Both the Bible and The Urantia Book have records that demonstrate that the Fortress Antonia (present Temple Mount) was on a higher plane than the Temple, providing a privileged view for the Romans who controlled Jerusalem.In the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, when the Jews of Jerusalem persecute Paul, arrest him and put him to judgment, we see passages that affirm that when the Romans went from the castle to the Sanhedrin they descended. Let us remember that the Sanhedrin functioned in the Temple. Now what lies above Mount Moriah? Nothing at all. And what is above Mount Zion? There is Mount Moriah. That is to say, when the soldiers descended from the Fortress Antonia to the Temple, they descended from Mount Moriah to the plateau where the Ophel and the Temple were, on the plane above Mount Zion and the City of David.The Jews were beating Paul in the Temple, and when they were prevented by Roman soldiers from killing him, they asked them for taking him as prisoner. Already at the Fortress Antonia, when the Romans were about to torture him so that Paul would confess to them why the Jews had assaulted him in such way to the point of wanting his death, he told them that he was a Roman citizen. The commander therefore released him but demanded that there be a meeting in the Sanhedrin with him present to know the reasons of such fury against Paul.During this meeting in the Sanhedrin the moods were again uncontrolled. Here we read:The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.[1]Then, in a letter on this matter that the commander wrote to the Roman governor of Caesarea, we read as follows:This man was seized by the Jews, and was about to be slain of them, when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman.
And desiring to know the cause wherefore they accused him, I brought him down unto their council:[2]
These two former passages from Acts prove that the Roman Fortress Antonia was on a level above the Temple space in which the Sanhedrin was inserted.Also in The Urantia Book we have the evidence of this topographical condition:At night the impressive spectacle of the temple and its pilgrim throngs was brilliantly illuminated by the great candelabras which burned brightly in the court of the women as well as by the glare of scores of torches standing about the temple courts. The entire city was gaily decorated except the Roman castle of Antonia, which looked down in grim contrast upon this festive and worshipful scene. And how the Jews did hate this ever-present reminder of the Roman yoke![3]Given this evidence, we can only conclude that it was not Herod’s Temple that was on the Temple Mount, but the Roman Fortress Antonia.What now? Since Jews do not need to dispute space with Muslims and their two mosques on the Temple Mount, can the Third Temple of prophecy already be built?
[1] Acts 23:10.
[2] Acts 23:28 (ASV).
[3] The Urantia Book, 162:4.2.