Herod Rebuilds the Temple

In the eighteenth year of his reign, after the deeds already told, Herod undertook a very great work: to rebuild the temple of God at his own expense, to enlarge its precincts, and to raise it to a most magnificent height. He considered that bringing it to completion would be the most glorious of all his achievements, as indeed it was, and that it would be enough to keep his memory alive forever. But he knew that the people were neither ready nor willing to help him with so vast a plan, so he thought he would first prepare them with a speech and then set about the work itself. He called them together and spoke to them like this: [a]

“My countrymen, I think I need not speak to you about the other works I have done since I came to the throne, though I may say they have been carried out in a way that brought more security to you than glory to me. In the hardest times I have not neglected anything that could relieve your needs, and the buildings I have put up were designed not so much to protect me as to protect you from harm. With God’s help, I believe, I have brought the Jewish nation to a degree of prosperity it never had before. As for the particular buildings in your own country and your own cities, and in the cities we have lately acquired, which we have raised and richly adorned and so increased the standing of your nation, it seems needless to list them for you, since you know them well yourselves. But I will now tell you of the undertaking I have in mind at present, which will be the most pious and excellent work we could possibly undertake. Our fathers, when they had returned from Babylon, built this temple to God Almighty, yet it falls short of its full size by about ninety feet in height, for by so much did the first temple, the one Solomon built, exceed this one. And let no one blame our fathers for negligence or lack of piety in this; it was not their fault that the temple was no higher. It was Cyrus, and Darius son of Hystaspes, who fixed the measurements for its rebuilding; and because our fathers were subject to them and to their descendants, and after them to the Macedonians, they had no opportunity to follow the original pattern of this holy building or to raise it to its ancient height. But now, by God’s will, I am your ruler. I have had peace for a long time, I have gained great wealth and large revenues, and, what matters most of all, I am on friendly terms with the Romans and well regarded by them, who are, if I may put it so, the masters of the whole world. So I will do my best to correct that defect, which arose from the necessity of our circumstances and from the slavery we were under before, and to make the most devout return to God for the blessings I have received from him in giving me this kingdom, by making his temple as complete as I am able.”

This was the speech Herod made to them. But it alarmed many of the people, since it was unexpected; and because it seemed beyond belief, it did not encourage them but dampened their spirits. They were afraid he would pull down the whole building and then be unable to carry out his plan of rebuilding it. The danger seemed very great to them, and the task so vast that it could hardly be accomplished. While they were in this state of mind, the king encouraged them and told them he would not pull down their temple until everything was ready to build it up again entirely. And as he promised them this in advance, so he kept his word. He got ready a thousand wagons to bring stones for the building, chose ten thousand of the most skilled workmen, bought priestly robes for a thousand of the priests, and had some of them taught stonecutting and others carpentry. Then he began to build, but not until everything had been well prepared for the work.

So Herod took away the old foundations and laid new ones, and on them he raised the temple. It was 150 feet long, and its height was 30 feet greater than that. These extra 30 feet later fell down when their foundations sank, and it was this part that we resolved to raise again in the days of Nero. The temple was built of white, strong stones, each about 37½ feet long, 12 feet high, and about 18 feet wide. The whole structure, like that of the royal colonnade, was much lower on each side and much higher in the middle, so that it could be seen from many miles away by those who lived in the country, but above all by those who lived opposite it or were approaching it. The temple also had doors at its entrance, with lintels over them as high as the temple itself. These were hung with embroidered curtains, with flowers of purple and woven pillars; and above them, but under the cornice, spread a golden vine with clusters of grapes hanging from it. Its size and fine workmanship were a wonder to those who saw it, both for the vast amount of material and for the great skill of the work. He also surrounded the entire temple with very large colonnades, designed in due proportion to it, and spent more money on them than anyone before him, so that no one else seemed to have adorned the temple as greatly as he had. Both colonnades rested on a great wall, and that wall was itself the most prodigious work anyone ever heard of. [d]

The hill was a rocky rise that sloped gradually toward the eastern parts of the city until it reached a level top. It was this hill that Solomon, the first of our kings, surrounded with a wall by divine revelation; it was of excellent workmanship above and around its top. He also built a wall below, starting from the bottom, where a deep valley ran around it. He used huge rocks bound to one another with lead, always taking in more of the inner area and going farther down, so that both the size of the square structure and its height were immense. The vastness of the stones in the front was plainly visible from outside, while the inner parts were fastened together with iron and kept the joints immovable for all time to come. When this work had been done in this way and joined together as part of the hill itself right up to its top, he worked it all into one outer surface, filled up the hollow places around the wall, and made it level and smooth on its upper surface. This hill was walled all around, half a mile in circuit, each side about 600 feet long. But inside this wall, at the very top, ran another wall of stone, which had on its east side a double colonnade as long as the wall, in the middle of which stood the temple itself. This colonnade faced the gates of the temple, and many kings in earlier times had built it. All around the temple were fixed the spoils taken from foreign nations; all these Herod had dedicated to the temple, adding those he had taken from the Arabs.

