《尼希米记》 - 被掳、归回、重建（二）- 第三课


不同时代耶路撒冷的城门（城门位置与“Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah”- Leen & Kathleen Ritmeyer 2014 有异）（Ref：https://www.gotquestions.org/gates-of-Jerusalem.html）	现在的耶路撒冷旧城的九个城门

现在的耶路撒冷旧城的九个城门
Ref：http://www.itsgila.com/tipsgates.htm
Zion Gate Zion Gate, on the southwest perimeter of the Old City, leads from the tomb of King David and the Upper Room on Mount Zion into the Armenian and the Jewish Quarters of the Old City. In Hebrew it’s called Sha’ar Tziyon (Zion Gate) and in Arabic, Bab a-Nabi Daud (Gate of the Prophet David). Legend has it that Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent who commissioned the rebuilding of the city walls in 1538 was furious when he discovered that David’s Tomb was left unprotected outside the city walls. He summoned the two architects responsible before him and ordered that they be beheaded. The architects are buried right inside the Jaffa Gate, some say so that people entering and exiting the city could spit on their graves to show their displeasure that the tomb of Nabi Daud (the prophet David according to the Moslems) was left unprotected outside the city walls.	Jaffa Gate Jaffa Gate, one of the city’s busiest, is located on the western perimeter, right above Hinnom Valley, the Valley of Hell (Gehenna in Greek). In ancient days, if you were a pilgrim who docked at the Mediterranean port of Jaffa and walked east for three days, or perhaps more, along the Jaffa Road, you would eventually reach the Jaffa Gate. Hence its name. In Hebrew the gate is translated Sha’ar Yafo. Yafo is the name for Jaffa in the Hebrew Bible, mentioned for example, in the Book of Jonah. In Arabic the gate is called Bab el Halil which means Hebron Gate. If you exit the gate and turn left, cross the Hinnom Valley and walk straight along what’s nicknamed the Patriarchal Highway along Hebron Road, you would eventually reach Hebron. Halil in Arabic means “friend.” In Islam, Abraham’s title is the “friend of God.” Abraham is buried in Hebron. Until the end of the 19th century, Jaffa Gate was locked every night to keep out marauders, hyenas, jackals and dragons. The dragons may have been imaginary, but the others were real. Travelers arriving at dusk had to carry lanterns so they could be identified and admitted into the city. Latecomers had to sleep outside the walls and wait until dawn when Jaffa Gate opened. In 1898 Kaiser Wilhelm the Second made a spectacular pilgrimage to the Holy City accompanied by a huge entourage numbering over a thousand cheerleaders. In honor of this great occasion, the Turks made a breach in the wall by the Jaffa Gate so the Prussian Emperor could enter the Old City in a bronze chariot.

New Gate New Gate is located on the northwestern perimeter of the walled city. Its Hebrew name is Sha’ar Hadash and its Arabic name is Bab el Jedid, both meaning “new.” The gate was opened in 1887 by the Turkish sultan Abed el Hamid after intense lobbying by Christians who had settled outside the walled city and wanted direct access to the Christian Quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.	Damascus Gate Damascus Gate, on Fridays and Saturdays, is the busiest gate leading into the city, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of shoppers looking for bargains, home-grown spices or the freshest fruits. Located along the northern wall of the Old City, Damascus Gate is named after the most important city to the north during nearly every historical period. Its Hebrew name is Sha’ar Shechem, meaning Nablus Gate, after the northern city of Nablus, established by the Romans 1900 years ago. The Arabic name is Bab el Amud which means the Gate of the Pillar. The Romans built roads throughout their empire and laid milestones measuring distance. The zero point in Judea was a tall imposing pillar standing in the central plaza inside the Damascus Gate. Perhaps it was adorned with the bust of the emperor. The pillar, although pictured on a mosaic map from the sixth century, has never been found. However, archeologist Menachem Magen exposed the second century AD Roman piazza in the 1980s. The memory of that pillar is inscribed in the Arabic name, Bab el Amud, the Gate of the Pillar, to this very day, nineteen centuries later.

