Background Information Old Testament New Testament New Testament (cont.) Gentile Period (cont.)
1-Biblical Jerusalem 16-Salem, Jebus 33-Ashlar Stones 51-Bethesda Pool 68-Saint Anne's Church
2-History of Jerusalem 17-Milo, Jebusite Wall 34-Temple Mount 52-Holy Sepulcher 69-Sultan's Pool
3a-Map of Today's City 18-Gihon Springs 35-NE of End of Wall 53-Garden Tomb 70-Citadel
3b-The Four Quarters 19-City of David 36-SE End of Wall 54-Fort Antonia 71-Colonnade Column
3c-Photos 20-David's Palace 37-Western Wall 55-Phasael Tower  
3d-Silwan 21-Temple Mount 38-West Wall Tunnel 56-Struthion Pool  
4-The Walls Today 22-Solomon's Walls 39-Mikvah, Ritual Baths 57-Gethsemane  
5-The Gates Today 23-Solomon's Quarries 40-The Large Mikvah 58-Tombs in Hinnom Miscellaneous
6-Archaeology Periods 24-Broad Wall 41-Wilson's Arch 59-Jerusalem Tombs Archaeological Finds
7-Archaeology History 25-Hezekiah's Tunnel 42-Warren's Gate Gentile Period Jason's Tomb
8-Old Ancient Core 26-Middle Gate 43-Barclay's Gate 60-Ecce Homo Lazarus' Tomb
9-Kidron Valley 27-Nehemiah's Wall 44-Robinson's Arch 61-Roman Inscription Tomb of David
10-Central Valley Hasmonean 45-Western Wall Street 62-Cardo Maximus Via Dolorosa
11-Hinnom Valley 28-Walls and Towers 46-Western Wall Shops 63-Roman Road Bazaars
12-Mount of Olives 29-Aqueduct 47-South Temple Wall 64-Nea Church Hezekiah's Pool
13-Mount Moriah 30-Acra 48-Archaeology Park 65-Al Aqsa Mosque Lachish and Assyria
14-Western Hill Mt Zion 31-Temple Mount 49-Siloam Road 66-Dome of the Rock .Ancient Artifacts, Period Pieces
15-Ophel 32-Tombs in Kidron 50-Siloam Pool 67-Temple Mount  
.............Generation Word Home Page ......................Jerusalem Site Map..................................Jerusalem 101 Home Page

61- Roman Inscription

The Jews revolted against Rome in 132. They may have regained control of Jerusalem at that time, and while they held it, began to rebuild their temple on the Temple Mount. Two ancient documents speak of Hadrian destroying the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. One source is rabbinic material. The second comes from a remaining portion of “Chronicon Paschale”, a Christian chronicle written around 630 AD, which is an important source of information about the Byzantine Empire of that time and earlier Jewish history. When
Emperor Julian gave the Jews permission to rebuild the temple during his reign in 361 AD, he spoke of three previous destructions of the Jewish Temple: by Babylon in 586 BC, by Rome under Titus in 70 AD and by Hadrian in 135 AD following the Second Jewish revolt. One of the first things Bar Kochba did in 132 was to mint and issue a coin for
the newly-restored kingdom of Israel. The coin’s image included the front of the new Temple in Jerusalem on one side, and on the other side two silver trumpets used to call Israel to war from the Temple. Hadrian followed the suppression of this revolt by building of a temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount and positioning a statue of himself there also.

This photo shows the southern double gate. This wall contains a stone fragment from the base of a Roman statue from the Temple Mount dedicated to Antoninus
Pius. The Bordeaux Pilgrim saw this inscription and the statue that went with it setting on the Temple Mount when he visited Jerusalem 333 AD. The Bordeaux Pilgrim
records that there were two statues of Hadrian on the Temple Mount, but actually, one wouldm have been of Hadrian and the other of his adopted son,
Antoninus Pius, who became emperor after him. They both had beards and even as you look at the inscription today you can see why the Bordeaux Pilgrim
thought it was a second statue of Hadrian.


A close up of the stone outlined in white in the previous photo. This stone bears the inscription below.

The Roman Temple of Jupiter was torn down by Constantine. The stones were later used by the Muslims to build the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The stone with the inscription was apparently found and placed upside down to replace a broken block above the gate. Hershel Shanks (archaeologist and editor of Biblical Archaeology Review) says: Hadrian erected an equestrian statue of himself on the Temple Mount. The anonymous fourthcentury pilgrim known only as the Bordeaux Pilgrim reports that he saw two statues of Hadrian on the Temple Mount when he visited the site. The Bordeaux Pilgrim probably mistakenly identified the second statue; Hadrian's successor, Antonius Pius (138-161 AD), probably added an equestrian statue of himself, which the Bordeaux Pilgrim saw. . . It is quite possible that the Bordeaux Pilgrim saw this inscription when it was part of a statue on the Temple Mount. But he misread it. Antonius had been adopted by Hadrian and named as his successor in 138 A.D. Thus, Antoninus's name included the name of Hadrian. The Bordeaux Pilgrim apparently looked only at the first two lines and concluded that it was a second statue of Hadrian. Both had a thick beard and looked much alike when they were older. Some modern scholars have made the same mistake and read the same inscription now in secondary use as referring to Hadrian instead of Antoninus. They apparently focused on the name Hadrianus, ignoring the following name, Antoninus. - Hershel Shanks, Jerusalem’s Temple Mount: From Solomon to the Goldern Dome, p. 48


Hadrian’s inscription above reads:

TITO AEL HADRIANO
ANTONINO AUG PIO
P P PONTIF AUGUR
D D

Translation of Latin:

To Titus Ael[ius] Hadrianus
Antoninus Aug[ustus] Pius
the f[ather] of the f[atherland], pontif[ex], augur.
D[ecreed] by the D[ecurions]

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

   
   

JERUSALEM: HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY AND
APOLOGETIC PROOF OF SCRIPTURE

Order Galyn Wiemers' 250 page book "Jerusalem" from
the many online booksellers at Amazon.com HERE

Download a FREE online .pdf of "Jerusalem" HERE

(click on the book cover to download the book as a .pdf )


For Bible teaching audio, video and study tools
visit Generation Word's home page at
www.generationword.com

Visit Generation Word Bible Teaching Ministry

Return to "JERUSALEM 101" home page