Hezekiah's Dilemma

Hezekiah's Seal

I was surprised to read a sequence in Talmud, Sanhedrin (95-97) that connects several mysteries related to contraction of land, suspension of the sun's orbit, Jerusalem and a messianic prophecy. 

First in the sequence, Avishai saved King David's life. (95a:8) But, Tanach and midrash inform us that after King David's sinful census 70,000 in Israel's north were killed, the next day, on the summit of Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, when the angel of death was poised to destroy Jerusalem, Avishai was sacrificed to pacify the angel and prevent Jerusalem's destruction. At the foot of the angel of death David offered his personal sacrifice and that site would become the future altar of Jerusalem's first temple. This story is reflected in the 'sword over Jerusalem', words that are said each year at Passover tables the world over.  

Next, Talmud steps the reader back ~500 years to the time Jacob returned and stumbled on 'the place' his fathers prayed (95b:1). By this, midrashim and commentaries we know 'the place' to be the Beit El of Abraham and Jacob, the Akeida (binding) of Isaac, which according to Jewish law will be the place of the future temple altar.

Then, the reader steps forward ~1000 years to learn of Hezekiah's failure to obtain his Messianic designation after Sancheirev attempted to destroy Jerusalem (95b:14). In other places we learn that Hezekiah' failed because he did not immediately attribute the saving of Jerusalem to Divine intervention. Then, Sancheirev was killed by his sons (age 64 - c.681BCE) and Nebuchadnezzar seized control of the Babylonian-Assyrian alliance. Around 100 years after Sancheirev's failed attempt, Nebuchadnezzar dispatched Nebuzaradan and destroyed Jerusalem (96b:4).

Among the brutal detail of Jerusalem's destruction we learn Merodach-Baladan, who preceded Sancheirev, as king of Babylonia, (96a:10) wrote a letter to encourage Hezekiah shortly after he recovered from a near-fatal illness. Young Nebuchadnezzar was the scribe to Merodach-Baladan, but did not draft nor agree with the content of the letter. Hezekiah lived another 15 years (died aged 52 c.687 BCE), around the age of 37 he would have received the letter. 

Finally the Talmud continues a detailed conversation about the Messianic redemption following a sabbatical year (97a:1-10).

In a recent archaeological discovery, the defensive city wall that Hezekiah built to protect Jerusalem from the wrath of Sancheirev's doomed army was uncovered, but it presented an intriguing puzzle about the date of its construction. 

We asked whether the onset of Hezekiah's illness coincided with the city wall construction? If so, the constructors would have commenced during his early 30's, c.707 BCE and discovery of rock-cut-rooms, in the path of the wall construction may have presented a serious dilemma? Carbon dated evidence suggests, for more than five centuries the rock-cut-rooms lay buried below meters of dirt and debris supporting their spontaneous discovery that probably delayed construction until a decision about their treatment was reached. 

Why the dilemma? Well, one thing is for sure, the flimsy matzevah discovered in (2010 by Eli Shukron), in the rock-cut-rooms was preserved by Hezekiah's constructors and remains a declaration of its holy, non-idolatrous status. If not they would certainly have destroyed it, instead they preserved it in soft sand and built the defensive city wall alongside it to the east. We will never know what other  Bronze Age artefacts may have also been discovered at that time (Eli Shukron found some), but we see, from Hezekiah's actions the matzevah was important.

The fact the rock-cut-room temple complex preceded Solomon's temple surely would have prompted Hezekiah to ask why Solomon's temple was built in a different location, further up the mountain? How would Hezekiah, the one designated for messianic status answer that question? Was this 'the place' Jacob stumbled, where he dreamed of a stairway to heaven, set his matzevah (pillar), the place spanning time back to Akeida and beyond to Malchi-Tzedek and the original temple of Jerusalem? 

Walk in Hezekiah's shoes and ponder the depth of his dilemma.

 

Beit El, Jerusalem - Did King David Know?

For 10+ years I patiently waited for news, finally it came. Using carbon dating on seeds, twigs and dirt, Regev et al unambiguously showed that the Rock-Cut-Rooms, on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah are sandwiched between two sources of evidence dated to the Middle Bronze Age approximately 3500 and 3800 years ago.

