The Temple | Bob Cornuke

could history be so stunningly wrong that the temples built by King Solomon and King Herod were never on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem Jews and Christians alike believe without any doubt that these temples were located on the Temple Mount for hundreds of years hidden away in the temples Holy of Holies rested the Ark of the Covenant and so for Jews the Temple Mount is the most holy place on earth a billion Muslims hold this to be the most holy place as well believing it to be where Muhammad ascended into Heaven from the area of the dome of the rock this presents a huge problem for several faiths that all clash at ground zero at a place in Jerusalem that we know as the Temple Mount it should be no surprise that this is the most volatile piece of real estate where more blood has been spilt over the last three thousand years than any other place on earth many believe this will be the site of World War Three but what if the Temple Mount is not the true location of the temples will tradition even allow a closer look do we find anywhere in the Bible ancient history or physical evidence that the temples were located somewhere else on the other side of this wall stood the first temple and the second temple they were destroyed and the third temple when the Messiah comes will come here on the other side of the wall and we're told that God to reveal present never left these stones from the time of the temple till now and that's what we feel it when we come here God revealed present this the holiest place that we have right now the third temple is gonna come right here so without a doubt you believe there's no doubt there's no doubt although most people today are convinced that the temples were located on the Temple Mount that wasn't the case sixteen hundred years ago if I told you in the fourth century there were four places that rabbis were suggesting for the temple four different locations in the fourth century would you believe me no I wouldn't our tradition is that of authhoritative tradition wins out and we go with what we have we don't we don't we don't do our own thing we don't try to make our own assumptions we have what we have if we don't have what our parents and rabbis gave us then we have nothing before somebody can come along and change what's already been established their gonna have to be greater than the one's who established it challenging a long held tradition is not easy but it's mandatory in our quest to find the truth having a tradition challenged is never never never comfortable and yet essential if we're gonna really get at the truth and what really happened and what really is going to happen you are Jew no I have no time to lose with you okay [Laughing] could it even be possible that the greatest archaeological mistake of all times has occurred in locating the temples of Herod and Solomon on the Temple Mount and if so where is the true location of the temple today the prophetic implications are absolutely astounding and the political repercussions from it could alter the entire complexion of the Middle East hi my name is Bob Cornuke and we're in Old Jerusalem and I'm about to take you on an expedition like you've never been on before we're gonna look for the lost location of Solomon's and Herold's Temples I believe that archaeology has really missed this one I think that history is stunningly wrong saying that the Temple Mount is the place of where Herold's Temples and Solomon's Temples were located so we're gonna take out the Bible and we're gonna use it as a road map and as a compass to solve this most ancient mystery in around 957 BC God had king Solomon build the temple for worship sacrifice and to house the Ark of the Covenant this magnificent facility stood until 586 BC when the Babylonians destroyed it and took the Israelites captive in around 515 BC Zerubbabel and other Israeli exiles were able to return to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the temple on top of the demolished first temple this second temple wasn't as spectacular as Solomon's but served its purpose until 20 BC when king Herod initiated a significant renovation and expansion project this is the temple that stood in Jesus's day where He taught on several occasions and where He confronted the money changers in 70 AD four years after the Jews rebelled against the Roman Empire military commander Titus and the Roman Army utterly destroyed the temple today many Jews and Christians are anticipating the day when a third temple will be rebuilt as foretold in the book of Ezekiel tradition says it needs to be rebuilt on the same spot where Solomon and Herod's temple stood will that be the Muslim controlled Temple Mount or is it somewhere else this makes the search for the temples actual location that much more imperative Biblical explorer Bob Cornuke has spent the past few decades searching for the real Mount Sinai the Ark of the Covenant Noah's Ark and the apostle Paul's shipwreck in Malta his search for the location of Solomon and Herod's temple's really began several years ago when he was reading Matthew 24 the Bible tells us in Matthew 24 where Jesus is speaking and He's speaking to His disciples and He's walking away from the temple and He is looking up at the temple and He tells the disciples He said truly I tell you not one stone here will be left on another everyone will be thrown down not one stone total annihilation and that's what we hear from history that the temple was totally destroyed the hill called Zion at Jerusalem the building there that is to say the temple has been utterly removed or shaken it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited but if Herod's Temple was utterly removed how can the Western Wall of the Temple exist today either Jesus was inaccurate in Matthew 24 or perhaps the Western Wall wasn't part of the temple at all about 63 BC the Romans took this city General Pompey had the gates opened up to him and from that point on the Romans had control here for over three hundred years the big question is where did they stay no one has ever found one brick that they know of that's from the Roman fortress I believe it's because it's been on the Temple Mount that was the Roman fortress that huge complex if you look at it today it is in the same dimensions as many Roman