Golden Gate (Jerusalem)

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Golden Gate 2018 from the outside

The Golden Gate ( Hebrew שער הרחמים Sha'ar haRachamim "Gate of Mercy", Arabic باب الرحمة, DMG Bāb ar-Raḥma ) is a walled-up gate on the east side of the Jerusalem Temple Mount / Haram asch-Sharif, which dates from the early Islamic period.

Literary testimony

East gate of the Herodian Temple

It is uncertain whether there was even a gate on the east side of the temple esplanade before the Jewish War ; Flavius ​​Josephus does not mention it. The identification of the beautiful gate mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 3,1-10) with the golden gate is untenable:

  • ancient Greek θύρα ὡραία thýra hōraía "beautiful gate" would have been misunderstood as Porta Aurea "golden gate"because of the similar sound in Latin. In the Vulgate text of Act 3, however, the term Porta Speciosa is used.
  • In the context of Acts 3, the “beautiful gate” is a main entrance to the temple through which the believers enter. That's why a beggar sits here, hoping for alms.
"Susa Gate" in the Holyland model

The Mishnah tract in Middot I, 3 mentions an east gate; Here, however, it must be taken into account that this text combines memories of the Herodian Temple with the temple vision in the Book of Ezekiel in order to describe a future ideal temple:

“There were five gates to the Temple Mount, the two Ḥuldatore from the south, which were used for coming and going, the Ḳifonos [gate] from the west, which was used for coming and going, the Ṭadi [gate] from the north, which was not used at all, the eastern gate, on which the castle Schuschan ( Dan 8,2  EU ) was depicted, through which went the high priest who burned the [red] cow ( Num 19,2ff.  EU ), the cow and all who helped him, out to the Mount of Olives. "

In the Holyland model of the city of Jerusalem , which was built in the 1960s under the direction of Michael Avi-Yonah , this gate is represented as the “Susa Gate”. Israeli historian Moshe Dann explains that although Muslims claimed the Golden Gate was a holy place of Islam, it was in fact built during the Second Temple and was even the main temple gate. Not so Lee I. Levine from the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History at the Hebrew University : As far as we know today, there was no gate on the east side, as the Kidron Valley was located here and access to the temple platform would have been difficult. The Susa gate mentioned in Middot I, 3 could have been an inner temple gate or it could have been under today's medieval gate or it could have been fictitious.

Byzantine "beautiful gate"

City vignette of Jerusalem on the Madaba mosaic map

The pilgrim from Piacenza (around 570 AD) is the first author to mention a gate at the current location: the intact gate of the Porta Speciosa , "the [gate] of the temple", was in the same wall line as the Stephanus gate. ( quae fuit templi ). This gate is also shown on the mosaic map of Madaba (photo). East is up on the city vignette; you can see in the middle the representative east gate flanked by two towers (today the lion gate ). To the right of this the temple square is depicted as a yellow diamond, not to scale, with a small gate next to it, the beautiful gate of the pilgrim of Piacenza.

Hrabanus Maurus wrote around 839 that Emperor Herakleios, on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem with the relic of the Holy Cross, wanted to enter through the gate through which Jesus Christ entered the city on Palm Sunday . This, however, closed itself to him and only opened after imperial gestures of humility. Other mentions also date from the 9th century:

  • According to Pseudo-Bede, Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday through the “golden gates”.
  • In the apocryphal pseudo-Matthew Gospel , Anna was waiting for her husband Zacharias in Jerusalem at the Golden Gate.

Omayyad double gate system

In older research, today's gate system was assigned to the Herodian, Late Antique or Byzantine times, but according to more recent research it dates from the early Islamic period. This is particularly indicated by the stylistic similarity of the building decor to that of the Hulda gate. The new construction of the gate system was probably caused by one of the strong earthquakes of the 8th century (710, 746 or 747).