Bronze Age Rock-Cut-Rooms

This is important because all archaeological evidence on the bedrock of these rooms was removed in the Iron Age II, around 2600 years ago when builders for King Hezekiah constructed the recently discovered eastern city wall (W20005 - W20021). Based on this evidence, before the rooms were first uncovered 2600 years ago they lay buried, out of use for some 900 years. No evidence of this time-frame showed up in the carbon dating report. 

Area U and Rock-cut Rooms
 (V. Essman and O. Rose)
Approximate evidence locations marked in red.

You following this? These rooms were in use up till 3500 years ago, then they stopped being used for 900 years, then 2600 years ago they were discovered, uncovered and immediately buried, finally they were re-discovered and uncovered again in 2011. 

East-side evidence samples

West-side evidence samples

Stunningly, the flimsy matzevah at the west end of room 4 (Area U map above) was intact as far back as 3600 years ago, the time of biblical Jacob. This perfectly fits the time-frame of evidence discovered on both sides of the rock-cut-rooms. Further, as the evidence stretches back to 3700 or 3800 years it suggests the rooms were actively in use at that time.

Matzevah (Pillar) of Jacob?

Eli Shukron, the archaeologist who excavated these rooms is unequivocal, this is the first temple that ever existed on Mount Moriah, a thousand years before the First Temple of King Solomon. If this is the matzevah of Jacob (Genesis 28:18, 28:22, 31:13, 31:45, 35:14, 35:20), then this is also the Beit El where Abraham built an altar, tithed to Malchi-Tzedek and offered his son, Isaac. Could it be?

Context to slope of original passage (Parker XVIII)

between Gihon Spring and rock-cut-rooms

Mount Moriah and City of David Archaeology

 

Presentation on Mount Moriah and City of David archaeology. Suggest starting this @3:10 to avoid the introductions and preamble. Hope you enjoy it. Runs for around 30 minutes before questions.

https://youtu.be/tV-AyT2I-2Q

Good god it was gad!

The annals of ancient civilizations demonstrate the influential power of stellar patterns used to predict good fortune and events that challenged early creation logic. Against ethereal alternatives the constellation logic of occultists, soothsayers and stargazers prevailed. Perhaps the seemingly abstract, often ambiguous and sometime falsified prophetic voice was not as consistent as the suns rising. Strong evidence of astrological cultures are found in archaeology of Mesopotamia and many other regions including in tombs of Egyptian Pharaohs that often tell of a soul journey to the stars and some that become stars. 

According to monotheism the Knower is the Knowledge and the Known, which contradicts that any intermediary, object or living god-figure could ever claim an independent role. Ancient civilizations that credited deities with independence defended the existence of pluralism. These conflicts underpinned the clash of cultures in the fertile crescent from modern Turkey through Egypt. 

Long memory is best preserved in ancient teachings and living, intact cultures that claim a communal continuum. The best long memories are maintained by cultures that posses a rich archaeology, history and anthropological synchronization in laws and customs still evident in the modern continuum.  

The oldest and most intact continuum with a written history, rich archaeology and anthropological synchronicity are the Israelite Hebrews diversely known as Jews. Descendants of Biblical Jacob, also known as Israel they prove a 3500 year continuum. At least this is validated through the paternal lineage of priests who descend from Jacob's son Levi and from whom today's high priestly sect continue to ascend. The continuum by this Levite sect is evident in general communal acceptance and validated in orthodox synagogue practices of modern Jewish people.

The Biblical and archaeological record illustrate the impact of these conflicting ideologies on the unity of the Jewish people. After King David conquered ancient Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, 2900 years ago he proceeded to unify Israel's disparate tribes and locate the altar around which a permanent temple could then be built. By law and intact tradition of its communal continuum the permanent altar had to be built where, 800 years earlier Jacob's father Isaac was bound by his father Abraham and offered as a sacrifice. As much as he tried, David could not locate it.

