Topic 14 of 33 - Your Place in the Learning Journey
The Second Temple
The Second Temple was built in Jerusalem in the years following the return from exile, completed around 515 BCE according to the books of Ezra and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. It stood for nearly six centuries until its destruction by Rome in 70 CE. The entire New Testament was written during the period of the Second Temple, and virtually every scene set in Jerusalem takes place in its shadow. Understanding what the Temple was, what it meant, and what its destruction meant is essential for reading both the later Old Testament and the entire New Testament.
The Second Temple was initially a modest structure that disappointed those who remembered, or had heard accounts of, Solomon's more magnificent building. The prophet Haggai acknowledges this disappointment directly and promises that the glory of the new Temple will surpass the old. Over the centuries the Temple was expanded and renovated by various rulers - most spectacularly by Herod the Great, who beginning around 20 BCE undertook a massive expansion that transformed it into one of the architectural wonders of the ancient world. The Temple Mount Herod built is what Jesus's disciples were admiring in Mark 13:1 when Jesus predicted its destruction.
The Temple was the center of Jewish religious life in a way that modern readers, accustomed to worship that can happen anywhere, may find difficult to imagine. Sacrifice - the primary mode of approaching God in the Old Testament system - could only be performed at the Jerusalem Temple. The three great pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles) drew Jews from across the diaspora to Jerusalem. The Temple employed thousands of priests, Levites, and support staff. Its treasury functioned as a kind of central bank for the Jewish world. Its high priest was the most powerful figure in Judean society under Roman rule.
The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE by the Roman general Titus was the most catastrophic event in Jewish history since the Babylonian destruction, and it permanently reshaped Judaism. Without the Temple, sacrifice ended. The priesthood lost its central role. Rabbinic Judaism - built around Torah study, prayer, and synagogue - became the dominant form of Jewish life, a development whose roots lay in the exile but whose full flowering came only after 70 CE. The early church also navigated this transition, developing its own understanding of Jesus's death as the sacrifice that made the Temple system unnecessary. Both Judaism and Christianity as we know them were shaped decisively by a building that no longer exists.