(LifeSiteNews) — Among the consequences of Israel’s year-plus military campaign in Gaza is a renewed enthusiasm among both Jews and Christian Zionists for the construction of the so-called “third temple” in Jerusalem.
Last August, for example, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount (for the sixth time) where he called for the right of Jews to pray on the site and build a synagogue. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, covering the event, called it a an “act of deception,” concealing the long-term goal of razing the Islamic structures on the Temple Mount and building the third temple.[1]
Earlier last year, in a television interview, a far-right member of the Knesset had endorsed the building of the third temple where “we’ll be able to eat … from the Passover sacrifices. [2] After the November U.S. presidential election, Yosef Berger, the rabbi in charge of the site of King David’s Tomb, stated that “Like Cyrus, God put Donald Trump in power in order to build the Temple and pave the way for moshiach [messiah].”[3]
Within American ranks, journalists uncovered a 2018 speech by Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s new secretary of defense, in which he appeared to endorse the “miracle of the re-establishment of the temple.”[4] The magazine Jewish Currents recently noted that Republican notables, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, Representative Jim Jordan, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, had met with members of radical Kahanist organizations who form part of the backbone of Israel’s third temple movement.[5]
Certainly the news coverage since October 2023 has focused on the horrific Gaza campaign, followed by the January 2025 ceasefire which went into effect one day before Trump’s second inauguration. During this time, the possible erection of a third temple has been no more than a journalistic sidebar. Nevertheless, in narrow circles the Israeli interest in building the third temple now seems to be on a par with the demolishing of Gaza, the annexation of the West Bank, and even a cheap land-grab in Syria.
Under the new and strongly pro-Zionist Trump administration, it is by no means certain that the United States will not endorse – or at least not oppose – an Israeli initiative to build the third temple.[6] Aside from the immense international ramifications of such an act, the Catholic – and any serious Christian – must consider the moral and spiritual consequences.
If one were to judge the Zionist enterprise of Israel by the two great commandments of Christ (love of God and love of neighbor), it would receive failing marks on both counts (not that the United States or most countries would fare better). However, the construction of the third temple, with its apparent resumption of the Mosaic law and animal sacrifice, presents an affront to heaven that openly rejects the redemption of both Jews and Gentiles by Jesus Christ. It is qualitatively different from the many other institutional sins of mankind over the last two thousand years. And to the extent that Gentiles do not oppose the temple, they support it.[7] The actions of both God and the Jews throughout history concerning the concept of a “temple” are intriguing and deserve a closer look.
This article, while by no means comprehensive, proposes to offer some insight into the concept of “temple” as a key element in salvation history, which is still playing out today, possibly toward a dangerous climax.
The Temple of Solomon
The story of the planning of the first temple (under David) and its construction (under Solomon) is scattered among several Old Testament books, including 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and 1 Kings.
However, the divine basis for the temple, its procurement by David, and its location are all revealed in one short chapter. 2 Samuel 24 begins with an account of David’s decision to take a census at the height of his reign, an act of pride for which God punished the Jewish people with a plague across the entire land:
…and there died of the people from Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men.And when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented of the evil and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, ‘It is enough; now stay your hand.’ And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was smiting the people, and said, ‘Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father’s house.’ (2 Sam 24:15-17).
At this point, the author of 2 Samuel, having conveyed David’s remorse for his sin, abruptly changes topics:
And [the prophet] Gad came that day to David, and said to him, ‘Go up, rear an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.’ So David went up at Gad’s word, as the Lord commanded. And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him; and Araunah went forth and did obeisance to the king with his face to the ground. And Araunah said, ‘Why has my lord the king come to his servant?’ David said, ‘To buy the threshing floor of you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be averted from the people.’ Then Araunah said to David, ‘Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.’ And Araunah said to the king, ‘The Lord your God accept you.’ But the king said to Araunah, ‘No, but I will buy it of you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded supplications for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel. (2 Sam 24:18-25).
What can we conclude from this chapter?
Of course, the “altar to the Lord” which David proposed to purchase from Araunah would become the temple of his son Solomon in due time. And it was the “burnt offerings and peace offerings” in the temple which would placate the divine wrath, at least to some extent. We can infer by the prompting of the prophet Gad that the temple was God’s idea, not David’s. Indeed, it appears to be a gift from God to David in return for his heartfelt repentance.
