The Evidence of The Water

Those claiming the temple was in the city of David - in fact it would have obliterated much of the city of David and part of Silwan including some of the Kedron valley - say the location was the only possible place it could be, because of the only water supply; that being the Gihon spring. The Bible says there was more water. History says there was more water. Archaeology says there was more water.

They have it that Gihon was a syphonic well - that water gushed up it to 'the temple above.' The upper water course in 2 Chronicles 32:30 contradicts that view, as it would have acted as an overflow, delivering the water instead into the Kedron valley.

And also, during the time of Solomon's temple, during Hezekiah's reign, a tunnel was cut to divert the water to within the city walls to the pool of Siloam. If that water was imperative to temple sacrifices, then the sacrifices would have stopped there and then, and there is no evidence as to that.

Water from the Gihon Spring

The Gihon spring lies under the rocks to the west of the Kedron valley, approximately half way between the temple mount and the pool of Siloam.

Whether it was fortified by the Canaan Jebusites or not is probably imaterial because its water filled up an underground cavern, and there was a tunnel from inside the Jebusite fort that led down to a point where water could be drawn by rope and jug.

The Jebusites were therefore self sufficient in water without having to leave their stronghold. King David was able to conquer this Jebusite stronghold, otherwise known as zion (incidentally meaning stronghold) via this water course. His general Joab climbed up inside, to open the gates to king David's troops, and this story is relayed in 2 Samuel 5: 6-11 and 1 Chronicles 11:4-8.

The entrance found by Joab could have been through the "upper watercourse" of 2 Chronicles 32:30. In the case of Captain Warren, he found himself in a cave which had a vertical shaft above which was a rising tunnel with nothing but a potato field above.

After conquering the Jebusite zion, David established his city there, and "built all around." This was to be the start of Jerusalem.

King David didn't build a temple there - God forbade him to ever build a temple. Zion was a home for him and the Jewish people of Jerusalem. The spring provided drinking water for the population within the stronghold. David had his palace built there - possibly near the Millo (terraced stone structure) mentioned in the Bible - and set aside an area for a tabernacle to bring the ark of the covenant to.

It was from this palace he sent Solomon down to Gihon (the spring) below, to be annointed king by Zadok the priest, (1 Kings 1:33-39) a ceremony begun again by Archbishop Dunstan at the coronation of King Edgar at Bath in 973.

Correcting the sensationalists of some churches; it's use could never have been for the cleansing of a temple that wasn't there at the time. The water could have never gushed up to the surface because the upper watercourse would act as an overflow preventing it. And later during the reign of Hezekiah, still during the first temple period, Gihon spring water was diverted to what is today known as the pool of Siloam within the city walls: 2 Chronicles 32:30.

Fountains and Brooks

Were other water sources in and around Jerusalem?

2 Chronicles 32:2-4

"And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, He took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city: and they did help him. So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?"

Then later in verse 30, reading almost like an afterthought:

"This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works."

At the time of the second temple, Strabo, perhaps relating the history available to him from Polybius, writes regarding the temple and the barracks north of it where the trench lies:

"Pompey went over and overthrew them and rased their fortifications, and in particular took Jerusalem itself by force; for it was a rocky and well-walled fortress; and though well supplied with water inside, its outside territory was wholly without water; and it had a trench cut in rock, sixty feet in depth and two hundred and sixty feet in breadth; and, from the stone that had been hewn out, the wall of the temple was fenced with towers." (Strabo, Geography 16.40)

From this we can gather that Jerusalem, both in the first and second temple periods, had water, firstly outside the walls of zion, and then sufficient for the expanding Jerusalem spreading beyond its origin in the stronghold of Jebus.

Recent Discoveries Reported in The Times of Israel

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