Herod begins rebuilding the temple
John 2:19–21; Mark 13:1–2; Haggai 2:9
Herod rebuilt Zerubbabel's modest temple on a grand scale and doubled the size of the temple mount. The sanctuary itself took a year and a half, but work on the courts went on for more than eighty years.
The Jews therefore said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! Will you raise it up in three days?”
John 2:20 (World English Bible)
To reassure the Jews that he wouldn't tear down the old temple without finishing a new one, Herod gathered materials for two years and trained a thousand priests as masons and carpenters, so that only priests would build the holy places. The sanctuary was faced with white stone and gold, and the huge platform around it, held up by walls like the Western Wall that still stands, made it one of the wonders of the Roman world.
When Jesus spoke of raising up the temple in three days, his hearers pointed out how long the building had already been under way (John 2:20). His disciples admired its great stones, and he told them not one would be left on another (Mark 13:1–2). The work was finished only in AD 63, seven years before the Romans destroyed it. Haggai's promise that the latter glory of this house would be greater than the former was fulfilled not by Herod's gold but by Christ's presence in it (Haggai 2:9).
Ancient witnesses outside the Bible
Historical sources, not Scripture.
- Antiquities 15.11.1–7
- War 1.21.1 — here dated to Herod's fifteenth year
- War 5.5.1–8 — a description of the temple
Dating notes
Josephus dates the start to Herod's 18th year, about 20/19 BC counting from 37 BC. Ussher has Herod announce the plan in 19 BC and begin building in 17 BC, after two years of preparation, counting John 2:20's 46 years back from Jesus' first Passover in AD 30. Most historians date the start to 20/19 BC.