Not one stone...
Illustration
Object:
"... Not one stone will be left upon another." Would Jesus himself been surprised at the reality that fulfilled his words? Solomon's Temple Mount was virtually doubled by King Herod (who reigned from 37-4 BCE), equaling the size of 30 football fields. The size of the hewn stones for this construction ranged from 2 to 10 tons. Herod also reconstructed the temple itself, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians in the early 6th century BCE and rebuilt after the Persians repatriated the exiled Jews. The Jewish historian Josephus reported that the entire facade of the temple was gilded with gold plates. When the sun rose in the east, the sight of the temple was blinding. The brilliance of the temple could be seen at quite a distance from all directions outside the city. The beauty, however, was temporal. After the Romans were through quashing the rebellion of 66-70 CE, the temple was totally obliterated once again. The Romans ploughed the Temple Mount and constructed a temple to Jupiter. The retaining walls themselves for the Temple Mount were also in ruins and left that way into the seventh-century CE, a testimony not only to the end of the animal sacrificial system in Judaism, but also to the end of the Jewish state (until 1948 CE). The western wall of the great retaining walls for the Temple Mount (not the temple) still stands and is a holy site for devout Jews today. It is called the Wailing Wall and used for prayer.
