The Cardo

The Cardo is the main North South Str. of all important towns in the Roman Empire. For example you can find a Cardo in Caesarea, the capitol of Judea in Roman times, Sebastia, the capital city of Samaria, Bet Shean, one of the Roman cities known as Decapolis cities, located in the Jordan Valley, Hippos, on the shores of the sea of Galilee, another Decapolis city, Migdal (Magdala), Arbel, Sepporis and so on.

Most of these Cardo’s date from the time of the emperor Justinian in the 6th century, during which time Christianity was at the peak of its power and wealth in the Roman World, although Cardo’s existed in the Roman world long before Justinian.

All of the cities mentioned above also have magnificent churches, or at least the ruins of these churches. For example it is reputed that there were over 200 churches in Jerusalem alone. To name a few: the church of the Ascension on the Mt. of Olives, the church of Dominus Flevit, the church of the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Nea church and of course the church of the Holy Sepulchre and many others.

The Cardo in all these cities is distinguished by rows of columns on either side of a broad street. The columns supported a roof, usually made of red tiles which gave shelter to the citizens on the sidewalk below. Usually there were shops on the sidewalks.

Naturally markets were held on these sidewalks, but that was not the purpose for which they were built. They were built for spectators, who would be the citizens of a city, who would be required to witness daily parades. Each day celebrated feasts of a national, patriotic nature, such as the Emperor’s birthday, or the birthday of one of the saints, (in Pagan times, before the advent of Christianity, the birthdays of the gods, Jupiter, Saturn etc.)

On holy days the saints would march solemnly down the road, accompanied by singers and bell ringers, all colorfully dressed.

The Cardo always connected between two churches (temples in pagan times) so that the procession would proceed from one church to the other. It was especially used by pilgrims on their visits to the holy places, like marching with the cross, as Jesus had done, along the road to Calvary.

Probably the crowd would also be required to stand at the side of the road as a convicted person was being lead to the place of execution. This way the citizens could witness the pursuit of Justice for which the Roman Empire prided itself. Justinian himself was known as the lawgiver.

The Cardo in Jerusalem extends from the Zion Gate, near which are the ruins of the Nea church, the biggest church in the world at that time, to the Damascus Gate, in Roman times the Northern Gate of the city, built by the emperor Hadrian when he built Aelia Capitolina, a city built to the North of the city of Jerusalem which lay in ruins in his day.

He probably built the first Cardo as a procession road leading from the entrance of the city to the temple of Aphrodite along one street and the temple of Jupiter along another.

Constantine the great in the 4th century changed the temple of Aphrodite into the church of the Anastasia or the resurrection, to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, today known as the church of the holy sepulcher. In his day the Cardo lead from the northern gate to the church.
Justinian extended the Cardo to reach his new church, the Nea.

The Herodian Quarter

The Herodian Quarter lies buried beneath the magnificent new structure of the Yeshiva of the Kotel, so named because of the view of the Wailing Wall (Kotel in Hebrew) which one has from its roof.

The builders of the Yeshiva of the Kotel, in 1985, didn’t deliberately build it on top of the ruins of this neighborhood of luxury houses dating from the time of Herod the Great in 40 years before the Christian Era.

In fact they only built this new building because the Jordanians had destroyed the previous building, built in the 19th century, during their rule of Jerusalem after the war of independence in 1948 until 1967 when the Jews had conquered the Old City of Jerusalem, and began re-inhabiting it.

The builders, while digging foundations for the new Yeshiva uncovered this beautiful neighborhood, with 6 roomed, 3 level palatial residences.

The neighborhood, which was so new in the days of Herod the Great had laid buried in ruins after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem during the great rebellion of the year 70, until this accidental discovery.

These houses are obviously part of a luxury neighborhood, described by Josephus Flavius, in his book, the Antiquities of the Jews, written nearly 2000 years ago, as a new suburb built by Herod the Great for the priestly families, appointed by Rome.

These included the high priest Caiphas, mentioned in Christian scriptures, appointed by Valerius Gratus, the procurator who preceded Pontius Pilate.