The Jewish pilgrim guide Madrich Yeruschalajim (before 940 AD), who came from the Cairo Geniza , mentioned a double gate system : “And there are two gates in the eastern wall. They are called the Two Gates of Mercy, and their name is the Gate of Nikanor. ”The double gate complex had a special meaning in the temple commemoration of Jewish pilgrims. The Karaite Jafet Ben Eli described in detail how the glory of God ( Shechina ) would return to the Temple Mount through this gate (10th century, cf. Ezekiel 44: 1-3  EU ).

Nāsir-i Chusrau described this gate construction in 1047 AD as a richly decorated double gate system with metal-clad doors; one of the two passages was called the "Gate of Mercy", the other "Gate of repentant conversion". “There is a beautiful place of prayer [mosque] at this gate. It used to be a closed hall. They were made into a house of prayer and decorated with carpets. "

"Golden Gate" of the Crusaders

After the conquest of Jerusalem by the crusaders in 1099, the temple square with its Muslim buildings was claimed for the Christian cult; this also affected the east gate of the Haram with its David's mosque. In the newly created Kingdom of Jerusalem , the Byzantine traditions were brought back to life and combined with the existing gate system, which can be read classically in Saewulf (1102/03): Let it be the gate,

  • where Joachim and Anna, Mary's parents, met;
  • through which Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey;
  • by which Emperor Heraclius moved in with the cross relic, but only after he had humiliated himself.

According to several sources from the time of the Crusaders, the gate was only open for the Palm Sunday procession; Occasionally the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross is mentioned as the second date for the opening of the Golden Gate. The Latin Palm Sunday liturgy required an elevated location where the choir sang while the procession was in the gate area. The two raised roof domes of today's gatehouse could thus be connected, which act like subsequent modifications.

A Christian cemetery with richly decorated graves was in front of the gate.

Closing the gate

Jerusalem with Dome of the Rock ( Templum Salomonis ), in the foreground the walled-up double arch of the Golden Gate, Venice 1555 ( Israeli National Library , Laor Collection)

The fact that the gate was mostly closed throughout the year gave rise to legends as early as the time of the Crusaders. According to Theodericus (1172), the gate opened by itself when Jesus entered. After the Muslim reconquest by Mamluks in the second half of the 13th century, the Christian cemetery in front of the gate was destroyed. The gate was now permanently closed, especially since there was a mosque in the gatehouse. The nails of the metal-studded gate continued to be the target of Christian relic collectors. Felix Fabri found a wooden, metal-clad gate around 1470, which Christians could no longer visit directly, as there were Muslim graves in front of it. But you could still buy miraculous particles of the door.

Meschullam ben Rabbi Menachem of Volterra saw closed bronze gates in 1481, in front of which there were Muslim graves. At an unknown point in time afterwards, the gate system was walled up; the reasons for this are unknown.

According to Denys Pringle, Süleyman I had the ruinous gate tower of the Golden Gate repaired and the gate walled up as part of the city wall restoration (1537–41). The wooden gate wings were hung in the Josaphattor , and the Franciscan Bonaventura Colletti acquired a metal cross that appeared in the gate area during construction.

Building description

The gate system projects around 2 m from the Haram Wall and is 16.7 m wide. Two pilasters with Corinthian capitals carry ornate round arches that rest on a support element in the middle. The inner wall is designed similarly. The gatehouse consists of a two-aisled room with six domes supported by columns, half-columns and pilasters. From this mosque room a staircase leads 9 m up to the esplanade of the Haram.

In the walling of the two arches there is an arrow slit and an empty inscription field. The upper part of the gate tower shows two further loopholes, two empty inscription fields and a crenellated crown.

archeology

Golden Gate around 1900 from the outside

Charles Warren discovered in 1869 in the area of ​​the Muslim cemetery in front of the Golden Gate a wide, arched wall ( massive wall ). The stones of this masonry could come from the Hasmonean period , but the wall itself dated Yoram Tsafrir to the time after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 due to the technique used. For here a mortar ( Opus caementicum ) was used, which through Brick dust was colored red. The way in which ashlars, rubble and mortar were combined in the masonry is typical of the early Islamic period. Tsafrir suspected that this wall was part of a ramp that led up to the Omayyad gates.