Flowers Gate (Herod's Gate） Herod’s Gate, also called Flowers Gate, is located on the northeastern perimeter of the Old City. Outside the gate, up on the hill is a cemetery which we view on the Rampart’s Walk. In Arabic, the gate was called Bab es Sahirah, Cemetery Gate. But would you want to receive a letter addressed to “cemetery neighborhood?” Well, neither did the residents of the northeast corner of the Old City. Substituting only one letter, they changed the name of the gate to Bab el Zahirah meaning Flowers Gate. Now that sounds welcoming! In Hebrew the gate is named Sha’ar Perachim, Flowers Gate. There is another name, Sha’ar Hodus which means Herod’s Gate. This part of the city was not enclosed by a wall during the reign of Herod the Great. Roman Catholic tradition has it that the home of Herod Antipas was in the area of the Flagellation Convent, near the gate.	Lions Gate Lions Gate, located on the eastern perimeter of the Old City, is also known as St. Stephen’s Gate. Tradition has it that Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned in the Kidron Valley below. In Arabic the gate is called Bab el Asbat, the Gate of the Tribes, for they say the tribes of Israel entered the Old City through this gate. In Hebrew it’s called Sha’ar Ha-Arayot in honor of the decorations above the gate. If you look carefully at the gate as you enter, you’ll see two lions on either side of the outside entrance. It’s said that in the 16th century, Suleiman the Magnificent ordered that these sculpted icons be placed above the gate as a reminder of the dream which led him to commission the rebuilding of the dilapidated walls. One night the sultan dreamed that he was being devoured by four fierce lions which leapt upon him out of the thickets of the River Jordan. Trembling and feverish, he awoke in a great fright. When dawn broke, he summoned all the wise men of his kingdom to explain the significance of the dream. But words failed them until a wise old sheikh said, “Tell me Sultan Suleiman, what were you thinking about before you fell asleep?” Suleiman thought for a few moments and said, “I was thinking of the best way to punish the people of Jerusalem – they haven’t been paying their taxes.” “Ohhh,” said the wizened old sheikh, “Don’t you know that our prophets David and Solomon ruled from the Holy City while lions guarded their thrones? If you treat this Holy City with goodness and mercy, you will be blessed as was David and Solomon.” So Suleiman made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and realized that the walls needed rebuilding. He commissioned two architects who designed the route of the fortifications. The work took seven years and the walls are still standing to this very day.

Golden Gate （Eastern Gate） The Eastern Gate was identified by the Prophet Ezekiel when he wrote in chapter 44, “The prince will enter through this gate and he will eat bread before the Lord.” This is the origin of the Judeo-Christian belief that the Messiah will enter through the eastern gate. Today, this gate is indeed shut and no one enters the Temple Mount from the east. In Hebrew, the portal is known as Sha’ar HaRahamim, the Gates of Mercy. It’s said that when the Messiah comes and the dead arise, they will enter through this gate to win eternal life. In Arabic, it’s called Bab el Rahmeh, the Gate of Eternal Life for the same reason. Another name is the Golden Gate which seems to retain a memory of the Gate Beautiful where Peter cured a lame man, as recorded in Acts 3. I’ve heard that the Greek word oraia means beautiful and a similar sounding word in Latin, aurea, means golden, thus the jump from beautiful to golden. When Jesus came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowds shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” It’s thought that Jesus entered the Temple courtyard through this gate and then proceeded to drive out all those who were selling and buying, upsetting the tables of the money changers. In the time of the Second Temple, the Eastern Gate was open.	Dung Gate Dung Gate. From inside the city, to reach the gate, one would walk downhill and it’s where Old City residents, over the centuries, would throw their garbage. Can you imagine anyone ever walking uphill to throw their garbage? Well, that name stuck in Hebrew as well – it’s called Sha’ar Ashpot. Paradoxically, the Dung Gate is today one of the cleanest areas in the Old City. In Arabic the gate is called Bab el Mugrabi meaning the gate of the North Africans. During the Turkish times there was a neighborhood inside the Dung Gate, close to the Wailing Wall called the Mugrabi neighborhood whose residents had originated from North Africa. When you enter the Old City through the Dung Gate, you’ll walk up directly through the security outpost to the Western (“Wailing”) Wall plaza. If it happens to be a weekday when the Temple Mount is open to Jews and Christians, you can view the Dome of the Rock and the El Aqsa Mosque from close-up and photograph the inside of the eastern gate which was blocked up in the 8th century to prevent unauthorized access to the Temple Mount.

Tanners Gate Tanners' Gate is located in the Old City's southern wall, near the Dung Gate. It is the second oldest entrance into the Old City, a pedestrian gate probably built in the 12th Century by the Crusaders near a cattle market (hence the name). Suleiman the Magnificant filled in Tanners' Gate when he built the present-day Old City walls, gates and towers. The gate was discovered during post-1967 archeological investigations, partially reconstructed and interpreted as part of the Beth Shalom Garden. It was studied further during excavations along the Old City walls in 1995. The Jerusalem Foundation supported archeological excavation and restoration of the gate and construction of an adjoining plaza into the Old City, which was dedicated to the memory of Yitzhak Rabin in 1996. The restored gate was the first new opening into the Old City walls since 1887.	Huldah Gate （两组封闭的城门：左边两个和右边三个）石阶引向左边的两个城门　右边的三个城门 The Huldah Gate is sealed and situated on the southern wall area. Named for the prophetess in 2 Kings 22:14, her entrance is actually two sets of gates, one a double gate and the other a triple gate.