The houses were equipped with water cisterns to ensure a reliable supply of water. The floors were decorated with beautiful mosaics, with geometric designs, not infringing on the law forbidding graven images of people, plants or animals, which one could see in Roman houses of the period in Rome, but not in Jewish homes.

The walls were covered with plaster painted over with frescos. The furniture, glass, and pottery bowls lay strewn on the floor.

Some of the utensils on exhibition were carved out of limestone, a sign that they were meant to be used by the priests, because they did not contaminate in the event of a person dying in one of the rooms. In such an event all pottery would be destroyed, being considered unclean. This was because entrance to the temple was permitted only to priests who were ritually pure. Death caused defilement and any utensil, excepting a stone utensil would become contagious.

Several fine, glass jars, made by the famous Roman glassmaker, Enion of Sidon were found; his insignia appears on the side of the jar.

The houses had many ritual baths, also indicating that the inhabitants of these houses were priests, who used the baths daily for ritual cleansing.

After visiting Jerusalem, seeing these archaeological remains, Herod’s Palace under David’s Tower, remains of the outer Western Wall of the courtyard of the temple and now the 6 Herodian Houses. and reading Josephus’ descriptions we can be quite sure that Jerusalem was no mean, rustic village, but one of the most beautiful cities on earth, the likes of which have vanished never to be seen again.

The Jaffa Gate

Today the Jaffa Gate is never closed, but from the days of the Sultan Suleiman, in the 16th century, when it was built until the beginning of the 20th century, it was closed, to protect the citizens of Jerusalem from being plundered and murdered by vicious nomadic tribes that came from the nearby Judean Desert, a fearful place, known in the Bible as the wilderness. 

In fact Suleiman inscribed warnings to all who entered to be righteous and God fearing, in Arabic on two plaques, carved into the white limestone, of which the gate is built, at the left of the gate as one enter and above the opening. 

The Jews, placed their warning, known as the Mezuza, which is a scroll inside a box, fixed onto the right doorpost as one enters, with the Biblical warning, the Shema, “Hear o Israel the Lord is our God, the Lord is one”.

As an additional warning to those who enter the gate Suleiman also buried two of the city’s builders there, where all who enter the city can see their graves and be warned of the penalty for not being God fearing. Today the details of their crime are considered legendary, namely that they misused funds in building a smaller wall that left out Mt. Zion, than was originally planned.

Suleiman like, the great king Solomon, his namesake, is known as the law giver and the builder. One might include Herod the great as one of the builders of Jerusalem, but Herod’s existence is not mentioned in the Koran and is therefore in doubt among the Moslems, which religious persuasion Suleiman was.

Suleiman named the gate, Bab el Halil, after father Abraham, who was known as the friend (halil in Arabic, bab el Halil=the gate of the friend) because, according to both Jewish and Moslem legends, he used to welcome travelers to his tent in the desert, offer them food and rest and teach them about God.

This name, like the names of many places, must have developed naturally, because citizens of Jerusalem used to gather at Bab el Halil to make the pilgrimage to Hebron (the city of the friend) where Abraham lived and is buried, 30 km South of Jerusalem.

Naturally the Mosque at the gate is also named after Abraham.

Suleiman had made Jerusalem a safe place for people to live and many people in his empire, the Ottoman Empire, took advantage of this, especially Jews, who had always longed to return to Jerusalem, but had been fearful of living in a city unprotected by a wall.

The Jews called the gate, the Jaffa Gate because mostly they had journeyed to Jerusalem from the harbor of Jaffa, where they arrived in the Promised Land from Turkey and from Europe.

After the Crimean War of 1853 the Ottoman Empire sought more contact with Russia and Europe. Christians made pilgrimages to the holy places and their countries built churches and hostels to provide for them. 

With the increasing numbers of Jews, Christians and Moslems visiting Jerusalem the Jaffa Gate became the main entrance to Jerusalem. It also became the main point of departure for Journeys throughout the Middle East and Egypt.

There was always a hustle and bustle of carriages, horses and travelers coming and going to and from the Jaffa Gate.

