Q. Thank you once again for your ministry. It’s fascinating. My question is this. Was the wailing wall a remnant of the temple or of a wall around it? How does that line up with the scriptures (in three gospels) that not one stone would be left on top of another?
A. You’re referring to the Lord’s prophecy in Matt. 24:2 . Most experts say the so-called wailing wall was part of the Temple Mount foundation and was underground at the time. It supports the Temple Mount on top of which the Temple was built.
But some believe the Temple Mount we see today is not the one upon which the Temple was built. They say this mount was built over the original by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, and the original was actually much lower in elevation. There’s some interesting evidence to support this view. If it’s true, the Holy of Holies of Herod’s Temple would have been just behind the wall where Jews now go to worship.
However you see it, when the Roman soldiers broke through the boundary walls in 70 AD, they set fire to the Temple furnishings. The rising heat caused the gold sheets covering the timbers in the ceiling to melt. The melted gold ran down the walls and into the cracks between the stones. After the fire burned out, they tore the Temple apart stone by stone to get the gold, until there was not one stone left standing upon another.