Jerusalem Temple Warning Inscription
1st century BC
Reproduction
When King Herod rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem between 19 and 9 B.C. he enclosed the outer court with colonnades. The large separated area was referred to as the Court of the Gentiles because the “gentiles” (non-Jews from any race or religion) were not permitted to go beyond the outer court of the temple area. They were excluded from entering into any of the inner courts, and warning signs in Greek and Latin were placed on the balustrade, the stone partition wall called the Soreg, giving strict warning that the penalty for trespassing into the sacred areas of the temple would be death. The Romans permitted the Jewish authorities to carry out the death penalty for this offence, even if the offender was a Roman citizen.
An intact temple warning inscription in the Greek language, chiseled into a limestone block, was discovered by C.S. Clermont-Ganneau in 1871. The letters were painted with red ink against the white limestone. Portions of other such warning inscriptions have since been discovered. The warning reads:
NO GENTILE MAY ENTER
BEYOND THE DIVIDING WALL
INTO THE COURT AROUND THE HOLY PLACE
WHOEVER IS CAUGHT
WILL HAVE HIMSELF
TO BLAME FOR HIS
SUBSEQUENT DEATH
When Jesus observed this inscription he likely knew that his own life would be the cost for the gentiles to go past this barrier. Jesus declared, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” (Matthew 23:13)
Paul was accused of taking Gentiles into the forbidden zone of the temple (Acts 21:28), and later wrote, “Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Ephesians 2:13,14).
An intact temple warning inscription in the Greek language, chiseled into a limestone block, was discovered by C.S. Clermont-Ganneau in 1871. The letters were painted with red ink against the white limestone. Portions of other such warning inscriptions have since been discovered. The warning reads:
NO GENTILE MAY ENTER
BEYOND THE DIVIDING WALL
INTO THE COURT AROUND THE HOLY PLACE
WHOEVER IS CAUGHT
WILL HAVE HIMSELF
TO BLAME FOR HIS
SUBSEQUENT DEATH
When Jesus observed this inscription he likely knew that his own life would be the cost for the gentiles to go past this barrier. Jesus declared, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” (Matthew 23:13)
Paul was accused of taking Gentiles into the forbidden zone of the temple (Acts 21:28), and later wrote, “Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Ephesians 2:13,14).