So the first temple was not born of a military victory, such as the conquest of Arab lands in 1967 (or 2025?). Certainly David had plenty of victories, if that was God’s criterion. Nor was it born of pride or prosperity (see below for a discussion of Herod’s temple). Rather, the first temple was the product of God’s mercy combined with David’s contrition and humility. A second point is that David refused the threshing floor as a free gift from Araunah; rather, he insisted on paying something akin to “fair market value” for the property. Again we see a contrast with the proposed third temple. The Israelis, for all their wealth, have never indicated an interest in purchasing the Temple Mount from the government of Jordan or its Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem, or otherwise providing compensation.[8] Rather, the widespread assumption within the Zionist universe is that Israel has owned the property (even before its capture in 1967) based simply on Sacred Scripture. But Israel cannot have it both ways. It cannot claim a divine right to land based on the centuries-old writings of Hebrew prophets and simultaneously assert the protections of modern international law for other actions.
We learn more about the first temple, and the divine plan behind it, from other verses of the Old Testament.
In 2 Chronicles 3:1 we find that David’s chosen place for the temple, the threshing floor of the Jebusite, was “on Mount Moriah.” This is mentioned only one other time in Scripture (Genesis 22:2), when God directed Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on a mountain in “the land of Moriah.” So the very location of the temple was significant to God because of Abraham’s supreme act of love and obedience to God some one thousand years earlier.
Secondly, it seems that God prohibited David from the privilege of building the temple because of his warrior past. As David himself says in 1 Chronicles 28:3, “But God said to me, ‘You may not build a house for my name, for you are a warrior and have shed blood.’”[9] In view of such a statement from the Torah, how can the leaders of modern Israel, one of the most militaristic states in the world, believe that the Lord is now calling them to honor Him with a temple, a privilege He denied to David?
Finally, it should be noted that the Temple of Solomon was primarily, but not exclusively, a Jewish project. While Araunah the Jebusite provided the land, there were also thousands of workmen, including skilled craftsman under the auspices of King Hiram of Tyre, who contributed to the construction. We know from the genealogy of Christ that some of His ancestors were not Jewish, notably the women Tamar and Rahab (both Canaanites), Ruth (a Moabite), and Bathsheba, who was legally a Hittite.[10] Why should we be surprised to see that the temple God commanded to be built should also involve the Gentiles?
Solomon’s temple, built in approximately 966 BC, lasted about 400 years. This was the temple known to Isaiah, Ezechiel, and Jeremiah, all of whom issued stern warnings to the Jewish people about repenting from their evil ways. Jeremiah, who prophesized the destruction of Jerusalem in his own lifetime, delivered a strong reprimand to his countrymen at the very gate of the temple:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Amend your ways and your doings, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Ba′al, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ – only to go on doing all these abominations? Has 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. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh … (Jeremiah 7:3-14).
Shiloh, once home to the tent or sanctuary which housed the Ark of the Covenant, had been reduced to ruins by the time of Jeremiah.[11]
In 586 BC the Lord allowed the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the rump Kingdom of Juda, capturing Jerusalem and destroying the magnificent temple of Solomon, complete with the Ark of the Covenant. Today the archaeological evidence for the majestic temple of Solomon is “slim to none.” According to the BBC, for example, “[t]he only evidence is the Bible. There are no other records describing it, and to date there has been no archaeological evidence of the Temple at all.”[12] With the ten lost tribes of Israel having already disappeared into history, the two remaining tribes, Judah and Benjamin, began a 40-plus year exile in Babylonia, as the Jewish nation was no more.
The Second Temple
In the mysterious ways of God, the Jews had a second chance in the Promised Land, thanks to the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC.
The Persian king Cyrus issued an edict authorizing the captive Jews to not only return to their homeland but also to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem, complete with the temple vessels that had been captured by the Babylonians. Of note, the current interest in building a third temple has spawned a bizarre comparison between Donald Trump and King Cyrus.
Trump’s strongly pro-Zionist foreign policy during his first administration, notably the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017, created an apparent similarity with the ancient Persian king, at least among Jews and Christian Zionists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly endorsed this comparison. For their part, some Christian Zionists have begun to regard Trump as a sort of divine instrument, no matter how imperfect (no problem there!), who carries out God’s will for the preservation of His chosen people.[13] The reputation of Cyrus as a divine instrument seems assured; the Deuterocanonical book of 1 Esdras states that “the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians, and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: Thus says Cyrus king of the Persians: ‘The Lord of Israel, the Lord Most High, has made me king of the world, and he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judea.’” (1 Esdras 2: 2-4). As for Trump, while there exist White House documents for his many pro-Israel decisions as president, none of them cite the will of God as a factor.