第三课 - 耶路撒冷的城墙

经文：尼三章和十二章

主旨：

从考古学资料认识尼希米时代的耶路撒冷城墙。（主要参考资料：“Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah”- Leen & Kathleen Ritmeyer 2014）

1。《以斯拉记》记述的，在硬体方面是圣殿的重建；在软体方面是重建犹太人的信仰生活，特别是在一次“肃清行动”中，要那些娶外邦女子的以色列民和祭司并利未人，“休这一切的妻，离绝她们所生的。”（拉十：3）

《尼希米记》记述的，在硬体方面是耶路撒冷城墙的修建；在软体方面也是重建犹太人的信仰生活，包括恢复古代节期 - 住棚节，严格遵守安息日为圣日，重新确定上帝与以色列所立的约，处理一些社会不公的问题，和再次对付那些行可憎之事 - 娶外邦女子为妻的犹大人。

尼希米以第一人称叙述整个修建城墙的工程。虽然只花费了五十二天就完工，但整个过程面对内部和外部的反对。从尼希米怎样克服一一的难题，让我们看到他是一个敬畏和全然信靠上帝，使命必达，并且凡事以身作则的领袖。
反观《以斯拉记》的重建圣殿过程，我们看到因外面敌人（特别是撒马利亚人）的阻扰 - 贿买谋士，要败坏他们的谋算 - 犹太人便立刻手软，建殿工程停工了约 15/16年。后来因有先知哈该和撒迦利亚的劝勉，还有大利乌王（Darius I 522BC-486BC）的寻获原先的诏令，他们才被允准重新开工（约520BC），在经过约三年半至四年的时间，在大利乌王第六年（515BC），这殿才修成。除了重建圣殿，按拉四：6-23 的记载，圣殿重建后，敌人也在波斯王亚哈随鲁（薛西一世 Xerxes I ，486BC-465BC）和亚达薛西（Artaxerxes I，465BC-425BC）在位的时候，分别上本控告他们。控告什么呢？说他们修建城墙（拉四：12，13，21）。这是发生在尼希米回归耶路撒冷，修筑城墙之前（458BC）。因亚达薛西王下诏（在位早期）命他们停工，所以我们才看到尼一：1-3 说：“亚达薛西王二十年（444BC）基斯流月，我在书珊城的宫中。那时，有我一个弟兄哈拿尼，同着几个人从犹大来。我问他们那些被掳归回剩下逃脱的犹大人和耶路撒冷的光景。他们对我说：‘那些被掳归回剩下的人在犹大省遭大难，受凌辱；并且耶路撒冷的城墙拆毁，城门被火焚烧。’”
我究竟要说什么呢？《以斯拉记》记载的重建圣殿的整个工程，我们看不到所罗巴伯和祭司耶书亚所扮演的身先士卒，使命必达的角色。当他们遇到敌人的拦阻，圣经只是轻描淡写说：“犹大和便雅悯的敌人，听说被掳归回的人为耶和华以色列的上帝建造殿宇，就去见所罗巴伯和以色列的族长，对他们说：‘请容我们与你们一同建造，因为我们寻求你们的上帝，与你们一样。自从亚述王以撒哈顿带我们上这地以来，我们常祭祀神。’但所罗巴伯、耶书亚和其余以色列的族长对他们说：‘我们建造上帝的殿与你们无干，我们自己为耶和华以色列的上帝协力建造，是照波斯王塞鲁士所吩咐的。’”（拉四：1-3）它没有像《尼希米记》以第一人称记述的详细，有可能是因为作者以斯拉是集合了许多波斯宫廷的文件，如诏书（拉一：2-4，四：17-22）、与地方上的来往信件（拉四：11-16）编辑前面的六章。
所以这次的查考《尼希米记》，我们要从省长尼希米的身上学习怎样做一个合神心意的属灵领袖。

2。在还没有正式查考之前，我们先要透过考古学家发掘的许多资料，对尼希米时代的耶路撒冷城墙有一些认识。《尼希米记》有两章记载了当时城墙的一些资料，给考古学家们的挖掘提供宝贵的指引。

该段城墙的立体图

尼希米时代的耶路撒冷城墙（立体图）

尼希米时代的耶路撒冷城墙（平面图）

图一	图二	图三	图四	图五

图六	图七	图八	图九	图十

图十一	图十二	图十三	图十四	图十五

图十六	图十七	图十八	图十九	图二十

图二十一	东门（金门）或 Shushan Gate	图二十二图二十二A

考古资料：《圣经考古评论》（双月刊）Mar/Apr 2009 （英文）