entered, captured and lived in the fortress until they eventually took control of the broader areas and the surrounding populations on the mountain. According to the Biblical accounts, surprisingly the Jebusite King was never forced to vacate Mount Moriah. During King David's 40 year reign at the same location the Jebusite Kings other property rights were upheld.

According to tradition the Lame and the Blind refers to the pacts between Abraham, Isaac and the descendants of Philistine progenitor Avimelech, as inherited by Jacob. These pacts permitted the Jebusites rights to occupy land in this region. King David allegedly broke the 500+ year "Lame and Blind" pact when his troops conquered the fortress and renamed it and the mountain the City of David.

The fortress and walls preceded Iron Age King David, by at least several hundred years. Therefore, the Bronze Age burial sites in the immediate vicinity may have motivated the Fortress, quarry and double wall obfuscation of the Temple Zero complex as a reminder to Israel of their paternal "Lame and Blind" pact with Jebusites. In this context "Lame" refers to Jacob who was lamed during his tussle with his "angel of death" brother Esau while en route back to the matzevah he erected 20 years earlier in the place he named Beit El, on Mount Moriah, the night he experience his famous "Jacob's Ladder" dream. Unlike room 3 of Temple Zero, which was purposefully constructed to retain the bedrock platform in its northwest corner, room 2 was empty until, post construction the perfectly preserved matzevah was located on its bedrock.

The Israel Antiquities Authority have agreed to investigate using geophysical probes and other methods that may reveal how or if it is affixed to bedrock. Regardless, its preservation in rooms that were sealed when discovered in 2011 is nonetheless remarkable.

Matzevah of Jacob on Mount Moriah

From Missiles on Sderot To a Terrorist in Poway

Missiles fired from Gaza to Sderot

In everything there is a lesson to be learned as the Israeli family from Sderot who recently moved to Poway, California discovered.

The elderly Isaac became blind because, as is warned against in the Gemara (Megila 28) he had too often gazed into the eyes of his evil son Esau. Isaac's good son Jacob on his return, after 20 years in exile was injured in his hip, lamed in a battle with the angel of his evil brother Esau, who bestowed on him the name Israel for prevailing over him.

The Gemara added that Avimelech, King of the Philistines cursed Isaac's mother Sara, when he found out that she was the wife, not the sister of Abram. Commentary about the curse centered on the word K'SooS[T], which normally means a garment, but suggested punctuation on the same letters could have rendered the word K'SiyaS[T], which would mean a cover - over your eyes. Its use in a curse would have meant to loose your eyesight, which is what had happened to Sara's son - Isaac. The Gemara accepts both reasons as valid.

After Avimelech's shepherds attacked Issac's wells, Isaac agreed with Avimelech to extend his father Abraham's peace-pact permitting all future decedents of the Philistine King to reside in the land of Isaac's inheritance.  But, peace with the Kings antagonistic subjects was short lived, fragile at best. For his weakness in pursuit of improbable peace, Isaac was nick-named - "The Blind" and after Jacob returned to the home of his father the antagonists nick-named him "The Lame" because of his injured hip. Together they became known as The Lame and The Blind!

The coast in Aza, today known as Gaza, was once home to the Philistine antagonists. But, 10 Kilometers east, along the ridge of central hill territory their antagonist cousins occupied Isaac's inherited land spanning north from the Town of Four (Kiryat Arba) to Mount Moriah. Not long after Isaac's death, Jacob and his family of 70 escaped severe drought by immigrating to Egypt leaving behind the land he inherited, but had struggled to possess.

Mount Moriah (looking north) - Jerusalem - time of Joshua 

For the entire 210 years of Israel's sojourn in Egypt the antagonists were free to spread their occupation and entrench themselves in the important cities of Kiryat Arba (which is Hebron) and Jerusalem on the lower southern slopes of  Mount Moriah. Empowered, by their false beliefs narratives of The Lame and The Blind became entrenched in their antagonistic cultures as they mocked Israel.

