In the year 1871, M. Clermont Ganneau had the good fortune to discover one of these pillars or tablets, partly buried in the foundations of a building not far from the Haram area. It bears the following inscription in Greek, in seven lines:-- ΜΗΘΕΝΑΑΛΛΟΓΕΝΗΕΙΣΠΟ ΡΕΥΕΣΘΑΙΕΝΤΟΣΤΟΥΠΕ ΡΙΤΟΙΕΡΟΝΤΡΥΦΑΚΤΟΥΚΑΙ ΠΕΡΙΒΟΛΟΥΟΣΔΑΝΛΗ ΦΘΗΕΑΥΤΩΙΑΙΤΙΟΣΕΣ ΤΑΙΔΙΑΤΟΕΞΑΚΟΛΟΥ ΘΕΙΝΘΑΝAΤΟΝ The translation is:--“No stranger is to enter within the balustrade round the Temple and enclosure. Whoever is caught will be responsible to himself for his death, which will ensue.” M. Clermont Ganneau remarks that the episode in the Acts of the Apostles (xxi. 26, _et seq._) throws great light on this precious inscription and receives light from it. Paul, after purification, presents himself in the Temple; the people immediately rise against him, because certain Jews of Asia believed that Paul had introduced a Gentile--Trophimus of Ephesus--and had thus polluted the sacred place. They are about to put him to death when the Tribune commanding at Fort Antonia intervenes and rescues him. The people demand of the Tribune the execution of the culprit, _i.e._, the application of the law. This inscription, and probably this very stone, was almost certainly seen and read by Christ; and it would be likely to impress him painfully with the exclusive spirit of the Jews. It certainly could not meet with the approval of the Teacher who preached to Samaritans at Jacob’s Well, and laboured more in the half-Gentile town of Capernaum than in Nazareth, defending his course by quoting the example of Elijah who went to Sarepta a city of Zidon. Christ declared himself the Light of all the World, and the Shepherd who had other sheep not of the Jewish fold. It was the work of Christ, before it became the work of Paul, to break down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. There can hardly be a question, then, that the sight of this inscription would intensify his desire to see this Temple destroyed and the Jewish ritual abolished, that he might rear upon its ruins a spiritual temple for all nations.