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Temple of Zerubbabel
        Temple of Zerubbabel.
        Erected by sanction of Cyrus, who in his decree alleged the command of the God of heaven (Ezra 1:12), on the stone site ("the place where they offered sacrifices") and to reproduce Solomon's temple "with three rows (i.e. three stories) of great stones, and a row of new timber" (a wooden story, a fourth, called a talar: Josephus 11:4, 6; 15:11, section 1): Ezra 6:3-12, comp. 1 Kings 6:36. The golden and silver vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar were restored; the altar was first set up by Jeshua and Zerubbabel, then the foundations were laid (Ezra 3) amidst weeping in remembrance of the glorious former temple and joy at the restoration. Then after the interruption of the work under Artaxerxes I or Pseudo Smerdis, the temple was completed in the sixth year of Darius (chapter 6). ARTAXERXES I; EZRA; HAGGAI; JESHUA; JOSHUA; NEHEMIAH; DARIUS.)
        The height, 60 cubits (Ezra 6:3), was double that of Solomon's temple. Josephus confirms this height of 60 cubits, though he is misled by the copyist's error, 120, in 2 Chronicles 3:4. Zerubbabel's temple was 60 cubits broad (Ezra 6:3) as was Herod's temple subsequently, 20 cubits in excess of the breadth of Solomon's temple; i.e., the chambers all around were 20 in width instead of the ten of Solomon's temple; probably, instead of as heretofore each room of the priests' lodgings being a thoroughfare, a passage was introduced between the temple and the rooms. Thus the dimensions were 100 cubits long, 60 broad, and 60 high, not larger than a good sized parish church. Not merely (Haggai 2:3) was this temple inferior to Solomon's in splendour and costly metals, but especially it lacked five glories of the former temple:
        (1) the ark, for which a stone served to receive the sprinkling of blood by the high priest, on the day of atonement;
        (2) the sacred fire;
        (3) the Shekinah;
        (4) the spirit of prophecy;
        (5) the Urim and Thummim.
        Its altar was of stone, not brass (1 Maccabees 4:45), it had only one table of shewbread and one candlestick. Antiochus Epiphanes profaned this temple; afterward it was cleansed or dedicated, a new altar of fresh stones made, and the feast of dedication thenceforward kept yearly (John 10:22). But "the glory of this latter house was greater than of the former" (Haggai 2:9) because of the presence of Messiah, in whose face is given the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (2 Corinthians 4:6; Hebrews 1:2) as Himself said, "in this place is one (Greek 'a something greater,' the indefiniteness marking the infinite vastness whereby He is) greater than the temple" (Matthew 12:6), and who "sat daily teaching in it" (Matthew 26:55).
Bibliography Information
Fausset, Andrew Robert M.A., D.D., "Definition for 'temple of zerubbabel' Fausset's Bible Dictionary".
bible-history.com - Fausset's; 1878.

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