Page 45 - Bible Geography and Near East Studies

racially impure and a puppet of the hated Romans. He was also extremely immoral, violent, and
paranoid. He was ruthless with his imagined enemies, murdering several members of his own family.
Among his victims were his favorite wife, her mother, her brother (who was serving as high priest), and
her grandfather. He killed three of his sons and an uncountable number of his actual enemies.
On the other hand, Herod built some of the most amazing structures in Israel’s ancient history,
singlehandedly fueling the country’s economy. Using resources from Rome and from his own immense
wealth, Herod directly employed thousands of workers.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Even today, the walls of Herod’s expanded Temple Mount can be easily spotted in an aerial photo of Jerusalem
(top). Both the photo and the illustrations are from the west, facing east. The Mount of Olives is the hill directly
across from the Temple Mount. The Judean Wilderness and the Dead Sea are barely visible in the distance. In the
photo, the gold-domed Islamic building stands where (or very near) the Temple once stood. In the illustration,
note the close proximity of the likely place of crucifixion, just outside the city walls. The bottom illustration
suggests that the Temple was located south of the existing temple mount today and that today’s temple mount
was actually Fort Antonia, home of the 10 Roman legion (approximately 10,000 people). Josephus describes
th
Fort Antonia as a city within a city. It was approximately 36 acres, the size of the temple mount today. Later in
this study, we will look at this in more detail.

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