Then, a series of personal errors and political challenges challenged David's leadership and coincided with a nationwide pandemic. It caused him to repent following a vision of the angel of death standing a top Mount Moriah poised to destroy Jerusalem. Gad, his lower prophet advised David to build a personal altar on land at the foot of his angel of death vision and offer sacrifice to stay the pandemic. He appealed to Israel's tribal leaders to participate. They jointly purchased the 'angel of death' land from the local Jebusite king, then David built his altar and offered sacrifices.

The established written records of the Jewish continuum, that permit the above reconstruction describe a default communal shift that resolved continuum law and established the location where David's son Solomon built the altar and temple. There are no references tat confirm whether the default location agreed by the tribes also agreed with the continuum law that the altar be at the same site Isaac was bound. One generation after King Solomon, his son could not retain Israel's national unity, the nation split, the continuum was permanently altered and the majority turned to an alternative temple and worship.

The word gad in the written Biblical record occurs 67 times. 54 times refer to Jacob's son Gad, his tribe or their tribal land. It means 'good fortune' that originates from his naming at birth. On 13 other instances it relates to Gad the seer or lower prophet of King David. Only once the term was used to identify a god for good fortune and berate those who made 'good fortune' their independent god. 

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!

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.

Jerusalem's 'Temple Zero' Predicament!

The southern room - animal processing and grain press

The lead archaeologist says its Middle Bronze Age, but the tour guides say Iron Age and the Antiquities Authority is silent? For the uninitiated that’s an impossible gap of 600 years!

In 2011 lead archaeologist Eli Shukron discovered 4 hidden bedrock rooms preserved by a false wall. They feature an altar, a grain press, an oil press and a stone monument known as a matzevah. Low loops chiseled through corners of bedrock were once used to tie small animals before they were sacrificed. He openly attributes the rooms to MalchiTzedek’s Shalem, but the matzevah he unwittingly says cannot be Jacob's because"...we're talking about Jerusalem...” (See the video @7:40).

The matzevah of Jacob

This is where Eli and I diverge. Jacob’s matzevah was erected at a place he called Beit El, which according to the clearest geophysical reference in the bible (2Kings 23:4) is on eastern face, on the southern end of Mount Moriah, Jerusalem. Exactly at the location in this blog-post! Eli falls victim to the confusing arguments promoted by Jeroboam after King Solomon built the first temple at its alternative location on Mount Moriah.

The ramifications of Eli's statements strengthen me to overcome ignorance, which I justify because archaeologists are not biblical scholars nor the alternative. Who can blame them? However, the City of David has a far greater responsibility to reveal facts. Jerusalem's "temple zero" predates King David so why didn't he identify these rooms as the location at which his son Solomon would  build the first temple further up the mountain?

If you're fortunate enough to visit this place, tour guides may tell you King David built it to house the Ark of the Covenant during the 37 years before the first temple was built. Or that the rooms already existed so he brought the Ark here to rest and this is where he built a tent to house it. But, nothing in their explanation addresses why King David would permit a matzevah, a practice abolished in the bible ~350 years before him. Worse, they won't tell you of the Middle Bronze Age evidence that predates King David to Jacob, Isaac, Abraham and MalchiTzedek. They promote confusion by saying things that are not helpful to absolving ignorance.

The simplest answer is that King David never found these four rooms. However, someone after him, in the mid-late Iron Age did because Middle Bronze Age evidence was found in the area surrounding these rooms, but the rooms had been filled with soft sand, preserved and cleared of Middle Bronze Age evidence.

I've written extensively about these rooms, you can explore my blog for more, but Jerusalem's Temple Zero predicament challenges interpretations of Jewish law and tradition that preceded King David. Fundamentally, if this is Jacob's Beit El then established ancient traditions also declare it to be the site of the future, final temple, which competes with present views and raises questions that may be too hard for people to answer.

Stop the "fake news"!

Moses was told to gaze west, north, south and east (Deuteronomy - 3:27) similarly Jacob (Genesis 28:14), but Abram was told to look north, south, east and west (Genesis 13:14). The Me'Am Lo'ez says; one would expect east to be mentioned first since this is the direction of sunrise. However, Abram, their predecessor was in BethEl where the future Temple would be built.

