After the 1967 war, when the Jews regained control of Jerusalem, they saw that the Jewish quarter had been so badly damaged that it was not rescue-able, so they tore it down. Since it was leveled, they decided to do some archaeological digs before they began to rebuild. They found what had been one of the premier housing area's of 2nd temple period Jerusalem. We have toured through this pharisee house. What you see in these photo's is a model of what the house might have looked like. It is HUGE! Each storey was probably about 2,000 square feet and they think it was 3 stories high, including the roof top for entertaining and to catch the cool evening breezes on hot days.
This is the main hall, probably a public room or judgement hall. It could easily hold 100 people. Some of the interior decorations are still visible on the actual walls (not the model). It had to have been a stunning room.
This pool is probably about 1/2 the size of an olympic swimming pool. It was used for ritual cleaning for the priests before they went up to the temple mount... called a mikveh. There were at least 2 smaller ones in other areas of the house. They had a special walkway from where they lived so that they would not be contaminated on their way up to the temple mount to perform their priestly duties.
The dining rooms had to be much larger than what we are accustomed to because all the guests were seated in a semi-reclining position at the table.
Here is a long view of the house. The second floor was destroyed in the fire and destruction, so not much of an idea of how it was configured, but on the main floor we saw solid stone bath tubs, beautiful mosaic floors, marble tables, beautiful wall treatments, and other remnants that were found in the ruins. I was struck by the fabulous wealth that these ancient leaders of the Jews possessed. For the first time I had some insight and understood why Jesus was such a threat to them. They had resorted to unlawful religious power when the Romans conquered Judea. All the legal heirs had been put down. For instance we know that had things followed their true course, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, would have been the high priest at the time of Jesus' birth. Their appointments had basically become political appointments and not based necessarily on personal righteousness, as the Savior often pointed out. As a conquered nation they could not collect taxes but they devised other means for enriching themselves, and they were fabulously wealthy.
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