Famous people entered Jerusalem here with great pomp and ceremony; in 1867 the Emperor Franz Joseph entered here, Kaizer Willhelm of Germany entered here in 1898, Theodore Herzl stood here, hoping to meet the Kaizer, General Allenby marched through the Jaffa Gate in 1917 to declare the end of Ottoman rule over Jerusalem and the beginning of the British Mandate.

Leon Gork Israel Tour Guide.
http://www.jerusalemwalks.com

David’s Tower

Jerusalem has always been a city of towers: 

“Go round about Zion and count her towers”. Psalms 48:13

About 3000 years ago David was king over Israel and we are told that he conquered a fortress known as the Fortress of Zion which is the city of David (IISam5:7, IChr 11:5)

This expression appears twice in the Bible, in the second book of Samuel and in the first book of Chronicles, and each time in conjunction with Jerusalem. The commentators say that this is because the fortress of Zion was the original name of Jerusalem.

Most scholars doubt that these references refer to the old building of today, known as “David’s Tower”.

However deep down at the base of David’s Tower, archaeologists have found, massive stones, cut rather than being natural boulders and laid in the form of “headers and stretchers”, a kind of strong building method used in the days of Solomon, about 50 years after David.

So it seems clear that the Bible is referring to another fortress, not David’s Tower, even though this tower was built soon after David’s time, as the presence of the stones indicate, but it is quite exciting to think that David’s Tower which we see today is actually so ancient, although the stones that meet the eye of a modern day visitor entering the Old City by the Jaffa Gate are not so old; they are only from the Macabean period, i.e. 100 before the Christian Era.

Herod the Great conquered David’s Tower in 40 Before the Christian Era, when the Romans appointed him king of Judea and sent him to take over the city with the assistance of a company of soldiers from the 3rd Legion, which crushed the ruling Macabean household and their Parthian allies.

Being at the highest point of Mt. Zion overlooking the temple and the entire city, It’s easy to see how David’s Tower was strategic for the control of Jerusalem. Here, according to the historian Josephus Flavius, Herod created one of the most magnificent palaces in the world, with great courtyards surrounded by hundreds of marble pillars, spacious pools with sculptured animals spouting fountains, shimmering marble stairs to walk on as one entered the pools, hundreds of guest rooms and dining halls.

One can still walk down the pool steps and imagine Herod in his gold fringed toga strolling along the edge of the pool ordering the death of people, who in his Paranoiac state, he suspected of plotting against him.

The beauty of this palace hardly fell short of the beauty of the temple, also built by Herod and renowned for its beauty and magnificence, which he, not being a priest was not allowed to enter and built an observation platform on one of the palace towers so that he and his important guests from all over the Roman Empire could watch the beautiful ceremonies taking place there.

Jerusalem always had towers from which she was defended: The advice of the Psalmist in 48:13

“Go round about Zion and count her towers.”

A description of Herod's palace. (from Josephus Flavius, History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, trans. William Whiston, Book V, Chapt. 4, Verse 4)

 

The largeness also of the stones was wonderful; they were of white marble, cut out of the rock; each stone was twenty cubits in length, and ten in breadth, and five in depth. 

They were so exactly united to one another, that each tower looked like one entire rock of stone, the king had a palace inwardly thereto adjoined, was entirely walled about to the height of thirty cubits, and was adorned with towers at equal distances. 

With large bed-chambers, that would contain beds for a hundred guests a-piece, in which the variety of the stones is not to be expressed; for a large quantity of those that were rare of that kind was collected together.  

The number of the rooms was also very great, and the variety of the figures that were about them was prodigious; their furniture was complete, and the greatest part of the vessels that were put in them was of silver and gold.  

There were besides many porticoes, one beyond another, round about, and in each of those porticoes curious pillars;  

There were, moreover, several groves of trees, and long walks through them, with deep canals, and cisterns, that in several parts were filled with brazen statues, through which the water ran out. There were withal many dove-courts of tame pigeons about the canals. 

The Pool of Bethesda.

Jesus performed one of His best known miracles here; the healing of the man who had been lame for 38 years. He told the man to take up his bed and walk and the lame man did as he was told.