About the whereabouts of this location, only one defining statement in all the 24 books of the Bible exists. Undisputed, 2Kings 23:4 states BethEl is the lower south-east slope of Mount Moriah, adjacent to the Kidron Valley in the City of David archaeological park, which is ancient Jerusalem from before the time of King David.

For more than 300 years Israel's tribal logic was dominated by Ephraim's envy over the southern boundary Benjamin shared with Judah, the location Abram was standing. Following King Davids ascension to Jerusalem and unification of the tribes, his son Solomon built the temple at the location. But, one generation later the exiled Jeroboam became King over a divided nation and established a temple of idolatry at Bethel, which is ~20km north of the location at ancient Jerusalem. The nation remained divided since that time.

Significantly, Jeroboam's actions left Israel confused until today. In northern Bethel, Professor Hagi Ben Artzi, the brother of Sarah Netanyahu argues it is the place Jacob experienced his famous dream of a stairway between heaven and earth on which angels were ascending and descending. And, archaeologist Eli Shukron argues the matzevah (monument) he recently discovered at BethEl, the location of Abram cannot be Jacob's because he was in Hagi Ben Artzi's Bethel (to the north) (see Eli @7:40 in the video below). 

The confusion has become endemic and logic circular causing many investigators to justify the ancient city of Ai  must also be ~20km to the north because that's where Bethel was and Abram is said to have pitched his tent between these two locations (Genesis 12:8). Despite the ancient city of Ai never being discovered academics happily defend their entrenched views.

Few have stopped to consider ancient Jerusalem is Mount Moriah, Salem of MalchiTzedek (Noah's son Shem), BethEl of Abram who became Abraham, akeida of Isaac, Luz and BethEl of Jacob's matzevah, Zion of King David and the Temple of King Solomon. Further that Abram could just as easily have pitched his tent opposite BethEl at the site of a Benedictine Monastery that is today a guesthouse called Maison d'Abraham - the House of Abraham. Finally that Ai could have been east of Maison d'Abraham toward the village Jabal Batin Alhawah.

Maison d'Abraham opposite BethEl in the reclaimed City of David.

Regardless, the irrefutable evidence that Eli Shukron discovered in 2011 is too impact-full to uphold the confusion that has permeated our logic for thousands of years. The temple complex in which the matzevah is located predates King David. Middle bronze age artifacts in the adjacent surroundings, the stone cut rooms of bedrock, preservation of the altar platform, liquids channel, oil and flour press are far too compelling to endure prevailing confusion. Further the middle bronze vessels found under the stone floor of homes built in the perimeter wall of the lower south-eastern valley floor, establishes occupation to the time of Abram. 

This enlightenment firmly establishes a path to realize this location. It is repeatedly referred in the Bible, a living text that is archaeologically established for at least 2300 years. It serves as Israel's permanent record which governments will be formed to express and a King appointed to realize Jerusalem's temple at this location that screams out for it.

Sword over Jerusalem!

To unify the nation King David had to identify the location of the national altar around which Israel’s temple would eventually be built. Without his selection no temple could be built and King David would be unable to fulfill his life mission. The King had to locate the altar, precisely at the place Isaac was offered as a sacrifice, by his father Abraham, and he had to do it with prophetic support. His search was futile, he turned to the advice of Prophet Samuel, his teachers, Do'eg, Achitofel and eventually the Prophet Gad.

Do'eg was a convert and serious Torah scholar, known to have ruthlessly consumed the intellects of his fellow students and teachers with his sharp commentary. His rivalry with the knowledge of Torah law that King David possessed revealed his jealous disposition. Paradoxically Do'eg tried to disqualify David from being King because David was born through the lineage of Ruth, a Moabite convert, which he alleged was forbidden by Torah law. The prevailing legal opinion, in David’s favor ruled the prohibition was limited to descendants of male Moabite converts only.

Do'eg also challenged David's struggle to determine the site of the future temple, lobbying for it be located in the high mountains south-west of ancient Jerusalem. David preferred it be at its precise location, in close proximity of the people of ancient Jerusalem. In his later years, King David ordered his general to make a census of the nation, it was not requested of him through a prophet by God, as was the law. After 9 months and 20 days Yoav, his general reluctantly delivered his count of males over 20 in Israel.

