There's been quite a bit of excavation done on Mt Moriah over the past decade. There are scholars who are convinced they know where the Holy of Holies for Herod's temple was by excavations going under the mount.
Most scholars reading the temple scroll today believe that the Essenes (or whoever group it was) believed the entire city of Jerusalem was a part of the temple, just as the tribes of Israel were a literal part of the tabernacle they surrounded. For this reason, the Essenes thought it sacrilege to bury anyone within the walls of the Old City. K'aya K'ama, Gerald/gary Smith gszion1 @juno.com http://www .geocities.com/rameumptom/index.html "No one is as hopelessly enslaved as the person who thinks he's free." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Marc: FWIW, a lot of people assume Mt. Zion is the temple mount, but it's not, it's to the west and isn't quite as prominent as Mt. Moriah. I made special note to look to see what's there now, at the summit. It's basically a parking lot for a Greek Orthodox seminary and monastery which is built on the western slopes of the "mountain" (as a geographical feature it's hardly impressive -- you have to have someone point it out to you, or study maps very carefully). Also, the Western Wall, or "wailing wall" is *not* the original Herodian temple. That was completely destroyed, so that one stone did not stand upon another, as a reader of the NT will remember. The wall is actually part of a structure built by the Turks, believe it or not. There's still controversy over where exactly on Mt. Moriah the original temples (whichever of the 3 versions you're looking at, Solomon's, Nehemiah's or Herod's) you look at. And the temple scroll of the DSS describes a temple which would cover more than the existing area of all of Old Jerusalem (that part currently enclosed by the Turkish walls, from the Jaffa Gate to the Damascus Gate and cutting across David's city and part of Mt. Zion). ________________________________________________________________ Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aaP9AU.bWix1n.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
