From the Temple Mount to the Pool of Siloam

Chris Mitchell, CBN News, reports on the steps leading from the Temple Mount to the Pool of Siloam.

Ancient steps and a storm sewer dating back to King Herod are two of the recent finds in Jerusalem.

The discoveries help tell the story of the Jewish pilgrimage to the Temple in the time of Jesus.

“I was glad when they said to me let us go to the house of the Lord,” King David wrote in the Psalms.

Some 2,000 years ago, Jewish pilgrims might have recited this psalm of ascents as they climbed stairs on their way to worship at the Temple.

Three times a year, the Bible commanded the Jewish people to go up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feasts of the Lord.

“They probably camped outside the city in the valleys in the Kidron Valley… came in the city through the southern gate into the pool to take a ritual bath and then went up to the Temple Mount to pay their respects to the God of Israel,” said Haifa University archaeologist Roni Reich.

The excavation is located just outside the City of David. Many believe the area was Jerusalem at the time of King David.

Recently archaeologists uncovered the other side of the broad stairway leading to the Temple Mount. Paved with large limestone blocks, it is thought to be about 140 feet wide and climbs less than a half mile uphill to the Temple Mount.

Reich said Jesus, too, most likely walked the steps.

Just outside is the pool of Siloam, where Jesus healed the blind man as mentioned in the Gospel of John.

Read the full report, or watch a nice video featuring Archaeologists Ronnie Reich, here.

HT: Dr. Claude Mariottini