Jerusalem: Portrait of the City in the Second Temple Period (538 B.C.E. – 70 C.E.)

Chapter 6: The Temple and Temple Mount

219 Chapter 6 TheTemple and Temple Mount The rebuilding of the Temple and Temple Mount was a project of unparalleled size and magnificence, constituting the crowning jewel of Herod's reign. All sources describing this complex agree that it was an extremely impressive edifice ; Josephus concurs with Herod's assessment: "For he (Herod) believed that the accomplishment of this task would be the most notable of all the things achieved by him, as indeed it was, and would be great enough to assure his eternal remembrance."! Even rabbinic literature, which usually either ignores or disparages Herod, is most complimentary about his undertaking: "Whoever has not seen Herod's building (i.e., the Temple) has not seen a beautiful building in his life" (Fig. 56).2 Popular imagination had conjured an aura of sanctity around the construction ofthe Temple, conferring on it a divine hand that facilitated the project. Both rabbinic literature and Josephus cite essentially the same tradition in this respect. The former preserves the following: "And thus we have from the days of Herod, that when they were constructing the Temple, rains would fall at night. On the morrow, the winds would blow and disperse the clouds and the sun would shine and the people would proceed with their work, and they knew that they were doing God's work."3 In the same vein, Josephus writes: "And it is said that dur1 . Ant. 15.11, 1,380. 2. B Bava Batra 4a. Josephus reports that Titus himself commented on the magnificence of the Temple when, on the eve of the final battle over the Temple Mount, the Romans debated whether or not to destroy the building. TItus supposedly said that he would not destroy the building "nor under any circumstances burn down so magnificent a work" (War 6.4,3,241). However, this statement may well have been a Josephan invention; we have a contradictory report from Sulpicius Severus (presumably quoting Tacitus) that Titus himself ordered the Temple's destruction. See GLAJJ, II: 64-67; Schiirer, History, 1:506 n. 115; and Alon, Jews, Judaism, 252-268. 3. B Ta 'anit 23a. 220 HERODIAN JERUSALEM Figure 56. A reconstructed view of the Temple Mount and its vicinity. ing the time when the Temple was being built, no rain fell during the day, but only at night, so that there was no interruption of the work. And this story, which our fathers have handed down to us, is not at all incredible if, that is, one considers the other manifestations of power given by God."4 Herod marked the auspiciousness of his undertaking in a most dramatic way. Assembling the people of Jerusalem, he announced his intentions to them: So far as the other things achieved during my reign are concerned, my countrymen , I consider it unnecessary to speak of them, although they were of such a kind that the prestige which comes from them to me is less than the security which they have brought to you. For in the most difficult situations I have not been unmindful of the things that might benefit you in your need, nor have I in my building been more intent upon my own invulnerability than upon that ofall of you, and I think I have, by the will of God, brought the Jewish nation to such a state of prosperity as it has never known before.s Now as for the various buildings which we have erected in our country and in the cities of our land and in those of acquired territories, with which, as the most beautiful adornment, we have embellished our nation, it seems to me quite needless to speak of them to you, knowing them as you do. But that the enterprise which I now propose to undertake is the most pious and beautiful one of our time I will now make clear. 4. Ant. 15.11,7,425. 5. Some have detected messianic overtones in this and other statements and actions of Herod; see Schalit, Konig Herodes, 450-482 (Hebrew ed., 223-239), and Horbury, "Herod's Temple," 111-113. THE TEMPLE AND TEMPLE MOUNT For this was the Temple which our fathers built to the Most Great God after their return from Babylon, but it lacks sixty cubits [over thirty yards] in height, the amount by which the first Temple, built by Solomon, exceeded it. And yet no one should condemn the fathers...