The Temple

1 Kings 9:6–9

⁶But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, ⁷then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ⁸Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house?’ ⁹and they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this evil on them.’”

Micah 3:11–12

¹¹Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money; yet they lean on the Lord, and say, “Isn’t the Lord among us? No disaster will come on us.” ¹²Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.

Jeremiah 7:11–14

¹¹Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it,” says the Lord. ¹²“But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³Now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn’t hear; and I called you, but you didn’t answer; ¹⁴therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

Jesus quotes verse 11 when he overturns the tables (Mark 11:17).

Daniel 9:26–27

²⁶After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off, and will have nothing. The people of the prince who come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will be with a flood, and war will be even to the end. Desolations are determined. ²⁷He will make a firm covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. On the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate; and even to the decreed full end, wrath will be poured out on the desolate.”

Haggai 2:3–9

³‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Isn’t it in your eyes as nothing? ⁴Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the Lord, ‘and work, for I am with you,’ says the Lord of Armies. ⁵This is the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and my Spirit lived among you. ‘Don’t be afraid.’ ⁶For this is what the Lord of Armies says: ‘Yet once more, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land; ⁷and I will shake all nations. The treasure of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of Armies. ⁸The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,’ says the Lord of Armies. ⁹‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of Armies; ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of Armies.”

Josephus · Antiquities of the Jews 15.11

And now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and after the acts already mentioned, undertook a very great work, that is, to build of himself the temple of God, and make it larger in compass, and to raise it to a most magnificent altitude, as esteeming it to be the most glorious of all his actions, as it really was, to bring it to perfection; and that this would be sufficient for an everlasting memorial of him; but as he knew the multitude were not ready nor willing to assist him in so vast a design, he thought to prepare them first by making a speech to them, and then set about the work itself; so he …

Josephus · The Jewish War 5.5

Now this temple, as I have already said, was built upon a strong hill. At first the plain at the top was hardly sufficient for the holy house and the altar, for the ground about it was very uneven, and like a precipice; but when king Solomon, who was the person that built the temple, had built a wall to it on its east side, there was then added one cloister founded on a bank cast up for it, and on the other parts the holy house stood naked. But in future ages the people added new banks, and the hill became a larger plain.

Mishnah Middot 1:1

In three places the priests keep watch in the Temple: in the chamber of Avtinas, in the chamber of the spark, and in the fire chamber. And the Levites in twenty-one places: Five at the five gates of the Temple Mount; Four at its four corners on the inside; Five at five of the gates of the courtyard; Four at its four corners on the outside; One at the offering chamber; One at the chamber of the curtain, And one behind the place of the kapporet.

Philo · Embassy to Gaius

And he with difficulty, sobbing aloud, and in a broken voice, spoke as follows: "Our temple is destroyed! Caius has ordered a colossal statue of himself to be erected in the holy of holies, having his own name inscribed upon it with the title of Jupiter!"

Written about 40 CE. Thirty years before the fire, Caligula’s statue nearly ended the Temple first.

Mark 11:15–17

¹⁵They came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. ¹⁶He would not allow anyone to carry a container through the temple. ¹⁷He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers!”

John 2:18–21

¹⁸The Jews therefore answered him, “What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?” ¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰The Jews therefore said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! Will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he spoke of the temple of his body.

Mark 13:1–2

¹As he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings!” ²Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone on another, which will not be thrown down.”

Matthew 23:37–38

³⁷“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! ³⁸Behold, your house is left to you desolate.

Luke 19:41–44

⁴¹When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, ⁴²saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³For the days will come on you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, ⁴⁴and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”

Luke 21:20–24

²⁰“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. ²¹Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein. ²²For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. ²³Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath to this people. ²⁴They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Josephus · The Jewish War 6.4

At which time one of the soldiers, without staying for any orders, and without any concern or dread upon him at so great an undertaking, and being hurried on by a certain divine fury, snatched somewhat out of the materials that were on fire, and being lifted up by another soldier, he set fire to a golden window, through which there was a passage to the rooms that were round about the holy house, on the north side of it.

Josephus · The Jewish War 6.4

But as for that house, God had, for certain, long ago doomed it to the fire; and now that fatal day was come, according to the revolution of ages; it was the tenth day of the month Lous, [Ab,] upon which it was formerly burnt by the king of Babylon; although these flames took their rise from the Jews themselves, and were occasioned by them; for upon Titus's retiring, the …

The same day of the year the first Temple burned. The Mishnah keeps it as the Ninth of Av.

Josephus · The Jewish War 6.5

Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year. Thus also before the Jews' rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, 21 [Nisan,] and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time; which lasted for half an hour.

Josephus · The Jewish War 6.5

But, what is still more terrible, there was one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before the war began, and at a time when the city was in very great peace and prosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our custom for every one to make tabernacles to God in the temple, began on a sudden to cry aloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!" This was his cry, as he went about by day and by night, in all the lanes of the city.

Another Jesus, crying woe on the city for seven years. Set him beside Luke 19 and 21.

Tacitus · Histories 5.13

Prodigies had occurred, which this nation, prone to superstition, but hating all religious rites, did not deem it lawful to expiate by offering and sacrifice. There had been seen hosts joining battle in the skies, the fiery gleam of arms, the temple illuminated by a sudden radiance from the clouds. The doors of the inner shrine were suddenly thrown open, and a voice of more than mortal tone was heard to cry that the Gods were departing. At the same instant there was a mighty stir as of departure.

