“On Temple Mount, a Jupiter sanctuary is said to have been built over the ruins
of the Herodian temple. The Umayyads supposedly demolished it to build the
Dome of the Rock over it. Traces of this temple of Hadrian are missing as well”.
Gunnar Heinsohn
Taken from:
https://www.scribd.com/document/655098736/Gunnar-060322-Jerusalem-First-Millennium-Ad-Heinsohn-September-2021-1
Professor Gunnar Heinsohn wrote (I, Damien Mackey, do not accept his dates):
….
Jerusalem is obsessed with Hadrianic temples that are said to have been demolished to make way for other structures. On the Cardo Maximus this act is said to have been carried out in favor of Christianity, while on the Temple Mount it was done in favor of Islam.
However, under the Jesus Compound on the Cardo, the foundations of an imperial temple of Venus have not been found. On Temple Mount, a Jupiter sanctuary is said to have been built over the ruins of the Herodian temple. The Umayyads supposedly demolished it to build the Dome of the Rock over it. Traces of this temple of Hadrian are missing as well. Nevertheless, the latest research on Roman Jerusalem claims, without hard evidence, the existence of such a structure: “A Temple to Jupiter on top of the temenos, as implied by Cassius Dio, cannot, in my opinion, be ruled out” (Weksler-Bdolah 2014, 58).
Mackey’s comment: But, regarding the Ummayads, see my articles:
Oh my, the Umayyads! Deconstructing the Caliphate
https://www.academia.edu/117122001/Oh_my_the_Umayyads_Deconstructing_the_Caliphate
and:
Dumb and Dumbfounded archaeology
(2) Dumb and Dumbfounded archaeology | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Professor Heinsohn continues:
Cassius Dio (ca. 165-235 AD) lived nearly a century after Hadrian.
He provides the only source: “At Jerusalem he [Hadrian] founded a city in place of the one which had been razed to the ground, naming it Aelia Capitolina, and on the site of the temple of the god he raised a new temple to Jupiter” (Historia Romana, LXIX, 12:1). However, the original of this source is lost. The passage is a paraphrase by John Xiphilinus (late 11th c. AD), a Byzantine historian and the nephew of Patriarch John VIII of Constantinople. He may have tailored this paraphrase to present an imperial blasphemy as a convincing cause of war. He painted the customary act of establishing pagan shrines in a new Roman colonia “in the harsh colors of a religious confrontation by using a ‘loaded’ verb and referring to the temple by a name familiar to both Jewish and Christian readers” (Eliav 1997, 142). Of course, this must remain speculation. Perhaps the term Capitolina in the new city name also led to associations with Jupiter. In Rome stood the most important of all Jupiter temples in the entire empire, Jupiter Optimus Maximus, on Mons Capitolinus (Capitoline Hill).
There was also a contemporary of Hadrian, Appian of Alexandria (95-165 AD) [sic], with statements about Jerusalem. He did not know anything about Hadrian rebuilding a destroyed city and even putting a temple of Jupiter on its most holy site. Yet, he reminded his readers of Jerusalem’s destruction in the time of Vespasian and Titus to then add that “Hadrian did the same in our time” (Stern 1980; no. 143). This makes good sense if Hadrian’s war against the Bar Kokhba rebels (132-136 AD) resulted in damages to the city.
Mackey’s comment: Since, however, the emperor Hadrian was the same monarch as the Seleucid king, Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’ (my view):
Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’ and Emperor Hadrian. Part One: “… a mirror image”
(2) Antiochus 'Epiphanes' and Emperor Hadrian. Part One: "… a mirror image" | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
(2) Antiochus 'Epiphanes' and Emperor Hadrian. Part Two: "Hadrian … a second Antiochus" | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
well before the destruction of the city of Jerusalem as wrought by “Vespasian and Titus”, then Appian of Alexandria, a presumed contemporary of Antiochus-Hadrian, “in our time”, must have lived on to see the total destruction of Jerusalem under “Vespasian and Titus”.
However, it needs to be noted that, as in the case of the meagre Dio Cassius (above): “Little is known of the life of Appian of Alexandria. He wrote an autobiography that has been almost completely lost”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appian)
Professor Heinsohn continues:
Stratigraphy confirms that Hadrian did not visit a destroyed Jerusalem, but one that had long since been restored. There are also no better candidates than Arab Nabataeans with their Umayyad culture for repairing the city after AD 70. And unlike the Jupiter Temple of John Xiphilinus, the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount is indisputable.
Islamic traditions – general, local, and urban history – do not contain contemporary reports about the construction of the Dome of the Rock. No one reports the existence or demolition of a temple to Jupiter. Building descriptions and drawings for the octagon are also missing. Even the name of the original builder cannot be reconstructed with certainty. ….
This article could also have been titled, Something’s Missing.
Missing architecture is not only a Middle Eastern phenomenon. See also my article:
Missing old Egyptian tombs and temples
(3) Missing old Egyptian tombs and temples | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
And, for a more modern example:
Henry VIII’s palaces missing
(3) Henry VIII's palaces missing | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Not to mention this famous one:
Comments