fortresses so where did the Roman's stay they stayed on the Temple Mount locating the Roman Fort on the Temple Mount explains how the temple could be utterly destroyed yet still have remains existing to this day the Western Wall instead of being the remains of Herod's Temple may actually be a part of the Roman Fort Eleazar Ben Yair the commander of the Israelites taking refuge at Masada said Jerusalem is now demolished to the very foundations and have nothing left but that monument of it preserved I mean the camp of those Romans that hath destroyed it which still dwells upon its ruins the traditional view places the Roman Fort called the Tower of Antonia at the northwest corner of the Temple Mount this three acre plot supposedly housed the entire Tenth Roman Legion but how large a legion history tells us that a legion is approximately six thousand soldiers with the support personel it could reach as high as ten thousand people if I was in coming unto the tenth heavy Roman legion sent to Jerusalem to keep the peace I would have occupied the high ground I would have put my soldiers on the Temple Mount and as I look at the little bitty building that is called Fort Antonia today it's almost laughable to believe that six thousand soldiers and some four thousand camp followers occupied that tiny building would Rome the proud rulers of Europe and the Middle East be content to locate their fort as an appendage to the Jewish Temple or would they be more likely to commandeer the entire Temple Mount to build the regional military headquarters again we turn to historian Josephus now as to the Tower of the Antonia it might seem to be composed of several cities for if we go up to this Tower of Antonia we gain the city since we shall then be upon the top of the hill the only location that is on top of a hill and is large enough to house ten thousand soldiers and support staff is the thirty-six acre Temple Mount in 333 AD the so called Bordeaux pilgrim travel to Jerusalem and describes what he found I'm in a high tower about a hundred feet high right next to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and it's a fascinating place because from this position the Bordeaux pilgrim said that he looked due east and all thry could see was a long wall of a Roman fort when I look due east of here all I see is the long wall of the Temple Mount so what I think the Bordeaux pilgrim was describing was looking at the Roman fort from this spot in fact that's pretty conclusive that's what he was looking at was the Temple Mount complex certainly I believe was a Roman fortress that housed the Tenth Roman Legion so if historical evidence places the Roman fort on the Temple Mount why do the majority of people believe that this is where the temple was located when it was over with and the temple was destroyed by Titus in 70 AD that there was just like a field with blowing grass you wouldn't even know that was there and so the Jews that were quarantined from Israel for so long it's hard for them to determine where the temple was so this has been the place that everybody settled on in fact in the fourth century there was many places that people were trying to figure out where is the temple really located people were not sure one important event that promoted the idea of the Temple Mount being the location of the temple was the invasion of Jerusalem by the crusaders and in 1099 there was thousands of crusaders and they came and they conquered this Temple Mount complex and when they went on top of it there was great carnage a lot of Jews a lot of Muslims were killed and they crawled up on the dome wasn't gold then but they called up on that dome area up there and they ripped off the crescent moon and they replaced it with the cross and they called it Templum Domini which means the temple of God that I think started a tradition seventy years after the crusaders conquered Jerusalem and eleven hundred years after Herod's Temple was destroyed a Jew from Spain named Benjamin of Tudela visited Jerusalem and wrote that the Temple Mount was the location of the former temples his emphatic statements seem to seal the tradition and from that point on it has been virtually unchallenged well I believe that this is not the place of Solomon's Temple's and Herold's Temples but it's actually in the city of David a few thousand feet south of here and we're gonna go the city of David right now and we're gonna try and see if that is the true place where God tells us these temples were located the city of David is a twelve acre plot of land just south of the Temple Mount we're here in the city of David and it was back in the eighteen hundreds where they established that this was the city of David with the discovery of the Gihon springs and Hezekiah's tunnel when king David arrived in Jerusalem the city of David was inhabited by the Jebusites David's men captured their fortress and 2 Samuel 5:9 says so David lived in the fortress and called it the city of David and then the scriptures in 2 Samuel 24:18 it is revealed that David was after he conquered the Jebusite city which is right under the city of David he was required by the Lord to purchase the threshing floor from Ornan the Jebusite and then 2 Chronicles 3:1 we see that Solomon it says that Solomon first began to build the house of the Lord by the threshing floor that was purchased from Ornan the Jebusite Solomon's Temple was in the city of David the Jebusite fortress I can't see how you can argue with 2 Chronicles 3:1 if we're gonna take the Bible at face value that's where Solomon's Temple was the city of David is also referred to as Zion 2 Samuel 5:7 says David captured the fortress of Zion that is the city of David Eusebius a third century historian and curator of the library in Caesarea wrote that the temple was in Zion the hill called Zion and Jerusalem the building there that is to say the temple King David took the Zion to the custom and changed his name to the city of David so the Mount of Zion is the city of David so the love of his I only the city of David we're standing in the area of the city of David here's an archaeological site and there's the south wall of the traditional Temple Mount so we're in the general area of the Temple Mount and this area we have seen in photographs in the 1930's and we see these terraced farms you can even