The most extreme alternate theories for The Temple’s location are those that remove it from The Temple Mount entirely, I currently see no validity to doing that. But every YouTube video or documentary defending the traditional mainstream view is only dealing with those extreme alternatives, they don’t have much interest in debating where on The Temple Mount.
The well known alternative theories for The Temple Mount are based on it being either further North or further South. The Dome of The Spirits view and the Al-Kas Fountain view are both ones I’ve entertained in the past. But today the convictions I’ve developed regarding Dominus Flevit as the site of both the Red Heifer offerings and The Crucifixion/Resurrection tell me that the Dome of The Rock is on the right Latitude.
My main issue with The Dome of The Rock however is the ritual Rock, there is no Biblical Basis for The Holy of Holies being built on a Rock, certainly not one as not flat and unsound to build on as that Rock. Indeed, Rock has just about the exact opposite qualities I would expect a “Foundation Stone” to have.
Indeed the only Biblical basis for the concept of a sacred Foundation Stone is Isaiah 28:16 which is quoted a couple times in The New Testament, Ephesians 2:20 and 1 Peter 2:6 but they leave out the word foundation. These verses however refer to Zion not The Temple Mount, Zion is synonymous with The City of David. The current mainstream archaeological view on where Zion was is south of the Temple Mount, exactly the place the most well known alternative theory is trying to place The Temple. There is also a long history of giving the name of Zion to the Western Hill south of the Zion Gate where the Church of the Dormition is. I however firmly believe Zion, The City of David is Bethlehem. In The New Testament verses identify that Foundation Stone as in fact a title of The Messiah like the Stone of Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 8:14, that does not contradict there being a real geographical feature Isaiah had in mind but it still could prove futile to look for one.
However the idea of a Foundation Stone on The Temple Mount does start to develop in post AD 70 Rabbinic Literature. But it’s complicated. The Wikipedia page for Foundation Stone quotes midrash Tanhuma (t. Yoma 2:12; y. Yoma 5:3; b. Yoma 54b; PdRK 26:4; Lev. R. 20:4.).
"As the navel is set in the centre of the human body,so is the land of Israel the navel of the world...situated in the centre of the world,and Jerusalem in the centre of the land of Israel,and the sanctuary in the centre of Jerusalem,and the holy place in the centre of the sanctuary,and the ark in the centre of the holy place,and the Foundation Stone before the holy place,because from it the world was founded."
Based on what is usually meant to be “before” something in the Biblical Hebrew mind this would be placing The Foundation Stone East of The Holy Place. But it’s possible that by this time the use of “before” was already looser. After all Hadria had already rebuilt Jerusalem in such a way that the main entrance to The Temple Mount was now entering from The West.
But on the subject of that emphasis on centerness, it should be noted that the exact center of The Temple Mount, the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, is not the Dome of The Rock but the Dome of the Chain east of The Dome of The Rock.
The Hasmonean and Herodian expansions of The Temple Complex were to the West, South and North but never moved the Eastern Wall further East. So the original center of the area would have been East of The Dome of The Chain. In Ezekiel 40-48 The Brazen Altar is meant to be the Center of The Temple Complex, it’s likely both Solomon and Zerubabel’s designs were smaller scale versions of that basic idea but then Herod wanted to make it so The Holy of Holies was The Center.
The 12th Century Islamic author al-Idrisi referred to The Dome of The Chain as The Holy of Holies. Some believe a form of The Dome of The Chain might predate the Islamic Conquest entirely (Archnet: Qubba al-Silsila).
So one of the theories I’m considering is that The Dome of The Chain marks The Holy of Holies, or perhaps more specifically it’s Hexagonal inner arcade.
Now let’s turn to the account of the Bordeaux Pilgrim from AD 333.
If the "Pierced Stone” in that account is the Foundation Stone, even then it should be noted that the Statues of Hadrian are by it not on it. Jerome in his Commentary on The Bible for Matthew 24:15 said the Mounted Statue of Hadrian was over the site of The Holy of Holies.
But part of me still thinks the Chamber where Solomon wrote about Wisdom in that account is the Well of Souls and thus the Dome of The Rock’s Foundation Stone is its roof.
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