Body: | Temple is not located on top of the Gihon Spring
"The reason the temple was not built on top of the Gihon Spring is the same
reason
people do not put a toilet in the middle of the kitchen table where food is
eaten.
Furthermore, anyone who has personally visited the Gihon Spring knows there
simply is not enough room in the "City of David" for the temple platform."
(Steve Rudd, 2005 AD)
Introduction:
See also: Solomon's pools and the Jerusalem aqueduct.
The fanciful idea that the temple was built over the Gihon spring is
a view popularized by Ernest Martin. His view, although is interesting and
graphic, is simply a mythical view of the city of David that never existed
and must be rejected as a Mother Goose story.
This view has the temple built over top of the city of David,
hundreds of meters outside the southern wall of the temple mount we see
today. They forgot their tape measure because it won't fit! Recent
excavations at the "Parking Lot" prove the temple was not there.
The temple mount is viewed by them as the fortress of Antonia. The
fortress of Antonia was built at the dome of the rock, but it did not
occupy the entire temple platform we see today.
Solomon built the temple on the threshing floor David bought. The
reason the temple was not built on top of the Gihon Spring is the same
reason people do not put a toilet in the middle of the kitchen table where
food is eaten. The temple was built on a threshing floor. Threshing floors
are dirty were never built near springs. The particles would contaminate
the water as the chaff from the wheat was blown away from the husk.
The Gihon is the only spring in Jerusalem until Solomon built an
aqueduct to feed the Temple mount with water.
Even if the Temple was built over the Gihon spring in the "City of
David", it is still 50 feet lower than where the temple platform would be.
In other words, it is impossible to have flowing water from the Gihon
spring to wash the sacrifices even if the temple was built over the spring.
B. Solomon's Aquaduct is what Aristeas was referring to not the Gihon
When Solomon built the temple, he also built an aqueduct to feed
fresh water to the temple floor.
Solomon built a complex water aqueduct system from Hebron, through
Bethlehem to Jerusalem in about 950 BC. Evidently this water system was
incorporated as a major design of the Temple itself. Solomon knew that the
Gihon spring in the city of David did not have enough "head" (water
pressure or lift) to supply the Temple above. Water would be a major need
to wash the blood away and keep the area from putrefying. A large water
supply would be needed.
This was the "spring under the temple" that Aristeas was referring
to:
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C. Misinterpreted evidence of a spring under the temple?
Letter of Aristeas, 150 BC and Roman historian Tacitus:
150 BC: The Letter Of Aristeas, "83 I have given you this
description of the presents because I thought it was necessary. The next
point in the narrative is an account of our journey to Eleazar, but I will
first of all give you a description of the whole country. When we arrived
in the land of the Jews we saw the city situated 84 in the middle of the
whole of Judea on the top of a mountain of considerable altitude. On the
summit the temple had been built in all its splendour. It was surrounded by
three walls more than seventy cubits high and in length and breadth
corresponding to the structure of the edifice. All the buildings 85 were
characterized by a magnificence and costliness quite unprecedented. It was
obvious that no expense had been spared on the door and the fastenings,
which connected it with the door-posts, and 86 the stability of the lintel.
The style of the curtain too was thoroughly in proportion to that of the
entrance. Its fabric owing to the draught of wind was in perpetual motion,
and as this motion was communicated from the bottom and the curtain bulged
out to its highest extent, it afforded a pleasant 87 spectacle from which a
man could scarcely tear himself away. The construction of the altar was in
keeping with the place itself and with the burnt offerings which were
consumed by fire upon it, and the approach to it was on a similar scale.
There was a gradual slope up to it, conveniently arranged for the purpose
of decency, and the ministering priests were robed in linen garments, down
to their 88 ankles. The Temple faces the east and its back is toward the
west. The whole of the floor is paved with stones and slopes down to the
appointed places, that water may be conveyed to wash away the 89 blood from
the sacrifices, for many thousand beasts are sacrificed there on the feast
days. And there is an inexhaustible supply of water, because an abundant
natural spring gushes up from within the temple area. There are moreover
wonderful and indescribable cisterns underground, as they pointed out to
me, at a distance of five furlongs all round the site of the temple, and
each of them has countless pipes 90 so that the different streams converge
together. And all these were fastened with lead at the bottom and at the
sidewalls, and over them a great quantity of plaster had been spread, and
every part of the work had been most carefully carried out. There are many
openings for water at the base of the altar which are invisible to all
except to those who are engaged in the ministration, so that all the blood
of the sacrifices which is collected in great quantities is washed away in
the twinkling of an 91 eye. Such is my opinion with regard to the character
of the reservoirs and I will now show you how it was confirmed. They led me
more than four furlongs outside the city and bade me peer down towards a
certain spot and listen to the noise that was made by the meeting of the
waters, so that the great size of the reservoirs became manifest to me, as
has already been pointed out." (R.H. Charles-Editor, Oxford: The Clarendon
Press, 1913) (Letter of Aristeas 83-91, Pseudepigrapha of Greek
Court-official 278-270 BC. Actual: Written by Jew in 150 BC)
The Gihon Spring is the only spring within the city limits of
Jerusalem. We have the eyewitness account of a person from Egypt named
Aristeas who viewed the Temple in about 150 BC. He stated quite
categorically that the Temple was located over an inexhaustible spring that
welled up within the interior part of the Temple. But this cannot be the
Gihon Spring because it is too far below the temple platform level for
natural flow.
