Bill Hamblin was a remarkably gifted writer. I thought given both the season of year and with his sudden passing, that it might be fitting to quote from something he wrote:
In subsequent centuries Roman pages, Byzantine Christians, Arab Muslims, Crusades, and Jews have each in their own way struggled to control the Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif, mingling the blood of martyrs with that of the animal sacrifices. From the Muslim perspective, the Dome of the Rock is the fulfillment of Jewish and Christian traditions concerning the holy site, while for many Jews and Christians, the Dome of the Rock is simply a usurpation. Can the Dome, Church, and Temple ever be merged into a single "house of prayer for all mankind," or are we doomed forever to fight and kill for unique access to the holy house of God?
The solution to the paradox of Solomon's Temple was taught by a Galilean craftsman who is simultaneously a Jewish sage, a Christian savior, and a Muslim prophet. In the courtyard of the Temple, a few days before his brutal execution, he taught: We must love God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves, "for to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices" of the Temple. Indeed, the way we show our love for God is by loving our neighbor. This is the ultimate sacrifice required in the eternal Temple that the prophets and mystics have always sought. It is the only path to peace.
(William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely, Solomon's Temple: Myth and History [London: Thames and Hudson, 2007], 205.)