Upon returning to Judea, the Jews began to rebuild their temple under the leadership of Zerubbabel, who had been born in Babylon during the exile. The new temple, finally dedicated in 515 BC, was a poor imitation of its predecessor, given the poverty which had befallen the Jews during the exile.
Ezra 3:12 recounts the weeping of the elders at the dedication ceremony, presumably because they recognized how inferior was the second temple compared to the original.[14] Nonetheless, Zerubbabel’s temple would last almost until the time of Christ. During this era, Judea gradually became Hellenized and was also reduced to a pawn by stronger neighbors, such as the Persians, the Ptolemies, and the Seleucids. It was Zerubbabel’s temple that was desecrated around 169 BC by the infamous King Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Syria.
According to a Greek historian, Antiochus “sacrificed a great swine at the image of Moses, and at the altar of God that stood in the outward court and sprinkled them with the blood of the sacrifice. He commanded likewise that the books, by which they were taught to hate all other nations, should be sprinkled with the broth made of the swine’s flesh. And he put out the lamp (called by them immortal) which burns continually in the temple. Lastly he forced the high priest and the other Jews to eat swine’s flesh.”[15] This outrageous incident, also documented as the “awful horror” or “abomination of desolation” in the Deuterocanonical book 1 Maccabees, became the impetus for the Maccabean revolt, one of the most celebrated episodes in Jewish history. The Maccabean triumph was only temporary, however. About a hundred years later (63 BC), the temple of Zerubbabel witnessed a final humiliation when the Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem. Pompey’s capture of the Temple mount “was accompanied by great slaughter. The priests who were officiating despite the battle were massacred by the Roman soldiers, and many committed suicide; while 12,000 people besides were killed. Pompey himself entered the Temple, but he was so awed by its sanctity that he left the treasure and the costly vessels untouched.”[16]
The Temple of Herod
At the time of Pompey’s desecration of the temple, the future King Herod the Great was nine years old.
In 40 BC, the Roman Senate appointed Herod as King of Judea, where he was expected to represent Roman interests. In vogue with his era, Herod proved to be one of the great builders in antiquity.[17]
His masterpiece was a new temple, designed to seamlessly replace the now 500-year-old temple of Zerubbabel (Perhaps because Zerubbabel’s temple was not actually destroyed, but effectively “refurbished and expanded” as per Wikipedia, the term “second temple” has been applied historically to both structures).[18] In any event, Herod rebuilt the second temple from the ground up out of marble and gold. The main building was taller than fifteen stories and its foundation included limestone blocks of 500 tons.[19]
Such an elaborate project, including the surrounding porticos, courtyards, and the rest of the complex took some 80 years to complete, far beyond Herod’s own lifetime. When Herod first announced the initiative (c. 20 BC), he boasted that it would be “the most glorious of all his actions” and serve as “an everlasting memorial of him,” according to the Jewish historian Josephus. Likewise, Herod arrogantly reminded his subjects that “with God’s assistance, I have advanced the nation of the Jews to a degree of happiness which they never had before.”[20]
By the time of its completion in 63 AD, just seven years before its utter destruction by the Roman general Titus, Josephus was able to testify to its magnificence as follows: “Now the outward face of the temple in its front wanted nothing that was likely to surprise either men’s minds or their eyes; for it was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as they would have done at the sun’s own rays. But this temple appeared to strangers, when they were coming to it at a distance, like a mountain covered with snow; for as to those parts of it that were not gilt, they were exceeding white.”[21] Herod’s temple complex was not only grand, but huge. Modern estimates are that the entire temple mount was about 36 acres, approximately twice the size of both Solomon’s original temple and Trajan’s Forum in Rome.[22] Despite its majesty, however, the innermost room of the temple (the Holy of Holies) was empty, given that the Ark of the Covenant and its two attendant gold cherubim had long ago disappeared.
