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The Grand Portico That Once Stood on the Edge of the Temple Mount

July 22 2020

While not the most just or most popular ruler, Herod the Great—who ruled Judea from 37 to 4 BCE—was an ambitious builder, littering his kingdom with impressive structures. His massive expansion of the Temple complex in Jerusalem includes what is now known as the Western Wall, as well as a vast semi-enclosed building at the southern end of the Temple Mount, known as the royal stoa or portico. With a roof, and rows of columns in lieu of walls, the portico could be used for public gathering and commerce, and was described by the ancient historian Josephus as “more noteworthy than any [similar structure] under the sun.” The Biblical Archaeological Society describes what creating such a structure entailed:

The undertaking itself involved building beyond the topological boundaries of the Temple Mount. Massive retaining walls were constructed to hold the fill dirt needed to create the surface on which to build the royal portico. Recent excavations of this area revealed the ritual baths of houses that must have been dismantled in order to expand the Temple Mount for the project.

None of the masonry of the royal portico survived in place, which made it very difficult for modern archaeologists to know what it looked like. Yet, architectural fragments that had fallen to the foot of the southern enclosure wall, after the severe damage from the Roman sack of Jerusalem in 70 CE, have been found [in] archaeological excavations.

To date, more than 500 architectural decoration fragments dated to the Herodian period have been unearthed. . . . Many of the extensive decorative elements are reflected in modern Jerusalem, but some show a unique combination of eastern and western influences.

Read more at Bible History Daily

More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, Herod, Jewish architecture, Temple Mount

The Summary: 10/7/20

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.

Read more at Mosaic