Transcript [00:00] This is part two of our series on the [00:02] city of David. In part one, we focused [00:04] on the biblical and ancient history of [00:05] the site. [00:07] In part two, we're going to ask some [00:08] important questions about the modern [00:10] significance of the city of David. [00:12] Why is archaeology so political? [00:15] Why is this site specifically so [00:17] polarizing? And what does it currently [00:19] represent today? [00:21] Let's get started. [00:48] >> In the early 1900s, a man by the name of [00:50] Baron Rothschild, understanding the [00:53] significance of this area, purchased the [00:55] majority of the land here in the city of [00:57] David [00:59] both to help uncover the archaeology [01:02] that exists beneath everywhere that we [01:04] stand here in the city of David, but [01:05] also to bring Jewish life back to [01:08] Jerusalem, to biblical Jerusalem, to the [01:10] place where Jerusalem began. Now, in [01:12] that time, this [01:14] ridge was largely uninhabited. [01:17] And slowly people began to move here [01:19] onto this ridge. The first families in [01:21] modern times moved in in the late 1800s, [01:24] and over the decades that that followed, [01:27] slowly, slowly more and more people [01:28] began to live on this hilltop. [01:31] And then, you have 1948, [01:34] Israel's War of Independence, and [01:36] Jerusalem, at least this part of [01:37] Jerusalem, is left outside of Israel's [01:40] hands. And that would only change in [01:42] 1967 in the Six-Day War, where Israel [01:45] liberates Jerusalem. Israel returns to [01:47] all of Jerusalem and to so many other [01:49] places [01:50] where [01:51] they have so much history, so much faith [01:54] connecting the Jewish people to these [01:56] places, to this land. [02:02] Archaeology is normally carried out [02:05] top-down. You start at the top, you work [02:07] your way down, you go through layer by [02:09] layer understanding the different [02:11] periods of history [02:13] of whatever happened in a certain place. [02:16] The Pilgrimage Road excavation [02:18] is different. [02:19] Not by choice, [02:20] but by necessity. [02:22] Today, the City of David is a modern day [02:25] neighborhood. A mixed Jewish-Arab [02:27] neighborhood. [02:29] And above the excavation here, you have [02:31] people living homes. [02:33] Now, [02:35] in other parts of the world, certainly [02:36] in the United States, what would happen [02:37] here is eminent domain. [02:39] The government would come in and say, [02:41] "Well, here's a check. Cash it or don't, [02:43] but you have to leave." [02:44] Now, that doesn't happen in this part of [02:46] Jerusalem. That doesn't happen here in [02:47] the City of David. And so, the challenge [02:49] here is how do you respect the modern [02:51] while at the same time uncovering the [02:53] ancient with significance not to [02:55] millions, [02:56] but to billions around the world. [02:59] And what we've done here in the City of [03:00] David in this excavation [03:02] is [03:04] brought in new technology, engineering [03:07] that is being used here to do that very [03:10] purpose, to support the modern while [03:12] giving access to the ancient. [03:15] Now, all of the engineering that you see [03:16] here [03:18] has [03:19] all sorts of monitors and other [03:21] technology that ensure [03:23] that the ground is stable, that nothing [03:25] is moving above our heads, that it [03:28] should have almost no impact whatsoever [03:31] on anything that's happening [03:34] on the modern street level. [03:36] And yet, [03:37] sometimes, over the course of an [03:38] excavation, something could shift [03:40] potentially. [03:42] And what we do, if ever, maybe it causes [03:46] a pothole, maybe it might cause a crack [03:49] uh in a wall somewhere. [03:51] So, then what happens? [03:53] You fix it because it's the right thing [03:55] to do. [03:56] But overwhelmingly, after many [03:58] investigations that have been carried [04:00] out, [04:01] there is virtually [04:03] minimal connection between what happens [04:06] down here in the excavations with any [04:08] impact that's being felt up above. [04:12] But one of the challenges, and it's a [04:13] beautiful challenge, what's