Egypt provided a protected environment for the family of Israel to flourish. Jacob's son Joseph, who preceded their arrival had been empowered as the Egypts viceroy which provided the basis for the fledgling family of Israel to spread their influence. The family grew to millions, but toward the latter years, after Egypt's Pharaohs turned against them the path was established for their return to the land of their inheritance. Egypt's political alliances followed their direct family relationships to the Philistines along the Mediterranean coast and cousins to the inland mountain ridge, where news of Israel's rise against and threat of departure from Egypt spread.

The central hill antagonists anticipated Israel's return to their beloved Mount Moriah, the source of their inheritance:- The place, Noah's son Shem had practiced as the high priest of Salem, to whom Abraham had tithed his wealth, from whom Abraham descended:- The place Abraham had offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice :- The place Jacob had erected a standing stone, pillar or matzevah as a covenant to build the House of God. Intent on stopping their repossession, the antagonists lobbied their regional allies to provide labor and skilled stonemasons to erect a massive structure up the eastern slope of Mount Moriah and block the sacred places that Israel would no doubt seek on their return.

Quarry - cutting access across eastern slope of Mount Moriah

To the sacred place on the eastern slope

Quarrying massive stones from the adjacent rock plateau, they hacked Mount Moriah's lower, eastern mountain-side to ensure any prior access to the sacred places was forever impassable. One by one massive cut-boulders were lifted on top of each other progressively rising from valley floor up a steep slope to the most sacred place, 120 meters above the valley floor. The massive structure resembling a ziggurat, an ascending stepped structure and the quarry remnant would forever alter the landscape of the once naive, east facing slope of Mount Moriah.

The first of Israel's spies to return to this place could not believe what they saw. Their experience with the pyramids in Egypt must have led them to believe such similar structure on Mount Moriah was beyond human. It shook them to the core, shattered their confidence, motivated them to publicly express anxiety, report dangerous tidings and ultimately delayed Israel's return to their land by 40 years.

When Israel under Joshua finally entered the land of their inheritance and made their way to Mount Moriah, the antagonists were waiting on the very structure they had constructed in preparation. From their strategic vantage point they beat on drums, threw stones,  displayed their idols and shouted reminders that Israel, the ascendants of The Lame and The Blind had an obligation and responsibility to honor their pact with the central hill antagonists and their Gaza kin. It took 300 more years before a brave King David (2 Samuel 5:8) finally antagonized the antagonists in a manner that induced their co-existence.

Rabbi Goldstein on the White House Lawn

Like those before them, today the antagonists of Gaza antagonize their neighboring Israeli residents with a constant barrage of missiles on places like Sderot. Israel cannot hide from antagonists, only their constant strong-arm, offensive, counter-antagonistic strategies will mimic the tactic of King David to neutralize the behavior of antagonists who otherwise will forever recall the curse of Avimelech. Israel must adopt the attitude of the Rabbi of Poway, who avenged the dead and injured to change the curse of terror to the blessing of peace!

2900 Year Jerusalem Mystery Solved!

The most significant and immovable artifact at the City of David has been protected by a steel locked box since its discovery in 2011. Understanding its origin, especially in context of its location has been aided by the recent discovery of a small 2600 year old seal that once belonged to a man named Nathan, servant of King Josiah, mentioned in 2 Kings 23:11 of the Bible.  However, the geophysical location of the artifact and recorded events surrounding Nathan, servant of King Josiah are trans-formative in resolving the artifacts interpretation. Three verses of chapter 23 are pivotal:

23:4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second rank and the guards of the threshold, to take out of the Temple of the Lord all the utensils that were made for the Baal and for the asherah, and for the entire host of the heaven, and he burnt them outside Jerusalem in the plains of Kidron, and he carried their ashes to Bethel.

23:11 And he abolished the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, from the entrance of the house of the Lord until the chamber of Nathan-melech the eunuch who was in the outskirts, and he burnt the sun chariots with fire.

23:15 And also the altar that was in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam the son of Nebat-who caused Israel to sin-had made, also that altar and the high place he demolished, and he burnt the high place; he pulverized it and burnt the asherah.