see the people out there tilling the ground and it's very interesting that the Bible says this in a prophecy the minor prophet Micah says in 3:12 Zion shall be plowed like a field Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins and the mountains of the temple like the bare hills of the forest the temples gonna be like a plowed field well there's no plowed field up there those walls have been up there you know a couple thousand years if that is really the temple Micah says there should be a plowed field it never was this area was so we can be assured that in the city of David it matches with what the prophet says and what the Bible says in history you know there's not a theory that it doesn't have a long list of critics that line up especially the temple theory it's so shocking to a lot of people they say wait a second the temple in the city of David and the stronghold of Zion and then they say wait wait we have a great verse here that tells you that you're wrong about the temple being in the city of David then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the city of David which is Zion so what was brought up out of the city of David thus it was brought where they surmise to the Temple Mount the Bible doesn't say where it was taken it was placed into the Holy of Holies after that underneath the wings of the cherubim now where was it taken when it was taken out of the city of David there was a huge festival where all the priest of Israel came where they slaughtered so many animals that they couldn't even count them the Bible says the city of David's just a twelve acre area very very small confines so they couldn't have done that in the city did they went and had this big festival like a state fair is not gonna be done in city hall and then they brought it back into the temple which was in the city of David a little known historical account describes two covered bridges or colonnades that spanned some six hundred feet between Ford Antonia on the north and Herod's Temple to the south Josephus describes them now as to the tower of Antonia it was situated at the corner of two colonies of the court of the temple of that on the west and that on the north he then describes Fort Antonia as a guard to the temple and mentions that it is located on a higher hill and that it hindered this side of the temple on the north these descriptions confirm that the Fort was on the higher Temple Mount while the temple was six hundred feet to the south and at a lower elevation there's a story in the book of Acts that also confirms this it describes the time that the commander of the Roman soldiers quickly deployed troops from the fort down to the temple to rescue the apostle Paul from a riotous situation at once the commander took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to them then verse forty describes how Paul addressed the crowd Paul standing on the stairs spoke to them these were the stairs leading back up to the Fortress Antonia another clue to the location of the temple is the Gihon springs the fresh water source is mentioned in the Bible in 1 kings 1:38 where Solomon was brought to the Gihon to anoint him as king fresh running water is also necessary for worship and to perform animal sacrifices which took place in the temple 1 kings 8:62 tells us on the day of the temple dedication Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord twenty two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats cleaning up after the sacrifice of that many animals would require a huge amount of running water Roman historian Tacitus tells us the temple contained an inexhaustible spring you have to have running water from a spring to wash and purify the priest before they go into the temple to worship here we have clear clean running water coming from the Gihon springs which travels through Hezekiah's tunnel and comes here to this pool of water before the priests would go into the temple weither it be Solomon's Temple or Herold's Temple they needed to be bathed in spring water the only spring water in all of Jerusalem is right here in the Gihon springs there's absolutely no spring water on theTemple of the Mount there's no way that they would have washed themselves in the Gihon springs and then walked a quarter mile to a half a mile to the Temple Mount before they were allowed to go into the temple precincts considered to be purified tradition when valued higher than evidence can be a stumbling block to finding the truth but tradition can also provide valuable clues when accompanied by scriptural historical or physical evidence so local traditions need to be considered in our search for the temple location I've been it's a tour guide here for more than thirteen years and there's some amazing things that we're discovering now that is that are to the south of the Temple Mount area where we believe we've found the Temple of Solomon which is gonna be to the southern part and Solomon's Temple is possibly really in this area close to the city of David we know from all my life that the temple it's in this area nobody say that the temple it's under the mosque nobody say that the temple here in the corner and nobody say that they've temple here but all the people who understand in these things they say that the temple it's under the city of David this is the city of David the city of David okay they say the Jewish say some of the Jews say that the temple its been here right on the Temple Mount yes on the Temple Mount there is another people from Jewish they say the temple it's in the mosque under the mosque so from my opinion from my what I see over here most of the people say that it's under the city of David so you're saying that the Bible is telling you an archaeologist is telling you the Bible say this is the place the city of David the city of David the Bible say yeah the Bible say that this but like if I speak nobody will hear another people nobody will hear but it's is something politic beyond politics and tradition is there any archaeological data to support the idea of the temple being in the city of David a couple years ago I was going on a tour of the city of David which is an underground labyrinth of tunnels and caves a lot of these stones are believed to be from the time of Abraham the Jebusite Fortress and things mentioned in the Bible but as