By the lifetime of Christ, the performance of sacrifices in the temple was a major industry. As author Paul Johnson notes, “Many thousands of priests, Levites, scribes and pious Jews worked in and around the Temple area.” The priests were responsible for the animal sacrifices and other rituals. According to Aristeas, a Jewish pilgrim from Alexandria, some 700 priests engaged in “performing the sacrifices, working in silence but handling the heavy carcasses with professional skill and putting them on exactly the right part of the altar. Because of the huge number of animals, the slaughter, bloodying and carving up of the carcasses had to be done quickly; and to get rid of the copious quantities of blood, the platform was not solid but hollow, a gigantic cleansing system” containing 34 cisterns. Numerous openings brought water up from the cisterns while drains carried off the torrents of blood so that “all the blood is collected in great quantities and washed away in the twinkling of an eye.”[23]
The temple, the Christ, and His mother
The temple of Herod was the scene of several key events in the life of Christ, beginning with His presentation and circumcision shortly after birth. Let us first consider, however, the “cleansing of the temple” by Christ in the first year of His public ministry as recorded by St. John. Following Christ’s expulsion of the merchants and money-changers:
The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign have you to show us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he spoke of the temple of his body.” (John 2:18-21).
Now Jesus was obviously not 46 years old at this time and the reference to 46 years may have no further meaning. However, the biblical scribes, and especially John, frequently have hidden meanings in their texts which we would do well to explore.
Since the 46 years does not refer to Christ Himself, could it possibly refer to the body of His Mother? The revelations of Mary to Blessed Maria of Agreda (author of The Mystical City of God), although not claiming to answer this question directly, provide a fascinating level of detail in the lives of the Blessed Virgin and Her divine Son. In this case, we might consider the text provided at the end of Mary’s life, which states that “…when Christ our Savior was born, his virginal mother was fifteen years, three months, and seventeen days of age.”[24]
Although we do not know the age of Christ at this early point in His public ministry, it is not inconceivable that the Jews were referring, without their knowing it, to the age of His Blessed Mother. Put differently, as Herod and his enthusiastic Jewish followers had been launching their earthly project for a new and grandiose temple, could God Himself not have been simultaneously introducing the new covenant by the Immaculate Conception (or birth) of Mary? Was Mary perhaps the real new temple – or even – the ultimate Ark of the Covenant, which was the most sacred object in the original temple?[25] The answer to that question awaits in eternity.
Indeed, the writings of Maria of Agreda are replete with references to the Blessed Virgin as the new temple and/or new Ark of the Covenant in the divine plan of salvation. A few examples follow:
(1) Prior to the Annunciation, God’s preparation of Mary for her great mission depicts her as a temple.
In order to put the last touch to this prodigious work of preparing the most holy Mary, the Lord extended his powerful arm and expressly renewed the spirit and the faculties of the great Lady, giving Her new inclinations, habits and qualities, the greatness and excellence of which are inexpressible in terrestrial terms. It was the finishing act and the final retouching of the living image of God, in order to form, in it and of it, the very shape, into which the eternal Word, the essential image of the eternal Father (2 Cor. 4:4) and the figure of his substance (Heb. 1:3), was to be cast. Thus the whole temple of most holy Mary, more so than that of Solomon, was covered with the purest gold of the Divinity inside and out, (III Kings 6: 30), so that nowhere could be seen in Her any grossness of an earthly daughter of Adam. Her entire being was made to shine forth the Divinity; for since the divine Word was to issue from the bosom of the eternal Father to descend to that of Mary, He provided for the greatest possible similarity between the Mother and the Father.[26]
(2) Similarly, at the Visitation, her cousin Elizabeth refers to Mary as both a temple and as the new Ark of the Covenant.
In order to find some consolation, saint Elisabeth resolved to open her heart to the heavenly Lady, who was, however, not ignorant of her sorrow; and she said to Her in great submission and humility: ‘Cousin, dear Lady, on account of the respect and consideration, with which I am bound to serve Thee, I have not until now dared to speak of my desire and of the sorrow in my heart; give me now the permission to relieve it by making them known. The Lord has condescended in his mercy to send Thee hither, in order that I might have the unmerited blessing of conversing with Thee and of knowing the mysteries, which his divine Providence has entrusted to Thee, my Mistress. Unworthy I am to praise Him eternally for this favor’ (Dan 3:53). ‘Thou art the living temple of his glory, the ark of the Testament, containing the Manna, which is the food of the angels’ (Heb. 9:4). ‘Thou art the tablet of the true law, written in his own Being’ (Psalms 77:25).[27]
(3) After the ascension of the Lord, we learn of the unique role played by Mary in the first days of the Church, in fulfillment of Christ’s promise that “I am with you always…” (Matt: 28:20).