Eli Shukron, the archaeologist who discovered the protected artifact, known as a standing stone or matzevah was prompted by a question; “Eli- is there any chance the stone was from Genesis (the one Jacob erected)?” 

As you can see @7:40 minutes into the video Eli answered; "..yes, maybe Jacob was here, but this is not the stone of Jacob because we are talking about Jerusalem".

300 years before King Josiah and Nathan - melech the eunuch, King Jeroboam erected the altar at Bethel on the border of the territory of Benjamin and Ephraim. During the ceremony a prophet was sent to announce its future destruction by a man named Josiah. These events of chapter 23 capture the moment the prophecy came true when King Josiah destroyed the altar of Jeroboam at Bethel (north of Jerusalem). Ever since this time, the location of the original Beit El, of Jacob has been lost to the nation of Israel.

Jeroboam's prevailing geologic continues to plague the modern nation. Eli, like many others is confused because modern Bethel (~10 km north of Jerusalem) considered to be named by Jacob is not the location Jacob erected the standing stone at the place he named Beit El. Miraculously, the recent discovery of Nathan - melech the eunuch's seal comes to resolve this longstanding error.

We read in 23:11 that the chamber of Nathan -melech was on the outskirts of the temple, therefore  it may have been the very location his seal was discovered in the Givati excavation shown @0:37 into the next video.

Remarkably, the dispute between Bethel north of Jerusalem and Beit El of Jerusalem is now resolved because the only reference in the entire 24 books of the Bible that can possibly have resolved this conflict is verse 23:4. Indisputably this is the area outside Jerusalem (the tiny ancient city on Mount Moriah) and the plains of the Kidron Valley, where the wooden idols were burned to ashes and Beit El, the place where the ashes were carried and deposited. Hilkiah the High priest did not walk, ride, drive or fly to Bethel ~10km north of Jerusalem to deposit these ashes and that is in direct opposition to Eli Shukron's denial that the standing stone is Jacob's Beit El in Jerusalem.

To this day, the matzevah or standing stone of Jacob remains locked in its steel box and each time I think of it I'm inspired to continue my struggle to correct the long, perplexing, disinformation campaign Jeroboam imposed on Israel, which was confounded by the prophet who came from Judah, who was mauled to death by a lion that was waiting on the road with a donkey - wow!

The matzevah of Jacob

Jacob And His Trees

Covenant of Jacob - Standing Stone or Matzevah at Beit El, Bethel, Ancient Jerusalem

For 39 years the progenitor Israel lived with a gnawing frustration because the covenant he, as Jacob made at Beit El to build the House of God had not been fulfilled. Confounding events had distracted him from meeting his obligation.  After a successful 20 year exile he returned to his homeland to fulfill his covenant, but was delayed by the burden of his cattle, the idols his entourage carried, the rape of his daughter and massacre in revenge, the death of his mother, the death of his favored wife, the sale of his favored son Joseph into slavery, by his brothers and their living lie to Jacob.

Ultimately his family’s exile to Egypt, where they were finally reunified with Joseph must have been a bittersweet 17 year end to Jacob’s life. On his deathbed, he struggled to express the vision of his yet unfulfilled covenant, perhaps still hoping to motivate his children to fulfill it. Instead Jacob died hearing their acknowledgement that they too would unify their Creator and with that he bestowed his final blessings to them.

When you make a covenant with your one and only God, there is no escaping it. There is no other god who can cancel or adjust it, that constitution is expressed in the continuity of Jewish law. Jacob memorialized his covenant by setting and anointing a standing stone in Luz, which he renamed Beit El, that marked the place of his obligation. By his default, to build the House of God his unfulfilled covenant became the cornerstone of his nations indigenous memory.

The essential backstory to Jacobs yet unfulfilled covenant is less well known. Before his final exile to Egypt he gathered Acacia seeds, some say the Acacia trees that had originally been planted by Abraham and Jacob south of Jacob’s standing stone at Beit El. Nurturing these trees was Jacob’s contemplation, to provide the wood to construct and fulfill his covenant at the place Malchi-tzedek - High Priest of Salem had practiced, Abraham had offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice and Jacob had set his standing stone on Jerusalem’s Mount Moriah. When Jacob left the land of his inheritance, he took the Acacia seeds with him and, not to give up on his indigenous dream he planted them when they settled in Egypt.

