Part 16 - The Western Wall Tunnel

March 27 - After we came down from the Temple Mount, we went on a tour of the western wall tunnel.  The entire western wall of the Temple Mount is about 1700' long.  The southern 200' or so has been escavated and is open to view.  The next 200' is where Jews congregate and pray, the so-called Wailing Wall.  Moving further north, the wall is located in a residential part of the Muslim Quarter.  When they excavated below the houses, they uncovered a section of first century paved road, an aquaduct, and water cisterns.  The wall itself was found to be undisturbed stone from the time of Herod.

About midway along the tunnel, there is a wide spot with a chair or two. This unpretentious area has been dedicated as a synagogue.  It is as close as one can get to the former Holy of Holies without being on the Temple Mount.  There was a lady sitting there, facing the wall, reading the Hebrew Scriptures and trying to get as close to God as she could

It reminded me of Hebrews 10:19: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus."  We have been given the right to enter into the very presence of God by the perfect sacrifice on Calvary.  During the entire Temple era, only one man could enter into the Holy of Holies, and only on one day of the year.  A believer in Christ has more access to the Father of Spirits than the High Priest ever had.  Besides pleading with God for our sin, we can come boldly before the Throne of Grace to obtain the mercy and help we need (Heb 4:16, see also Eph 3:12).

We can face the future with the same confidence and assurance.  1 John 4:17 speaks of us walking in love and dwelling in God, and that will give us a measure of boldness when we stand before Him on the Day of Judgement.  1 John 2:28 tells us that if we abide in Christ, we can have confidence and not be ashamed at his (second) coming.

The southern end of the western wall.  The embedded supports for the Robinson Arch can be seen in the middle right.  It was a massive stairway that provided access to the Temple Mount.

Moving north, this picture shows the Wailing Wall.  For 1900 years, this was as close as Jews could get to the Holy of Holies.  It's segregated, like the temple courts of old.  The men's side is on the left, closest to the former temple, with the women on the right.

This is getting down to the Western Wall Tunnel.  According to our guide, Jerusalem is like a layered cake.  This layer, below ground level, goes back to Roman times.  There was a place to look further down, and there was at least two stratum of buildings below this layer.  You can see none of this from ground level, not even a hint.

This shows the tunnel at the bottom of the western wall.  The stones exhibit the smoothly chiseled "frame" around the edge of the face that is typical of Herodean masonry.  One massive stone is 45' long and 9' high.  No one knows how they got it into place, but there are notches along the side that probably helped.

Inside the Western Wall Tunnel, this spot is as close as you can get to the former Temple.

This picture was at the northern end of the western wall tunnel.  The guide pointed out that we were at bedrock here.  The giant groove in the center shows how they cut stone. 

Thou Fool!

It is a serious matter to call another person a fool, but there is still a lot of foolishness in this world.  A foolish person is not necessarily a bad person.  It is just someone who cannot see reality for what it is, and is therefore prone to poor judgement and decisions.  It twice tells us in the Proverbs: "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God."  This person is living in an alternative reality.  They are missing the whole purpose for which they were created, Romans 1:22.

In the 1930's, Germany was rapidly rearming.  The British intelligensia kept reassuring the people that they were protected by a network of treaties and the League of Nations.  But there was one man in England who would not be silenced, and he was so unpopular that they would not even let him speak on the BBC.  It was, of course, Winston Churchill.  Someone who reminds people of reality is never going to be popular.  In 1934, the Oxford Debating Club issued their famous dictum that "they would not fight for King or country."  However, 5 years later, reality intruded, and the Second World War left over 70 million people dead. 

Jesus gave us several parables which speak about the foolish person.  It is not generally what we would think.

Luke 12:20  "Thou fool, this night thy life shall be required of thee."  This man would generally be admired and considered wise.  He thought ahead, he made good decisions, and he planned ahead. However, "he was not rich toward God", and he was therefore tagged a fool.  Everything he did was going to end at the grave.

Matthew 7:26  A wise person is defined as someone who is building their lives on the words of Jesus.  He is taking them seriously.  A foolish person is just one who is not taking them seriously.  We are told their end.  The winds came, and the storm blew, and everything they lived for was taken away.