happening in [04:15] the city of David today is on the one [04:16] hand, it's a thriving modern-day [04:18] neighborhood, [04:19] and at the same time underground, the [04:21] heritage with significance to billions [04:23] of people around the world [04:25] is being unearthed and made accessible. [04:28] It's a balance of having the best of [04:31] both worlds. [04:38] >> In the late 1990s, a crime of biblical [04:42] proportions [04:43] took place. [04:45] The Islamic Waqf, the religious trust [04:48] that oversees the Islamic sites that sit [04:50] atop the Temple Mount today, [04:52] they, in the pretext of needing to [04:55] expand an emergency exit on the Temple [04:57] Mount, brought bulldozers, dump trucks, [05:01] heavy machinery [05:03] atop the Temple Mount [05:05] without any archaeological oversight or [05:07] supervision, [05:08] and removed hundreds and hundreds of [05:11] truckloads of earth, tons and tons of [05:13] earth from the biblical Mount Moriah, [05:16] from the Temple Mount, perhaps the most [05:18] significant piece of real estate [05:20] anywhere on the planet, [05:22] and unceremoniously [05:24] took those trucks of earth [05:26] saturated with discoveries dating back [05:30] to the biblical period, to the Second [05:32] Temple, to the time of Jesus, to the [05:34] First Temple of Solomon, [05:37] and took [05:38] that earth [05:40] and dumped it in a garbage dump. [05:44] And only because at that time a young [05:47] student followed those trucks, saw where [05:49] they were dumping the earth, [05:52] was able to get the police to put a [05:53] freeze on what was happening. They were [05:55] able to rescue that earth, [05:58] and today it's still being sifted [06:00] through [06:01] more than two decades later to uncover [06:03] the treasures that were literally thrown [06:06] into the garbage. [06:08] Now, the question is what Why did this [06:09] happen? Why did the Islamic authorities [06:12] on the Temple Mount Why were they so [06:15] pressed [06:17] to carry this out this this crime on the [06:20] Temple Mount to to remove tons and tons [06:22] and tons of earth? [06:24] Why not just bring archaeologists up [06:26] there to supervise, to make sure that [06:28] anything of value would be documented [06:30] and preserved? And the answer is very [06:32] simple, because those same authorities [06:34] did not want what was being unearthed to [06:37] be documented or to be preserved, [06:39] because they understood [06:41] that what was being unearthed, what was [06:44] being thrown into the garbage, [06:46] is the very foundation [06:48] of Jerusalem's biblical heritage [06:50] anchoring the Jewish people, [06:52] the Bible, to this land as not simply [06:55] being a matter of faith, but a matter of [06:56] fact, as being something real, tangible, [06:58] that you could see, that you could [07:00] touch. [07:01] And that's what makes archaeology here [07:03] in the City of David, in Jerusalem, in [07:06] the land of Israel so important. [07:08] Because unlike so many other places in [07:10] the world today where archaeology is [07:12] just academic, theoretical, interesting, [07:14] not interesting depending on wherever [07:16] you're coming from, archaeology here has [07:18] real stakes. [07:20] It has political stakes. It has [07:22] theological stakes, because there are so [07:24] many in the world today [07:26] who want to say, "The Bible, that's not [07:28] real. It's just a book of stories. It [07:30] has no real bearing on how we should [07:32] live our lives today, not as Jews, not [07:34] as Christians. [07:35] It's not serious. No serious people [07:37] would take the Bible seriously." And the [07:39] archaeology here is telling a different [07:41] story, that so much of Jerusalem's [07:42] biblical heritage Israel is true, is [07:45] affirmable, is documentable. And so, the [07:48] archaeology here matters, the [07:50] excavations here matter because it is [07:53] uncovering and telling a story [07:55] that is as relevant today, if not more [07:57] so than it was thousands of years ago [08:00] in terms of how we understand the past, [08:03] how we view what's happening here in the [08:04] present, and also how we understand the [08:07] future. [08:14] Yet, here in Jerusalem [08:16] archaeology matters differently. [08:18] Because [08:20] whether it's those who deny the [08:22] significance [08:24] of what's happening here in Jerusalem [08:27] for theological reasons [08:28] or for political reasons [08:31] the result is the same. [08:33] Seeking to undermine the connection of [08:34] the Jewish people to Jerusalem and to [08:36] the land of Israel. Seeking to undermine [08:38] the legitimacy of the sovereign Jewish [08:40] state of Israel [08:42] to [08:43] imply that somehow the Jewish people are [08:46] occupiers, colonizers in their ancestral [08:48] homeland. [08:50] Now [08:51] what gives the right of the Jewish [08:52] people [08:53] to be here? [08:54] And there are many answers to that [08:55] question [08:56] beyond the scope of [08:58] what we would talk about here. You could [09:00] talk about international law. [09:02] You could talk about faith. God gave [09:04] this land to the Jewish people. [09:07] But, there's also archaeology. [09:09] And with the discoveries in a place like [09:11] the City of David, but throughout [09:13] Jerusalem and the land of Israel in [09:14] general [09:15] the archaeology consistently affirms so [09:18] much of Jerusalem's biblical heritage [09:20] and of the millennia-old connection of [09:23] the Jewish people to the land of Israel, [09:26] to Jerusalem. [09:29] Now [09:30] do we have a connection, a right to this [09:32] land without archaeological discovery? [09:34] Of course, we do. [09:36] But [09:37] does finding [09:40] discoveries that directly link [09:42] the Jewish people to Jerusalem, finding [09:45] inscriptions in ancient Hebrew writing, [09:46] coins in ancient Hebrew writing, seals [09:49] with names of biblical figures in [09:51] ancient Hebrew writing going back [09:52] thousands and thousands of years, [09:55] is that powerful? Absolutely. Is it [09:58] faith-affirming? 100%. [10:00] Does it have political implications? I [10:02] wish it didn't have to, [10:04] but it certainly does. [10:06] In fact, [10:07] I wish that the archaeology here in the [10:09] City of David was [10:11] more boring than it is. In the sense [10:13] that, okay, we find something cool, it [10:15] matches up with the Bible, that's [10:16] wonderful, and it begins and ends there. [10:19] The fact that today, every time we find [10:21] something in the City of David and [10:22] elsewhere throughout the land of Israel, [10:25] that affirms [10:28] the Bible, that affirms the Jewish [10:29] connection to the land of Israel, [10:31] in some ways it does become political. [10:34] Because then that becomes a pushback [10:36] against the all-too-many forces [10:39] that are consistently denying [10:43] that same history, that same heritage, [10:45] that same legitimacy of the Jewish [10:47] people to sovereignty in their homeland. [10:56] In the United Nations, [10:58] there's a body called UNESCO, [11:00] the United Nations Educational, [11:02] Scientific, and Cultural Organization. [11:05] It essentially has one mandate, which is [11:06] to preserve the cultural heritage of [11:08] humanity. It's not that complicated. [11:12] And a number of years ago, [11:15] around 2015, 2016, [11:18] UNESCO passed a resolution [11:21] about the significance of Jerusalem's [11:23] heritage. [11:25] Now, what was interesting about this [11:26] resolution [11:28] was that the heritage of Jerusalem that [11:30] the United Nations, that UNESCO was [11:32] recognizing, [11:33] was not the Jewish heritage of [11:34] Jerusalem, was not the Christian [11:36] heritage of Jerusalem. The resolution [11:38] recognized the Temple Mount, the Western [11:40] Wall as Islamic heritage sites. [11:44] Now, [11:45] I'm not here to [11:46] negate whatever feelings Muslims have [11:49] towards Jerusalem and the connections [11:51] that they feel to it towards it, [11:53] but certainly [11:54] the Jewish people [11:56] and Christians also then [11:58] have heritage in Jerusalem. [12:00] And yet, the United Nations sought to [12:03] erase all of that heritage [12:05] in that one resolution and the many that [12:07] came before and sadly the many that have [12:10] since come after. [12:12] But they're not the only ones. [12:13] You have [12:15] other movements, organizations, [12:18] you have here in this area of Jerusalem [12:21] what's called the northern branch of the [12:23] Islamic movement, [12:25] which [12:26] is also in many ways uh [12:29] you know, engages in sometimes terror [12:32] activities, engages in [12:35] uh active hostility and denial [12:38] towards the idea of Jewish heritage, [12:40] Jewish sovereignty in this area. Now, [12:42] here in the City of David, we have many, [12:43] many workers. [12:44] And among them, [12:46] used to be a lot more workers, [12:48] Arab workers, Muslim workers from this [12:51] general area. [12:53] And then a number of years ago, [12:54] representatives of the [12:56] northern branch of the Islamic movement, [12:58] they began threatening [13:00] the Arabs, the Muslims who were working [13:02] together with us here in the City of [13:03] David, who were being paid, [13:05] you know, full wages, getting sick days, [13:07] getting [13:08] all the, you know, same type of legal [13:12] rights that other workers in the City of [13:13] David had. And these Arab workers began [13:15] to be threatened. [13:17] Cars began to be torched. [13:19] Legs began to be broken. [13:21] And the message was clear. [13:23] Don't work with the Jews. [13:26] And many of those workers quit [13:30] because they [13:31] were afraid of what would happen to them [13:33] if they didn't. [13:35] Which is very tragic in and of itself. [13:37] Why why can't Jews and Arabs work [13:39] together [13:40] in a project like this? [13:41] Uh and yet that was the reality. Now the [13:44] question is well why does a place like [13:46] the city of David bother an organization [13:48] like the northern branch of the Islamic [13:50] movement? Why does it bother the United [13:52] Nations? Why does it bother so many [13:54] others? [13:56] The answer is very simple. [13:58] So much of what's being unearthed here [13:59] in the city of David [14:02] is [14:03] an inconvenient truth. It undermines [14:05] beliefs, [14:07] political beliefs, [14:09] theological beliefs, [14:12] and the best way [14:14] for those forces [14:16] to deal with what we're finding here in [14:18] the city of David is just to deny it. [14:20] Either to try and force [14:24] this project out, that the city of David [14:25] shouldn't be here, [14:28] or to try and delegitimize, to erase, to [14:30] rewrite the history of Jerusalem. And [14:32] what's ironic is in in 1920 [14:35] there's a booklet put out by the Supreme [14:38] Muslim Council [14:40] about Jerusalem, [14:42] specifically about the Temple Mount. [14:44] And in this booklet in 1920, put out in [14:46] English, [14:48] it speaks of the significance of the [14:50] Temple Mount. [14:51] Now you might wonder why would the [14:52] Supreme Muslim Council in 1920 and in [14:54] subsequent versions that that came [14:56] afterwards [14:58] why would they put out a booklet in [15:00] English? Who who is it for? [15:02] And the answer is very clear. [15:04] This was during the time of the British [15:05] Mandate. The English were here. [15:07] And it says its identity with the site [15:09] of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. [15:13] This too is the spot according to [15:14] universal belief on which quote David [15:17] built an altar unto the Lord and offered [15:19] burnt offerings and peace offerings. [15:22] That's a quote from the Bible, Book of [15:23] Samuel. [15:24] So, 1920, this pre-Muslim council [15:27] when speaking of the significance of the [15:29] Temple Mount [15:30] says [15:32] Solomon's Temple, there's a David, [15:33] there's a Solomon, beyond dispute, [15:35] universal belief, and they quote from [15:37] the Bible. [15:39] Now, that changed in the versions that [15:41] came out after 1948. [15:44] Why the change? [15:45] Why the booklets, which only became [15:46] longer [15:48] no longer spoke [15:50] of David, of Solomon's Temple. They no [15:53] longer quoted the Bible. [15:55] What changed? [15:57] The answer is very clear. What changed [15:58] was Jewish sovereignty, the return of [16:00] the Jewish people to Jerusalem, to the [16:02] land of Israel, the reestablishment of [16:04] the Jewish state of Israel here in the [16:05] land of