Further Support for Dr. Martin's Temple Evidence

Commentary for December 7, 2003 — Important Scholar Confirms and Expands Gihon Site Temple Evidence

You will find an excellent article by Professor George Wesley Buchanan in the “Temple Update” of the ASK Website. It is titled “The Tower of Siloam.”

Professor Buchanan is professor emeritus of New Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. He is author of many scholarly and well-received articles and at least 10 books such as:

• Jewish Messianic Movements from AD 70 to AD 1300: Documents from the fall of Jerusalem to the End of the Crusades (reprinted by Wipf & Stock Publishers 2003, previously published as Revelation and Redemption: Jewish Documents of Deliverance from the Fall of Jerusalem to the Death of Nahmanides, Mercer University Press).
   
• The Book of Daniel (Mellen Press).
   
• To the Hebrews (Anchor Bible Commentary).
   
• The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 1 (Mellen Press).
   
• New Testament Eschatology: Historical and Cultural Background (Mellen Press).
   
• The Book of Revelation: Its Introduction and Prophecy (Mellen Press).
   
• Biblical and Theological Insights from Ancient and Modern Civil Law (Studies in Religion and Society, V. 29, Mellen Press).
   
• Introduction to Intertextuality (Mellen Press).
   
• Typology and the Gospel (Rowman and Littlefield).
   
• New Testament Eschatology: Historical and Cultural Background (Mellen Press).

Professor Buchanan was a friend and colleague of Dr. Martin’s. They knew each other well and corresponded for years.

I first met Professor Buchanan at the Nashville AAR/SBL (American Academy of Religion/Society for Biblical Literature) convention in November 2000 when I assisted Dr. Martin at the ASK Exhibit in the large exhibit hall they have every year. Professor Buchanan came to the booth and had a long talk with Dr. Martin about various aspects of Dr. Martin’s various books, particularly Secrets of Golgotha and The Temples That Jerusalem Forgot, then only months in publication. At that time Professor Buchanan stated (as he notes in his “Tower of Siloam” article) that he too had reached the conclusion that the Solomonic and Zerubbabel Jewish Temples were above the Gihon about the same time that Dr. Martin reached his conclusion.

I next met Professor Buchanan the following November 2001 at the Denver AAR/SBL convention, again at the ASK Exhibit. Dr. Martin and Professor Buchanan again talked about an hour. At that time they spoke (as I listened in) about coordinating their work in various papers, projects and presentations. Dr. Martin died 2½ months later.

Professor Buchanan has become a friend of mine. After Dr. Martin died I began email correspondence with Professor Buchanan. In November 2002 at the AAR/SBL Convention in Toronto, Canada, Professor Buchanan strongly supported Dr. Martin’s evidence (and his own) at every opportunity — public and private — during the conference. Professor Buchanan strongly and specifically advocated Dr. Martin’s (and his own) evidence to a certain publisher of a biblical archeology review magazine who refused (and still refuses) both to acknowledge or consider Dr. Martin’s or Buchanan’s evidence, even though ASK paid for advertising in his publication. (The publisher stated in my hearing that he “does not deal in speculation.”)

Months later, in April 2003, Professor Buchanan was invited (at my request) along with me to present a paper to the Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Dundee, Scotland about the Temple Mount being above and west of the Gihon Spring. I presented Dr. Martin’s evidence and Professor Buchanan presented his complementary evidence. See the Commentary “ Temple Lecture Success in Dundee, Scotland” about this event.

Finally, Professor Buchanan’s paper, “The Tower of Siloam” was published in the November issue of The Expository Times, the publisher of which gave their kind permission to reprint the article in full. I greatly welcome the support and the new information that Professor Buchanan developed, ever strengthening the literary evidence that the Jerusalem Temples built by the Jews — all of them — were constructed above and west of the Gihon Spring with the Tower of Siloam close to it.

Events are moving to a confrontation where those who believe the Temples were on the Haram esh-Sharif will be required to put forth their evidence (and not just faulty traditions) to attempt to prove their case. They will fuss and fume, but they will fail in their attempt. It is a time for truth.

With friends and advocates of Dr. Martin's evidences by scholars like Professor George Wesley Buchanan, added to by additional research, the time will come when the truth of the Jewish Temples above the Gihon to be understood and acknowledged by the world.

David Sielaff
david@askelm.com