Matthew 25:5  The Parable of the Ten Virgins.  In small villages, the wedding feast would last into the wee hours of the night.  The custom was for the groom to then be escorted to the bride house for the first time.  His friends would hid along the way, and join him.  No one knew how long they would have to wait, and it was pitch dark.  A wise person would bring additional oil because of the unknown length of time.  All of the people were virgins; or good people.  But not everyone was prepared.  A wise person in this parable was the person who was prepared.

Part 17 - We remember Calvary

March 29 - We have been seeing small groups of pious pilgrims all along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, the route that Jesus supposedly took on his way to Calvary.  There is a church or sign at each of the stations.  It starts out at the Antonia Fortress next to the Lion's Gate, where Jesus was probably tried and convicted, and then proceeds in a westerly direction to the Church of the Holy Sepulcre. However, all four Gospels record that he was crucified near the "place of the skull," and John's Gospel tells us it was outside the city walls. The Aramaic word Golgotha was translated into Latin as Calvary, which is related to the English word Calavera, or skull.

We are staying in Jerusalem next to the Damascus Gate.  About three blocks away is a bus station which backs up to a low, steep cliff.  In ancient times this had been a rock quarry, a place where the Jews took malefactors for stoning.  There is a formation in the cliff with two hollow eyes and a white rock nose that looks for all the world like a human skull.

There are several indicators that this may, indeed, be the actual site of Calvary.

1.  It is outside the city walls.  The traditional site, the Church of the 

     Holy Sepulcre, is in the middle of the walled city.  It was probably 

     outside the walls in the first century, but there is considerable doubt 

     as to the exact circuit of the northern wall.

2.  It is "near the city," as John's Gospel requires.

3.  The fact that it had been a rock quarry and a place of execution 

     lends weight to this site.

4.  The Romans crucified their malefactors next to roads to serve 

     as an example.  In ancient times, this place was adjacent to the 

     main road leading north out of Jerusalem.

Tomorrow is our last day in Jerusalem.  In the morning, Denita and I will walk to Calvary and there remember the resurrection, the most momentous event in all human history.  (We sang 391 together under the cliff:  "See him led outside the city, bruised and bearing all our sin; cruel was the death he suffered, heaven's joy for us to win.")

John 19:17  "And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.  Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin......."

This is the hillside which, when it is darker, looks like a human skull

John 19:39  "And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.  Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.  Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.  There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand."

John 20:1   "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.   So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”  So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.  Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.  Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.  Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)"

The so-called Garden Tomb, located about a block away from the Skull Cliff, fits the specific evidence recorded in the 16th chapter of Mark.  "When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.  Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”  But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.  As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed."

1.  It is near the "Place of the Skull," as John's Gospel requires.

2.  It is a tomb hewn of rock, in accordance with Luke 23:53

3.  You enter the tomb from the left side.

4.  The left chamber is easily large enough to hold three women.

5.  The angel was on the right side, as was the place for the 

      burial and linen wrapping.  This fits with the arrangement

      in the Garden Tomb.

6.  There is a groove in the floor to the right of the opening 

      where the round stone door was rolled to open

This is the exterior of the Garden Tomb

This picture, taken from the left chamber, shows the right side where the angel stood.

Part 15 - Hezekiah's Tunnel & the Pool of Siloam

March 27 - This morning we hired a taxi to drive us to the City of David.  I always thought the "City of David" was just a poetic way of saying "Jerusalem," but that's not the case.  It was the original walled city just south of Mount Moriah that David conquered from the native Jebusites.  This Jebusite city had been built on a long, narrow hilltop.  David built his palace here, his son Solomon built the Temple on the hill to the north, and over the centuries Jerusalem slowly and gradually moved north.  Today, this area lies just outside the southern wall, adjacent to the Dung Gate.