Both George Giacumakis (1974) and James Fleming (1983) saw a piece of a stone arch in an open Muslim tomb in front of the gate; a scientific control of this observation was not possible and therefore no time allocation to a predecessor of the Omayyad gate system. Max Küchler considers a portal arch to be ruled out because there would then have to be an underground passage behind it. The cavities under the haram are known, there is no corridor at this point. The arch fragment can belong to a substructure of the double gate system or to a drainage system.

Political controversy

Inside of the gate with atrium (2018)

In 2003, the mosque inside the Golden Gate was closed by an Israeli court order because the Islamic movement in Israel, together with Hamas-affiliated activists, carried out illegal construction work there. According to Israeli sources, the building had previously served as a storage room. Palestinians suspected that Israel was planning to set up a Jewish prayer room here. In February 2019, thousands of Muslims visited this area after clearing a cordon from the Israeli police. The Israeli army broadcast announced the opening of the gate room for Muslim worship, although it was unclear who had initiated this. Among the believers who then gathered there for prayer was the Knesset MP Ahmad Tibi .

Talks between Jordanian and Israeli government representatives then led to an agreement: the Waqf authority announced in early March 2019 that it would carry out extensive renovations in the building, which during this time may not be used by Muslims for prayer; But she stuck to her view that this room was part of the al-Aqsa mosque.

The right-wing Israeli NGO Regavim called the country's Supreme Court in June 2019 to stop the Waqf mosque construction. New ceiling fans, lamps, furniture and room dividers damaged the 1,400-year-old building, especially since they were installed without supervision by the Israel Antiquities Authority. "When a building is converted into a mosque, it means that they have taken the place," said a Regavim spokesman . "As soon as they pray there, nobody else can use the room, neither Jews nor Christians."

On October 10, 2019, Israeli police cleared a makeshift mosque in the Golden Gate. They confiscated and removed prayer rugs, cabinets with religious books, and a wooden prayer niche.

literature

  • Meir Ben-Dov: In the Shadow of the Temple , New York 1985.
  • Doron Chen: On the Golden Gate in Jerusalem and the Baptistery at Emmaus-Nicopolis . In: Journal of the German Palestine Association 97, 2/1981, pp. 171–177.
  • George Giacumakis: The Gate below the Golden Gate . In: Bulletin of the Near East Archaeological Society 4 (1974), pp. 23-26.
  • James Fleming: The Uncovered Gate beneath Jerusalem's Golden Gate . In: Biblical Archeology Review 9, 1/1983, pp. 23-26.
  • Max Küchler : Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-50170-2 .
  • Miriam Magall : Jerusalem. Holy places of the Jews. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Paderborn / Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-7705-5039-5 , pp. 61-65.
  • Denys Pringle: The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem , Volume 3: The City of Jerusalem . Cambridge University Press, New York 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-39038-5 .
  • Yoram Tsafrir : The 'Massive Wall' East of the Golden Gate, Jerusalem . In: Israel Exploration Journal 40, 4/1990, pp. 280-286.

