The Stone That Warned Outsiders Away

In a Jerusalem school, just outside a gate to the Temple Mount, Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau found a stone carved in Greek. It warned outsiders to stay out, on pain of death.

Scripture: crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple, and has defiled this holy place!”

The scene in Acts is the temple. Paul goes in to complete days of purification. Jews from Asia see him there, stir up the crowd, and lay hands on him.

Tablets like this hung along a balustrade, a stone barrier outside the Sanctuary of the Second Temple. Greek notices told pagan visitors not to go further. Latin ones are reported, but none survive.

The complete tablet was found in 1871, in the ad-Dawadariya school beside the al-Atim Gate. The Palestine Exploration Fund published it.

In 1936, J. H. Iliffe excavated a new road outside the Lions' Gate and found part of a second, less well made version. It is now in the Israel Museum.

Letters on the fragment still show signs of the red paint that once highlighted the text. The fragment's letters fit the complete text, which points to the same message on both.

The text names parts of the temple. Hieron means the sacred area. Peribolou is a wall around the holy terrace, and tryphaktou, a stone barrier across the outer court.

Scripture: Describing the tablet in 1872, the Palestine Exploration Fund said this about its wording.

Scholars differ on who the warning meant. Some say every Gentile. Others say unconverted ones, arguing Herod, a converted Idumean, wrote it and would hardly exclude himself or his descendants.

Forgeries followed quickly after 1871. One shown to Clermont-Ganneau at the Monastery of St Saviour was later shown to be made by Martin Boulos.

A stone like this gives the story a setting, and it leaves the rest to careful reading. May the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today. Follow the page for the next find.