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Tabernacle and temple
The second temple
Zerubbabel’s temple · finished 515 BC · stood nearly 500 years before Herod rebuilt it
In 538 BC the Persian king Cyrus allowed the exiles to return and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:2–3); the Cyrus Cylinder describes a similar policy of sending peoples and their gods home. The returned community, led by Zerubbabel the governor and Jeshua the high priest, first rebuilt the altar, then laid the foundation. Older people who had seen the first temple wept aloud while others shouted for joy (Ezra 3:12). Local opposition and hard times stopped the work until 520 BC, when the prophets Haggai and Zechariah urged it on, and the temple was finished in 515 BC.
Little is known of how it looked. The Persian decree speaks of three layers of cut stone and one of timber (Ezra 6:4), and side rooms stored grain, wine, oil and tithes. The ark was gone; Josephus says that in his day the Most Holy Place was empty. In 167 BC the Seleucid king Antiochus IV defiled the temple, and in 164 BC Judas Maccabeus rededicated it, as told in 1 Maccabees, found in Orthodox and Catholic Bibles. The Roman general Pompey entered the sanctuary in 63 BC. From about 20 BC Herod the Great rebuilt it.
Key verses
“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever among you belongs to His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.Then Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests, along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates, began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.But many of the older priests, Levites, and family heads who had seen the first temple wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this temple. Still, many others shouted joyfully.“Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”with three layers of cut stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury.And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.Sources
Adapted and shortened from the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers · CC BY-SA 4.0 — Temple: Construction; Priests and Levites: Priests and Levites during and after the Exile; Altar; Feasts and Festivals of Israel: Postexilic Festivals
Adapted from Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary: articles chosen, shortened and retold in our own words (history, nature and daily life only) and, in languages other than English, machine-translated. The original work by Tyndale House Publishers is available for free at tyndaleopenresources.com.
