Julian and the Rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem

Though the emperor hated and oppressed the Christians, he showed goodwill and kindness toward the Jews. He wrote to the Jewish patriarchs and leaders, and to the people as well, asking them to pray for him and for the well-being of the empire. In taking this step he was not moved, I am convinced, by any respect for their religion. He knew that it is, so to speak, the mother of the Christian religion, and that both religions rest on the authority of the patriarchs and the prophets. But he thought he could grieve the Christians by favoring the Jews, who are their most bitter enemies. Perhaps he also counted on persuading the Jews to take up paganism and its sacrifices. For they knew only the bare letter of Scripture, and could not, as the Christians and a few of the wisest among the Hebrews could, see its hidden meaning. [a]

Events proved that this was his real motive. He sent for some of the chief men of the race and urged them to return to keeping the laws of Moses and the customs of their fathers. They answered that since the temple in Jerusalem had been overthrown, it was neither lawful nor the custom of their fathers to do this anywhere but in the mother city from which they had been driven out. So he gave them money from the public treasury and ordered them to rebuild the temple and to carry on worship like that of their ancestors, offering sacrifice in the ancient way. The Jews set about the work without stopping to think that, according to the prediction of the holy prophets, it could not be done. They looked for the most skillful craftsmen, gathered materials, cleared the ground, and threw themselves into the task so eagerly that even the women carried heaps of earth and gave their necklaces and other jewelry to help pay the cost. The emperor, the other pagans and all the Jews counted every other undertaking as less important than this one. The pagans were not friendly toward the Jews, but they helped them in this enterprise because they expected it to succeed in the end, and they hoped by this means to prove the prophecies of Christ false. Apart from this, the Jews themselves were driven on by the thought that the time had come to rebuild their temple. When they had taken away the ruins of the former building, they dug up the ground and cleared out its foundation. It is said that on the next day, when they were about to lay the first foundation, a great earthquake struck. The violent shaking of the earth threw up stones from the depths, and these wounded the Jews who were at work, and those who were only looking on as well. The houses and public colonnades near the site of the temple, where they had been passing their time, suddenly collapsed. Many were caught in them. Some died at once; others were found half dead, maimed in their hands or legs; others were injured in other parts of the body. When God made the earthquake stop, the workmen who had survived went back to their task, partly because the emperor had ordered it and partly because they themselves were eager for the work. People often, in trying to satisfy their own passions, go after what harms them and reject what would truly benefit them. They are fooled into thinking that nothing is really useful except what pleases them. Once they have been led astray by this error, they can no longer act in their own true interest, or take warning from the disasters that come upon them. [c] The Jews, I believe, were in just this state. Instead of taking this unexpected earthquake as a clear sign that God was against the rebuilding of their temple, they went back to the work. But all sides report that they had hardly returned to the undertaking when fire suddenly burst out of the foundations of the temple and burned up several of the workmen.

This is stated without hesitation and believed by everyone. The only difference in the accounts is that some say the flame burst out from inside the temple as the workmen were trying to force their way in, while others say the fire came straight up out of the earth. Whichever way it happened, it is equally wonderful. A more tangible and still more extraordinary wonder followed. Suddenly the sign of the cross appeared of its own accord on the clothing of those who had taken part in the work. These crosses were arranged like stars and looked as if they had been made with an artist’s skill. Because of this many were led to confess that Christ is God and that the rebuilding of the temple did not please him. Others came to the church, were initiated, and begged Christ with hymns and prayers to forgive their wrongdoing. If anyone is not inclined to believe my account, let him go and be convinced by those who heard what I have told from the eyewitnesses themselves, for they are still living. Let him also ask the Jews and pagans who left the work unfinished, or rather, to speak more accurately, who got no further than beginning it. [d]