With an outstretched arm - Chronicles 21:6||Hagadah 

David reflected on the opposition and became remorseful. Retribution followed swiftly and Gad conveyed his prophecy to David as three choices by which to repent; seven years of famine or three months fleeing his enemies or 3 days of plague in the land. King David chose the latter. Immediately 70,000 people received their fate. On the second day, as the nation suffered the King witnessed a vision; the angel of death was standing on the threshing floor where Ornan - King of the Jebusites would separate wheat chaff in the wind. From there the angel stretched out its sword over Jerusalem (The ancient City of David). David immediately and deeply repented for his sins asking God’s forgiveness for the people. With David’s confession, Gad told David to purchase the threshing floor and to build an altar to God, through which he would be forgiven.

David purchased the threshing floor from the willing Jebusite King. He built the altar, made holy sacrifices to seek forgiveness for the sin of his ill fated census. In the process and the pandemonium the panic-struck tribal leaders unanimously accepted this altar as the beacon by which the future site of the first and second temples in Jerusalem would be determined.

Are we to rely on a vision, much less than a prophecy through the voice of an angel or on chance or hidden meaning that David's altar is in fact the site at which Isaac was bound? Was David opportunistic? There are no scholarly sources that confirm King David’s selection as Akeida. For the past 2840 years from the time King Solomon built the first temple and its altar, people have simply believed the site to be precisely the true Akeida. How is it that the most holy site for Jews is identified with the feet of the angel of death?

David struggled to find the site of the temple, for years he contended with Doeg over its location. Then he called on Achitofel to mitigate a threatened flood during construction of the Altar foundation. Did he not have a sign, an archaeological fingerprint, something to go on better than the feet of the angel of death and a prophecy of Gad to annul the plague that he caused? Did David know that the altar of Isaac was a prerequisite for the building of the Temple? David’s son Solomon built Jerusalem’s first temple based on the plans of his father. The missing ingredient in all this is the true location of the altar of Isaac's binding, which is the essential item according  Rambam and Halacha (Torah Law) for building a temple in Jerusalem. So where is it?

Intriguingly the sacrifice offered for a sin offering is the same as the new month (Rosh Chodesh). When David brought his sacrifice at the altar the first time, he repented for his sin, not that of the nation it was not a communal offering, but David's. Today, in the Rosh Chodesh prayer Jews the world over ask for a "New altar to be built in Zion", but when David first used the word "Zion" the angel of death's altar had not been identified and Solomon had not built the temple. So where is David's Zion the place we ask for a new altar to be built?

In numerous articles I have argued that the newly excavated Temple Zero complex above the Gihon, on the neck of the mountain, where sacrificial worship and ceremony is now known to have taken place, is in fact the site of the altar on which Isaac was bound. Notwithstanding popular opinion, this site is likely to be the original site of Salem, Luz, Beit-El, Zion and Jerusalem as such it ought to be more seriously considered as the primary site King David did not identify.

To understand the reasons why the King did not identify the site, we must be sensitive to a chronological series of events that presented him a great difficulty.

When King David and a small band of men first attacked and conquered the Jebusite city, now known as the City of David, its walls had been heavily fortified and constructed to prevent and protect its residents from attack and secure supply of water from the perennial Gihon Spring. Within and adjacent inner sections of the city walls, many homes had been built.

By the time David arrived, walls and the homes had been built on the foundation of bedrock over the site of Isaac’s altar, that had once been carved out of bedrock on the Upper Ridge. The earliest occupants worshiped on the small Upper Ridge on the east facing hillside. It is probable the first expansion of this site were by by Jacob and his sons when they returned from Shechem on their way to Hevron via the matzevah (monument) Jacob erected at the site of Akeida. This is also the place where Jacob experienced his famous dream in which the angels walked up and down the ladder or stairway between heaven and earth. It is also where he anointed his monument to God and formally took the name Israel.