We walked up the hill starting from the Pool of Siloam at the bottom.  In David's day, the city stood on the hilltop, surrounded by walls.  They excavated some ruins near the top, and we listened in as a guide explained how it looked 3000 years ago.  As it turns out, this was a neighborhood for the rich and famous.  And just how did the archaeologists figure out it was a wealthy suburb?  In one of the houses, they found evidence of a bathroom.  Yes, 3,000 years ago, only the elite had bathrooms in their houses.  (In the Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 25b, Rabbi Yosi defined a rich person as "whoever has a toilet near his table."). 

The Dung Gate

From the City of David, this picture views north and east across the Kidron Valley.  It was even steeper in David's day.  There are thousands of Jewish graves on the Mount of Olives awaiting the resurrection

I wanted to see Hezekiah's Tunnel and the Pool of Siloam, both in the City of David.  As you may recall, King Hezekiah tried to appease the Assyrians by giving them a ton of gold and 11 tons of silver, but to no avail.  This is about $100 million in current dollars.  Sennacherib of Assyria sent his messengers to the city walls, and taunted the Israelites.  He encircled Jerusalem with 185,000 men.  But that very night, God sent the plague, and all of the soldiers died.  Interestingly enough, the Greek historian Heroditus has an account of this story which confirms the Biblical account. (See 2 Kings 18, 19)

Hezekiah knew the Assyrians were coming.  All of Israel to the north had fallen, the Jews taken captive and the land wasted.  Hezekiah acted to secure their water source, and to deprive the Assyrians, by diverting the Gihon Spring to a collecting pool inside the walls.  Starting from both ends, workers picked a tunnel through solid rock with hand axes and miraculously met in the middle.  The ending point, the famous Pool of Siloam, lie safely inside the city walls. 

2 Chronicles 32:1  "Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered Judah; .......... And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, and that his purpose was to make war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his leaders and commanders to stop the water from the springs which were outside the city; and they helped him.  Thus many people gathered together who stopped all the springs and the brook that ran through the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?”................  30 "This same Hezekiah also stopped the water outlet of Upper Gihon, and brought the water by tunnel to the west side of the City of David."

We walked the length of the tunnel.  It seemed to go on, and on, and on.  I found out later it was 1,750' long, or about 1/3rd of a mile.  It was pitch black inside, but Denita had a tiny gift shop flashlight that helped immensely.  The tunnel ranged between 5.5' to 6.5' in height, and as we walked our shoulders brushed both sides.  It was about 2.5' wide.  Although not difficult, I would not recommend the trek to anyone who is the least bit claustrophobic.  

When we finally exited Hezekiah's Tunnel, this is where it came out.

The Pool of Siloam was intimately connected with the Feast of Booths.  To kick off this feast, a little ritual was added to the daily burnt offering called the water-drawing ceremony.  As the burnt offering was being prepared, a procession of priest would wind their way down from the temple to the Pool of Siloam accompanied by the playing of flutes and singing.  There, a priest would fill a golden flask with water while a choir repeated Isaiah 12:3: "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation" (Mishnah Sukkah 4:9; 5:1). The priests returned to the temple via the Water Gate on the south side of the Temple Mount.  Upon arriving at the Water Gate, a blast was made on a ram's horn. The shofar was used to announce the beginning of the Sabbath, new moons or in this case, the Feast of Booths.

John 9:1.  Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.  I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.  And He said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

This is the Pool of Siloam as it looks today.  The two row of stones at bottom left is the beginning of the pool as it existed in Jesus' day.

This is a mural, an artists rendition, of what the Pool of Siloam looked like in the first century

The inscription of Siloam - In 1880, a young lad walked up the tunnel from the Pool of Siloam to the Gihon Spring. There, at water level, 18' inside the tunnel, he discovered an inscription that had been chiseled into the side.  It was later cut out of the tunnel wall and cleaned.  This inscription tells, in an abbreviated fashion, of the time when two groups of diggers, who had started from opposite ends, met in the middle.  The six lines of text read:

"and this is the story of the tunnel while ...

the axes were against each other and while three cubits were left to cut? ... the voice of a man

called to his counterpart, (for) there was ZADA in the rock, on the right ... and on the day of the

tunnel (being finished) the stonecutters struck each man towards his counterpart, axe against axe and water flowed from the source to the pool for 1200 cubits. and 100 cubits was the height over the head of the stonecutters"

The Third and Living Temple

It is highly likely that, at the very time John received his vision on Patmos, the Roman armies were at the gates of Jerusalem.  (The AD 95 date found in most Bible commentaries is based on Catholic sources and has no historical foundation.)  The days of the Second Temple were numbered.   In the book of Revelation, John's thoughts seem to continually come back to the Temple in the last days of its existence.