Israel. [16:07] And once that happened [16:09] the Supreme Muslim Council, and still so [16:11] much of the Muslim world today, and not [16:13] just [16:14] has not been able to reconcile [16:17] with the return of the Jewish people to [16:19] the land of Israel, with Jewish [16:20] sovereignty, with what that means [16:23] for theology. [16:25] What that means in terms of political [16:27] implications, what that means in terms [16:28] of what's being unearthed in the [16:29] excavations here in the City of David. [16:32] That is still something that many are [16:34] struggling to make peace with. [16:42] For my part [16:43] this shouldn't be political. [16:45] This shouldn't be theological. [16:48] Let the archaeology speak for itself. [16:50] Let the stones speak. [16:52] And let's see what's being found. And [16:54] every person [16:55] of good faith [16:57] good spirit [16:58] open mind [17:00] take the discoveries for what they are. [17:02] See what the discoveries on their own [17:05] are affirming or not and let every [17:07] person be able to [17:10] make their own judgments from there. [17:12] But what's not good faith [17:14] is [17:16] to take the overwhelming archaeological [17:18] evidence which points overwhelmingly [17:21] in one direction, which is the [17:22] affirmation of Jerusalem's biblical [17:24] heritage, which is the affirmation of [17:26] the millennia-old connection of the [17:29] Jewish people to the land of Israel. [17:31] And to act as if nothing's ever been [17:33] found, none of it's true, and somehow in [17:36] 1948 without any historical context, the [17:39] Jewish people just happened to find [17:40] themselves in this part of the world. [17:44] That does not stand up to scientific [17:47] scrutiny. [17:48] That's bad science. [17:50] Uh what we're doing here in the City of [17:51] David, what we're unearthing here in the [17:53] City of David, [17:54] that holds up, that stands up. There's [17:57] always room for debate about the finds. [17:59] But again, consistently, those finds all [18:01] point in one direction. [18:08] If the Jewish people were not in [18:10] Jerusalem, [18:12] then you have a problem. [18:14] Because Jesus was Jewish. [18:17] And so if the Jews weren't here, [18:19] I'm not sure what that says about Jesus [18:20] and whatever you believe he did here in [18:22] Jerusalem. [18:23] If the Jewish people have no history and [18:26] heritage in Jerusalem, [18:27] then Christianity, which is built on the [18:29] foundation of the Hebrew Bible, of the [18:32] Jewish people, Jesus, his disciples, [18:34] the early ones, they were all Jews, [18:37] all living in a Jewish Jerusalem, [18:40] where they knew the Hebrew Bible and [18:42] Jerusalem's biblical heritage. That was [18:44] their world. [18:46] So, if that's all false, [18:49] then what does that mean for you? [18:52] We, the Jewish people, we are going to [18:54] be okay. [18:56] The archaeology affirms [18:58] our heritage here. Whether others like [19:00] that, don't like that, [19:02] it's just a fact. [19:04] We are not going anywhere. We've [19:05] returned to our ancestral homeland [19:08] after many years of exile. [19:11] It's an incredible miracle. It's an [19:12] incredible blessing. [19:14] And whether there are those who like it [19:15] or don't like it, it's an established [19:17] fact, the sovereign Jewish state of [19:19] Israel exists. And God willing will [19:21] exist for a very long time to come. [19:24] I think the question though for [19:26] Christians is a different one. [19:28] Which is [19:30] if we allow [19:32] the foundations upon which Jerusalem's [19:35] biblical heritage rest [19:36] if we allow that to be denied [19:39] what does that mean for you? [19:43] >> That wraps up part two of our [19:45] conversation. [19:46] Thank you, Ze'ev, for your hospitality [19:48] and thank you for watching. [19:50] If you'd like to learn more about the [19:51] City of David, I highly recommend you [19:53] check out the book When Stones Speak, [19:55] which tells the story in much more [19:57] detail. [19:58] If you'd like additional resources, you [20:00] can also email us at [20:01] education@passagesisrael.org [20:04] or you can leave a comment below. [20:05] Until next time.
