THE THIRD TEMPLE (1)
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. The Third Temple
a) When David was king, he asked God if he could build a temple (1 Chronicles 17:1–15). God told him no, but he could gather materials for his son, Solomon, to build (1 Chronicles 22:2–5). This temple was destroyed and ransacked by the Babylonians in 586 BC (2 Kings 25:9). King Darius allowed the temple to be rebuilt (Ezra 1:2), but construction was slow as those who returned from exile concentrated on the wall around Jerusalem and their own livelihoods. Over the next four hundred years, a series of Gentile rulers alternatingly built up and defiled the temple. The cycle culminated in the 39 BC battle in which Herod took control of the temple, slaughtering many of the priests and defenders, but kept the Roman soldiers from going into the sanctuary. Herod proposed to renovate the temple in 20-19 BC, his reason being the post-exilic temple was sixty cubits shorter than Solomon’s original. Despite the Jews’ fears that he meant to tear it down and forget to rebuild, the main work on the temple was completed in one-and-a-half years, and the outer courtyard in eight years. Finishing touches continued until AD 63.
b) On the eastern edge of Jerusalem, just west of Gethsemane and northwest of the Kidron Valley, sat the Temple of Herod. Literature states that the outer walls formed a rough rectangle, 500 feet long by 100 feet wide, slightly narrower on the south than the north, and slightly tilted to the northwest. Archeological evidence, however, has the dimensions closer to 1,550 feet by 1000 feet. On the far northwest corner sat Antonia Fortress, the home of the temple garrison that stayed alert for disturbances in the temple—disturbances that could gain the governor unwanted attention from Rome. )
c) Two gates provided entry into the temple court from the south, four from the west, one, the Golden Gate, from the east, and an underground passage led from Antonia Fortress. Just inside the walls ran porticoes—roofed walkways flanked on the outside by the great walls and the inside by rows of tall marble pillars. The northern entrance was the most level and easiest to climb, but the southern gates (the double Huldah and the triple Huldah) the most frequently used. Because a ravine lined the southern wall, great staircases led to the actual gates. Tunnels passed through and into a honeycombed underground area called “Solomon’s Stable.” More stairs led up to the southern section of the Court of the Gentiles. The eastern portico was named for King Solomon, and it was somewhere along this wall that the twelve-year old Jesus debated with the scholars (Luke 2:46). It’s possible that the highest corner of the eastern wall was where Satan took Jesus in Matthew 4:5. But it was the east gate, called Shushan, HaKohan, or Golden, that Nehemiah 3:29 and Ezekiel 44:1–3 prophesied the Messiah would use. Jesus rode through this gate on a donkey colt in Luke 19:28–48. The western wall is all that remains of the temple. It’s now called the Wailing Wall.
The End ...
1. The Third Temple a) When David was king, he asked God if he could build a temple (1 Chronicles 17:1–15). God told him no, but he could gather materials for his son, Solomon, to build (1 Chronicles 22:2–5). This temple was destroyed and ransacked by the Babylonians in 586 BC (2 Kings 25:9). King Darius allowed the temple to be rebuilt (Ezra 1:2), but construction was slow as those who returned from exile concentrated on the wall around Jerusalem and their own livelihoods. Over the next four hundred years, a series of Gentile rulers alternatingly built up and defiled the temple. The cycle culminated in the 39 BC battle in which Herod took control of the temple, slaughtering many of the priests and defenders, but kept the Roman soldiers from going into the sanctuary. Herod proposed to renovate the temple in 20-19 BC, his reason being the post-exilic temple was sixty cubits shorter than Solomon’s original. Despite the Jews’ fears that he meant to tear it down and forget to rebuild, the main work on the temple was completed in one-and-a-half years, and the outer courtyard in eight years. Finishing touches continued until AD 63.
b) On the eastern edge of Jerusalem, just west of Gethsemane and northwest of the Kidron Valley, sat the Temple of Herod. Literature states that the outer walls formed a rough rectangle, 500 feet long by 100 feet wide, slightly narrower on the south than the north, and slightly tilted to the northwest. Archeological evidence, however, has the dimensions closer to 1,550 feet by 1000 feet. On the far northwest corner sat Antonia Fortress, the home of the temple garrison that stayed alert for disturbances in the temple—disturbances that could gain the governor unwanted attention from Rome. )
c) Two gates provided entry into the temple court from the south, four from the west, one, the Golden Gate, from the east, and an underground passage led from Antonia Fortress. Just inside the walls ran porticoes—roofed walkways flanked on the outside by the great walls and the inside by rows of tall marble pillars. The northern entrance was the most level and easiest to climb, but the southern gates (the double Huldah and the triple Huldah) the most frequently used. Because a ravine lined the southern wall, great staircases led to the actual gates. Tunnels passed through and into a honeycombed underground area called “Solomon’s Stable.” More stairs led up to the southern section of the Court of the Gentiles. The eastern portico was named for King Solomon, and it was somewhere along this wall that the twelve-year old Jesus debated with the scholars (Luke 2:46). It’s possible that the highest corner of the eastern wall was where Satan took Jesus in Matthew 4:5. But it was the east gate, called Shushan, HaKohan, or Golden, that Nehemiah 3:29 and Ezekiel 44:1–3 prophesied the Messiah would use. Jesus rode through this gate on a donkey colt in Luke 19:28–48. The western wall is all that remains of the temple. It’s now called the Wailing Wall.
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