Jesus’ visit to the temple would begin on the southern steps. He would use the entrances for the common people including the double and triple gates, known as the Huldah Gates.\u00a0Jesus\u00a0did not have access to\u00a0the VIP entrances.<\/p>\n
Archeologists have measured the Temple Mount platform to the following dimensions–east 470m, north 315m, west 485m, and south 280m.+\u00a0The total area exceeded 130,000 square meters.<\/p>\n
On the northwest end of site stood the imposing Antonia Fortress.\u00a0Josephus describes the scene:<\/p>\n
A Roman cohort was permanently quartered there [at Antonia], and at the festivals took up positions in arms around the porticoes to watch the people and repress any insurrectionary movement. For if the temple lay as a fortress over the city, Antonia dominated the temple… (War<\/em> 5.245)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
No less imposing, the Royal Stoa stood over the southern side of the platform. Jesus would have entered one of the southern entrances, proceeded under the Royal Stoa, then up\u00a0through tunnels 14m long emerging in the southern courtyard\u00a0between the\u00a0temple sanctuary complex and the Royal Stoa.<\/p>\n
In the center stood\u00a0Herod’s walled sanctuary complex including a women’s court, a men’s court, storerooms, an altar and the temple itself.<\/p>\n
On the west, north, and east there were porticos where people could gather. Jesus taught in these porticoes, visibly\u00a0surrounded by the religious and political powers of his day.<\/p>\n
___________<\/p>\n
+ Mark A. Chancey and Adam L. Porter, \u201cArcheology of Roman Palestine,\u201d Near Eastern Archaeology<\/em> 64, no. 4 (2001): 164\u2013203.<\/p>\n
Flavius Josephus, Jewish War, Books IV-VII<\/i>, trans. Henry St. John Thackery, vol. 3, 9 vols., Loeb Classical Library 210 (London; Cambridge: William Heinemann; Harvard University Press, 1961).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jesus’ visit to the temple would begin on the southern steps. He would use the entrances for the common people including the double and triple gates, known as the Huldah Gates.\u00a0Jesus\u00a0did not have access to\u00a0the VIP entrances. Archeologists have measured the Temple Mount platform to the following dimensions–east 470m, north 315m, west 485m, and south […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-telling-the-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wjes.us\/b\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wjes.us\/b\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wjes.us\/b\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wjes.us\/b\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wjes.us\/b\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wjes.us\/b\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wjes.us\/b\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wjes.us\/b\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wjes.us\/b\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}