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Feb 24, 2015 · In Hebron, south of Jerusalem, sometime in the 2nd millennium B.C.E., the Hebrew patriarch Abraham negotiated the purchase of the Cave of Machpelah as a tomb for his wife Sarah: And “it passed to Abraham as a possession in the presence of all who went in at the gate of his city” (Genesis 23).
The term Mount Zion has been used in the Hebrew Bible first for the City of David (2 Samuel 5:7, 1 Chronicles 11:5; 1 Kings 8:1, 2 Chronicles 5:2) and later for the Temple Mount, but its meaning has shifted and it is now used as the name of ancient Jerusalem's Western Hill.
35 As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said: ‘The Lord said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand. until I place your enemies under your feet.”’.
The location of Solomon’s Temple is identified with the threshing floor of Araunah (alternately Ornan, 2 Chron 3:1), known as Mt. Moriah, the locale of the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22:2), where David founded the altar of the Temple (2 Sam 24:24, 25; 1 Chron 22:1; cf. 1 Chron 21:18-26).
- There were actually two Temples on the same spot. The first Temple, built by King Solomon in approximately 1000 BCE, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
- The Temple was built on a mountain that goes by many names. Jerusalem is in the hill country. The Temple was situated on one particular rise that goes by many names in the Hebrew scriptures.
- The Temple stood on the spot where the world began. According to the Talmud, on the top of Mount Moriah is a foundation stone from which God created the whole world (Yoma 54b).
- The exact location of the Temple is still debated today. The Temple definitely stood on the Temple Mount — that has always been an agreed fact and has been confirmed by archaeologists.
What happened at the Temple in Jerusalem? The way the Temple operated was described in principle by God to Moses in the first five books of the Jewish Bible, the Torah.
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem (“Har Habayit” in Hebrew) is Judaism’s most sacred spot, the place where two Holy Temples stood and a third will stand in the Messianic era, may it happen very soon. Read on for 12 facts about this focal point of Jewish hopes, prayers, and longing throughout the millennia of our history.
