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How Many Temples in Jerusalem? On Literary Pattering in Kings and Beyond

Publication |
2021

Abstract

The article deals with the theme of the Jerusalem Temple in the Iron Age II. In contrast to the traditional view that the so-called First Temple stood on the Temple Mount, the author offers an alternative interpretation, that it must have been within the City of David in the early stages of this period.

Demographic developments, available material culture and, paradoxically, a critical reading of the Books of Kings speak in favor of this possibility. The question per se is which deity (or deities) was worshiped in Jerusalem in the early phases of Iron Age II.