He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. –Eph 2:14
So far we have examined impressive first-century remains from the Temple Mount platform and from some of its auxiliary structures. When it comes to the Temple itself, however, the fact is that not a single positively identifiable stone survives.
A poor widow put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. –Mark 12:42
If we want to get technical in this book about stones in the life of Jesus, we must admit that a number of miscellaneous materials—including pottery, glass, and metals—are all forms or components of stone.
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?” –Mark 16:2-3
On the first Easter morning, the women who wanted to anoint Jesus’ body with spices had a problem. Who would move the stone from the tomb entrance?
They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). –Mark 15:22
Just inside the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a narrow stone staircase, at the top of which are two ornate chapels. The one on the right commemorates the nailing of Jesus to the cross. The one on the left marks the site of His crucifixion.
This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered through it. –Ezra 44:2
The Golden Gate is the entrance to Jerusalem that Jesus would have used for His triumphal ride on Palm Sunday. For over 500 years it has been closed; not a single soul has passed into or out of it.
It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. –John 10:23
Every once in a while in the gospels we get a glimpse into the life of Jesus as an ordinary man: asking for a drink of water, asleep in the bottom of a boat, cooking fish over a charcoal fire by the lake.
Those who accepted Peter’s message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. –Acts 2:41
“That day” was the Feast of Pentecost, fifty days after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Peter, newly filled with the Holy Spirit, had just delivered a sizzler of a sermon to a Jerusalem crowd who were “cut to the heart.”
A man crippled from birth was carried to the temple gate called Beautiful. –Acts 3:2
Here is a place where we can say with certainty that Jesus walked—and not only Jesus but Peter and John and Paul. For this, along with the neighboring gate discussed in Chapter 5, was the main entrance onto the Temple Mount.
The devil led Jesus to the highest point of the temple in Jerusalem. -Lk 4:9
The highest point, or pinnacle, of the Temple was the southeast corner overlooking the Kidron Valley hundreds of feet below. According to Josephus, “If anyone looked down from this summit he would be giddy, his sight being unable to encompass such an immense depth.”
About the middle of the feast Jesus went up to the temple and began teaching. –Jn 7:14
Near the southwest corner of the Temple Mount, about halfway up the wall, is a curious projection of stones whose purpose remained a mystery for many centuries, until in 1838 an American scholar named Edward Robinson identified it.