When King David entered the city for the first time the location around the Gihon Spring became known as the Zion fortress and is referred to numerous times in the Bible. There is little doubt this is the physical location Tzion or Zion that David referred to. Whether or not King David knew of the existence of the Temple Zero complex is unknown, regardless its recent emergence for the first time in more than 3000 years and its identity today is remarkable. Will we be open minded enough to seriously question this future Temple site, or are we waiting for another disaster to inform us?

Ancient Chronology of Jerusalem's Holy Rock

As updated October 2018

Believe it or not, you are looking at Jerusalem's Mount Moriah. This once deserted mountain, nested among others is one rock from top to bottom between an eastern and western valley. On its lower eastern face, near the water of the Gihon Spring its first permanent cave dwelling, a living space with three sleeping quarters was carved neatly in the mountainside rock. A narrow single access passage provided a concealed entry for its inhabitants. The dwelling must have passed through generations, but the periodically and sporadically occupied mountain mostly remained desolate and the cave empty of inhabitants.

Mount Moriah looking North

Bronze Age Cave Home

An important spiritual practitioner, perhaps an oracle, a priest and healer occasionally attracted visitors. Higher up the steep east facing slope, a ridge, a platform overlooked the water of the Gihon Spring as it ran along the Kidron valley floor. It became the meeting place for worshipers and advice seekers. Temporarily dwelling on the mountain they sought advice, prayed, brought sacrificial offerings and moved on.

Bronze Age artisans chipped away the bedrock of the ridge on the eastern face until hollow spaces formed depressions in the rock. The depressions were enlarged, shaped into rooms exposed to the sky. More rock-on-rock workmanship eventually smoothed vertical walls from the hollowed spaces, until the depressions became rectangular and bedrock walls arose from the bedrock floor that had been lowered by the artisans.

A low bedrock platform in room 3 was preserved by the artisans, it is the foundation of an altar and supports the holy purpose of the 4 rooms . Two rooms (1&3) preserved access to the rear (west), rising, undulating bedrock ridge, perhaps to facilitate movement of people, supplies or animals to be sacrificed.

Temple Zero complex on the high ridge

Archaeologist recently revealed that the openings in the rear (west) of room 1 and room 3 provided access to the rising bedrock (follow green arrow in images below). Iron Age houses were built on top of the rear bedrock, but the evidence uncovered proved they were destroyed during events of the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. Their rudimentary basements penetrated to the spaces, near bedrock, at the rear of room 1 and 3, but their occupants never accessed these four rooms because in 2008 Eli Shukron discovered these rooms had been purposely buried in soft sand, concealed by a false wall on their eastern front, which he deconstructed.

In the rear opening of room 1, clay weights, once used as part of a weaving loom were discovered (Ronny Reich). Immediately north of this ridge Kathleen Kenyon excavated a trench behind a Middle Bronze Age wall in which pottery shards and hundreds of broken artifact idols were uncovered, but her dig did not discover these rooms.

Green Arrow (left) leads from the opening in rear of Room #1

The features chiseled into the bedrock were confirmed to have been made by rock implements and may have been added progressively. At some point after completion of room 2, a unique matzevah (massebah) or standing stone was placed onto the bedrock. This matzevah has been standing in its place, on the bedrock of the high ridge ever since it was first erected, preserved by the soft sand burial. Most likely this area was preserved before the Babylonian destruction, because it was cleared of artifacts and void of any destruction layer evidence found in the Iron Age rooms to the west.

Temple Zero with Matzevah

How long did room 2 exist before the matzevah was placed? Did room 2 serve an initial purpose other than for the placement of the matzevah? To answer some of these questions we will explore the Bronze Age cave home and ridge complex to chronologically estimate whether they were contextually related.

The cave dwelling on the lower eastern face was first re-discovered by Colonel Montague Parker and Père Vincent between 1909-1911. In the only published picture of the cave he is seen sitting with backer and writer Valter Juvelius. Although this cave was preceded by smaller paleolithic sites on the eastern face, this Chalcolithic to early Bronze Age cave is considerably more sophisticated.

Jerusalem's first mansion

To the north, an early Bronze Age tomb and advanced pottery were discovered by Parker-Vincent. The pottery and cave indicate the importance of the occupants and their relative prominence.

