Jesus Said Not One Stone Would Remain—So Why Is the Western Wall Still Standing?
Question 60042
This is a question that sceptics love to raise. If Jesus said that not one stone would be left upon another, how is it that the Western Wall—also called the Wailing Wall—is still standing in Jerusalem today? Did Jesus get it wrong? Was His prophecy a failure? The answer lies in understanding exactly what Jesus was talking about and what the Western Wall actually is.
What Did Jesus Actually Say?
The prophecy appears in all three Synoptic Gospels. In Matthew 24:1-2, we read: “Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, ‘You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.'” Mark 13:1-2 records the same event with a disciple exclaiming, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And in Luke 21:5-6, Jesus responds to those admiring the Temple’s beautiful stones and offerings.
Notice carefully what prompted Jesus’s statement. The disciples were pointing out the buildings of the Temple—the sanctuary itself with its magnificent structure. They were marvelling at “what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings” made up the Temple complex. Jesus’s prophecy was specifically about these Temple buildings, not about every single structure in Jerusalem or every wall associated with the Temple Mount.
What Is the Western Wall?
Here is where the confusion arises, and it is a confusion born from not understanding the layout of the Temple Mount. The Western Wall is not part of the Temple building itself. It never was. The Western Wall is a retaining wall—part of the massive platform that King Herod the Great constructed to expand the Temple Mount area.
When Herod began his ambitious rebuilding project around 19 BC, he wanted to double the size of the Temple Mount platform. To do this, he built enormous retaining walls around the hill to create a flat, expanded surface on which the Temple complex would sit. The Western Wall is one of these four retaining walls. It held back the fill and rubble that created the artificial extension of the mount. The Temple building itself—the sanctuary, the courts, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place—sat on top of this platform, not as part of the retaining structure.
Think of it like this: if you build a house on a foundation, and someone prophesies that “not one stone of your house will be left upon another,” the prophecy concerns the house, not the foundation or the garden wall. The Western Wall was essentially part of the landscaping infrastructure, not the sacred building.
The Temple’s Complete Destruction
In AD 70, the Roman general Titus—later Emperor—besieged Jerusalem and utterly destroyed the Temple. The Jewish historian Josephus, who was an eyewitness to these events, provides detailed accounts in his works The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews. Josephus records that Titus initially wanted to spare the Temple, but his soldiers, in the heat of battle and driven by greed for the gold that had melted between the stones, literally pried apart every single stone of the Temple building to retrieve the precious metal.
Josephus writes in The Jewish War (7.1.1): “Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and Temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminency… and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison, as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued.” Notice that the retaining walls were left specifically to show what the Romans had conquered—they were not part of what Titus considered the sacred structures.
The Roman historian Tacitus and other ancient sources confirm this total destruction of the Temple itself. Archaeological excavations at the southern end of the Western Wall have uncovered massive stones that were thrown down from the Temple Mount above—evidence of the violent destruction Jesus had prophesied. These fallen stones, some weighing hundreds of tonnes, can still be seen today at the base of the southern wall, exactly where they landed nearly two thousand years ago.
Archaeological Confirmation
Modern archaeology has confirmed the distinction between the Temple building and the retaining walls. Excavations led by Benjamin Mazar and later by Ronny Reich near the Western and Southern Walls have revealed the Herodian street level, the fallen stones from above, and the shops and ritual baths (mikva’ot) that lined the base of the platform. None of these finds relate to the Temple structure itself—they relate to the platform and its surroundings.
The British Museum holds several artefacts from this period, including coins minted during the Jewish revolt (reference: BM 1908,0110.2870) and later Roman commemorative coins celebrating the conquest of Judaea (the famous “Judaea Capta” series, reference: BM R.6154). These coins depict the aftermath of the destruction and demonstrate the historical reality of these events.
Interestingly, Jewish tradition itself distinguishes between the Temple and the Western Wall. The Talmud (Midrash Rabbah, Lamentations 1:31) speaks of the “Western Wall of the Temple” remaining because the Divine Presence (Shekhinah) rests in the west—but this refers to the wall’s proximity to where the Temple stood, not to the wall being part of the Temple itself. The rabbis understood this distinction even if modern visitors sometimes conflate the two.
Why Does This Matter?
Jesus’s prophecy was fulfilled with devastating precision. The Temple—every stone of those magnificent buildings the disciples admired—was indeed thrown down. Not one stone was left upon another. The retaining walls remained because they were never part of what Jesus was prophesying about. They were the platform, not the building.
This actually demonstrates the accuracy of biblical prophecy rather than undermining it. Jesus did not say “not one stone in all of Jerusalem” or “not one stone on the Temple Mount.” He specifically referred to the Temple buildings, and those buildings were completely and utterly destroyed. The fact that the supporting walls survived shows us that the Romans distinguished between the sacred structures (which they obliterated) and the impressive engineering works (which they left as trophies of their conquest).
For us today, this serves as a reminder that God’s Word is precise. When we read prophecy, we must pay attention to exactly what is being said. And when we see prophecy fulfilled—as this one was in AD 70—we can have confidence that the prophecies yet to be fulfilled will come to pass with equal precision. Jesus spoke of the Temple’s destruction, and it happened exactly as He said. He also spoke of His return, and that too will happen exactly as He has promised.
“Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”Matthew 24:2 (ESV)
Bibliography
- Josephus, Flavius. The Jewish War. Translated by William Whiston. Various editions.
- Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews. Translated by William Whiston. Various editions.
- Mazar, Benjamin. The Mountain of the Lord: Excavating in Jerusalem. Doubleday, 1975.
- Ritmeyer, Leen. The Quest: Revealing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Carta, 2006.
- Edersheim, Alfred. The Temple: Its Ministry and Services. Hendrickson Publishers, 1994.
- Pentecost, J. Dwight. Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology. Zondervan, 1958.
- Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. The Footsteps of the Messiah. Ariel Ministries, 2003.
- Walvoord, John F. Matthew: Thy Kingdom Come. Moody Publishers, 1974.
