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ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE

Duplicate Of God's Temple Archaeologists, was there to stop him. Dr. Magen ex-
plained that the Mount was filled with antiquities,
Discovered On Mt. Grizim -- Built To which the proposed construction would surely destroy.
Match Exactly God's Temple, Which In accordance with Israeli law, a "salvage" excavation
Stood In Jerusalem In The 4th was ordered. Salvage excavations are always carried
out in emergency situations such as this, when con-
Century BC struction threatens antiquities. The initial finds deter-
mine how and where new building can continue.
Jean Gillman
Review Staff Reporter The initial finds at Mount Grizim quickly ruled out any
further construction there. But only now, with the ex-
JERUSALEM, Israel -- Jesus of Nazareth was no cavations complete, did Mount Grizim give up its se-
stranger to the Temple in Jerusalem. He taught there, crets. The most fascinating and surprising of these are
healed the sick, debated with religious leaders and the remains of a the Samaritan temple compound,
chased off money changers. He loved the place, but which was built to copy precisely the Jerusalem Tem-
predicted it's complete and utter destruction. In 70 AD, ple. Indeed, the details of the remains discovered
some 40 years after His crucifixion, Roman soldiers match the appearance of the contemporary Jerusalem
entered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple and the Temple, as illustrated in the Temple scroll (one of the
city around it. Josephus Flavious describes the scene: Dead Sea Scrolls found in the caves of Qumran), in
Ezekiel's description (Ch. 41-42), and in the story of
"Ceasar gave orders that they should now demolish the its building and the circumstances surrounding it, as
entire city and Temple, but should leave as many of the told in details by Josephus Flavious (Antiq 11, 8, 2;7).
towers standing as were of the greatest height, that is
[the towers of] Patsael, and Hippicus and Miriam, and The temple on Mount Grizim was located in a sacred
so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west enclosure covering the entire summit of the mountain.
side... but for all the rest of the wall it was so thor- The main entrance was from the west via an elaborate,
oughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up 10 meters (33') wide staircase. A rectangularly shaped
to the foundation, that there was left nothing, to make city, sprawled out along the steep edges of the moun-
those who [later] came there believe it had ever been tain on the west, north and south sides. The temple was
inhabited." (Wars 7,1,2-3) destroyed in 112 BC, but unlike the Jerusalem Temple
remains were not utterly obliterated, leaving enough
Most details of what this Temple looked like were for modern reconstruction. Today, skeletal remains of
lost. Not only do we not know exactly what the Temple a Byzantine church occupy the center of the sacred
built by king Herod looked like, but neither do we have enclosure.
an accurate picture of the previous edifice, built by
Nehemiah and later expanded by the Hashmonean Until the excavations, our most detailed knowledge of
kings. the Samaritan temple on Mt. Grizim came from Jose-
phus Flavius. According to him, this temple was built
Recent excavations, concluded only this summer, how- by the Samaritan governor Sanballat. He built it as a
ever, have uncovered a Samaritan temple, which has bribe to the Judean high priest's brother, Mannasheh,
been built to match exactly God's Temple, which stood who was censured by the Jewish leaders for marrying
in Jerusalem in the 4th century BC. Sanballat's daughter. She was a Samaritan, and there-
fore not considered a Jew. He was threatened with ex-
ile unless he divorced her. Sannballat promised to
On Israel's Independence Day, 1992, Cabinet Minister build him a temple on Mount Grizim and give Man-
David Levi braved the steep incline of Mount Grizim nasheh both title and power of High Priest if he re-
to dedicate what was planned to be a new Israeli city.
Dr. Yitzhak Magen, one of Israel's prominent mained married to his daughter. And so he did.

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