Web links

Commons : Golden Gate  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study travel guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 196.
  2. ^ Rudolf Pesch : The Acts of the Apostles ( EKK study edition), Neukirchen-Vluyn and Ostfildern 2012, p. I 137.
  3. ↑ The Mishnah translated into German , with an introduction and remarks by Dietrich Correns. Marix, Wiesbaden 2005, p. 756.
  4. ^ A Short Guide to the Model of Ancient Jerusalem . Holyland Hotel, Jerusalem 1966, p. 11.
  5. ^ Moshe Dann: The Golden Gate in history . In: The Jerusalem Post: March 1, 2019. Turning historical and holy sites of other religions into mosques does not erase history; it only confirms Muslim bigotry and intolerance. Although Muslims claim the Golden / Mercy Gate as a Muslim shrine, the gate was built during the Second Temple period. Known as the Golden, Mercy and Shushan Gate, it is the most important gate of the Temple Mount because through it, the High Priest on Yom Kippur led the red heifer to be sacrificed on the Mount of Olives and the goat of Azazel was led into the wilderness of the Judean Desert.
  6. ^ The Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History: Lee IA Levine .
  7. ^ Lee I. Levine: Jerusalem: Portrait of the City in the Second Temple Period (538 BCE - 70 CE) . The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia 2002, p. 229.
  8. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study travel guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 199.
  9. ^ Katharina Galor , Hanswulf Bloedhorn: The Archeology of Jerusalem: From the Origins to the Ottomans . Yale University Press, New Haven / London 2013, p. 156. Yoram Tsafrir: The 'Massive Wall' East of the Golden Gate, Jerusalem , 1990, p. 284. First proposed by Carl Watzinger : Monuments of Palestine , Volume 2. Leipzig 1935 , P. 144f. Denys Pringle: The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem , Volume 3: The City of Jerusalem , New York 2007, p. 107: Probably from the reign of Abd al-Malik or his son al-Walid .
  10. ↑ Madrich Yeruschalayim , quoted here. after: Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study travel guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 1145.
  11. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study travel guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 201.
  12. ↑ Nāsir-i Chusrau: Safari name , quoted here. after: Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 1149.
  13. ↑ a b c Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study travel guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 202.
  14. ↑ Denys Pringle: The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem , Volume 3: The City of Jerusalem , New York 2007, p. 108.
  15. ↑ a b c d Denys Pringle: The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem , Volume 3: The City of Jerusalem , New York 2007, p. 106.
  16. ↑ a b Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study travel guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 203.
  17. ↑ Denys Pringle: The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem , Volume 3: The City of Jerusalem , New York 2007, pp. 106f.
  18. ↑ Denys Pringle: The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem , Volume 3: The City of Jerusalem , New York 2007, p. 107.
  19. ^ Yoram Tsafrir: The 'Massive Wall' East of the Golden Gate, Jerusalem , 1990, p. 283.
  20. ^ Yoram Tsafrir: The 'Massive Wall' East of the Golden Gate, Jerusalem , 1990, p. 286.
  21. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 196. Cf. Yoram Tsafrir: The 'Massive Wall' East of the Golden Gate, Jerusalem , 1990, p. 284 Note 3: Fleming suggests that the vault is pre- Herodian, perhaps from the time of Solomon - a view which is untenable .
  22. ^ Yoram Tsafrir: The 'Massive Wall' East of the Golden Gate, Jerusalem , 1990, p. 285, note 14.
  23. ↑ a b Report: Temple Mount section sealed since 2003 reopened to Palestinians . In: The Times of Israel, February 23, 2019.
  24. ↑ a b c d Maayan Joffe-Hoffman: A new mosque on the Temple Mount? . In: The Jerusalem Post, June 4, 2019.
  25. ↑ Khaled Abu Tohameh: Waqf: Temple Mount site will remain open despite Israeli crackdown . In: The Jerusalem Post, February 24, 2019.
  26. ↑ Khaled Abu Tohameh: Wakf says it will start renovating Golden Gate site . In: The Jerusalem Post, March 13, 2019.
  27. ↑ Regavim was founded in 2006 by the Knesset member, later Minister of Transport, Bezalel Smotrich, together with Yehuda Eliyahu. See Elhanan Miller: Tracking illegal Arab construction, one EU-funded house at a time . In: The Times of Israel, May 1, 2015.
  28. ^ Restoration of the status quo on the Temple Mount. In: Israelnetz .de. October 10, 2019, accessed October 19, 2019 .

Coordinates: 31 ° 46 ′ 44.2 "  N , 35 ° 14 ′ 13"  E