On the north side was built a citadel with square walls, strong and of extraordinary solidity. The kings of the Hasmonean family, who were also high priests before Herod, built it and called it the Tower. In it were kept the vestments of the high priest, which the high priest put on only when he was to offer sacrifice. King Herod kept these vestments in that place, and after his death they were in the power of the Romans until the time of Tiberius Caesar. Under his reign Vitellius, the governor of Syria, once came to Jerusalem and was received most magnificently by the people. He wanted to repay them for the kindness they had shown him, so when they petitioned to have the holy vestments in their own keeping, he wrote to Tiberius Caesar about it, and Tiberius granted the request. The Jews kept this control over the priestly vestments until the death of King Agrippa. After that, Cassius Longinus, the governor of Syria, and Cuspius Fadus, the procurator of Judea, ordered the Jews to deposit the vestments in the tower of Antonia, saying that the Romans ought to have them in their power, as they had before. The Jews, however, sent ambassadors to Claudius Caesar to plead with him for them. When they arrived, King Agrippa the younger, who was then at Rome, asked for and obtained control over the vestments from the emperor, who ordered Vitellius, then commander in Syria, to give it to them accordingly. Before that time the vestments were kept under the seal of the high priest and of the treasurers of the temple. The day before a festival, the treasurers went up to the Roman captain of the temple guards, inspected their own seal, and received the vestments; and when the festival was over, they brought them back to the same place, showed the captain of the temple guards their seal, which matched his, and deposited them there. I have mentioned these things in passing because of the troubles that befell us over them afterward. As for the tower itself, when Herod, king of the Jews, had fortified it more strongly than before, to secure and guard the temple, he named it the Tower of Antonia to please Antony, who was his friend and the Roman ruler. [k]

In the western part of the temple’s enclosure there were four gates. The first led to the king’s palace by a passage over the valley between; two more led to the suburb; and the last led to the other part of the city, where the road went down into the valley by a great number of steps and then up again by the slope on the other side. For the city lay opposite the temple like a theater, and was bordered by a deep valley along its whole southern side. The fourth front of the temple, facing south, also had gates in its middle, and along it ran the royal colonnade, with three aisles, reaching from the eastern valley to the western one, for it could reach no farther. This colonnade deserves mention more than any other under the sun. The valley was so deep that no one could bear to look down into it from above; and on top of that height the colonnade rose to an enormous height of its own, so that anyone who looked down from the top of its roof, taking in both heights together, would grow dizzy, his sight unable to reach so immense a depth. This colonnade had pillars standing in four rows, one opposite another all along it; the fourth row was built into the wall, which was also of stone. Each pillar was so thick that it took three men with arms outstretched, joining hands, to reach around it. Each was twenty-seven feet tall, with a double molding at its base, and the pillars numbered a hundred and sixty-two in all. Their capitals were carved in the Corinthian style and caused amazement by the grandeur of the whole. These four rows of pillars formed three aisles for walking in the middle of the colonnade. Two of them were parallel and built alike; each was thirty feet wide, about 600 feet long, and more than fifty feet high. The middle aisle was half again as wide as the others and twice as high, for it rose far above those on either side. The ceilings were decorated with deep carvings in wood representing many sorts of figures. The middle aisle was much higher than the rest, and the wall of the front was decorated with beams resting on pillars built into it. That front was all of polished stone, so fine that it was incredible to those who had not seen it and amazing to those who had. Such was the first enclosure. Within it, not far in, was the second, reached by a few steps. This was surrounded by a stone wall as a barrier, with an inscription that forbade any foreigner to go in on pain of death. This inner enclosure had three gates on its south side and three on its north, at equal distances from one another; but on the east side, toward the sunrise, there was one large gate, through which those who were ritually pure came in with their wives. Farther inward from that gate the temple was not open to the women. Still farther in was a third court, which no one but the priests might enter. The temple itself stood within this, and before the temple stood the altar, on which we offer our sacrifices and burnt offerings to God. King Herod entered none of these three, for he was forbidden, not being a priest. But he took charge of the colonnades and the outer enclosures, and these he built in eight years. [o]

The temple itself was built by the priests in a year and five months. At this all the people were full of joy, and for the speed of the work they gave thanks, first to God and next for the king’s eagerness, and they feasted and celebrated the rebuilding of the temple. The king sacrificed three hundred oxen to God, and the rest each according to his means. The number of these sacrifices cannot be set down, for it is impossible for us to report it truly; for the day of the king’s accession, which he kept as a festival by long custom, fell at the same time as this celebration of the work on the temple, and the coincidence of the two made the festival most splendid. [r] A hidden passage was also built for the king. It led from Antonia to the inner temple at its eastern gate, and over it he built a tower for himself, so that he could go up into the temple by an underground way and guard against any uprising the people might make against their kings. It is also reported that while the temple was being built, no rain fell in the daytime, but the showers came at night, so that the work was not hindered. Our fathers have handed this down to us, and it is not incredible to anyone who considers the other manifestations of God. And so the work of rebuilding the temple was completed.