2 Baruch 8

“Enter, ye enemies, And come, ye adversaries; For He Who kept the house hath forsaken (it).”

Talmud · Gittin 56b

What else did Titus do? He took the curtain and formed it like a large basket, and brought all of the sacred vessels of the Temple and placed them in it. And he put them on a ship to go and be praised in his city that he had conquered Jerusalem, as it is stated: “And so I saw the wicked buried, and come to their rest; but those that had done right were gone from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city; this also is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 8:10). Do not read the word as “buried [kevurim].” Rather, read it as collected [kevutzim].

Josephus · The Jewish War 7.1

Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury, [for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done,] Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminency; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne; and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side.

Lamentations 1:1–2

¹How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave! ²She weeps bitterly in the night. Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies.

Mishnah Ta’anit 4:6

There were five events that happened to our ancestors on the seventeenth of Tammuz and five on the ninth of Av.On the seventeenth of Tammuz: The tablets were shattered; The tamid (daily) offering was cancelled; The [walls] of the city were breached; And Apostomos burned the Torah, and placed an idol in the Temple. On the ninth of Av It was decreed that our ancestors should not enter the land, The Temple was destroyed the first And the second time, Betar was captured, And the city was plowed up. When Av enters, they limit their rejoicing.

Talmud · Ta’anit 29a

The Sages taught: When the Temple was destroyed for the first time, many groups of young priests gathered together with the Temple keys in their hands. And they ascended to the roof of the Sanctuary and said before God: Master of the Universe, since we did not merit to be faithful treasurers, and the Temple is being destroyed, let the Temple keys be handed to You. And they threw them upward, and a kind of palm of a hand emerged and received the keys from them. And the young priests jumped from the roof and fell into the fire of the burning Temple.

2 Baruch 10:18

Moreover, ye priests, take ye the keys of the sanctuary, And cast them into the height of heaven, And give them to the Lord, and say: ‘Guard Thy house Thyself, For lo! we are found false stewards.’

The same image as the Talmud just above: priests throwing the keys of the sanctuary back to heaven.

Talmud · Yoma 9b

However, considering that the people during the Second Temple period were engaged in Torah study, observance of mitzvot, and acts of kindness, and that they did not perform the sinful acts that were performed in the First Temple, why was the Second Temple destroyed? It was destroyed due to the fact that there was wanton hatred during that period. This comes to teach you that the sin of wanton hatred is equivalent to the three severe transgressions: Idol worship, forbidden sexual relations and bloodshed.

Talmud · Gittin 56a

Abba Sikkara said to him: This is what you should do: Pretend to be sick, and have everyone come and ask about your welfare, so that word will spread about your ailing condition. Afterward bring something putrid and place it near you, so that people will say that you have died and are decomposing. And then, have your students enter to bring you to burial, and let no one else come in so that the zealots not notice that you are still light. As the zealots know that a living person is lighter than a dead person. Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai did this. Rabbi Eliezer entered from one side and Rabbi Yehoshua from the other side to take him out. When they arrived at the entrance of the city on the inside, the guards, who were of the faction of the zealots, wanted to pierce him with their swords in order to ascertain that he was actually dead, as was the common practice. Abba Sikkara said to them: The Romans will say that they pierce even their teacher.

Avot de-Rabbi Natan 4

Once, Rabban [our rabbi] Yohanan ben Zakkai, left Jerusalem, and Rabbi Yehoshua followed after him. And he saw the Holy Temple destroyed. [Rabbi Yehoshua said: Woe to us, for this is destroyed –] the place where all of Israel’s sins are forgiven! [Rabbi Yohanan] said to him: My son, do not be distressed, for we have a form of atonement just like it. And what is it? Acts of kindness, as it says (Psalms 89:3), “For I desire kindness, not a well-being offering.” And so we find that Daniel, the precious man, would busy himself with acts of kindness.

Eusebius · Church History 3.5

But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those that believed in Christ had come thither from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles, and totally destroyed that generation of impious men.

The Epistle of Barnabas 16

Moreover, I will also tell you concerning the temple, how the wretched [Jews], wandering in error, trusted not in God Himself, but in the temple, as being the house of God. For almost after the manner of the Gentiles they worshipped Him in the temple. But learn how the Lord speaks, when abolishing it: "Who hath meted out heaven with a span, and the earth with his palm? Have not I?" "Thus saith the Lord, Heaven is My throne, and the earth My footstool: what kind of house will ye build to Me, or what is the place of My rest?" Ye perceive that their hope is vain.

4 Ezra 10

It came to pass while I was talking with her, behold, her face suddenly began to shine exceedingly, and her countenance flashed like lightning, so that I was very afraid of her, and wondered what this meant. 26 Behold, suddenly she made a great and very fearful cry, so that the earth shook at the noise. 27 I looked, and behold, the woman appeared to me no more, but there was a city built, and a place shown itself from large foundations. Then I was afraid, and cried with a loud voice, 28 “Where is Uriel the angel, who came to me at the first?

Hebrews 9:11–12

¹¹But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, ¹²nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.

Revelation 21:22–23

²²I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³The city has no need for the sun or moon to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it and its lamp is the Lamb.