Temple in Jerusalem

Categories: Tabernacle and Jerusalem Temples | Jewish history | Jerusalem | Christian eschatology

The Temple in Jerusalem or the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash בית המקדש in Hebrew) was built in ancient Jerusalem and was the center of Israelite and Jewish worship, primarily for the offering of sacrifices known as the korbanot. It was located on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. It was the center of ancient Judaism and has remained as a focal point for Jewish services over the millenia.

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Temple was built by Solomon. It replaced the Tabernacle of Moses.

Etymology

The word Temple is derived not from the Hebrew but from the Latin word for place of worship, templum. The name given in Scripture for the building was Beit Adonai or "House of God" (although this name was also often used for other temples, or metaphorically). Because of the prohibition against pronouncing the holy name, the common Hebrew name for the Temple is Beit HaMikdash or "The Holy House", and only the Temple in Jerusalem is referred to by this name.

First and Second Temples

Two distinct temples stood in succession on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem:

• Solomon's Temple, was built in approximately the 10th century BCE to replace the Tabernacle. It was destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE.
• The Second Temple was built after the return from the Babylonian Captivity, around 536 BCE (completed on March 12, 515 BCE).
  • Herod's Temple was a massive expansion of the Second Temple including renovation of the entire Temple Mount. (It is not called the "Third Temple".) Herod the Great began his expansion project around 19 BCE. It was destroyed by Roman troops under Titus in 70 CE. Some historians suppose however that the Jews could have lit the Second Temple themselves to avoid its desecration.

Jewish views

For the last 1,900 years, Jews have prayed that God would allow for the rebuilding of the Temple. This prayer is a formal part of the thrice daily Jewish prayer services.

However, not all rabbis agree on what would happen in a rebuilt Temple. It has traditionally been assumed that some sort of animal sacrifices would be reinstituted, in accord with the rules in Leviticus and the Talmud. However there is another opinion, beginning with Maimonides, that God deliberately has moved Jews away from sacrifices towards prayer, as prayer is a higher form of worship. Thus, some rabbis hold that sacrifices would not take place in a rebuilt Temple. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first chief rabbi of the Jewish community in pre-state Israel, holds that animal sacrifices will not be reinstituted. However, this is a view not shared by most Haredi rabbis.

(Rav Kook's views on the Temple service are sometimes misconstrued. A superficial reading of a passage in "Olat Ri'iah" indicates that only grain offerings will be offered in the reinstated Temple service. To properly understand Rav Kook's position on the matter, it is necessary to read a related essay from "Otzarot Hari'iah")

A few, very small, Jewish groups support constructing a Third Temple today, but most Jews oppose this, for a variety of reasons. Most religious Jews feel that the Temple should only be rebuilt in the messianic era, and that it would be presumptuous of people to force God's hand, as it were. Furthermore, there are many ritual impurity constrictions that are difficult to resolve, making the building's construction a practical impossibility.

Additionally, many Jews are against rebuilding the Temple due to the enormously hostile reaction from Muslims that would likely result— even were the building to be complementary to those holy to Islam currently present on the Temple Mount site, there would be high suspicion that such a building project would ultimately end with the destruction of these and the rebuilding of the Temple on its original spot.

Rebuilding the Third Temple

The question surrounding the status of the The Third Temple is compounded by much mystery, uncertainty, controversy, and debate, but it does have roots in Hebrew Biblical texts and in both Jewish scholarship and the traditional Jewish prayers.

Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism believes and expects that the Temple will be rebuilt and that the sacrificial services, known as the korbanot will once again be practiced with the rebuilding of a Third Temple. The article on korbanot outlines many of the references. See the section about prayers calling for the restoration of the Temple.

Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism has modified the prayers; their prayerbooks call for the restoration of Temple, but do not ask for resumption of animal sacrifices. Most of the passages relating to sacrifices are replaced with the Talmudic teaching that deeds of loving-kindness now atone for sin. In the central prayer, the Amidah, the Hebrew phrase na'ase ve'nakriv (we will present and sacrifice) is modified to read to asu ve'hikrivu (they presented and sacrificed), implying that animal sacrifices are a thing of the past. The petition to accept the "fire offerings of Israel" is removed.

Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism calls neither for the resumption of sacrifices nor the rebuilding of the Temple, although some new Reform prayerbooks are moving towards calling for the latter as an option.

Julian's Roman "Third Temple"

There was an aborted project by the Roman emperor Julian (331-363) to allow the Jews to build a "Third Temple", part of Julian's empire-wide program of restoring/strengthening local religious cults. There is reason to believe that Julian wanted the rebuilt "Third Temple" to be for the purpose of his own apotheosis, rather than the worship of the Jewish God. Rabbi Hilkiyah, one of the leading rabbis of the time, spurned Julian's money, arguing that gentiles should play no part in the rebuilding of the temple. [1].

Christian views

Protestant view

The dominant view within Protestant Christianity is that animal sacrifices within the Temple were a foreshadowing of the sacrifice Jesus made for the sins of all, through his death. As such they believe there is no longer a need for the physical temple and its rituals.

