The Temple Raised

Ancient Jewish readers would have recognized the significance of the bloody flow from the side of Christ as Temple imagery. During festival seasons prior to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70, huge amounts of animal blood were generated by the Temple sacrifices. The blood was ducted out of the Temple precincts by a plumbing system which emptied out of the side of the Temple Mount, creating a stream of blood that flowed down and joined the Brook Kidron that flowed along the ravine between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. This bloody brook had to be crossed if one entered Jerusalem near the Pool of Siloam. So a “stream of blood and water” would evoke the image of the Temple and the Temple city to the ancient Jewish reader. This phenomenon helped identify the body of Jesus as the New Temple.

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