What was solomons temple

Archaeologists simply keep coming up empty. The First Temple was completed in the year B. And according to the Bible, the First Temple stood for roughly years before Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it and sent the Jews into exile.

The Bible describes Solomon as a wise ruler and great builder living at the height of the kingdom of Israel. It also says he had a lavish palace, a large army and an empire that included all of Israel. Despite living at a time where scribes were already likely writing the Bible, no inscriptions from across the greater region bear his name.

That leaves archaeologists unclear whether the third king of Israel was real, or was more like other legendary rulers of history, from King Arthur in Great Britain to Romulus, the supposed founder of Rome. One thing that would help is if archaeologists found some contemporary evidence for the existence of Solomon from outside the Bible. Such a find might help prop up the entirety of the Biblical story.

One potential sign of hope appeared in Researchers were digging at a site called Tel Dan in northern Israel, when archaeologist Gila Cook of Hebrew Union College spotted a large stone covered with Aramaic writing — an archaic relative of Hebrew. Archaeologists are still digging at the site today. And over the past decade, a few other tantalizing potential clues have started to emerge.

The finds at the site, called Ophel, included a roughly foot-long wall section, complete with a gatehouse, corner tower and a royal structure. The features were so big that the researchers became convinced it was just one part of a truly massive building. The two countries cooperated in other ways; for example: jobs training. The Phoenicians possessed architecture and construction skills and familiarity with building materials.

But when the temple was planned, vast numbers of laborers were needed. The Hebrews supplied the workforce, overseen by master builders from Tyre in a rotation system in which 30, workers were divided into three groups. Therefore, as one work unit returned, another was ready; workers were always rested and fresh.

Map of Phonecia and Israel with modern states, from National Geographic at nationalgeographic. Another feature of the rotation system was maintenance of the existing economy while developing a new one.

Because each worker was away only one month at a time, families at home could maintain farm or business for a few weeks with little difficulty until the workers returned. Therefore, the local Hebrew economy continued uninterrupted, even as laborers were recruited from its population. Perhaps because of their exchange relationship, there was no recorded discord between the two countries in the shared region that today might benefit from increased cooperation.

Some said the Waqf was deliberately trying to obliterate evidence of Jewish history. Others laid the act to negligence on a monstrous scale. But he told the Jerusalem Post that archaeological colleagues had examined the excavated material and had found nothing of significance. And he bristled at the suggestion the Waqf sought to destroy Jewish history. Zachi Zweig was a third-year archaeology student at Bar- Ilan University, near Tel Aviv, when he heard news reports about dump trucks transporting Temple Mount soil to the Kidron Valley.

With the help of a fellow student he rounded up 15 volunteers to visit the dump site, where they began surveying and collecting samples. A week later, Zweig presented his findings—including pottery fragments and ceramic tiles—to archaeologists attending a conference at the university. By that point though, Zweig says, his cause had attracted the attention of the media and of his favorite lecturer at Bar-Ilan—the archaeologist Gaby Barkay.

Zweig urged Barkay to do something about the artifacts. In , Barkay got permission to search the soil dumped in the Kidron Valley. He and Zweig hired trucks to cart it from there to Emek Tzurim National Park at the foot of Mount Scopus, collected donations to support the project and recruited people to undertake the sifting.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project, as it is sometimes called, marks the first time archaeologists have systematically studied material removed from beneath the sacred compound. Barkay, ten full-time staffers and a corps of part-time volunteers have uncovered a wealth of artifacts, ranging from three scarabs either Egyptian or inspired by Egyptian design , from the second millennium B.

A bronze coin dating to the Great Revolt against the Romans A. Barkay says some discoveries provide tangible evidence of biblical accounts. Fragments of terra-cotta figurines, from between the eighth and sixth centuries B. Other finds challenge long-held beliefs. For example, it is widely accepted that early Christians used the Mount as a garbage dump on the ruins of the Jewish temples.

Barkay and his colleagues have published their main findings in two academic journals in Hebrew, and they plan to eventually publish a book-length account in English.

To be sure, the Mount is a flash point in the Middle East conflict. While Israelis saw this as the reunification of their ancient capital, Palestinians still deem East Jerusalem to be occupied Arab land a position also held by the United Nations.

The Temple Mount is precariously balanced between these opposing views. Although Israel claims political sovereignty over the compound, custodianship remains with the Waqf. As such, Israelis and Palestinians cautiously eye each other for any tilt in the status quo.

At its core, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict represents rival claims to the same territory—and both sides rely on history to make the case for whose roots in the land run deepest. For the Israelis, that history begins 3, years ago, when the Temple Mount—believed by many biblical scholars to be the mountain in the region of Moriah mentioned in the Book of Genesis—was an irregularly shaped mound rising some 2, feet among the stark Judean Hills.

The summit loomed above a small settlement called Jebus, which clung to a ridge surrounded by ravines. And because this hour was beyond measure holy and awesome, it was the time of utmost peril not only for the High Priest but for the whole of Israel. For if in this hour there had, God forbid, entered the mind of the High Priest a false or sinful thought, the entire world would have been destroyed.

To this day, traditional Jews pray three times a day for the Temple's restoration. Over the centuries, the Muslims who eventually took control of Jerusalem built two mosques on the Temple Mount , the site of the two Jewish Temples. This was no coincidence; it is a common Islamic custom to build mosques on the sites of other people's holy places.

Since any attempt to level these mosques would lead to an international Muslim holy war jihad against Israel, the Temple cannot be rebuilt in the foreseeable future. Sources : Joseph Telushkin. Jewish Literacy. NY: William Morrow and Co. Reprinted by permission of the author. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library.

Living in Jerusalem. Foods of the Period. Sites in Jerusalem. Babylonian Exile.