[Jesus] had remained sacramentally present in his Mother since the last Supper, as related above. But it would not have been entirely fulfilled after his Ascension, if He had not wrought this new miracle in the Church; for in those first years the Apostles had no temple or proper arrangement for preserving continually the sacred Eucharist, and therefore they always consumed it entirely on the day of its consecration. The most holy Mary alone was the sanctuary and the temple, in which for some years the most blessed Sacrament was preserved, in order that the Church of Christ might not be deprived even for moment of the Word made flesh, from the time when He ascended into heaven until the end of the world. Although He was not there present in that Tabernacle for the use of the faithful, yet He was there for their benefit and for other more glorious ends; since the great Queen offered up her prayers and intercessions for all Christians in the temple of her own heart and She adored the sacramental Christ in the name of the whole Church; while by his indwelling in that virginal bosom, Christ was present and united to the mystical body of the faithful. Above all, this great Lady was the cause of that age’s being supremely fortunate; for, by thus sheltering within her bosom her sacramental Son and God, just as He is now harbored within the sanctuaries and tabernacles, He was continually adored with highest reverence and piety by the most blessed Mary, and was never offended, as He is now in our churches.[28]
(4) Finally, Maria of Agreda offers us this inspired comment upon the death of Mary:
Then this most pure Soul passed from her virginal body to be placed in boundless glory, on the throne at the right hand of her divine Son. Immediately the music of the angels seemed to withdraw to the upper air; for that whole procession of angels and saints accompanied the King and Queen to the empyrean heavens. The sacred body of the most blessed Mary, which had been the temple and sanctuary of God in life, continued to shine with an effulgent light and breathed forth such a wonderful and unheard-of fragrance, that all the bystanders were filled with interior and exterior sweetness.[29]
Collectively, these references among many others should cause us to consider that, with the coming of the redeemer and His new and everlasting covenant, the original concept of a physical temple was superseded by something both far more sublime, which of necessity is in the spiritual realm.
The destruction of Herod’s temple
Returning to the saga of Herod’s temple, by the lifetime of Christ it had long become not only the religious focus of the Mosaic covenant but also the political, social, cultural, and even economic center of Jewish life.
When Jesus was asked by His followers about the magnificence of the temple complex, the Gospel of Matthew (24:2) records His response: “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.”[30]The Roman conquest of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple which fulfilled this prophecy would occur in 70 AD, about one generation in the future. However, a disturbing clue about the fate of the temple should have alarmed Jewish leaders just a few years hence, as they executed Christ, their long-awaited messiah, as a common criminal.
That clue, of course, was the tearing of the temple veil in two, as documented by three of the evangelists (Matt 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45). As we again turn to Maria of Agreda, we learn that it was the inspired appeal of the Blessed Virgin to God the Father to protect the honor of His (and her) divine son which caused the rift in the temple curtain and other miraculous events:
When the great Queen of the angels, most holy Mary, perceived that the Jews in their perfidy and obstinate envy vied in dishonoring Him, in blaspheming Him as the most wicked of men and in desiring to blot out his name from the land of the living, as Jeremias had prophesied (Jer. 11:19), She was inflamed with a new zeal for the honor of her Son and true God. Prostrate before the person of the Crucified, and adoring Him, She besought the eternal Father to see to the honor of his Onlybegotten and manifest it by such evident signs that the perfidy of the Jews might be confounded and their malice frustrated of its intent. Having presented this petition to the Father, She, with the zeal and authority of the Queen of the universe, addressed all the irrational creatures and said: ‘Insensible creatures, created by the hand of the Almighty, do you manifest your compassion, which in deadly foolishness is denied to Him by men capable of reason. Ye heavens, thou sun, moon and ye stars and planets, stop in your course and suspend your activity in regard to mortals. Ye elements, change your condition, earth lose thy stability, let your rocks and cliffs be rent. Ye sepulchres and monuments of the dead, open and send forth your contents for the confusion of the living. Thou mystical and figurative veil of the temple, divide into two parts and by thy separation threaten the unbelievers with chastisement, give witness to the truth and to the glory of their Creator and Redeemer, which they are trying to obscure.’[31]
By 66 AD, the continuous friction between the Jews and Rome resulted in an invasion of Palestine by Roman armies under the command of Vaspasian and his son Titus, both future emperors.The Jewish historian Josephus, a first-hand witness to this campaign (and who switched sides in the middle), has left us with a detailed account.