210 years after Jacob’s exile his disenfranchised nation were thrust out of Egypt. Before departing some realized the contemplation of their forefather Jacob was about to come true. Tantalizingly, they anticipated returning to Mount Moriah, they felled the trees prepared the wood and took it from Egypt to be used to complete Jacob’s covenant and vision. But, Israel’s circuitous route back to their land took 40 more years. Along the journey Jacob’s trees were used to construct a temporary sanctuary to house the Ark of the Holy Covenant and offer sacrifices. The sanctuary was deconstructed and reconstructed at 42 locations before the nation was ready to arrive.

The seeds Jacob took with him did not merely provide wood, they also implanted a will, in the national psyche that had taken root with his family to fulfill his covenant. When they carried the wood out of Egypt into the desert to worship The God that had saved them from tyrant Pharaohs they were sentimentally expressing Jacobs Beit El contemplation. But, when Joshua finally led each of the tribes into battle to conquer their allotted land, there were two places he was unable to dislodge the occupant enemy. One was the territory of modern Gaza, which is the territory of Dan and the other Mount Moriah, which straddles territory on the southern boundary of Benjamin and northern boundary of Judah. Emorites and Jebusites had constructed massive fortifications on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah that concealed the bedrock, which in light of recent archaeology is Jacob’s Beit El to hide features of the earliest temple Israel’s ancestors had once developed and used.

It took another 300 years before King David mustered a small force that penetrated the fortification by scaling the water channel flowing out of the Gihon Spring and a bedrock fissure. The young Kings forces successfully occupied the lower section of Mount Moriah, but did not dislodge previous occupants of the mountain including the Jebusite King. King David recovered the Ark of the Holy Covenant that had been stolen by the Philistines of Gaza, but abandoned by them because of their superstitions. He temporarily housed it on the mountain until a permanent temple could be built. Progressively King David established Mount Moriah as his base for unifying the administration of justice over all Israel’s tribes.

During his tenure, the King struggled to find the Mount Moriah site that was destined for the altar of the permanent temple. The exact location was not obvious, but the prerequisite, by Jewish law had to be akeida - the site of the binding of Isaac. Despite all of his efforts, he was unable to locate it. Toward the end of his life, under political pressure for his moral ineptitude he dispatched his loyal general on an ill fated census of the nation. A plague ravaged the nations north killing 70,000, as it approached Jerusalem the King witnessed the angel of death standing on Mount Moriah with its sword drawn over the lower slope, which was Jerusalem at that time. The nations prophet declared the site suitable for an altar. King David who publicly sought forgiveness and the tribal leaders whose tribes were being ravaged, purchased the site from the Jebusite King. King David brought his sacrifices and the plague stopped. The event that unified the tribes was soon forgotten, but the location of the Kings altar was not. Finally King David’s blueprint, for the construction of Jerusalem’s first permanent temple were completed and made ready for his son King Solomon to construct.

Notwithstanding the joyful pomp and ceremony at the inauguration of Jerusalem’s first permanent temple, Jacob’s Beit El location had been lost. It was inadvertently re-discovered by King Hezekiah’s builders during his Gihon Spring tunnel reconstruction, but it was quickly and perfectly re-buried and preserved. It was rediscovered by Eli Shukron, in the City of David on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah 3533 after Jacob’s exile in 2010.

The Place Jacob Stumbled and Became Israel

Of 79,847 words in old testament Hebrew Bible, "va-yi[Ph][G]ah" is used once to describe the manner in which Jacob came upon a certain "place" [Ba MaKom] Genesis 28:11. It is also used once in the Book of Samuel and three times in the first book of Kings. In the latter books it expounds the murder of priests and retribution against a traitor. So, how does the murder of priests by Do'eg, who was a conniving, ruthless teacher of King David and retribution by Ben'ayahu ben Yehoiada, for the King relate to Jacob's experience at the place?

