Jerusalem
The remains of Jerusalem's main street, running the length of the Western Wall, along about one kilometer, in the late Second Temple period. The street was paved with flagstones and edged with curbstones. It had two large drainage channels running beneath it, and shops opened onto the street on both sides.
Ronny is directing our attention to various focal points on the wall. There is an inscription on one of the stones that doesn't really show up in the pictures very well. It is a paraphrase from scripture, but the exact significance of the quote is not known. One thing I think you should be able to see in these pictures is where the stones start to look different from the ones underneath. That change begins a different era. For example, in the picture below, just under the indentation, the stones are larger, flatter and smoother. That was once the top of the wall. And then a new era started to rebuild.In this second picture, you can see a third change in the stones where yet another era rebuilt on ruins. The only reason you can see all of these different eras represented in this spot is because they have excavated so far down in this location. And at the bottom, you can also see a lot of large rocks and rubble. These were stones that fell and broke apart in the destruction of AD 70, just as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:2.In this picture, Allen was talking to us about Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of the temple and how everything came to pass exactly as he said it would. Seeing the physical evidence of prophecy fulfilled as you listen to your pastor preach is quite an experience.This is what the damage was like as a result of those large stones being toppled into the streets.
We spent three nights and four days in Jerusalem. There is so much to see. This first site was very special because we walked along a street that Jesus would have also walked. Different parts of the city have been excavated to different eras. So many of the places Jesus would have stood are now underneath parts of the city that were rebuilt in later years on top of ruins. Some of the stones have been replaced, obviously. But others are 2,000 years old. The following picture illustrates the way cites were rebuilt. The only visible part of this ancient entrance gate is the very top. The rest of it is underground. New gates are built, along with new walls, on top of the old ones. But much of the older parts are still there, they are just buried.
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