Herod's Temple in Easton's Bible Dictionary
The temple erected by the exiles on their return from
Babylon
had stood for about five hundred years, when Herod
the Great
became king of Judea. The building had suffered
considerably
from natural decay as well as from the assaults of
hostile
armies, and Herod, desirous of gaining the favour of
the Jews,
proposed to rebuild it. This offer was accepted, and
the work
was begun (B.C. 18), and carried out at great labour
and
expense, and on a scale of surpassing splendour. The
main part
of the building was completed in ten years, but the
erection of
the outer courts and the embellishment of the whole
were carried
on during the entire period of our Lord's life on
earth (John
2:16, 19-21), and the temple was completed only A.D.
65. But it
was not long permitted to exist. Within forty years
after our
Lord's crucifixion, his prediction of its overthrow
was
accomplished (Luke 19: 41-44). The Roman legions
took the city
of Jerusalem by storm, and notwithstanding the
strenuous efforts
Titus made to preserve the temple, his soldiers set
fire to it
in several places, and it was utterly destroyed
(A.D. 70), and
was never rebuilt.
Several remains of Herod's stately temple have by
recent
explorations been brought to light. It had two
courts, one
intended for the Israelites only, and the other, a
large outer
court, called "the court of the Gentiles," intended
for the use
of strangers of all nations. These two courts were
separated by
a low wall, as Josephus states, some 4 1/2 feet
high, with
thirteen openings. Along the top of this dividing
wall, at
regular intervals, were placed pillars bearing in
Greek an
inscription to the effect that no stranger was, on
the pain of
death, to pass from the court of the Gentiles into
that of the
Jews. At the entrance to a graveyard at the north-
western angle
of the Haram wall, a stone was discovered by M.
Ganneau in 1871,
built into the wall, bearing the following
inscription in Greek
capitals: "No stranger is to enter within the
partition wall and
enclosure around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught
will be
responsible to himself for his death, which will
ensue."
There can be no doubt that the stone thus discovered
was one
of those originally placed on the boundary wall
which separated
the Jews from the Gentiles, of which Josephus
speaks.
It is of importance to notice that the word rendered
"sanctuary" in the inscription was used in a
specific sense of
the inner court, the court of the Israelites, and is
the...
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