- Well, there's an old Jewish saying

that Israel is the center of the world,

Jerusalem is the center of Israel

and the temple is the center of Jerusalem.

For thousands of years,

the temple was seen as the place

where Heaven and Earth overlap

and in the latest century intothe Written in Stone series,

CBN Films uncovers its secrets.

- It is the most importantarcheological site.

Nevertheless, it has never been excavated.

- [Narrator] An almost impossible task.

- Temple Mount was thelargest religious compound

in the ancient world.

- It is the most politicizedpiece of real estate

in the world.

- [Narrator] Leads to an improbable find.

- There is an ancientroad also 2,000 years old.

- That is the buildingwhich is referred to

in the New Testament.

- [Narrator] That is confirmingthe stories of the Bible.

- Where did Jesus walk?

There's no question, hewalked on these steps.

- You can see it, there'sno way to refute that.

They existed, they walkedhere, they talked here.

- [Narrator] See the evidenceleft by an ancient witness.

- He lived there, he sawit, he knew the details.

- And it's like thecrown of our discoveries.

- [Gabi] May cause arewriting of the history

of the Temple Mount.

- [Narrator] And discover what was.

"Written in Stone: Secrets of the Temple."

Get your copy today for agift of any dollar amount.

Available now.

- Well, the writer and director

behind the "Written in Stone" series,

Erin Zimmerman, is here with us now.

And Erin, thanks for being with us.

- Thanks for letting me come.

- All right, let's just talkabout how difficult it is

to do any kind of archeologicalwork on the Temple Mount.

You would think it's the mostimportant archeological site

in the whole world

but yet, you can't dig there.

Why?

- Well, you say difficult

but really, the word is impossible.

You just can't becausethe Muslim authority

will not allow you.

First the Ottomans anddifferent Muslim authorities

have been in charge ofit for 1,500 years now

and so it's hands off.

But they can go ahead anddig whatever they want

and they are doing it.

But I think they've done an amazing job,

the Israeli archeologistsof digging around it.

So you sort of get a little taste

of what's around it

and what could be under it

but who knows if we'll ever see that.

I would love to see that.

- Tell us about Charles Warren.

He was the first one to even attempt it.

It was about 170 years ago.

And what imaginative thing did he do

to sort of get around, ifyou will, the restrictions?

- I love this guy

because I love anybody who cankind of get around the rules

and keep the letter of thelaw but not the spirit.

They told him, "You can't dig

within 40 feet of the Temple Mount."

So he said, "Okay."

He measured 41 feet, thenhe went straight down

and across into the Temple Mount.

So he technically obeyed their rules

but then he went down under.

So they used to call himthe Mole for that reason

and he used to bribe the guards

that would be there to do it

and all kinds of things.

- Okay.

Let's talk about some ofthe modern discoveries,

modern-day, so let's go to Pilate's Road.

That's the road thatthe pilgrims would take

in the first century.

In all likelihood, Jesuswalked on this road,

pull us along all theway to the Temple Mount.

So what have they found there?

- I think what's amazing,

the most amazing thingsthey've found under the road

and not actually on it

and under that road,there's a drainage channel

and people used to hide there.

When the temple was destroyedand the Romans we coming

in A.D. 70, the Jewish peoplethought they could hide

down there and maybe theRomans would look for them

and not find them and go away.

And they stayed down there sometimes

for days, weeks, months.

Josephus writes that halfof them died of starvation.

We've now found cooking pots,

we've found Roman daggers,

I mean, they were camped down there.

But I think the most spectacular thing

is this little golden bell

that's shaped like a pomegranate.

And it's really unusual

and so the archeologistswho found it looked back

in the Bible and said,

"Well, who would havebeen wearing this bell?"

And of course, the answerwas the high priest

in the Jewish temple.

You read back in the Old Testament

where it has the descriptions.

You have a gold bell and a pomegranate

and they picked it up

and it's a little round gold bell.

It's shaped like a pomegranate

but it still rings when they pick it up.

So I think that's amazing.

You can just picture somepriest walking up this road

and his robe snaggedon a rock or something

and it fell down into this drain

and 2,000 years later, we have it.

- Tell us about the personalities involved

in the archeology.

One of my favorites is Gabi Barkay

who's in the film.

How did you first mean him?

- I love him.

I first interviewed him 2008

about this Temple Mountsifting project that he's doing

where he's taking the trash and the dirt

that the Arabs have thrownaway off the Temple Mount,

they dump it into the Valley

and he said, "Well, that's valuable."

And so he got a bulldozer,

got all the dirt, put it in a pile

and they dig through it

and what they've found is just amazing.

But the first time Iinterviewed him about this

was years ago

and I'm gonna say I didn'tprepare maybe as well

as I should have.

