Palestine Exploration Quarterly

ISSN: 0031-0328 (Print) 1743-1301 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ypeq20

The Temple, the Church of the Ascension, and the Finding of the Cross

W. R. Lethaby

To cite this article: W. R. Lethaby (1897) The Temple, the Church of the Ascension, and the Finding of the Cross, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 29:1, 75-77, DOI: 10.1179/ peq.1897.29.1.75

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/peq.1897.29.1.75

Published online: 20 Nov 2013.

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Download by: [Universite Laval] Date: 06 April 2016, At: 23:11 THE TEMPLE AND THE ASCENSION CHURCH. 75

anticipated, and Note B in Quarterly Statement, 1877, p. 204, appears to be (so far as I can see) the right solution of the question, though I then only named an alternative course £01' the wall as possible, but did not see my way to accept it. After this the King's Pool (N eh. ii, 14) easily slips into its proper place south of the Virgin's Fount (Gihon), getting its name from being there anointed. The ruins in this narrow part of the naclwl apparently necessitated N eheIniah's dismounting. Hezekiah's tom b was apparently near the stairs named above, though ~t a lower level than 's sepulchres; for 2 Ohron. xxxii, 33, says' they buried him in the ascent of (? to) the sepulchres of the sons of David. I hope the reader will do his utmost to further these most interesting ex~avations, so that the Palestine Exploration Fund may obtain data fora correct plan of Zion, besideB photographs of the various chambers in the royal catacom bs.

Note B. "Quarterly Statement," 1877, p. 204. Even on the admission (Note A) that the pool that ~()as made was in the Tyropmon Valley, it might still be urged that the lower Pool of Siloam was the Pool of Siloah, and the upper Pool of Siloam was the Pool made by Hezekiah. Such a view may possibly be consistent with the LXX rendering of Neh. xii, 37, Isa. xxii, 11, though the objections to it on other grounds seem to me very strong. If it could be maintained, then the line of the wall and stairs would have to be drawn frOlll the north end of the ernbankment up the Ophel Hill, and the position of the Tomb of David altered accordingly. 18th ~Tovembtr, 1896.

THE TEMPLE, THE CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION, AND THE ]'INDING OF THE CROSS. Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 23:11 06 April 2016 By W. R. LETHABY, Esq.

IN view of the approach of an important day of the year 1 in regard to , will you allow me to suggest through the Quarterly Statement the possibility of a connection between the Temple and the A.scension Church ~ The day I speak o:f is that of the Dedication of the Holy Sepulchre, September 15th. The Temple was built round about the rock summit of Mount Moriah -" the mountain of the house," and it is generally adnlitted that the rock now covel'ed by the Arab Dome (" the Temple of the· Lord" in the

1 Written September 1st, 1896. 76 THE TEMPLE AND THE ASCENSION CHURCH.

-Middle .Ages) defines the east-west axis of the Temple. The rock formed the basis for the Great or for the Ark. According to the , not only the Temple, but the world itself was grounded on the stone called Foundation. It was the centre of the world and the cover stone of the entrance to the lower world. These legends elucidate one side of the much-discussed saying of Christ~" Thou art Peter, and upon this 'l'ock I will build my clwrch, and the ,gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The reference was to the well-known fact that the Old Temple was built on an actual rock which, covering the" well of souls," formed the gate of hell. A parallelism was thus suggested between the old Temple and the Church of Christ. The eastern and entrance front of the Temple exactly faced the Hl111mitof the Mount of Olives, of which there was an uninterrupteJ view from the interior of the Temple. Now, the Church of the Aseension stands on or near the summit of the Mount of Olives; but Dean Stanley has pointed out that the site does not seem to have been accepted as that of the Ascension in New Testament times~ As to its position in relation to the Temple, the follow- ing remarkable passages occur in " Felix Fabri" :-" The Mount of Olives is properly called the Mount of Lights, for it is first lighted by the sun. At dawn it is straightwcty lighted by the sun's rays .... '. When the sun rose and passed over the top of the"Mount of Olives, the first rays which it sent forth ent81'ed into the door of the outer ... '. and made their way even to the which was ligh ted up by the first stroke of the sun's rays. Now the Church of the Ascension always receives the first rays and it passes them on to the Temple of the Lord .... In the place where the Lord ascended the priests of the old law were wont every year to make a great fire, and they used to bring out a red heifer and they burnt it there" (i, 495-6). "The Church stands oppositf', but much higher than the Temple, and directly to the eastward, so that at the equinoxes' the risin,q sun appears as it were to rise out of this cl~urch and to,go up fro1T~1't,as I have often watched it doing. When I saw this 1 no lOiiger wondered that the Gh'urch sings on the day of the Lord s 'ascension, 'Sing 'unto the Lord who ascendeth above the of in the East' n (i, 487).

Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 23:11 06 April 2016 We can hardly doubt froID this that the Ascension Church superseded some 1110nUnlentwhich served as a pointer to the Temple, and that the srin's" ris~ng" behind it· once a year would probably coincide with one of the great annual feasts, such as that of the dedication of the Temple or the slayingof.the heifer. I Heed not refer here to the g':meral theory of the orientation of temples, so fully worked out by Professor Nornlall Lockyer, Mr. Penrose, and others. For a "pointer," compare Stonehenge and see E. Burnouf's "Legende Athenienne " on the Parthenon. The Holy Sepulchre and the Ascension were both built by Constantinf'. '-The ·sepulchre seems to have been intended to fornl the Christian centre of J erllsalem; the ea.rliest writers call it the New Jerusalem.' It would be interesting, not only to verify Felix as to the temple, but t') determine WHE:dE ARE THE SACllED VESSELS OF THE TEMPLE? 77

what day's sunrise the axis of this church points to; its dedication was on September 15th. Now this seems to have been a grea~ day in Jerusalelll independently of the Church. Arculf, for in~tance, tells us tha.t a large fair was held on this day, which was immediately followed by great rain. From the number of bishops called together for the "'dedication of the" New Jerusalem," it is evident that the day must have been decided upon long in ad vance, and there is good reason to think that the day was intended to be that of the dedication of Solomon's Temple. St. Silvia says :-" The Dedication Festival of these holy churches (the Martyrium and Anastasis) is observed with the greatest honour, since tlte Grosso! tlie Lord was found on that day. For so it was ordained that the day on which first the above-mentioned hoJy churches were consecrated should be the day,on which the Cross of the Lord was found, that it should be thus observed with all manner of joy. And this, too, we find in the Holy Scriptures: for that was the day of ded'ication on ~(jhichholy Solomon, when the house of God whicl~ he had built was completed, stood before the altar of God and prayed." This was written only about 50 years after the building of Constantine's Basilica, and is the first clear account of the finding of the Cross. .The Cross was found deep down under the church, and so was most probably discovered, in any case, after the excavations had been made. The finding of the Cross occurred on the day of the dedication (which had been independently arrived at as following that of Solomon's Temple), or possibly the evening before, as the Feast of the Invention of the Cross is celebrated by the Eastern Church on September 14th. It seems to follow that this discovery of the Cross was arranged beforehand.

2, GRAY'S INN SQUARE, W.O.

WHERE ARE THE SACRED VESSELS OF THE TE~M:PLE?

Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 23:11 06 April 2016 By JAS. SIMPSON, Esq.

ASSUMING that the golden table and candlestick which figured in Titus's triumph were restored by Justinian to the holy city, and may yet be found there: were these vessels actually used in the worship of the last temple, and in what degree do they resen1ble in size, shape, and design their prototypes of the tabernacle, or the later vessels made for Solomon's temple? 1rluch of the interest attaching to them will depend 011 the answer to these questions. ;Yosephus relates (" Wars," vi, 8, 3) that during the assault of the upper city one of the priests" delivered to Titus from the wall of the holy house, two candlesticks like to those that la.y in the holy house, with tables (pl.) and cistern.i3 and vials, all made of solid gold and very heavy" ; also" the veils