Source: Ha'aretz
Jan 24, 2007
Efforts to learn more about the Second Temple - the one Jesus' called "My Father's house" - have progressed further with the uncovering of a major road pilgrims would have used to make their way up to God's holy hill.
Jesus Himself very likely would have used that road.
Described as "much grander, wider and more central" that another road previously thought to have served this purpose, it leads upward from the Pool of Siloam, where those about to enter the Temple precincts underwent a ritual cleansing bath.
The pool, like the road, was only recently uncovered in excavations in the City of David - the place below Mount Moriah where David kept the Ark of the Covenant until his son, Solomon, had built the First Temple to place it in.
A much smaller and plainer pool had originally been identified as Siloam's.
Some believers, eagerly anticipating the spiritual restoration of Israel, saw in the discovery of the real pool a sign that the "fountain of cleansing" foretold in Zechariah 15:1 would soon be opened for the Jewish people.
Similarly, students of biblical prophecy could well see in this latest uncovering a sign that the way is being prepared, and would soon be ready, for the coming, or return, of Messiah (Isaiah 40:3-5).