ISRAEL - Second-Temple-Period Building Uncovered
In the first century CE, just decades before the Temple was destroyed by the Romans, Jerusalem was a booming city, buzzing with pilgrims and a frenzy of construction.
Archaeologists uncovered the lavishly endowed building, which was erected around 20-30 CE. It was probably used to welcome important dignitaries and members of the elite on their way to visit the Temple Mount, they said.
“This is, without doubt, one of the most magnificent public buildings from the Second Temple period that has ever been uncovered outside the Temple Mount walls in Jerusalem,” said Dr. Shlomit Weksler-Bdolach, the IAA’s excavation director.
The building was located on the main road that led to the Temple Mount from the west, Weksler-Bdolach said.
Between the first century BCE and the first century CE, Jerusalem witnessed a lot of construction, as new buildings were erected, and old buildings were expanded.
“They did not know that very soon the city would be destroyed,” Weksler-Bdolach said.
-www.jpost.com, 8 July 2021
Arno's Commentary
It’s a remarkable statement by archaeologist Shlomit Weksler-Bdolach, “they did not know that very soon the city would be destroyed.” Indeed, that’s exactly what happened, precisely in accordance with the prophetic Word that Jesus uttered: “And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:44).
This is a reminder to the Church as well. We live in a time incomparable to any other in history when it comes to comfort and luxury. The store shelves are stocked to the utmost with merchandise our grandparents knew nothing about. That’s prosperity galore, which is precisely the forerunner of the great destruction that is to come, as we read in Matthew 24:21: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