The four-year war culminated in the Roman siege of Jerusalem with the destruction of the entire city and the burning of the temple in August of 70 AD. Like Solomon’s temple more than six centuries earlier, Herod’s masterpiece was utterly demolished. Josephus records that Jerusalem “was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.”[32] Of note, the advance of the Roman legions on Jerusalem prompted the Christians to flee to the city of Pella on the east bank of the Jordan. They were thus spared the horrific fate of the Jewish defenders. The Christians were well aware of the cautionary words of Christ: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it; for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! For great distress shall be upon the earth and wrath upon this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 21: 20-24).[33]
Unlike the Jews, the Christians knew that their kingdom – the kingdom of God – lay not in the real estate of Palestine, but in the Church, its sacraments, and the hearts of the faithful. As if the actions of the legions of Titus were not sufficient to fulfill the prophecy of Christ, the emperor Hadrian added a further insult several decades later. On his travels through the eastern empire in 130 AD, Hadrian ordered the entire city of Jerusalem to be rebuilt in Roman style with a Roman name – Aelia Capitolina – and the temple of Yahweh replaced with a temple to the pagan god Zeus. Surely Jerusalem was by then “trodden down by the Gentiles.”
Speaking of temples
As the tiny seed of Christianity expanded in the first century AD from Judea to the larger Mediterranean world, it benefitted from numerous miracles wrought by the Blessed Virgin. Again we see that the revelations documented by Maria of Agreda in the sixteenth century provide intriguing details. We will briefly consider the experience of St. James (brother of St. John) in Spain and an incident during the Blessed Virgin’s stay in Ephesus. In the first case, the result was the building of a new temple (i.e., church) dedicated specifically to Mary as Our Lady of the Pillar. In the second, which occurred just a few years later, the outcome was the miraculous destruction of a pagan temple to the goddess Diana, or Artemis.
James was the first of the apostles to leave Jerusalem, according to tradition. Some seventeen months after the passion and death of Our Lord, he followed the command of Christ to take the Gospel to far-away Spain, where he encountered persecution by diaspora Jews. Christ, ever attentive to the needs of his disciples, appeared to Mary and addressed her as follows:
‘I desire thee to visit him [James] in Spain, where he is preaching in my name…Go to Saragossa where he now is and command him to return to Jerusalem [to be martyred]. But before he leaves that city, he is to build a temple in thy name and title, where thou shalt be venerated and invoked for the welfare of that country, for my glory and pleasure, and that of the most blessed Trinity.'[34]
The Blessed Virgin then progressed miraculously to Spain and found James in prayer on the banks of the Ebro River. The angels in her accompaniment bore with them ‘a small column hewn of marble or jasper, and a not very large image of their queen.’ At the command of her Son, Mary addressed James as follows: ‘My son James, this place the most high and omnipotent God of heaven has destined to be consecrated by thee upon earth for the erection of a temple and house of prayer, where, under my patronage and name He wishes to be glorified and magnified, where the treasures of his right hand shall be distributed, and all his ancient mercies shall be opened up for the faithful through my intercession, if they ask for them in true faith and sincere piety. In the name of the Almighty I promise them great favors and blessings of sweetness, and my protection and assistance; for this is to be my house and temple, my inheritance and possession. A pledge of this truth and of my promise shall be this column [pillar] with my image placed upon it. In the temple which thou shalt build for me, it shall remain and be preserved, together with the holy faith, until the end of the world. Thou shalt immediately begin to build this temple of God, and after thou hast completed it, thou shalt depart for Jerusalem; for my divine Son wishes thee to offer the sacrifice of thy life in the same place where He offered his for the salvation of the human race.'[35]
Such, in brief, was the origin of the shrine of Our Lady of the Pillar, now a world-famous cathedral and basilica.
Shortly after this incident in Spain, the Blessed Virgin, accompanied by St. John, was led to the city of Ephesus where she would work another major miracle. As Maria of Agreda explains, Ephesus was a city which had been under diabolic control for centuries. The focal point was the Amazons, a group of demonically inspired women who over time had created their home in a temple and chose one of their number – Diana – as a goddess. The temple became the venue of immoral sexual acts while eventually Lucifer “appropriated the statue of Diana as a seat or throne of his wickedness.”[36]
Meanwhile, St. John appealed to the Blessed Virgin, realizing that she alone could take action to stop the worship of demons in “that abominable place.”[37] After appealing in prayer to her divine Son, Mary “commanded all the demons in the temple of Diana to descend immediately to the depths of hell and to leave the place, which they had infested as their own for so many years.”[38] “Following up her victory, the great mistress of the world, with the consent of Christ our Savior, immediately ordered one of her holy angels to repair to the temple of Diana and destroy it without leaving a stone upon a stone.”[39] In response, her angel “executed the mandate of his Queen and Mistress, and in the shortest space of time the rich and famous temple of Diana, the establishment of which had consumed many ages, was shattered to the dust: so sudden was the destruction and ruin of it, that it aroused the astonishment and fear of the inhabitants of Ephesus.”[40] This event seems to be referenced in the apocryphal Acts of John, which “recounts a story in which the apostle John prayed in the temple, resulting in the splitting of its altar and the collapse of a portion of the temple.”[41]
Together these two incidents illustrate the miraculous aid which Christ provided His apostles through His Holy Mother at this critical moment for the infant Church. In the first instance, Christ rewarded His Mother with a temple (church) especially reserved for her honor; it would become the first of thousands of churches so dedicated. In the second instance, Mary was given the power to miraculously destroy a temple to a false goddess. So began the age of the apostolic church, when temples disappeared, miraculously or otherwise, and churches arose across the Roman empire.
