In the previous issue of this Happ-O-getics newsletter (July 2025) I presented evidence from the current excavation of the City of David which demonstrates proof of Israel’s ancient occupation of Jerusalem and Palestine. I want to follow up with news of the discoveries from current archaeology in the area between the foot of the Temple Mount to the north and the City of David to the south, an area known as the Ophel. The history of this site stretches back at least into the First Temple period of the eighth century B.C. (cf. 2 Chronicles 27:3; Nehemiah 3:26-27). Back then it was primarily significant for military defense, but just before and at the time of Jesus it functioned to facilitate pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
This pilgrimage was fundamental to Jews in Palestine and the Diaspora from 1 B.C. – A.D. 1. (For confirmation, see the many countries represented in Jerusalem at Pentecost in Acts 2:5-11.) The Scriptures even document this practice for Jesus’ family from Galilee (John 2:41). Scholars estimate that the permanent population of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus was 30–50 thousand people. It is estimated that 150–200 thousand additional pilgrims frequented Jerusalem at the three required festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 16:16). This makes sense of the reticence of Jewish leadership to arrest Jesus at Passover:
And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. And when they sought to seize Him, they became afraid of the multitudes, because they held Him to be a prophet (Matthew 21:46).
General Archaeology
One study has revealed the construction of stepped ascents carved into the bedrock along routes leading to Jerusalem as roads built specifically to accommodate pilgrims. A second study revealed that important funerary monuments were intentionally built along these routes to be seen easily by pilgrims approaching the city. Thirdly, excavations of the city’s early Roman dump showed large quantities of discarded sheep and goat bones, evidently the remains of sacrificial and feasting activities by the thousands of pilgrims. Finally, many large, open pools have been discovered in first-century Jerusalem, presumably to supply drinking water and ritual bathing needs of the hordes of pilgrims.
Pilgrimage Route to the Temple Mount
At the time of Jesus, many pilgrims entered Jerusalem through the city’s southeastern gate, where they immediately encountered the Pool of Siloam. After purification there, they would ascend toward the Temple Mount through the City of David along a 2,000-foot-long pedestrian thoroughfare (paved by Pontius Pilate in about A.D. 26-27) which ran along the Tyropoeon Valley. This street led to the Ophel where thousands of pilgrims would gather in a plaza in front of two very wide steps leading upward to either a double or triple entrance (Huldah gates) to the Temple complex.
Ophel Archaeology
The Ophel is now known to have been an important and busy ceremonial and commercial gateway hosting money changers (2,900 coins have been found), sacrificial animal merchants, and others. Benjamin Mazar (1968-78) had previously discovered a plaza, shops, massive cisterns, dozens of ritual baths, and chalk vessels (chalk is not susceptible to impurity) in the western Ophel (just outside the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount).
Excavation of the eastern Ophel is now in process. To date, a complex consisting of a large, monumental building, a porch with entrances and staircases leading to a stepped pool, pathways, a tunnel-complex, cisterns – all at the foot of the large staircase climbing to the Triple Gate entrance of the Temple complex. How all this can be integrated for an understanding of its pilgrimage function must await further excavation.
Conclusion
What is already clear about the Ophel is that it facilitated the ritual purification and traffic needs of the thousands of pilgrims at the time of Jesus. Such crowds are somewhat unusual since there is little evidence of this in the decades prior to Jesus. The earlier rededication of worship in the Herodian Temple by the Maccabees (164 B.C.), its final building completion in the first century A.D., and the subsequent construction of facilities to accommodate hordes of pilgrims reached a climax about the time of Jesus. As a result, Messiah Jesus was exposed to the maximum number of Jews from throughout the Empire. Perhaps this is another example of God’s providential guidance of history to facilitate the extensive spread of the Good News of salvation: “But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son…” (Galatians 4:4).
Source: Biblical Archaeology Review, Fall 2025, pp. 40-47