I'm walking along I saw this flicker of light way up in a shaft where men were working I heard metal on metal and I saw the flicker of light and up inside where they were working I found out later on was a place that we believe could be part of Solomon's Temple and we're gonna be going there but it all started for me right up there through that shaft where I saw that light two years ago this area was excavated recently by Eli Shukron who was this director of archaeology in the city of David I think he stumbled across an area that was within part of the structure of Solomon's Temple this is from the first temple period even be before that we're going to back to the middle Bronze period and that is before King David eight hundred years before king David would place this around the time of Abraham and Melchizedek we use this place as a worship area and then still use it till the end of this area it's like the end of the eighth century beginning seventh century BC and this is the only place that we know in the city of David that we can say here it was some worship with standing stone with the which was for sacrifice all what we have around you and this is a place for worship this is a place for praying this is place for a sacrifice and this is a place people connect with their God we're here in this incredible archaeological site right below my feet here is an olive press you can see where the the wood beam went in here and they ground the olives olives are very important for anointing someone going into the temple right close by within thirty feet we have the Gihon springs and you needed that rushing water to anoint the priest before they went into the temple we also read in scripture where Solomon was brought down by a mule to the Gihon Springs right here and he was anointed with the oil when he was a crowned king at the Gihon Springs which is right where we are and amazingly archaeologists have recently uncovered this area that is dated to the first temple period and it has within it channels if you look here this is a channel where the blood ran the blood ran here they would kill the animals and then blood would go through here we could see where the animals were actually tied up this is where the rings went through and this tethered the animal when archaeologists came here they found just piles of bones all through here evidence of animal sacrifices and they found these unique grooves in the ground and these are believed to be Eli Shukron told me the archaeologists here that these were stands like wooden stands or metal stands so this area here going well over there in here is an old ancient sanctuary which I believe is a part of Solomon's Temple itself you got the blood channel you got the olive press right there you've got little hooks stone hocks in the side of the wall where you could tie off animals and it's probably ten yards from the Gihon Springs a perfect place to have water because if your doing a lot of sacrifices you need water for that is this Solomon's Temple I don't know is it Herod's Temple I don't know but according to a top Israeli archaeologist it is a temple and he is not ready to say it was the Temple of Solomon or the Temple of Herold but he said it was a temple and it's in the same place that 2 Chronicles 3:1 says Solomon set up or built the temple to the Lord it's in the city of David right near the Gihon Springs could it be that this ancient sanctuary is what remains of Solomon's temple Herod's Temple which was built above Solomon's was completely destroyed in 70 AD but these remains covered over by the Babylonians in 586 BC fit perfectly with 2 Chronicles 3:1 this stuff is blowing my mind we think that these rocks around us are telling us that this is the exact place of Solomon's Temple and everything is pointing to this place and no other it's not on the Temple Mount it's in the city of David by the Gihon Springs which is a gurgling just a few feet away from my standing right now well I think one of the things we need to tread carefully because it's so emotional we need to realize we're dealing with deeply held beliefs so we need to do that with some compassion on the one hand but at the same time I see it as a healthy thing because it should draw us in the direction of re-examining our scholarship there are certain places where your big challenge isn't finding new evidence per se the biggest challenge is to set aside your presuppositions so they don't get in the way of discovery I think that the position of the temple being in the city of David has merit of course it raises all kinds of other questions the fact that the scriptures say that the temple was in the city of David and it had to be near the Gihon Spring and I look at the Temple Mount and there's no spring up on the Temple Mount so I have become a firm believer in the fact that the temple was not up on the Temple Mount I'm convinced it was right there in the city of David if indeed the temple was located in the city of David what implication does it have for today obviously a lot of Christians are saying well if the temples ever gonna be rebuilt it's got to be rebuilt right where the dome of the rock is wow that's not gonna set of World War Three is it but if if the real temple was in the city of David which is to the south of where the dome of the rock is significantly to the south outside the current city walls of the city then the temple can be rebuilt in the city of David and not touch the dome of the rock that has incredible political implications quite obviously in Luke 8:17 there is a fascinating verse for nothing is hidden that will not be revealed and nothing concealed that will not be made known and come to light could it be that the temple is one of those things that it's hidden that will be revealed that is concealed that will come to light if we're ever gonna to find the temple I think we need to use the Bible and the Bible is telling me that the temple has to be in the city of David in the stronghold of Zion and the luring poll of oral traditions needs to be ignored that's where we'll find truth is in the word of God and not what man is guessing but what God is telling us

Channel: Koinonia House

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Id: zKqDx3RDCos

Length: 30min 49sec (1849 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2017