The location of the pool is clearly described in the “New Testament” : It’s near the Sheep pool and the Sheep gate. These indications are clearly identifiable today:

Both pools and the gate nearby can still be seen. The pools are located in a valley called the Valley of Bethesda which is a natural catchment area.

Its location is also identifiable by archaeological remains found there referring to one of the uses of the pool namely as a place of healing (the word Bethesda means House of Kindness) : A piece of a Roman temple with the sign of a snake, which is the sign of Asclepius, the Roman God of healing, some remains of a temple dedicated to Serapes, the God of healing for the ancient Egyptians.

Several churches have been built here in the Byzantine and Crusader period. One of these still stands, the church of St. Anne and the ruins of the others can still be clearly seen.

Besides all of the above the site is exciting because new archaeological discoveries are shedding light on the significance of the miracle: In the “New Testament” the lame man says that he can’t get healed because only the first person to go into the water after an angel moves it is healed and he doesn’t have anyone to help him get in the water. Jesus obviously wasn’t the first person from whom he had requested help; it’s obvious that many people had refused to help him. The help he expected was for Jesus to pick him up and put him in the water.

Jesus surprises him by helping him with words that bring new understanding to that lame man and to us, namely; It’s not the holy water that heals you, but your belief.

I think that the message in this miracle is that belief in the healing powers of holy water or other so called holy objects aren’t beliefs, they’re superstitions.
Jesus told the lame man to go and sin no more. His superstitious belief in the power of “holy water” to heal him was his sin and that is what kept him from being healed.

I think Jesus didn’t heal only that lame man but all people who are spiritually “lame” because of superstitions. 

Unfortunately many people still believe in holy water and other superstitions.

The new archeological discoveries I refer to reinforce the superstitious nature of the lame man’s reason for not being healed, namely that only the first person to enter the water after it has been moved by and angel was healed and he couldn’t manage to get in the water in time as he didn’t have anyone to help him.

After examining the pools it appears they were a series of dams where the water flowed from one to the other as the one filled up water was allowed to drain off into another one so releasing pressure on the dam walls and making it possible to store up as much of the Winter rain water as possible for use in the dry Summer months.

One can still see the slots at the base of the dam wall and the steps, carved into the wall at the place of these slots to enable someone to climb down there and release stones that closed the slots.

When these stones were released water would gush out of the dam into a channel, which carried the water to another dam lower down the valley.

You could call the man operating the drainage system an “angel” because some of that water spilled over, or was siphoned off to caves next to the dam. Bathing of the sick probably took place in one of these caves. Once these caves were full, however, it would be almost impossible to bath in them.

14 Interchanging of letters is common from one language to another and from one period to another
15 .Although the terms “New Testament”, “Old Testament” are unacceptable to Jews, their meaning is clear to Christians and using them rather than the word Bible makes it clear which books are being referred to.

The Western Wall Tunnel

This archaeological excavation is under the houses of the Arab neighborhood of the Old City and makes it possible for the visitor to walk along a part of the Western Wall that had been hidden for nearly 2000 years.

A small part of the Western Wall, known as the Wailing Wall, has always been visible, since the time of the destruction. Jews have been going to pray there from time immemorial. But this tunnel, dug laboriously for 20 years from 1967 to 1987, provides one with a clear glimpse of the significance of the temple  that once was.

Stones buried deep underground kept their newness and look as if the temple was built only yesterday. The narrowness of the tunnel and the strong reinforcing prevent the Arab neighborhood above from being damaged. Above the tunnel the Arab population continues their lives undisturbed. In fact the exit of the tunnel is in that neighborhood and we walk back to the Western Wall that way.

Mt. Zion: The Upper Room.

The Upper Room is the name of the place selected by Jesus to celebrate the Passover meal.

In the times of Jesus the word “Upper” referred to the neighborhood of Jerusalem we call today Mt. Zion. It was a suburb of Jerusalem, inside the walls (The walls of today are from the 16th century, not from the time of Jesus).

In the days of Jesus an “upper room” could mean one or all of several places; an upstairs room of a building, an elegant room or a room in an elite neighborhood of Jerusalem

From history and archaeological excavations we know that the priests lived on Mt. Zion in quite luxurious dwellings, and they supplemented their income by renting rooms to pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the three pilgrim festivals; Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.