The Temple of Julian the Apostate
We now fast-forward to the fourth century to consider our final temple from history.
Unlike all the others, this temple never got off the ground. It was the brainstorm of a 31-year-old nephew of the great emperor Constantine who would die in battle against the Persians only a year later, having ruled the empire for just nineteen months. Upon his proclamation as emperor in 361 AD, young Julian revealed to the world that he had renounced his Christian faith and converted to paganism, worshipping the gods and goddesses of his ancestors.[42] Actually, Julian’s new-found beliefs were syncretic, “absorbing a wide variety of beliefs and practices.” In fact, Julian was open to almost everything except Christianity, which he called a “disease.”[43]
Besides issuing a number of edicts prejudicial to Christianity, he announced his plan to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem which had been destroyed by the Romans nearly three centuries earlier. In a letter to the Jewish community, Julian stated that he would rebuild “the sacred city of Jerusalem [including the temple, mentioned elsewhere], which for so many years you have longed to see inhabited, and [you] may bring settlers there and, together with you, may glorify the Most High God therein.”[44]
Fortunately, we have a number of contemporary sources, both Christian and pagan, which have documented Julian’s abortive attempt to rebuild the temple in 363 AD. They include future saints Gregory of Nazianzen and Ephrem of Syria, as well as the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus. We know that the Jews of Jerusalem approached this project with great enthusiasm; even the women contributed ornaments and carried dirt in their gowns, as reported by Gregory.
Ephrem noted that the Jews “raged and raved and sounded the trumpets” and that “all of them raged madly and were without restraint.”[45] “Despite such auspicious beginnings, work on the Temple probably lasted only a few days. Numerous reports, both pagan and Christian, attribute the work stoppage to a fire and, perhaps, an earthquake. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus reported that ‘terrifying balls of flame kept bursting forth near the foundations of the Temple,’ burning some of the workers to death and putting a stop to the enterprise. Gregory of Nazianzus wrote of ‘a furious blast of wind’ and ‘a flame [that] issued forth from the sacred place.’ Ephraem noted that there were winds, earthquakes and lightning, and that a ‘fire came forth.’”[46]
The fate of Julian’s project, like that of the temple of Diana three centuries earlier, clearly seems to stem from supernatural causes. The Christians of the time, of course, were acutely aware of Christ’s prophecy about the temple (“there will not be left here one stone upon another…”). Had Julian succeeded with his temple, it would have validated the Jewish belief that Christ was not the messiah and therefore Christianity was a false religion. The enthusiasm of the Jews for the temple was in part to demonstrate that they remained God’s chosen people. Julian’s motivation for building a third temple has been debated by scholars. Was it designed to insult the Christians, please the Jews, or restore the traditional pagan culture? Possibly all of these. One motive seems certain: Julian was a known advocate of animal sacrifice, which would certainly be resurrected if the Jews succeeded in building a third temple. With the abrupt and dramatic end of Julian the Apostate’s project, Christianity continued to flourish, the Jewish community continued to atrophy, and Palestine became increasingly impoverished and depopulated.
What about that Third Temple?
The rise of Zionism in the late nineteenth century, although a secular movement, was the catalyst for the migration of thousands of religious Jews to Palestine.
