1,900 Years After the Temple Was Destroyed, We Still Haven’t Found the Temple Treasure. Why?
Today’s Verse and Thought
“I will bless those who bless you [Israel], and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”(Genesis 12:3).
Source- Reproduction of the first temple
Solomon’s Temple - the First Temple
According to modern non-Christian archeological sources, there isn’t much “proof” of the first temple of Solomon (Bible study below) outside of Scripture.
“Archaeologists have not uncovered, nor can they hope to uncover, remains of the Solomonic Temple. Although parts of the outer retaining walls Herod’s Temple (the rebuilt Second Temple) are visible today, nothing remains of the original Solomonic Temple.”(source).
The Second Temple
The Second Temple, built in 516 BC, was built to replace the First Temple of Solomon that was destroyed seventy years prior by the Babylonians in 586 BC.
Seventy years after the destruction of the first temple, King Herod oversaw the renovation of the Second Temple, and added the Western Wall. This is why it is often called “Herod’s Temple.” This time period is referred to as the Second Temple Period by Biblical scholars.
The Western Wall is the only remaining remnant of the Second Temple. Today, the wall is known as “the Wailing Wall” as modern Jews who still practice the Jewish faith mourn the loss.
This destruction fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus, 35 years prior to it happening.
“But he [Jesus] answered them, [pointing to the temple] “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”(Matthew 24:2)
In 70 AD, after the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, religious wars broke out. The first was a revolt of the Jews against the rule of Rome between 66–73 AD, and it razed the city into a rubble heap, destroying the second temple.
The next was the Bar Kokhaba revolt, 132–136 AD, when the Jews tried to reestablish Jewish rule again. But they failed and the Jews in Jerusalem were sent into exile, dispersed among the nations, and Jerusalem became a Roman city.
Two thousand years ago, the world was ruled by Rome elites as occupiers and colonizers. “From England to Africa and from Syria to Spain, one in every four people on earth lived and died under Roman rule,” (source).
Rome the occupier and colonizer - Jews banned from Jerusalem
The Romans rebuilt and renamed Jerusalem as a pagan colony of Aelia Capitolina during Emperor Hadrian's visit to Judaea in 129/130 AD. Aelia was a family name of Hadrian’s, and Capitolina refers to the cult of the Capitoline Triad - Jupiter, Juno and Minerva (which was the origin of America’s “Capitol”).
The province of Judaea was renamed by Rome as Syria Palaestina. The name was a purposeful offense to the Jews as the Romans named it after the Jews’ greatest enemy, the Philistines.(source). The Romans detested the Hebrew people.
The name “Palestine” today, as we are aware, has created a religious war, even though the citizens of Syria Palaestina are of mixed ethnic people (today including Jews), and was never an ethnic group. It’s similar to America, filled with mixed ethnicities from all over the world.
In 1947 when the caves of Qumran were discovered, there was great excitement among scholars who knew the importance of this great Biblical treasure. It’s odd that for over 1900 years no one seemed to explore what happened to all the treasure that was listed in the Bible. If nothing else would spark human interest, gold and silver should.
So why did it remain so secretive? The second event that rocked Christianity may offer some insight.
To be continued…
Today’s Question
Bible Study
“ In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord.”(1 Kings 6:1).
The temple construction project was massive
King Solomon “drafted forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men. And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts. They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the draft. Solomon also had 70,000 burden-bearers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country, besides Solomon's 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work.”(1 Kings 5:13-15).
Solomon made a treaty with Hiram (AKA Huram in 1 Chronicles 14:1), the pagan Phoenician King of the port city of Tyre, on the Mediterranean coast about 140 miles northwest of Jerusalem to provide cedar and cypress timber from Lebanon.
The Book of Ezra reports that timbers were hauled to the Phoenician coast and then sailed to Jaffa for transport to Jerusalem (Ezra 3:7).