Jesus and His disciples, also came to Jerusalem to celebrate the festivals, however, stayed on the Mt. of Olives, possibly, being people of moderate means, they couldn’t afford the rent to stay on Mt. Zion for the whole duration of the feast, which was 8 days.

They could, however, afford to rent a luxury room for a few hours to celebrate the Passover meal in fitting elegance. This is, possibly, the reason why they return to Mt. of Olives after the meal and Jesus is betrayed there and not in the Upper Room.

The building in which we see the Upper Room today was built by the Crusaders(12th century.) over the tomb of David, and was used as a dining room of their Monastery of Mt. Zion.

The Crusaders believed that three events took place here: The burial of King David, The Last Supper and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

This belief is based on a verse in the Gospels where Peter, on the occasion of the Pentecost, says; “And David’s tomb is with us here to this day”. This places David’s Tomb and the Pentecost at the same site.

Pentecost is in turn connected to Passover because on Passover the Jews became a free people and, as free people they could accept G-d’s law, which they received on Mt. Sinai on the 50th day after Passover.

An additional factor uniting the three events is the Jewish tradition that David was born and died on Pentecost.

The prophet Isaiah says that “Torah”(knowledge of G-d) will go out from Zion and the word of the L-rd from Jerusalem.

The Wailing Wall

For 2000 years Jews have overcome all obstacles to visit the Wailing Wall. I had dreamed of coming here since I was very young and finally managed it in 1959.

Our tour guide pointed out the place of “Wall” from the rooftop of David’s tomb on Mt. Zion and I thought I could see it.

We couldn’t go there because it was in the Jordanian part of Jerusalem and Jews weren’t permitted.

I didn’t realize the pent up feelings I had for the “Wall” or the Jewish People until I finally visited the “Wall” in 1967, just after the 6 days war, I stood at the “Wall” and wept bitterly and uncontrollably because suddenly I realized the loss we suffered 2000 years ago wasn’t just a building called the “Temple”. It was much more than that:

It was as if I was standing up to my knees in the blood of my people just slaughtered by Titus’ Roman soldiers.

I felt as if I and all the Jewish people had just become homeless orphans wandering through a world seeking love and mercy from the nations for 2000 years.

The Jews became strangers in the world and the Bible had a law to protect strangers:

“And you shall do no wrong to a stranger or oppress him…..” “And you shall not afflict any widow or orphan.” Ex.22.

Unfortunately Christians didn’t observe this law and for 2000 years the nations of the world refused hospitality to the Jews. One could say that they had an opportunity to practice the law of caring for the stranger in their gates and did not take it. Instead they chased the Jews from pillar to post, persecuting them all those long 2000 years:

2000 years of wandering in vain.

In every nation they sought shelter and instead were cruelly persecuted by anti-Semitism.

Cruelty still abides in the world, the principles of love and mercy, denied to the Jews for 2000 years are still not applied and people and nations are still cruel to each other.

This is why we “Wail” at the “Wailing Wall”.

Via Dolorosa Ecce Homo Arch

The Ecce Homo Arch forms the 2nd station of the Cross, commemorating the site where Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the cross.

The arch was built in honor of the visit of the emperor Hadrian to the city of Jerusalem in the year 135, on the occasion of his victory over the Jews in the 2nd rebellion, known as the Bar Kochba Rebellion.

During his journey to the eastern part of the Roman Empire in the years 130-131, to visit his Syrian Dominions, Emperor Hadrian ordered that a pagan colony be established in Jerusalem, to be named Aelia Capitolina. Aelia is derived from the emperor's family name and Capitolina from that of Jupiter Capitolinus, to whom a temple was built on the site of the Jewish temple. The establishment of Aelia Capitolina, signified the introduction of Paganism to Jerusalem, which was anathema to the Jews, (one might go so far as to say that Judaism was established to rid the world of Paganism and the belief in a multitude of gods) so it’s not surprising that this event ignited the Bar Kokhba's revolt of 132-135, which had as its objective the rebuilding of the Temple.