• Rev. 1:12, 20  "And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks ... The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."  One of the few furnishings in the Sanctuary was a seven-branched candelabra.  Made of a single piece of gold, it had 7 cups filled with olive oil, and they were lit every day to provide light.  When John thought of the Menorah, he was reminded of the seven little gatherings of believers in the province of Asia.  Even with their shortcoming, these churches were still the light of the world.


• Rev. 5:8, 8:3-4  "Golden vial full of odors, which are the prayers of saints."  Another furnishing in the temple was an incense alter covered with gold.  The priests would burn incense every morning and evening when they trimmed the lamps.  John said the prayers of the saints were like the odor of that incense.  They are pleasing to God.  His heart is touched when we cry out to Him in our need and praise Him for His goodness.


• Rev. 3:12  "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God"  Pillars are the part of the building which supports and bears weight.  In the Temple of Solomon, two of the 18 cubit high columns were even given names.  A pillar in the church of God is someone who is willing to bear the burdens of others.  Pillars are often found behind walls, silent and unseen, patiently filling their place and extending a hand to others.


• Rev. 19:8  "And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."  Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would bathe, an oxen would be slain for his sins, he would put on the linen garments and enter the Holy of Holies.   When we believe and love His Son, we are justified or made right in God' eyes.  Our robes are made white in the blood of the Lamb, Rev. 7:13.
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• The Mishnah describes how the priests serving in the Temple were checked for blemishes and given the white garments of their office:  "The Chamber of Hewn Stone was where the Great Sanhedrin of Israel used to sit and judge the priesthood; and if in any priest a blemish was found he clothed himself in black and veiled himself in black and departed and went his way; and he in whom no blemish was found clothed himself in white and veiled himself in white, and went in and ministered with his brethren the priests" (Middot 1.5).
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• Rev. 21:22  "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it."  It would not be long until the Temple would be destroyed for all time.  Those who accept His Son would become the new Temple - or dwelling place - of His Spirit.   In heaven, we will enjoy personal fellowship with the Father and the Son.

Part 18 - Jaffa, the city of Jonah

March 29 - The old port of Joppa  - Jafa to the Israelis - is very charming.  We landed in a youth hostel next to a flea market of some renown.  I'm told it is very famous institution here, but it looked suspiciously like the junk we periodically cleared out of the garage and took to the dump.  Apparently, I apparently lack the necessary culture and sensitivity to discern the difference..........

Joppa is where Jonah headed to get away from the will of God.  He was instructed to go east and preach repentance to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrians.  Instead, he headed west.  It was too much for him to believe that God would extend mercy to the nation which had just enslaved and plundered Israel.  This was also the place where Peter received the revelation that God is no respector of persons.  That was a huge stumbling block to the early church.  A Pharisee would never sit down at the same table with someone who did not live to the same standard of ritual cleanness, and Gentiles were considered to be like someone "with a running sore."  How would the servants of God ever be able to share the Gospel with Gentiles.  Peter's vision of the clean and unclean took this barrier out of the way forever.

We take off from Ben Gurion Airport, which is next to Tel Aviv.  We decided to fly home rather than take the Whale Excursion. The seats are more comfortable, and the food a whole lot better!  I've never liked raw fish and seaweed anyway .........

Jonah 1  "Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.  But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."

The old port of Joppa

The Rocks of Andromeda offshore, something Jonah would have seen.

Acts 9:36   "Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.  And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber.  And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them.  Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them.  But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.  And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive.  And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord.  And it came to pass, that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner."

The House of Simon the Tanner.  This ancient and no doubt authentic landmark can be identified by the words above the door written in 20th century English script 

Zachaeaus in the Sycamore tree, oops, wrong posting.  Modern Tel Aviv can be seen in the background.