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known as the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David purchased the land in 990 BC, and
in 960 BC, King Solomon began construction of the sacred Temple, which was to provide a
shelter for the Ark of the Covenant, the most sacred object in Israel. It took a workforce of
200,000 men seven years to complete this magnificent edifice, with funds gathered by David in a
royal treasury. It was destroyed in 586 BC by Babylonian invaders.
The Persians conquered the Babylonians, and Cyrus, the Persian king, allowed 50,000 Jews
to return to Jerusalem in 538 BC. In 537 BC, under the direction of King Cyrus, Zerubabbel (a
descendant of King David), supervised a contingent of Phoenician workers who laid the
foundation stones for the second Temple. All the Temple vessels had been returned, the altar
built, and the sacrifices resumed. Opposition by the Samaritans (descendants of Israelite and
Assyrian intermarriage) in the north, who had a temple at Mount Gerizim, caused construction to
be discontinued until 520 BC, when Darius, the Persian king, instituted taxes to pay for its
construction. The Temple was dedicated sometime between 516-514 BC. Another Persian king,
Artaxerxes, appointed a Jew named Nehemiah as governor of Jerusalem, and he repaired the
walls to protect the Temple, and began rebuilding the city.
Judea soon came under the control of the Greeks (Alexander the Great); and the Egyptian
Greeks (or Ptolemies), who allowed governorship by the high priests. A third ruler, a Syrian
Greek (Seleucid) known as Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), who sided with the Jewish faction known
as the Hellenists, appointed a high priest who initiated pagan worship in opposition to the
Orthodox faction. An attack in 170 BC killed many Jews, and again Temple treasures were
taken. Antiochus desecrated the Temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar, placing a pagan idol in
the Holy of Holies, and burning copies of the Torah. An Orthodox priest named Mattathias
Maccabee (“the hammerer”) began a revolt, which ended in 164 BC when his third son, Judas
took control of Jerusalem, purified the Temple, and resumed the daily offerings. However, their
control ended in 63 BC when Rome invaded.
Over the years, the condition of the building declined, and around 20-19 BC, Herod the Great
undertook the restoration of the Temple in order to win the favor of the Jews. Most of the
construction was completed within ten years, although minor restoration work continued until 64
AD. The rebuilt Temple, known as the Temple of Herod, was twice as high, and much wider.
During this period of Roman rule, an imperial sacrifice had to be offered to the emperor, in
addition to the traditional Jewish sacrifice. This came to an end in 66 AD, when Eleazar, the son
of a captain of the Temple, initiated an uprising of Jewish zealots, which brought the Tenth
Legion from Rome. They failed to defeat the Jewish freedom fighters and a massive revolt
ensued, which resulted in Judea being returned to the control of the Jews. Emperor Nero then
sent Vespasian, Rome’s best military leader, and his army, to end the rebellion. By 69 AD, Rome
regained control of all Judea, except for Jerusalem. Vespasian, who became the new emperor,
gave his son Titus the task of securing Jerusalem. A military operation was launched which
ended in 70 AD, when the Temple was set on fire by the Roman Tenth Legion (consisting of
80,000 men) under Titus, who pried the Temple apart stone by stone, and threw them into the
valley southeast of Jerusalem. A portion of the Western Wall (Kotel Maarabi), known as the
Wailing Wall, was left standing by the Romans as a symbol of how powerful they were. Titus
later returned to Rome with some of the Temple treasure.
When Constantine died in 361, his nephew, Flavius Claudius Julianus, the last emperor of
Rome (361-363), ruled for 19 months, and attempted to reinstate paganism, and emperor
worship. Although he had grown up under the teachings of Eusebius, Bishop of Cesarea, he
turned away from those teachings, and pushed for religious tolerance. His hatred of Christianity