QUOTE:
Most of these are found beneath the Mount’s southern wall, an area jam-packed with millennia-old antiquities open to any visitor entering Jerusalem’s unique Archaeological Park-Davidson Center. And no wonder there were so many, says Gura Berger, spokesperson for the East Jerusalem Development Company. At any one time there could be thousands of pilgrims in need of ritual cleansing.
. . .
The Bible speaks of purifying oneself in water many times. Yet, says Berger, the ritual bath as we know it today wasn’t invented until the Second Temple era, when priests developed all kinds of rules that made it possible to carry out the biblical commandments.
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:End Quote.
Now I can see the Mikvahs:
Even in this picture, but also in the next. The plants to the right of the far staircase, obscure viewing most of them in this picture.
Yes I stared at this picture for a very long time. See, the TRIPLE GATE, all walled up under the Pink Arrows.
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When People came out of the came out of the mikvahs, they went to Herod's North Gate to the Temple or the Tadi Gate, both are on the North Side of the TEMPLE. So Mikvahs mostly were on the Upper OPHEL, and the TEMPLE was on the south part of the OPHEL.
How come No One ever mentions going through the Three Gates to Get to the TEMPLE ? ? ?
I actually BELIEVE they Turned LEFT when they got to the Staircase.
I imagine that is how you get to the Cohort Duty Station, were someone REPORTED what was about to happen to PAUL, (windows on the far right). Paul got jumped in the TEMPLE, which was just across the courtyard.
Now, Let me give you the reference to where Paul almost got Stoned to death:
Acts 21:29-40 (ESV)
29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.
30 Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.
31 And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.
32 He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
{Which way do you run, to get from the so-called TEMPLE MOUNT to the TEMPLE MOUNT on the south end of the OPHEL.}
33 Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had done.
34 Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another. And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
35 And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd,
36 for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!”
37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek?
38 Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”
39 Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.”
40 And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying:
So there USED TO BE A ROOF on the section between the two staircases. Looked something like this:
