Temple Warning inscription

Inscription · c. 23 BC – AD 70 · Time of Jesus

Date: c. 23 BC – AD 70 (the inscription, from Herod's Temple)
Found: Near the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, 1871. Charles Clermont-Ganneau recognised the complete stone in 1871 at a madrasa near the al-Atim Gate of the Temple Mount. A fragment of a second copy was found in 1936 by J. H. Iliffe outside the Lions' Gate; it is in the Israel Museum (IAA 1936-989).
Now: Istanbul Archaeology Museums, Istanbul
Passages: Acts 21:27–30, Ephesians 2:14

What it is

A limestone block carved with seven lines of Greek in large letters. It warns that no foreigner may pass inside the barrier and enclosure around the sanctuary, and that anyone caught doing so will have only himself to blame for the death that follows. Josephus describes such notices, in Greek and Latin, set along the stone barrier of Herod's Temple.

How it connects to the Bible

Acts 21 tells how a crowd seized Paul in the Temple, claiming he had “brought Greeks also into the temple”; this stone shows the rule they accused him of breaking and the penalty it carried. Many interpreters also see this barrier behind Ephesians 2:14, where Christ breaks down “the middle wall of partition” between Jews and Gentiles.

What scholars debate

Scholars differ on whether the ban covered all Gentiles or only those who had not become Jews.

Sources

Checked 2026-10-21. All archaeological finds