Unfortunately the Jews suffered such heavy losses at the hands of the Romans, that the Rabbis made a prohibition against rebellion of any kind, carried out to achieve the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the Temple or the Jewish State. Many ultra-orthodox Jews observe this prohibition, to this day and for that reason oppose the establishment of the State of Israel.

The Ecce Homo Arch signified the culmination of the great building operations started by the emperor Hadrian in the year 131.

Jerusalem had become forgotten and the Roman City of Aelia Capitolina stood to the North of the ruins of Jerusalem, the Tenth Roman Legion was stationed there, to watch over the ruins and keep the Jews from returning to live in the city and from visiting the Temple Mount.

The elaborate city gate, to be seen under the Damascus Gate, was undoubtedly built by Hadrian to mark the northern border of the unwalled Roman colony.(1)

The northern wall was built in the 3rd Cen (2) probably to improve security.

Above the eastern entrance to the city one can still see a fragmentary inscription in Latin, probably in secondary use, which ends ".. by the decree of the decurions of Aelia Capitolina."

The northern city gate, where the Damascus Gate stands today, was in use during the second and third centuries. Its side entrances were blocked during the Byzantine and Early Arab periods, and later the Crusaders built a new, fortified gate at a much higher level, thus burying and unwittingly preserving the remains of the Roman gate below it.

The Roman gate of Aelia Capitolina has been restored and opened to the public; upon descending below the bridge leading to the Ottoman Damascus Gate, one can enter once again through this early gate into the city or climb the original stairs to the walkway, the Ramparts Walk, along the Old City walls to enjoy the breathtaking view of the Old City and the Temple Mount.

Gethsemane.

Through understanding the similarity between Jesus’ suffering  and the olive in the  Garden of Gethsemane one gains new insight into the message of  Jesus. 

At the foot of the Mt. of Olives there is a garden of olive trees, known as the Garden of Gethsemane. According to the Gospels this is the place where Jesus frequently met with His disciples and prayed and suffered bearing the sins of all mankind. According to the Gospel He suffered so much that He sweated blood.

The word “Gethsemane” is made up of two Hebrew words: “Gath” meaning Olive Oil press, and “Semane” meaning Olive Oil. Olives cannot be eaten straight from the tree, they must first be crushed and pressed to be used as olive oil or they must be pickled in brine or vinegar to be eaten.

One cannot escape the similarity of Jesus being crushed by the sins of Mankind as the olive was crushed to make oil, or that He sweated as the olive “sweats” giving out its valuable light giving oil. As oil illuminates, by the lamps that are lit by it, so does the message that Jesus brings to the world, by illuminating the darkness in man’s soul. Oil is a symbol of illuminating wisdom.

The oil produced from olives grown on the Mt. of Olives, however was not produced for the purpose of being sold to the general public for common oil lamps, it was produced for two  specific holy purposes: 1) To anoint the king and the high priest and 2) To kindle the holy candelabra, the Menorah, in the Temple.

The kings and high priests of Israel were anointed on the Mt. of Olives or on the Temple Mt. and for this reason the Mt. of Olives is known in Jewish literature as the Mt. of Anointing and later changed to the Mt. of Olives because the anointing was done with olive oil. People, in ancient Israel watched the anointing ceremony from the Mt. of Olives, because it was the best place to view the Temple and the beautiful ceremonies’ carried out there.

The events that took place in the Garden of Gethsemane were similar to the anointing of the king and high priest and are therefore a metaphor of these events. The kiss of Judas is part of the ceremony of homage to the newly anointed king and high priest, the escort of a cohort of soldiers is a sign of honor given to the king or high priest, He is installed in the house of the high priest and later taken to the palace of the king. Jesus in fact becomes the eternal king when He is finally crucified on Calvary

The Broad Wall

Jerusalem has many walls from many different periods. Today the most visible wall is the Turkish wall, built by Sultan Suleiman in the 16th cen.

The walls of the Biblical periods have been hidden under 2000 yrs of rubble.