Before I left on that trip,

I had bought a necklacewith some Hebrew words it.

Terry Meeuwsen's sisterwas actually selling them.

And being the shallow person that I was,

I picked the one whosedesign I liked the best.

I didn't bother to find out what it said.

- [Host] Oh.

- I just said, "Oh, I likethat one, that's pretty."

So I wore it Israel

and I wore it to this interview.

Didn't know what it said.

So here's Mr. Barkay

and he's just staring like this at me.

And I'm going, I was alittle uncomfortable.

Why are you staring at my neck?

He said, "Where did you get that?"

And I said, "Well, from a friend of mine

that sells them."

And he said, "You know what that says?"

And I said, "No."

What it said, it had theAaronic blessing on it.

The Lord bless you and keepyou, et cetera, et cetera.

- [Host] Wow.

- What I didn't know at the time,

and that I should have done my research,

Gabi Barkay's greatestdiscovery of his life

was a silver scroll

that is today the oldest biblicaltext we have in the world

with the Aaronic blessing.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you.

All of that.

So I think he must havethought I was, number one,

trying to impress himby wearing this necklace

to this interview becausehe discovered that

but then when he foundout I didn't have a clue

what it was, I thought, boy,

this guy must think I'm an idiot.

But you know,

(both chuckling)

we've interviewed Gabi several times.

He's in this film.

He's gonna be in our nextfilm about the Bible.

So he keeps coming back.

So we have a good relationship.

- Well, any time we talk about the Temple,

we've gotta talk nowabout the Magdala Stone.

So what is that showing aboutthe first century temple?

- The Magdala Stone is amazing.

It's up north in the Galilee,

so far away from Jerusalem and the Temple

and it's a table that was used

to hold Torah scrolls but on that table

is a depiction of variousthings in the temple.

And previously, the onlydepiction we had of that

from the Romans on theArch of Titus in Rome.

So we didn't have a Jewish depiction

of what was in the Temple.

So now we have this beautifulpicture of a menorah.

And we have these other symbolic things,

like the chariots of fire

that are talked aboutin the book of Ezekiel.

And it's just an amazing thing

'cause it's from the time of Jesus.

So you picture these really,probably wealthy people

up in the Galilee building their synagogue

and saying, "Hey, we want a little bit

of the Temple up here with us."

So they hired somebody,

and obviously, they didn'thave photographs back then,

so obviously they had hired somebody

who had seen inside the Temple

and had seen this menorah

and had seen what the veillooked like in the Temple

and portrayed it for them,

which I think is just astonishing.

So that's really theoldest depiction we have

of what would be in the Temple.

- You're getting readyto go to Israel again.

- Yes.

- And do another project.

Tell us about that.

- This project is called "Oracles of God."

And that's taken fromthe verse in Romans 3:2

where Paul's explaining what's important

about the Jewish people.

He's explaining to his Gentile audience.

And he says, "Much in every way

for to them were giventhe oracles of God."

Meaning that God valued them so much

that he trusted them with the Bible

and no other people on Earth.

So this is gonna be a look

at how the Bible was created,

from Genesis to Revelation.

And there'll be two films.

We're doing the Old Testament one first.

We'll focus on the Dead Sea Scrolls

but this will take youfrom Genesis to Malachi

and say how was it writtenas best as we can say,

by whom was it written,when was it written,

how was it put together?

So that by the timesomebody sees this film,

they can have a good idea

and they can be confidentthat what they are reading

is what God intended us to have.

- What we read today

is what Jesus was readingin the first century.

- Exactly and thank heaven, wehave the Dead Sea Scrolls now

and the Dead Sea Scrollswere from the era of Jesus

and that's exactly.

- What he read in the synagogue,

he read from the sametext that we have today.

- Exactly, and when you look

at the King James now and you compare it,

and there have been othertranslations in between,

you look at different ones

and you go back to the DeadSea Scrolls and it's the same.

- Okay, and on top of it,

"Secrets of the Temple" will show you

what is written in the Bible

about the Temple is actuallyalso written in stone.

Archeology is provingthe truth of the Bible.

And if you wanna watch it,

you can get a DVD copy

and also instant streaming access

for a gift of any dollar amount.

And the reason we're asking for a gift

is to help support this production cost

of this new film called "Oracles of God."

So if you want to get "Written in Stone,"

go to cbn.com/writteninstone

and all about the Secrets of the Temple.

You can call us, 1800-700-7000.

Say I'd like to get "Written in Stone."

We'll send you the DVD

and then a key so you canget instant streaming access.

So do it right now.

Erin, thanks for begin with us.

- My pleasure.

- We'll be back right after this.

(lively music)