Temple History.
It has become almost universally popular for Christians to believe that a third temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. This world-wide movement of professed Christian believers embraces the idea of the Jewish Zionist movement, which advocates and supports the total capture of the Land of Palestine. The theological basis for the Zionists, both Christian and Jewish, is primarily the writings of the ancient Jewish leader, Joshua, who succeeded Moses just prior to their entrance into the land of Canaan. According to Joshua, the territory referred to as Canaan was divided and parcelled out to the twelve tribes of Israel as they conquered and displaced the earlier inhabitants of the land.
But their continued possession of Canaan was based upon their obedience to the Creator, God. Joshua admonished the people: “Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the Lord your God promised you; so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you … When ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you” (Joshua 23:15-16). Both history and their sacred writings attest to the fact of their disobedience and the ensuing consequences.
Central to the Israelites’ worship and civil experience was the tabernacle, which God had instructed Joshua’s predecessor, Moses, to build some forty years prior to their occupation of Canaan and shortly after their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The tabernacle was portable and was transported and erected at different locations along their journey from Sinai to Canaan.
The last Canaanite people to be vanquished by the Israelites were the Philistines. The place of their dwelling was called the Land of Palestine. Once established in Canaan, the Israelites, under their revered King David, sought to build a permanent structure for worship and the centre of their cultural activities. This was accomplished by David’s son, Solomon, after his father’s death. This structure was called the First Temple and was constructed essentially using the pattern and furnishings of the wilderness tabernacle. Thereafter, Canaan became, for all practical purposes, the Land of Israel, today referred to as the Nation of Israel. The location of the temple and centre of cultural activity has come to be known as Jerusalem. All this was occurring during the middle to end of the 10th century BC.
Some four hundred years later, because of the Israelites’ disobedience, just as Joshua had warned, the nation was overrun and the temple devastated by the Babylonian monarch, Nebuchadnezzar. The temple remained in ruins while the majority of the population was taken captive to Babylon and dispersed throughout Nebuchadnezzar’s empire. But as is the common DNA of all empires, the Babylonians rose, ruled, and then fell. The Babylonian demise occurred around the year 536 BC, as it was taken over by the Persians.
Consequently, the Israelites became captives of the Persians. It was almost one hundred years later that the temple would be restored, but not to its former glory as it was in the days of Solomon. The year was 519 BC, and Darius, the king of the Medes, who was a vassal of the Persians and claimed to be inspired by the God of the Israelites, decreed that the Israelites return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. That decree to return and rebuild the temple was later reinforced by Cyrus, the king of the Persians, and strengthened by his successor, Artaxerxes.
The Israelites would later survive the captivity of the Greeks, who, under the military genius of Alexander the Great, completed his conquest of the Persians around the year 331 BC. With each successive conquest, from the Babylonians to the Persians to the Greeks, the Israelites’ population in Palestine dwindled as they were scattered throughout the successive conquering empires. Most of them did not return to Israel.
Then came the Romans around 168 BC. By 146 BC, they had completed their conquest of the Greek states. It would not be very long before their influence and control were felt, literally, across the then-known world. Rome’s legendary, ironfisted dominance included the Land of Palestine, which the Jews referred to as the Land of Israel.
By the year 20 BC, Herod the Great, the Roman ruler of the region, had begun construction of what came to be known as the Second Temple. The massive building project lasted for 46 years. It was during Herod’s reign that Yeshua the Christ made His unnoticed entry onto the stage of the human drama and ushered in His work for the salvation of a disobedient race.