The oldest and most famous wall, the Broad wall, mentioned by Nehemia(1), was hidden under 3000 yrs of rubble. Nobody, excepting the Jews, had any interest in removing the rubble to discover the ancient walls. They didn’t want the world to see that Jerusalem was a Jewish city. They thought it could always remain hidden, like the Jewish people it remained hidden for nearly 2000 yrs.

The Jewish People have a good reason for discovering ancient walls of Jerusalem. The walls are symbols of Jewish sovereignty and G-d’s protection over them.

Even though man, physically, builds walls to protect himself, the Bible gives the credit to G-d. G-d is the builder of Jerusalem. The physical existence of Jerusalem is only a symbol of the true protector of the Jewish people.(2),

When king Hezekia built the broad wall in 700 BCE (3) it was to protect the city against the Assyrian army of Senacherib. Hezekia, however didn’t rely on the wall, he prayed to G-d to protect the city(4). The plague that G-d sent on the Assyrians is saved the city not the wall.

We have returned to Jerusalem and are rebuilding it. We should always be aware, however, like Hezekia, that our act is only symbolical, however real and successful it may appear. The true builder is God.

You can see the Broad Wall today in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. It was revealed by Israeli archaeologists in 1974. The amazing thing is that they found it almost accidentally. They were really called in by the builders who were busy rebuilding the destroyed Jewish Quarter.

They were preparing the Jewish Quarter for modern day Jews wanting to return to Jerusalem of ancient times.

The discovery of the wall was a sensation. It showed that the place where the Jews were going to live was the exact place where Jerusalem had stood in the days of the Jewish kingdom of Hezekia and Nehemia.

Nearby this wall they also found the wall of the later Maccabean kingdom of Jerusalem.

Together with the Bible these discoveries clearly document the Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem for more than 1000 yrs. This is made up of the 500 yrs. From the time of David in 1000 BCE to the time of the Babylonian destruction in 586 BCE and another 500 yrs from the time of the return of the exiles, under Nehemia, in 535 BCE to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE.

In the 2000 years that Jerusalem has lain in ruins many conquerors have come and tried to hide the historical evidence of the walls. Each conqueror built his own walls on top of the ruins of the Jewish walls.

They thought the city was theirs and that the wall they built proved this. They thought that G-d was building the city with them, showing that He was now their protector, not the protector of the Jews.

One of the first of these builders was Hadrian in the 2nd cen CE. He built his city partly on the site of original Jerusalem and partly extended it to the North. His God was Jupiter, also known as Aelia, and he called his city Aelia Capitolina.

Jerusalem was forgotten. Some Jews who wanted to live in her were allowed to live on her ruins, outside the walls of the new city of Aelia. These ruins were on the hill known today as Mt. Zion. This in fact, is the site of original Jerusalem.

Every conqueror after Hadrian built the city on the site of Aelia Capitolina. The Byzantine Christians of the days of Constantine deliberately left the Temple and the place of the original city of Jerusalem in ruins for the same reason as Hadrian, namely to show that the Temple lay in ruins, as had been prophesied by Jesus, so proving to all the world, for all generations, that Jesus was truly a prophet.

They called Aelia Capitolina Jerusalem and built the church of the Holy Sepulcher there.

Since then the Christian world saw that as Jerusalem.

The Moslem conquerors of Jerusalem in the 7th cen didn’t want to preserve the Christian holiness of the city so they adopted the Roman name, with slight alterations. They called the city Il Kuds. This is a translation of the Latin. Aelia has been changed into Il. Instead of meaning Jupiter, it is now the word “the”. Capitolina is Latin for holy and the Arabic translation of that is Kuds. Hence the Arabic name of Jerusalem Il Kuds. To this day Moslems refer to Jerusalem as Il Kuds.

Jerusalem is a city that existed in history at a particular geographic location. No semantics in the world can charge historical fact.

Thank goodness today, for the first time in 2000 yrs an administration of Jerusalem has begun searching for the truth. The discovery of the Broad Wall is only the beginning of the search..


  Neh. 2:8
2 Ps 102:16, 127:1
3 2K 18:26,27, 2Ch 32:5,18. IS 22:9-10. IS 36:11
4 2K 19:15