Robinson's Arch

A Bridge That Turned Out to Be a Staircase

In 1838 E. Robinson, an American biblical scholar walking the walls of Jerusalem, noticed three courses of large stones projecting from the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount, a little north of its south-west corner. He recognised them as the springing of an arch, and published the observation in Biblical Researches in Palestine in 1841. Reading Josephus, he took it for the remains of a bridge carrying a roadway across the central valley to the Upper City. The feature has carried his name ever since.

C. Warren dug at the foot of the wall for the Palestine Exploration Fund between 1867 and 1870 and found a great pier standing some thirteen metres out from the wall, which he took to support a series of arches. The question was settled by B. Mazar, whose excavation at the southern and south-western foot of the Temple Mount ran from 1968 to 1978 on behalf of the Hebrew University, the Israel Exploration Society and the Department of Antiquities. The pier was not one of a row: it was the western support of a single enormous arch, about 15 metres across, and the arch did not carry a bridge across the valley at all. It carried a monumental staircase that rose from the Herodian street below, turned, and entered the Royal Stoa on top of the platform. R. Reich and Y. Billig excavated the collapse debris and the street beneath in the 1990s.

Where the Stones Landed

The best-known thing at this corner is not the arch but what lies under it. The Herodian street that ran along the base of the western wall was found buried under a mass of fallen ashlars — large dressed blocks levered off the top of the platform and thrown down, some of which struck the pavement hard enough to shatter it. They are still lying where they fell, and the visitor walks past them.

This is the physical residue of AD 70. The Synoptic Gospels record Jesus, days before his arrest, being shown the buildings of the temple by his disciples and answering that not one stone would be left on another that would not be thrown down. Luke's version of the same week widens it to the city: the enemy will throw up a barricade, hem it in, and not leave one stone on another. Standing over that pile of blocks is the closest a reader gets to the sentence in physical form.

The arch itself carries a different and quieter interest. Herod's platform was designed for volume — for pilgrim crowds arriving in their tens of thousands at the festivals — and this staircase is part of the engineering that handled them. It also fixes the Royal Stoa, the great colonnaded hall along the platform's southern edge, at the top of a public approach. That hall is the most likely setting for a good deal of the temple activity the Gospels describe.

Two Things the Fallen Stones Do Not Say

The first is a matter of reading. It is often written that the collapse at this corner fulfils Matthew 24:2 exactly. It does not, quite, and the difference is instructive. The wall these stones fell from is still standing — that is the Western Wall, and it is the most visited structure in Jerusalem. What was thrown down was the superstructure on top of the platform, not the platform's retaining walls. In the Gospels the disciples are pointing at the temple buildings, not at the substructure, so the saying and the rubble line up better than a careless reading suggests and worse than a triumphant one claims. Say what is there: the temple's own buildings were demolished and their stones pushed off the platform, and these are those stones.

The second is about dating. The destruction layer at the foot of the wall is securely first century — a Roman milestone cut down from one of the staircase's handrails puts the demolition no later than AD 79, and the coins and pottery in the collapse are of the revolt. That establishes when the arch fell. It says nothing about when any Gospel was written, and the fallen stones therefore cannot be used to show that a prediction preceded its fulfilment. That question belongs to the study of the texts, not to this corner of the wall, and an article that borrowed the stones to settle it would be borrowing evidence that does not reach.

A third and smaller correction is owed to E. Robinson himself. He found the arch and he misread it, and the reading stood for 130 years until an excavation went underneath it. It is a useful reminder about identifications made from the surface, including confident ones made by careful people.

Scripture references

• Matthew 24:1-2 — "Not one stone on another, that will not be thrown down"
• Mark 13:1-2 — "See what kind of stones and what kind of buildings!"
• Luke 21:5-6 — The temple's beautiful stones and the same answer
• Luke 19:41-44 — The wider warning over the city, wept before it was given

Sources

• Holding institutionPalestine Exploration Fund — The Palestine Exploration Fund · The body that sponsored C. Warren's Jerusalem excavations of 1867-1870, which first exposed the pier at the foot of the wallSupports: Warren's work and its sponsor
• ScholarshipB. Mazar, The Temple Mount Excavations in Jerusalem 1968-1978: Final Reports — Benjamin Mazar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; series continued by others · Qedem monograph series, Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University. The excavation that showed the arch carried a monumental staircase rather than a bridge. Print onlySupports: The reinterpretation of the arch and the excavation dates
• ReferenceBiblePlaces: Southern Temple Mount Excavations — Todd Bolen · A photographic and descriptive survey of the excavated area, including the first-century street covered by stones pushed down from the platformSupports: The fallen ashlars on the Herodian street
• EncyclopediaWikipedia: Robinson's Arch

Further reading

• Wikipedia: Robinson's Arch
• BiblePlaces: the southern Temple Mount excavations

Reflect

The stones at the bottom of this wall were the pride of a generation, and they were pushed off a ledge. What are you building that will not last, and is that a reason to stop or a reason to build it well?