Locating Solomon's Temple -Chapter Six

I thought that finding the water channels ending with a pool next to the Temple was probably the final thing to confirm this southern location for me, but to my delight, there was even more surprises to come.

When Herod the Great came into power over the Jews he desired to build a new Temple. The Porch of Herod's Temple would be 100 cubits wide, much wider then the old Temple. This required some adjustments to be made in the width of the original platform created by Solomon, it must also be widened. The platform included the Temple courts, the woman's court, and the portico on the east, called Solomon's porch. This platform was called the Way, or Street leading to the Holy of Holies.

There was a hel, or Chel (kel), a walkway, on both the south and north sides of the old temple platform.

In the Mishna it says that Herod set the foundation stone for the new Temple a little more to the north and to the west of the original temple. In doing this it actually caused the northern section of the Temple compound to become smaller.

The only way the northern section could be made smaller is if the inner platform was increased in width towards the north by Herod, and a new Chel built on the north side.

If my location for the Temple is correct then there should be evidence in the ruins on warren's map to confirm it.

Warren shows the northeast corner of the Triple gate halls, which would have been the Northeast corner of the old platform.

I marked out the size of Solomon's platform in red dashed lines. This would have been the original platform built by Solomon. On this platform he built his porch on the east. He had claimed the land as far as he could and could go no further because of the valleys on the east and west.
Notice that the western hall ends with what looks like a nipple.
When I laid my diagram over the top of the map I could see that the nipple fit perfectly into the opening in Herod's northern inner gate.

Herod’s gate goes beyond the red dashed line of Solomon's platform. Which means Herod's increased the size of the platform. This also shows that even though the double halls were made after 70 AD there was still enough of the old ruins of Herod's gate left as to indicate an opening that could be dug through.

However, Solomon's gates would have been smaller and a closer together, along with the 10 cubit wide chel beyond his north inner gate. In this map we can see that Solomon's inner gates, and the north and south chel were within the perimeters of the old platform.

Herod's Temple was to be built more to the north, causing the platform and north inner gate to also be rebuilt more to the north.

As you can see, Herod's north inner gate was extended beyond Solomon's platform.

Plus there must be a chel (walkway) on the north side of the platform, extending the width of the platform, what appears to be about 20 cubits at a regular Hebrew cubit.
Notice that this decreases the northern section of the compound making it the smallest of the outer courts.

The Mishna says the southern section of the Temple compound had the most "open space", then the women's court, followed by the northern section, which had the least amount of open space.

Remember that Herod the Great built the Temple and upper courts and gates, but the walls of his extended compound were added later by his grandson and great grandson and were not totally complete until 66 AD. This would mean that the old walls of Solomon's temple remained standing, for the protection of the new temple. So when it is said that, the northern section was decreased in size by Herod, they were speaking about the compound within Solomon's old walls, not Herod's extended compound.

Can I also show this through the ruins? I think so.
Notice the eastern passage of double halls, the one that extends further north, ends as if going through a gate opening and then circles out.

So where was the gate that they dug into? It would have been the ruins of Solomon's old north gate.

But this gets even more interesting to me. It reveals how Herod handled the problem of the Temple being built more to the north than the old one, and yet leaving the East gate of Solomon remaining in the same place. How then could one see through the east gate and also through the inner gate and into the Temple itself? The angle would be wrong. Easily remedied, just make the inner east gate a double gate with a double wide opening, which Herod did, creating the Nicanor Gate.

Back when I first began this in Nov 2000 I really had no idea what I was doing. I was trying to fit the gates in using the layout similar to that of Ezekiel’s temple. I hadn't learned yet about the inner east gate being a double wide gate. Had never heard of the Mishna at that time. Plus information wasn't really "out there" on the web as it is today. My layout was very elementary, and was constantly changing as I gained new information. It was at that time that the Lord gave me a dream about the east inner gate. The dream was about an old, distinguished Hebrew woman and her young daughter. The time had come for them to receive their inheritance. Someone handed the daughter a beautiful box, kind of like an ornate jewelry box. What the old women inherited was inside the box, and the younger woman inherited the outside. They opened the box and the old women reached in with both hands to try and pull out what was hers. But it was part of the structure of the box itself. If she removed it the box would fall apart. They had to share the box, with the old and the new as one. I woke up and knew that it meant the east inner gate was a double gate, and began to draw it that way. A few months later I ran across the information on the net about the double gate.

I wondered why the Lord had brought this gate to my attention, in a dream, when he could have just helped me find the information on the net or library. But now I think I know why. That gate would end up being one of those "special things" that would help to prove this theory to me in a very unique way.

In this diagram you can see by the red dashed line that Solomon's gate now sits directly across from the southern half of the double gate. With the double wide opening in this gate one would still be able to see into the Temple and view the curtain of the Holy of Holies with no problem.

Herod’s Temple Courts

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