Today’s Eastern Gate is also known as the Golden Gate and Beautiful Gate because it was associated with the gate on the Temple Mount mentioned in scripture. When Jerome translated the Greek New Testament into Latin (386 A.D.), he translated the Greek word oraia (beautiful), into the Latin aurea (golden). Thus the Eastern Gate came to us as the Golden Gate instead of the Beautiful Gate.
In 1969 archaeologist James Fleming was investigating the Eastern wall of the Temple Mount. The ground was soggy from rain the night before. As he went about with his research, the ground gave way and he dropped into a hole about eight feet deep. That began the discovery of an ancient gate under the present Golden Gate.
Very soon after the discovery, Muslims, having control of the Temple Mount, covered the chamber, cemented over the top of it, and erected a protective iron fence.
In his work titled Wars V (pgs.184-189), Josephus states that the Eastern temple enclosure wall was the only one not rebuilt by Herod the Great. Therefore, the ancient gate beneath the now visible Golden Gate, may date from Solomonic times or at least from the time of Nehemiah.
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