The verb "[Ph]-[G]ah" means to encounter, meet or reach, perhaps encounter (as in strike can relate to killing or murder. However, because a softer verb was not used commentators interpret this long memory, encoded into the Bible's Hebrew words as if to his surprise Jacob, fell upon, collided with, or stumbled onto the place.

Regular readers of this blog know that the standing stone or matzevah in ancient Jerusalem's temple zero complex (see image below) may be the one Jacob erected the morning after his "va-yi[Ph][G]ah" experience which was followed, that night by his famous 'stairway-to-heaven' dream.

Four room temple complex on Upper Ridge above the Gihon Spring

Of the four rooms discovered in the temple complex, on the eastern face of Mount Moriah the bedrock at the western end of room 2 drops to a low point around 1 meter above the ground. This apparently natural feature outlined in red and immediately further west in green (in the images below) illustrates the fall of bedrock toward the ground level bedrock. The standing stone (also in the images below) is not depicted in room 2 (above) to illustrate that it was erected on top of the ground level bedrock well after this temple complex had already been constructed.

Looking west into Room 2 

Only the raised bedrock platform at the rear (west) end of room 3 was purposely left in place when the original constructors shaped the bedrock into these four rooms. The image (below) of room 3 bedrock floor contrasts the liquids channel (left of image) carved into the bedrock floor from retained (top rear) raised altar platform. This serves to emphasize the purpose of the construction as a temple complex from the outset.

Room 3 altar platform left in place when rooms bedrock was removed to shape rooms

The man-made-wall in the background, west of the green outlined bedrock (below) was dated to the time of King Hezekiah by various archaeologists. Around 1000 years earlier, toward the end of the middle Bronze Age the man-made-wall did not exist, but the bedrock features of rooms 1,2,3 and 4 did. We know that because pottery artifacts discovered in passages immediately east and north of these rooms are dated to the middle bronze age and chisel markings are indicative of that time. 

Matzevah or standing stone at the rear, west end of room 2

Further west of the man-made-wall bedrock continues under the wall, as seen in the image below. In the middle Bronze Age, before the man-made-wall was built bedrock access to and from the west of the temple complex would have been a more gentle access route. The grade of the east facing slope seen in the following image supports the idea of gradual access.

The man-made-wall  (City Wall in image below) approximately demonstrates the relative position of the four room temple complex on the Upper ridge in context to the City Wall at the site of the excavations. It also illustrates the proximity of the Upper Ridge temple complex to the water of the Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley below.

For those who are familiar with the Bible story of Jacob: On the run from his brother, Jacob made his way to (Genesis 28:11) the holy place of his ancestors (Mount Moriah) where his father was once offered as a sacrifice by his grandfather whose homeland Jacob was about to leave behind. When the sun set he stumbled upon the bedrock and fell into room 2 of the temple complex. That night he packed stones around his head, which he took from (the ramp of the altar in) room 3 and exhausted he fell asleep. In the morning when he awoke, he erected the stone and anointed it (Genesis 28:18) and after twenty years in exile he returned back to it (Genesis 35:14). I maintain that this is the place Jacob was seeking and this is the place Israel is still seeking, perhaps one day we will all find it!

Myopic Archaeological Reporting

A major disagreement between archaeological giants over a 2008 discovery at the City of David, Jerusalem remains unresolved. The modern equivalents of Macalister and Duncan, Reich and Shukron, who excavated sections of the lower and upper ridges near the Gihon Spring remain ~1000 years apart in their time estimates for a critically important upper ridge discovery. By professional standards its a serious issue that could eventually backfire on Israel's Antiquities Authority.

Its not unusual for archaeologists to challenge each other with evidence based theories including at  the Gihon Spring. Recently Dr. Joe Uziel discovered evidence that presented a similar time conflict. Under the north-eastern corner stone of the Bronze age citadel construction adjacent to the Gihon Spring, seeds were carbon dated by Weizmann Institute to the Iron age. The seeds were presumed to be in their original location, but if they had been washed under the corner stone, in a prior rain-storm the arguments over Iron or Bronze age dating would be futile. 