Solomon also hired workers from Tyre, in trade for wheat and oil from Israel, as well as 20 cities in Galilee. Hiram wasn’t happy with these cities, however. He claimed that the land was good-for-nothing land. (1 Kings 9:10–14; 26–28).
Solomon paid the laborers - which included artisans and craftsmen who were highly skilled - for all the work they did. According to 1 Kings, the project took eleven years to complete.
A second man named Hiram (Huram), also from Tyre, worked on Solomon’s temple as a metalsmith. His father was from Tyre, and his mother was from the Israeli tribe of Naphtali: “King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram, whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was from Tyre and a skilled craftsman in bronze. Huram was filled with wisdom, with understanding and with knowledge to do all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him (1 Kings 7:13–14).” (Source).
Solomon also built his own home, a home for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he married, and great halls for Solomon to sit in judgement over the people. “All these were made of costly stones, cut according to measure, sawed with saws, back and front, even from the foundation to the coping, and from the outside to the great court. The foundation was of costly stones, huge stones, stones of eight and ten cubits,”(1 Kings 7:9-10).
The huge stones needed for the temple were dressed at the quarry so that “neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.”(1 Kings:6:7b). The temple was sacred space and was treated with great honor and respect.
The temple was highly decorative with pillars, latticework, and thousands of vessels. There were carved cherubim, lions, palm trees, pomegranates, and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms. There were also gourds and open flowers carved into the cedar planks. All the interior of the holy place, including the two giant carved cherubim - approx. 18 ft. high - were covered in gold.
As Solomon began building the temple, God reaffirmed his covenant with Solomon.
“Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, ‘Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.’ ”(1 Kings 6:11-13).
The elements of the temple
Inside the temple in the holy of holies, Solomon placed the sacred elements including the Ark of the Covenant. “According to tradition, the ark contained two sets of the Ten Commandments, the original set that Moses threw at the Golden Calf and broke into pieces, and the second set he retrieved after that incident. The ark was sometimes carried in front of the Israelite army and it was, for a time, captured by the Philistines. According to the Talmud, the location of the ark was already a mystery by the late Second Temple period.”(source).
But according to 1 Kings, this Jewish tradition doesn’t appear accurate. “There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.”(1 Kings 8:9).
All the remaining elements included “the golden altar, the golden table for the bread of the Presence, the lampstands of pure gold, five on the south side and five on the north, before the inner sanctuary; the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of gold; the cups, snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, and fire pans, of pure gold; and the sockets of gold, for the doors of the innermost part of the house, the Most Holy Place, and for the doors of the nave of the temple.”(1 Kings 7:48-50).
And so all the work that King Solomon did in the construction of the temple was finished after eleven years. Solomon also brought into the temple all that “David his father had dedicated, the silver, the gold, and the vessels, and stored them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord”.(1 Kings 7:51).
Where did the immense wealth and treasure of King Solomon go?
To be continued…
Verses to Explore
“Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles.”(1 Kings 8:6-7).
“And over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall spread a cloth of blue and put on it the plates, the dishes for incense, the bowls, and the flagons for the drink offering; the regular showbread also shall be on it.”(Numbers 4:7).
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”(Romans 5:6).
Today’s Prayer
Father, I pray that as we look at your word, we consider that when your word says you are always the same; that your word remains forever, that we keep in mind that your dealings with Israel haven’t been forgotten. They are still the apple of your eye and still have a rightful place in their land according to your word. I pray that Christians everywhere will realize that they have not been replaced by the church. We, the church, are grafted in and adopted by you. I am beyond thankful for that truth. Today I pray for your elect that they will open their eyes to see Messiah. I pray that there will finally be the everlasting peace in Jerusalem that we all long for. I thank you Father for your wisdom and insight as we study your Word and our own history that has been impacted by it. Thank you for your love, long-suffering, and grace. Amen. To you belongs all glory and honor. ❤️
Mt. Moriah - (source)