This leads some to wrongly assume that Aristeas was referring to the
Gihon Spring rather than what he was referring to: Solomon's pools and
Aqueduct . (Letter of Aristeas, translation by Eusebius, chapter 38.)
About 400 years later the Roman historian Tacitus gave another
reference that the Temple at Jerusalem had within its precincts a natural
spring of water that issued from its interior. (Tacitus, History, Bk.5,
para.12.)
These two references (Aristeas and Tacitus) are NOT describing the
Gihon Spring (the sole spring of water in Jerusalem).
It was because of the strategic location of this single spring that
the original Canaanite cities of "Migdol Edar" and "Jebus" were built over
and around that water source before the time of King David. That sole water
source was the only reason for the existence of a city being built at that
spot.
The Gihon Spring is located even today at the base of what was
called the "Ophel" (a swelling of the earth in the form of a small mountain
dome) once situated just to the north and abutting to "Mount Zion" (the
City of David). The Ophel Mound was close to the City of David. David soon
began to fill in the area between the two summits with dirt and stones
(calling it the Millo or "fill in") to make a single high level area on
which to build his city and after his death the Temple. II Samuel 5:9.
David's son Solomon completed the "fill in" between the two summits
and called that earthen and rock bridge the Millo. I Kings 11:27.
Solomon then built the Temple on the Ophel Mound directly above the
Gihon Spring. This Ophel region became known as a northern extension of
"Zion." This made the Temple so close to the City of David (where the
citadel or akra was located) that Aristeas said a person could look
northward from the top of the City of David and could easily witness all
priestly activities within the Temple precincts. (Aristeas lines 100 to 104
as translated by Eusebius, Proof of the Gospel, chapter 38 (Grand Rapids:
Baker, 1982).
The Letter of Aristeas: In the time of Antiochus IV a Greek
translation of the Pentateuch was being prepared in Alexandria, where a
large Jewish population had been transferred by Ptolemy Philadelphus in the
previous century. The Jews of Alexandria had gradually lost their knowledge
of the ancient Hebrew language, and many had adopted the Hellenistic
culture to some extent. In the document known as the Letter of Aristeas,
which scholars believe was written by a Hellenistic Jew in the mid second
century BC, an elaborate story is related about how the translation of the
Pentateuch was done, and the reasons for it, and the circumstances. The
Aristeas document pretends to date from more than a century earlier, and
the setting of the story is the court of Ptolemy Philadelpus in Alexandria.
Scholars generally view the work as fiction, but nevertheless, it is the
basis for the name by which the Greek Bible has become known, the
"Septuagint" or "LXX". It is also regarded as an important source document
for the history of the period.
Conclusion:
The theory that the temple is built over the Gihon spring is
impossible because:
Even if the Temple was built over the Gihon spring in the "City of
David", it is still 50 feet lower than where the temple platform would be.
In other words, it is impossible to have flowing water from the Gihon
spring to wash the sacrifices even if the temple was built over the spring.
The Temple was built on a threshing floor. Solomon built the temple
on the threshing floor David bought. Threshing floors are never put
anywhere near springs for the same reason toilets are not built in
kitchens. The spring was all important and the threshing floor would be
located far from the spring so chaff from threshing would not contaminate
it. Also the temple was very dirty and unsanitary because of all the blood
that had to be washed away from the animal sacrifices. The reason the
temple was not built on top of the Gihon Spring is the same reason people
do not put a toilet in the middle of the kitchen table where food is eaten.
Threshing floors are dirty and dusty and never near a major water supply.
Anyone who has personally visited the Gihon Spring knows there
simply is not enough room in the "City of David" for the temple platform.
The archeology at the temple mount and recent excavations in the city of
David simply will not allow for the temple to be built over the Gihon
spring because there is not enough room.
Recent excavations at the "Parking Lot" prove the temple was not
there.
Evidence used to support the idea that the temple of Solomon was
built over the Gihon spring, is actually speaking of the Aqueduct Solomon
built to supply water to the temple.
See also: Solomon's pools and the Jerusalem aqueduct.
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By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.
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