To elucidate the futility, myopic archaeological reporting is often contained to single fragments of evidence that draw inferences absent of broader context discoveries found in proximity. For example Jerusalem's oldest constructed cave was probably a mansion carved into the east face of Mount Moriah, south of the upper Gihon Pool. 

Parker and Vincent Excavation ~1910

Early Bronze Age Cave (2018)

Further up the eastern face, a tomb containing ~4000 year old sophisticated tomb pottery was discovered by Parker-Vincent. Importantly this early Bronze Age tomb pottery dates Mount Moriah's first permanent population to a similar time in which the cave home on the eastern face would have been in use.

From Ronny Reich's book - Excavating the City of David: Where Jerusalem's History Began

The Pottery Artifacts from the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem

Direct evidence does not link the tomb pottery to the cave, but both were sophisticated developments of that time. The cave would have been constructed by skilled laborers and the pottery by refined artisans indicating the importance of the individuals to whom these discoveries were once attributed. Leading archaeologist Hillel Geva made it clear that Mount Moriah was sparsely populated until much later periods when permanent construction on the mountain expanded from around 3800 years ago, around the time of Biblical Abraham.

One of the most compelling observations echos a ziggurat like stairway the lower sections having been partly reassembled with steel staircase. Immediately adjacent, north of the cave, the base of the stairway was once quarried in sloping bedrock, but today it is a sheer-rock-cut-face that reshaped the natural slope of the bedrock to displace or destroy the arrangements that once provided gradual stepped-access from lower to upper ridge.

Stairway view bottom to top (looking west)

Stairway view top to bottom (looking east) - see video below

The slope may have first been reshaped to include steps for easier access on the ~30 meter rise (see profile image below) from the lower rock shelf, at the cave's natural entrance to the stairs leading to the high ridge. Interestingly, the lower section of stairs would have once landed on the east face of Mount Moriah, as it falls to the Kidron Valley, but the dramatic absence at the now sheer-rock-cut-face appears related to the quarrying that ultimately formed the large impassable void of the Upper Gihon Pool (see image below).

Profile slice through Mount Moriah looking north.

In 2008 Eli Shukron broke through a false wall on the upper ridge and discovered that the stairway led directly to a sacrificial altar of a significant pre-Solomon temple complex. Soft sand filled the entire upper ridge spaces between the false wall on the east (side of Kidron Valley) and the western bedrock, below the city wall. Thousands of years before Eli's breakthrough, the temple complex had been cleaned of artifacts and purposefully buried, a fact that has not been officially revealed. Below, the four numbered rooms, notably #1 and #3 have short passages connecting these rooms with the upper section of the ridge as it makes its way higher and to the west.

On the eastern bedrock, below the temple complex middle Bronze Age artifacts were discovered by Shukron and previous archaeologists, but several rooms built against the city wall (see image above) contained artifacts that were dated to the Iron Age.

The image above illustrates how access through the rear passage of room #1 of the temple complex led to the bedrock behind the wall. When the temple complex was excavated, several Iron Age artifacts were found in the passages and caused Ronny Reich to firmly date the temple complex to the Iron Age. However, it is evident these artifacts could have moved. The basement of the Iron Age rooms (above image) terminated on the bedrock as it descends east and like so many cavernous basements in and around the old city of Jerusalem the contents on the bedrock found the tunnel of room #1 where the Iron Age contents of the house slipped into and filled the space of the tunnel. 

Based on the above,the definitive statements by Ronny Reich, as seen in the video below would therefore be an example of myopic archaeology. Eli Shukron has made public statements that the temple complex is a Bronze Age construct in direct opposition. 

I'll leave it to you the reader to decide, which version is more likely just keep in mind that the standing stone or matzevah in room #2 (seen below) is most likely a relic from 3800 years ago, the the time of Israel's Biblical fathers, as such it is more likely to fit the context that supports the narrative of Eli Shukron.

Room #2 matzevah or standing stone is not a grave marker