In India there is a dispute regarding a Mosque built in the site of an earlier Hindu temple. It was the habit of the incoming Islamic conquest to take the holy places of others and make it their holy place. Unfortunately for the role of Islam, in many places they did not destroy the previous religion- but the most controversial takeover is that of the Jewish Temple.
India's case raises the issue of relevant original possession. The Islamic Moguls were late comers to India. In India a 16th century mosque was demolished to make way for a new Hindu Temple on the old Hindu site. Recently in another place a court ordered an investigation to determine whether a Mosque had taken part of an adjacent Temple site in 1669, with a land swap suggested. Both cases establish a right of original ownership. It is highly unlikely the invading Moguls would have asked permission, let alone paid for the site.
If a record is found of any agreement or payment for the current Islamic use of site of the Jewish Temple Mount, all would be surprised. There was invasion and conquest. There was the imposition of power, the trampling of the Holy underfoot, as Christ prophesied at Olivet: until the times of the gentiles end.
The destroying Romans were followed by the Byzantines both forbidding Jews to pray at their Holy Temple site. Then Islam arose as locusts out of the abyss as prophesied by our Lord to John.
In the beginning Islam's holy place was Mecca and Jews had a synagogue on the Temple Mount from 638. Jews had welcomed the Islamic invaders who defeated the oppressive Byzantine rulers, and the Islamic conqueror Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab granted permission for a Jewish House of Prayer in 638. But in 680 the Umayyads built the Dome of the Rock to weaken Mecca’s economy by siphoning off pilgrims from Mecca. (jewishvirtuallibrary.org) In 715 the al-Aqsa Mosque was built, but in 969 a new synagogue was built there as well by the permission of the Fatimids.
In 1099 the Crusaders invaded and took the Mosque and Dome as their own and banned all but themselves from the Temple Mount. In 1187 Saladin reconquered and reconverted and again allowed Jews back to pray, but they were later banned.
The Ottoman Sultan Suleyman I's conquest of 1516 and an earthquake in 1545 allowed him to define the mount as Islamic and issue a Decree a that small area adjacent the last remaining wall of the old Temple compound was to be for Jews to pray - the Western Wall. And so things stood until 1948 when Jews were ejected by Jordan, until 1967.
Now in all that history of the Temple Mount there was no deed of sale, and no reference to who had the original place of worship. There was conquest, occupation and decrees but not a recorded purchase.
Many of the land and house disputes now in Israel make references to the most relevant and recent deed of sale, some of which go back to the Ottoman era, as the British did not change historic land law.
In ancient time the form of the sale was a conversation with witnesses. There are multiple accounts of sales in the Bible that all follow the same pattern: a negotiation and an agreed price before witnesses (Gen 23, Jer. 32, Ruth 4). The last recorded sale of the Temple Mount area is recorded in the Bible.
Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people. And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all. And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. (1Chronicles 21:22-25)
The record says the 600 shekels was for the land, which is the place. We know from 2 Samuel 24 that in addition the oxen with the threshing instruments of wood cost 50 shekels of silver. There are two witness records to the negotiation, each with differing detail, making them independent witnesses- they were not copied. We can tell the records were not copied as there is very different detail and the Jebusite name is transliterated differently. We know that the prophet Gad was there included in 'the elders' with David, and it is likely also the Recorder, Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud (I Chron 18:15, 2 Sa 8:16, 20:24, 1 Kings 4:3).
After the purchase by David the king on behalf of Israel with the witness of the Elders of Israel including Gad, and the witness of the 4 sons of Ornan, they built an Altar and, with the sacrifice of the oxen, consecrate the ground as Holy. After the Altar is built there, there was both a change of ownership and a change of use. We are told that the Altar of the Living God was at that time at Gibeon, but David could not reach it as the destroying angel stood in the way (I Chron 21:30). Gibeon was a Hivite city, where all the people were bondservants hewing wood and drawing water to the Israelite God (Joshua 9:23).
But let us consider, all deeds of sale are legally binding even if copied or emailed, or very, very old.
Courts, if fair, tend to favour restoring property seized by others to descendants, even long after the event. A case that is famous for establishing this principle is that of the Woman in Gold Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a painting by Gustav Klimt, was finally restored to the legal heir in 2006.
The deed of sale of that threshing floor from the legal Jebusite owner to King David and the Elders on behalf of all Israel which was affected by the plague of the destroying Angel, is no less valid because it is everywhere copied and translated into in nearly every language.
From the context of the subsequent history that reaches unto this very day, we can see clear evidence that indicates a sale took place. The Israelite history is clear that their holy place was in Gibeon. But no Jews care one way or the other for Gibeon today. Something changed. In addition we have to understand how a place becomes Holy. There has to be something about that place. Does the account sound truthful? At the very least it makes King David seem a sinning idiot. The record of the sale shows no credit to Israel, but the account does establish a practical point that an Altar is built on a high flat point of the city useful for threshing.
Subsequently all sorts of detailed costs are given for items for the Temple Solomon built for the God of Israel and it is recorded in the official Chronicles of Israel that he was using land his father David had prepared for the Temple.
Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. (2 Chronicles 3:1)
If we were to ask who are the heirs of that sale, we should be able to answer that it was the children of the people of Israel affected by the plague, therefore the people of Israel were the beneficiaries of the purchase. By subsequent use the site is given to the Worship of the God of Israel, for the heirs of all the people of Israel. There must be a modern heir.
Until Israel returned to the land and regained political control of the ancient site in 1967, the question of who owned the Temple Mount was not an issue, as pragmatically nobody with any political power had any will-power to hand the land seized by conquest to the heirs of the original owners.
Some Christians may cite Paul to say they are the heirs.
For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. (Romans 4:13)
Now to this point it must be noted that True Christianity worships not in places made with hands but in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:23-4).
But implications of the sale of the site of Temple Mount to David, must be taken in the context that in another property sale – that to the Prophet Jeremiah, who is promised that his people, the Jewish people would be regathered!
Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: (Jeremiah 32:37-38)
No Christian has been regathered anywhere. In the modern world Jews have been regathered to Israel to be once again called Israelites or Israelis. Once in 'this place' (that is specifically Anathoth) or generally the Mountains of Israel and Jerusalem, the God of Israel will make an everlasting covenant with the people he gathered.
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. (Jeremiah 32:40)
Then too in a court case, is an adopted child the heir or the genetic descendent? Let us judge rightly!
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ (Galations 4:5-7)
Should the true servants of Christ though adopted sons, seize, even in their thinking, what is another's?
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: (Philip 2:5-7)
Let us consider the challenging detail of the history of the Bible!
When Christ cleared the Temple of traders and robbers he said that, “Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer?” (Mark 11:17) This does not say all nations shall possess it but that they shall call it the House of Prayer.
Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him. (Isaiah 56:6-8)
So who then shall possess the place? The regathered outcasts of Israel, the genetic descendants of the people of Israel. Others of all nations are gathered to come to serve – in addition to the outcast Jews gathered.
But do you read that Yahweh Elohim of Israel said that it will be 'My House of Prayer'? King David and the Elders of Israel bought the site of the Temple Mount for 600 shekels but David gave it to his son Solomon as prepared land for a house to be built for the possession and occupation of the Living God. People may argue whose land it is, and the great have stolen it or have attempted to steal it, and will attempt again to steal that land, but they are foolish as the title deed is there still as a witness in nearly every language, and also the record of the will of King David that the land was given by him as the last legitimate owner as the place of Yahweh's house.
It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:2-3)
