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Second Temple

Korban Inscription with Doves for Sacrifice in Herod's Temple

Cast of the top of a stone vessel incised with two doves and the Hebrew word "Korban" (Sacrifice). Found in excavations at the wailing wall, Jerusalem, Herodian Period. The Israeli Museum, Jerusalem. [Image of the Korban Inscription]...

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The Eight Gates Leading Into the Temple

There were eight gates leading into the temple. There were the two Huldah Gates or "mole" Gates from the south, which passed underneath the Royal Porch. To the east was the Gate of Susa, still visible as the Golden Gate which was walled up by the Byzantines. In the western wall was the main gate named the Gate of Coponius after the first p...

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The Beautiful Gate by Edersheim

These eight side gates, as we may call them, were all two-leaved, wide, high, with superstructures and chambers supported by two pillars, and covered with gold and silver plating. But far more magnificent than any of them was the ninth or eastern gate, which formed the principal entrance into the Temple. The ascent to it was from the terrace by twe...

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Temple Menorah and other Implements Incised on Plaster

Incised on plaster of a house wall found in the Jewish quarter of old Jerusalem. Herod’s time (40-48 A.D.) The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. [Image of Temple Menorah]...

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The Laver in Herod's Temple by Edersheim

Between the altar and porch of the Temple, but placed towards the south, was the immense laver of brass, supported by twelve colossal lions, which was drained every evening, and filled every morning by machinery, and where twelve priests could wash at the same time. Indeed, the water supply to the Sanctuary is among the most wonderful of its arrang...

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The Outer Court of Herod's Temple in Unger's Bible Dictionary

The outer court was surrounded with a high wall having several gates on its W side. It had porticoes running all around it, those on three of the sides having double and that on the S side having triple piazzas. These porticoes were covered with roofs of cedar supported on marble pillars, 25 cubits high, and were paved with mosaic work. This outer ...

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The Colonnades of the Temple

The historian Josephus describes the Second Temple colonnades: "All the cloisters were double, and the pillars to them belonging were twenty-five cubits in height, and supported -the cloisters. These pillars were of one entire stone each of them, and that stone was white marble; and the roofs were adorned with cedar, curiously graven. The natural m...

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Court of the Women by Edersheim

The Court of the Women obtained its name, not from its appropriation to the exclusive use of women, but because they were not allowed to proceed farther, except for sacrificial purposes. Indeed, this was probably the common place for worship, the females occupying, according to Jewish tradition, only a raised gallery along three sides of the court....

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The Great Stones of Herod's Temple by Edersheim

The mind becomes bewildered at numbers, the accuracy of which we should hesitate to receive if they were not confirmed by modern investigations. We feel almost the same in speaking of the proportions of the Holy House itself. It was built on immense foundations of solid blocks of white marble covered with gold, each block measuring, according to Jo...

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Herod's Temple in Unger's Bible Dictionary

The Temple as it existed after the captivity was not such as would satisfy a man as vain and fond of display as Herod the Great; and he accordingly undertook the task of rebuilding it on a grander scale. Although the reconstruction was practically equivalent to an entire rebuilding, still this Temple cannot be spoken of as a third one, for Herod hi...

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