The living area of the cave dwelling and 3 sleeping quarters can be seen @ K 19,20,21 (bottom left)  of the map that Vincent compiled during his excavations. The rectangular area marks the site of the present excavations immediately west of the four rooms on the high or upper ridge (circled). 

In the Bronze Age water was first channeled from the natural Gihon Spring, on Mount Moriah's  eastern face to the round chamber that was eventually expanded to become the rock cut upper Gihon pool.

Round Chamber seen from above in bottom of picture

Round Chamber, narrow section of Upper Gihon Pool (north section)

Geophysical context for image above

The expanded upper Gihon pool, adjacent and north of the cave dwelling was apparently constructed to hold water and spill excess to the stream along the valley floor. However, water pressure and  mountain slope are unlikely to have filled much more than the lower sections of the round chamber. Bones of kosher animals, fish and many pictorial bullae were discovered in the pool. 

Red line denote north-south division preventing access to the High Ridge

Between the Cave dwelling and Upper Gihon Pool archaeologists have re-established an ancient stepped structure that was purposely quarried and terminated. It must have been the original access on the eastern face of the mountain.

Access from Cave Dwelling to High Ridge was terminated, now reestablished

Significantly and curiously the next major construction (to the north) appears to be the fortress above and over the Gihon Spring (House) and some of the eastern walls surrounding the city. The bedrock features left (south) of the red line, which were rediscovered by Eli Shukron and Ronnie Reich in 2008 have not been rendered into the black rectangle in the next artist impression and many artist interpretations like this fail to incorporate their significance. The impression below approximates the later Bronze, early Iron Age city around the time of Biblical Joshua.

Black rectangle marks area south of the red line

Archaeology clarified that water sourced from the Gihon Spring was not necessarily the object of the significant Gihon Fortress (David Citadel) construction. The image and map below demonstrates that water was originally channeled from the Gihon (left-north) to the middle Bronze Age Round Chamber (right-south of rock "B") and from there it flowed east to the valley floor. Once this became the default channel, the previous route may have been blocked to prevent water entering the Round Chamber, which expanded to the rock-cut upper Gihon pool, but excess water to the valley floor continued to flow freely.

See  location of Rock B in map below

The map below demonstrates the round chamber of the rock-cut upper Gihon pool (grey box) was first fed by Tunnel III. Channel II and Channel I indicate the by-pass discussed in the image above, which flowed water to the lower pool (adjacent to rock "B" located in map below). It also shows the Spring Tower Fortification (cream color) made of large boulders constructed on top and adjacent to the older grey rock-cut bedrock elements.

Water does not appear to have been the motivating reason for construction of the very significant Fortification adjacent to the Gihon Spring because water continued to flow to the valley floor during the Iron Age II until the reign of Hezekiah.

Fortification corridor looking west

The remaining Fortification massive boulders (image above - looking west) are neatly arranged up the steep eastern slope to eventually butt up to the city wall. This significant construction appears to have been designed to stop north-south access (across the red line) to the high ridge. The ultimate construction completely blocked access to the high ridge, including from the original lower bedrock of the now quarried upper Gihon pool and prioritized water flow to the lower Gihon pool, most likely blocking water flow to the upper pool.

The motivation for this most significant, multi-national, labor intensive construction of the Fortification corridor favors obfuscation of the high ridge and cave dwelling complex on the eastern face of Mount Moriah.

Whether or not the high ridge was obfuscated prior to or by King David or revealed during King David's reign or by Hezekiah during the construction of his channel remains unknown. However, matzevot, standing stones (like the matzevah on the high ridge) were not permitted after the period of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as clearly commanded in the Bible.

Well before Herod, Solomon-David or Joshua, there was a matzevah erected on the high ridge of the eastern slope of Mount Moriah in a location that included a substantial cave dwelling and temple complex that was once used for regular holy worship. Temple Zero pre-dated temple one or two by more than 1000 years and is attributed to the time of Biblical Malchi-Tzedek.

The Matzevah is most likely the one erected by Jacob and the subject of many articles at this blog.