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"JERUSALEM THOU ART BUILT
AS A CITY
THAT IS COMPACT TOGETHER"
PSALM 122
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When you visit
Jerusalem, would you like to have a sense of what it
looked like on the day when Jesus came over the
ridge of the Mount of Olives and wept over the city?
Now you can study a model of the holy city as it
looked in Jesus’ day. According to Father
Jerry Murphy O’Connor, whose guide to Jerusalem is a
runaway best seller in countless printings,
Jerusalem would have had a population of about
50,000 in Jesus’ time. Later, before the
destruction of the city in the year 70 AD, the city
may have held nearly 100,000 residents. |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Model of the Second Temple
Sanctuary and its courtyard |
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| The newly refurbished model of Second Temple
Jerusalem can now be seen at the Israel Museum,
adjacent to the Shrine of the Book. The model,
concept of second temple period historian Michael Avi-Yonah, was begun in 1964, at a time when
Israelis could not visit the Temple Mount or the Old
City. Built on a scale of 1 to 50, the model
“resided” until January 2006 at the Holy Land Hotel
on the outskirts of western Jerusalem and it was a
popular attraction for my groups. |
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COMING TO
JERUSALEM?
BOOK GILA for your customized private tour |
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Over the years the model was changed according to
significant archeological discoveries, such as the
southern steps of the Huldah Gates leading up to the
temple courtyard and a monumental stairway at the
south-west corner of the retaining wall named after
Connecticut Yankee Edward Robinson. During his 1837
pilgrimage, Robinson identified the spring of an
arch, thinking it was a bridge connecting the Upper
City and Lower City of Jesus’ day. Excavations after
the 6-Day-War proved that the arch helped support a
staircase from the Temple Mount leading down towards
the Lower City.
In the winter of 2006, after consultation with
preservation, stone and transportation experts, the
model was moved on a flat-bed truck in 1,000 pieces,
many of which were one square meter. Every day for
66 days, the truck carried about 20 pieces of the
model in five or six 3-mile trips between the Holy
Land Hotel (which was subsequently torn down) and
the Israel Museum. |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Close-up of the Temple as it
appeared at its old premises, the Holy Land Hotel |
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| Now we can stand at the overlook which simulates
looking at the Temple Mount from the Mount of
Olives. You can compare the location of the
traditional Golgotha enclosed within the Holy
Sepulcher Church with the location of Gordon’s
Calvary, near the Garden Tomb. You’ll see that both
possibilities for the site of crucifixion were
outside Jerusalem’s northern wall built in the first
century BC by Herod the Great. |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Black arrow on left points to
Gordon's Calvary outside the present Old City |
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The model shows the poor quarters of Jerusalem
sloping down towards the east, as well as the
wealthy western neighborhoods on today’s Mount Zion
and the Jewish Quarter. We see the
Pool of Siloam
where Jesus told the man born blind (John chapter 9)
to go to wash the spittle off his eyes. If our group
has already visited the Pool of Siloam, then we
readily observe
that the model has not yet been adjusted to the
latest archeological discoveries. |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Black arrow on lower right points
to the Pool of Siloam |
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We remember Jesus’ prophecy and lament in Luke 19,
that there would come a day when the people’s
enemies would raise fortifications encircling the
city and one stone would not stand upon another. And
realize how incredible that statement may have
seemed to his listeners.
We find the Pool of Bethesda where the lame man
waited to be healed for 38 years. Then we
identify the site where Jesus overturned the tables
of the money-changers, saying “It is written in the
prophets, ‘My house shall be called a house of
prayer for all nations,’ but you have made it a den
of robbers!” (Mark 11).
On your next pilgrimage I invite you to come with me
to the Second Temple Model where we will orient
ourselves to Jesus’ Jerusalem. And you will bring
home a concrete vision of where these events you
have known about since childhood, actually took
place. |
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Copyright 2008, 2011 Gila Yudkin. Permission
needed for any reuse. |
Gila
Yudkin, a Connecticut Yankee
guiding in King David’s court, has been
sharing biblical insights on site in the
Holy Land for over 35 years. She loves
to share her passion for adventure in the
Holy Land with like-minded pastors, teachers
and students of the Bible. Be sure to
contact her in the beginning
stages of planning your tour to check her
availability.
If you are contemplating leading a tour to
the Holy Land or know someone who is, don’t
miss Gila’s tips about do's and don'ts
guaranteed to make your Holy Land pilgrimage
a rave success. Read
Tips from A to Z for Holy
Land Tour Leaders. |
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More on Jerusalem: |
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Temple Mount excavations? |
Holy land spice |
Mary meets Elizabeth |
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Fun at the biblical zoo |
Great place to read Luke 2 |
Dead Sea Scrolls |
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Another way of experiencing Jerusalem is to
walk its ramparts like Nehemiah did. You’re
invited to check out, “Let’s
walk the Old City Ramparts.”
If you are an adventurer at heart and would
like to explore Jerusalem on your own, order
Gila’s up-to-date unorthodox guide, “Explore
Jerusalem’s Soul” with
suggestions of the top ten roof-top views,
the top ten inspiring places to study
Scripture, the ten least-known churches
worth visiting and the ten top places to
sample Middle Eastern “soul-food.” |
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In the year 70 AD the Romans besieged
Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.
During a visit to Rome in July 2017, Gila
shared the Judean narrative vis a vis the
Roman Empire while standing next to the Arch
of Titus in the Roman Forum. If topic
of the Judean nation versus the might of
Rome interests you, then you may enjoy
reading a
Woman of Judea stands by the Arch of Titus. |
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GILA
YUDKIN
•
TCHERNIKOVSKI
64A
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JERUSALEM
•
ISRAEL
gila@itsgila.com
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