Scarcely anything from the Jewish Temple has been found, but a few items have been unearthed that pertain to the Temple. These finds include the Wailing Wall, a limestone sundial and an ivory pomegranate from the top of a priestly scepter. Another discovery pertaining to the Temple is a simple stone sign on which is engraved a serious warning. Formerly, the sign and others like it were affixed to a short wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the Court of the (Jewish) Women on the Temple Mount. The sign threatened death to any Gentile who went beyond that wall. It read, “No stranger is to enter within the partition wall and enclosure around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will be responsible to himself for his death, which will ensue.”
Aside from the physical barrier that it represented to prevent non-Jews from trespassing in the Jewish sanctuary, the apostle Paul referred to that four and a half foot high wall for an illustration in a spiritual lesson (Ephesians 2:11-22). That little wall was a fitting representation of Judaism, which was the actual distinction between Gentiles who lived under Patriarchy and the Israelites to whom God gave the Law of Moses (Judaism).
At the time Paul penned the Ephesians epistle (between A.D. 60-65), that little wall still stood. Earlier, Paul was accused of taking a Gentile past that wall in A.D. 59 (Acts 21:27-29). This false accusation was the catalyst for the aroused mob seizing the apostle, after which he was rescued by the Romans and imprisoned for a number of years. The little wall, along with the Temple compound and the rest of the city of Jerusalem, was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.
However, when Paul penned Ephesians Two, that for which he used the illustration of the four-foot wall no longer separated between Gentiles and Jews. Judaism was removed effectively at the cross of Christ and practically at the establishment of the church on the Pentecost of Acts Two (Romans 7:1-6; 2 Corinthians 3:6-11; Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 8:6-7). Judaism was decisively and clearly removed when Jerusalem was destroyed.
Not only did the apostle Paul teach that Judaism was removed, but that both Patriarchy and Judaism were replaced with Christianity. Therefore, the Gospel is to be preached to every creature in all the world (Mark 16:15-16).
