The Temple of Herod
History of Herod’s Temple
History tells us that in 20BC, King Herod started restoring the Temple that started in the time of Nehemiah, and it took about 80 years with 18,000 men to build the temple and finished around 64BC. And six years later the whole temple compound was totally destroyed.
Solomon’s temple and Zerubbabel’s temple, including the Hasmonean additions, were confined to the top of the hill called Mount Moriah, bounded on the east and south by the Kidron Valley and to the west by the Tyropoean Valley. The temple faced east toward the Mount of Olives. To the north of the mount was the Roman Antonia Fortress, and to the west and south was the city of Jerusalem. In order to enlarge the sacred platform, Herod expanded the area of the Temple Mount to the south and west by fill and erecting a series of arched vaults. He thus doubled the size of Solomon’s temple mount. According to the Mishnah, Solomon’s temple mount was a square of 500 cubits on each side (861 feet/262.5 meters). When completed, Herod’s temple mount was a trapezoid-shaped walled platform 1,550 feet [472 meters] long north to south, and about 1,000 feet [304 meters] wide east to west. It measured about 144,000 meters square, or thirty-six acres.
The Temple structure
According to the Mishnah Herod’s temple was 100 cubits (172 feet/52.5 meters) long, wide, and high, and was divided like Solomon’s temple into three rooms: the porch, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. The gold-covered facade of the temple was imposing. On the east wall of the Holy Place, visible through the portal of the temple, was an elaborate gate to the Holy Place. Josephus says there were pillars on either side of the gate but does not specify how many. Early depictions on coins and in synagogues depict four columns with two on each side. Josephus further describes “a golden vine with grape-clusters hanging from it,” that was placed above the door and wound itself around the pillars. This vine was decorated with the costly gifts brought to the temple and was described in the Mishnah: “A golden vine stood over the entrance to the sanctuary, trained over the posts; and whosoever gave a leaf, or a berry, or a cluster as a freewill offering, he brought it, and the priests hung it thereon”. On the stairs leading up to the doors of the temple the priests would daily gather to recite the priestly benediction on the people (Numbers 6:23–27).
A large veil of several colours hung in front of the doors at the entrance to the Holy Place. Passing through the veil, one entered the Holy Place. The Holy Place and the Holy of Holies together comprised one large rectangular room completely covered with plates of gold separated only by the veil of the temple. In the Holy Place there were three furnishings: the table for the bread of the presence (shewbread), the seven-branched lampstand or menorah, and the incense altar. Each week the tribes of Israel offered twelve loaves of bread to the Lord on the table, and at the end of the week the priests ate them on the Sabbath. This symbolized a sacred meal shared by the offeror, the Lord, and the priest.
The menorah is described as being shaped like a tree consisting of a central axis and three branches on each side, making seven branches in all. At the top of each branch was a cup filled with olive oil that functioned as a lamp. Because of its form, the menorah is often associated with the tree of life. The lamp was the only source of light in the temple. Each day the priests entered the Holy Place to light and trim the lamps and to light the incense. The golden altar of incense stood next to the veil of the temple. Incense was expensive and was thus seen as a sacrifice, and the sweet odour helped to counteract the smells of sacrifice at the temple. It also effectively created an otherworldly environment suggesting the presence of God. In the scriptures the burning of incense symbolized prayer (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8; 8:4). In the New Testament Zechariah was officiating at the incense altar, with a prayer in his heart, when Gabriel appeared to him to announce the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5–23).
Separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was another veil. The veil of the temple consisted of two curtains hung about 18 inches apart. The outer curtain was looped up on the south side, and the inner one on the north side provided a corridor for the high priest to walk through on the day that he entered the Holy of Holies so that no one else could see into the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was a square-shaped room 20 cubits (34.4 feet, 10.50 meters) in width and length with a height of 40 cubits (69 feet, 21 meters). The interior was covered with plates of beaten gold. In the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple the original focal point of the worship of Israel was the ark of the covenant covered by the mercy seat with two cherubim representing the throne of God and designating his presence. In the Second Temple the Holy of Holies was empty since the ark of the covenant and the cherubim had disappeared in the course of the destruction of Solomon’s temple in 586 BC. Rabbinic tradition identified a stone on the floor of the Holy of Holies, rising to a height of three-finger breadths. On the Day of Atonement in Old Testament times, the high priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat of the ark in order to make atonement. In Herod’s temple the high priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on this stone.
And we know that the temple was completely destroyed in 70AD.
The temple was destroyed because a Roman soldier threw a torch that caught fire on the vestment and the gold in the temple and they melted into the cracks of the marble and the greedy soldiers overturned every stone to get to the gold. Hence fulfilling the prophecy of Jesus; not one stone that you see will be left upon.
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