Those Protestants who do believe in the importance of a future rebuilt temple hold that the importance of the sacrificial system was not completely eliminated with Jesus' sacrifice for sin, but is a ceremonial object lesson for confession and forgiveness (somewhat like water baptism and Communion are today); and that such animal sacrifices would still be appropriate for ritual cleansing and for acts of celebration and thanksgiving toward God.

Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox view

The Catholic and Orthodox churches believe that the Eucharist, which they believe to be one in substance with the one self-sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, is a far superior offering when compared with the merely preparatory temple sacrifices, as explained in the Epistle to the Hebrews. They also believe that the Christian church buildings where the Eucharist is celebrated are the legitimate successors of the temple; going so far as to call their church buildings "temples". Therefore they do not attach any significance to a possible future rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple.

LDS Restorationist view

Joseph Smith, Jr. taught that not only would the Temple in Jerusalem be rebuilt, but that its counter-part, another temple, would be built in the United States. This belief is held by more than 12 million members of the various churches of the Latter-day Saint movement, the largest of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ("LDS Church"). The land where the temple was prophesied to be built is in Independence, Missouri, where it is cared for by the Church of Christ (Temple Lot). Thus, the land on which the LDS Church would presumably build this Temple is not currently owned by the LDS Church. Originally the Temple in Independence was planned to be constructed in the 1830s. The building of that Temple by the LDS Church was postponed for a more suitable time. A later attempt to build this temple by one of the LDS offshoots in the late 1920s did not come to completion, as the Great Depression began then. This temple is known also as the temple of New Jerusalem, or Zion around which a magnificent city is to be developed. Animal sacrifices are not explicitly refered to in the scriptures of the LDS Church, however, Doctrine and Covenants Section 13 verse one refers to the time when the "sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness".

Rebuilding the Temple today

The traditional view has held that the Temple site is located where the Muslim Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque are located.

Any attempt to tear down and replace these Muslim shrines with a Jewish temple is probably impossible in today's political and religious climate. The very idea of doing so at any point in the future constitutes a seemingly unresolvable problem. Nonetheless, the idea of rebuilding the Temple somewhere else is unacceptable for the vast majority of Jews. On the other hand, if the views expressed by Ory Mazar become accepted, then such a rebuilding would become possible since the Muslim structures would not be interfered with.

Modern controversy over location of Temple site

In 1999 Dr. Ernest L. Martin published a controversial book called The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot based upon the idea of Ory Mazar, son of Professor Benjamin Mazar of Hebrew University. In 1995 Dr. Martin wrote a draft report to support this theory. He wrote: "I was then under the impression that Simon the Hasmonean (along with Herod a century later) moved the Temple from the Ophel mound to the Dome of the Rock area."

However, after studying the words of Josephus concerning the Temple of Herod, which was reported to be in the same general area of the former Temples, he then read the account of Eleazar who led the final contingent of Jewish resistance to the Romans at Masada which stated that the Roman fortress was the only structure left by 73 C.E. "With this key in mind, I came to the conclusion in 1997 that all the Temples were indeed located on the Ophel mound over the area of the Gihon Spring". This theory implied that Judaism was fighting to preserve the wrong location, which in turn sparked reactions from Muslims.

The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot by Dr. Martin was made even more controversial due to the fact that he had previously spent five years engaged in excavations near the Western Wall in a joint project between Hebrew University and Ambassador College, publisher of The Plain Truth magazine edited by Herbert W. Armstrong.

Archaeological Evidence

Archaeological excavations have found one hundred mikvaoth (ritual immersion pools) surrounding the area known as the Temple Mount or Haram as-Sharif. This is strong evidence that this area was considered of the utmost holiness in ancient times and could not possibly have been a secular area. However, it does not establish where exactly within the area was the Temple located.

Further Reading

Important Articles on the subject of the location of the Jerusalem Temple are found in the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review, in the following issues: July/August 1983, November/December 1989, March/April 1992, July/August 1999, September/October 1999, March/April 2000, September/October 2005. Several of these articles support the theory of Professor Asher Kaufman that the Temple was located on the Temple Mount, but a bit to the north of the Dome of the Rock (which actually was "The Stone of Losses" in the days of the Second Temple).

Recent artifact controversy

On December 27, 2004, it was reported in the Toronto-based The Globe and Mail that the Israel Museum in Jerusalem discovered that the ivory pomegranate that everyone believed had once adorned a scepter used by the high priest in Solomon's Temple was a fake. This artifact was the most important item of biblical antiquities in its collection. It had been part of a traveling exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in 2003. Experts fear that this discovery is part of an international fraud in antiquities. The report described the thumb-sized pomegranate, which is a mere 44 mm in height, as being inscribed with ancient Hebrew letters said to spell out the words "Sacred donation for the priests in the House of Jehovah." Some archaeologists contend that this artifact really belongs to the Late Bronze period. However, there is a school of thought that Solomon and his Temple belong in the Late Bronze period, which would make the controversy an unnecessary and spurious one.

See also

• Western Wall
• Al-Aqsa Mosque
• Dome of the Rock
• The Third Temple
• Summary of Christian eschatological differences

External links

• Emperor Julian the Apostate (r. 361-363 CE) plan to rebuild the Temple
• Julian the Apostate and the Holy Temple
• Location of Temples
• Controversy over exact location of the Templesde:Israelitischer Tempel

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