During the era of the Palestine mandate (1922-1947) and the early years of Israeli independence, the issues of economic growth and security had overwhelming priority and the interest in a third temple was negligible. However, Israel’s dramatic victory in the June 1967 war, erroneously deemed “miraculous” by some,[47] caused interest in the temple to proliferate. In no small part that was because the Israeli army had advanced just a few hundred yards across the “Green Line” into old Jerusalem, thereby capturing the Temple Mount from the Jordanians.[48]
By August, the future chief rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Goren, was leading public prayers by Jews on the Temple Mount. From that time, the Temple Mount has been the scene of conflict and even violence between religious or right-wing Jews and the Arab Muslims, who continued to have the right to access the Temple Mount and pray at its Al-Aqsa Mosque. Ironically, the Israeli rabbinate has since opposed the right of Jews to pray on the mount because of “ritual impurity.”[49] Perhaps conveniently, this helped to minimize contact between Jews and Muslims, especially on Sabbath, and thereby reduce the chances of violence. Nonetheless, the Temple Mount is occasionally the scene for a provocative visit by right wing Israeli leaders, inevitably precipitating violence with Arabs. For example, in September of 2000, the late Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon staged a visit there, surrounded by hundreds of Israeli riot police, resulting in a full-scale brawl with Palestinians. The next year Sharon was made prime minister.
Access to the Temple Mount also spurred Jewish activism to begin preparing for the third temple. At least three major organizations have been working toward this goal for several decades. They are the Temple Institute,[50] the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement (abbreviated TMF),[51] and Returning to the Temple Mount.[52] Of note, all three organizations maintain English language websites, calculated to appeal to the many American and European Christian Zionists who support the temple initiative.
Collectively known as the “temple mount movement,” these organizations represent an eclectic mix of orthodox Jews and secular Zionists. The government-funded Temple Institute runs a visitor’s center and museum in Jerusalem, trains priests, makes vessels for use in ritual ceremonies, and indoctrinates Israeli schoolchildren with its agenda. Amazingly, the Temple Institute claims to know the precise and hidden location of the Ark of the Covenant, “waiting for the day when it will be revealed.”[53]
The TMF’s website states that “(t)he Temple Mount can never be consecrated to the Name of G-d without removing these pagan shrines [the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock]. It has been suggested that they be removed, transferred to and rebuilt at Mecca.” Further, consecrating the Temple Mount will make it “the moral and spiritual center of Israel, of the Jewish people and of the entire world.”[54] In 1990 the TMF attempted to lay a cornerstone of the third temple, resulting in a riot on the Temple Mount in which seventeen Palestinians were killed.[55] The movement’s leader, Gershon Salomon, regretted only that Muslim blood had defiled the Temple Mount. In 2022, the TMF announced on Facebook that “it will be offering a cash prize to those who succeed in sacrificing a lamb on the Temple Mount, as well as to those who are arrested in the process.”[56]
Israel remains a largely secular society and the interest in a third temple is predominantly confined to the ultra-orthodox (or Haredi) Jews. However, the Haredim are Israel’s fastest growing group; from representing 13% of the country’s population in 2023, they are expected to be 16% by the end of the decade.[57]
However, the Jewish motivation for controlling the temple mount and building a third temple is not entirely religious. According to a 2014 survey of religious Jews, one question asked why Jews should “ascend” to the Temple Mount. While 54% replied that a visit should be made to carry out a “positive commandment” and prayer at the site, a full 97% also answered that visiting the site would constitute “a contribution to strengthening Israeli sovereignty in the holy place.”[58]
In a 2013 analysis of the temple movement, a Jewish organization wrote:
Our findings show a dramatic increase in the number and influence of organizations that covers the spectrum from raising contemporary consciousness of the role of the Temple to actively aiming at its reestablishment on the Temple Mount/ Haram al-Sharif. Twenty years ago these organizations were on the radical fringes of the political and religious map but since 2000 they have attained a respectable position within the mainstream of the political and religious right and have benefited from close ties with the authorities of the State of Israel. There is a correlation between the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif and around it since 2000 and a parallel increase in the activity of Temple organizations. Although the various Temple organizations may have differing goals and varying impacts, a common denominator of religious and nationalist messianism distinguishes the movement as a whole. Religion has become a tool for realizing extreme national goals at a site that is a focal point of political and religious tension.[59]
The temple enthusiasts have been busy for decades fabricating artifacts for temple use, such as the menorah (which weighs a half ton),[60] priestly vestments, and copper vessels. As far back as 1986, American journalist Grace Halsell documented the remarks of an Israeli tour guide about plans for the future temple:
We have all the plans drawn for the temple. Even the building materials are ready. They are hidden in a secret place. There are several shops where Israelis work, making the artifacts we will use in the new temple. One Israeli is weaving the pure linen that will be used for garments of the priests of the temple. In a religious school…located near where we are standing, rabbis are teaching young men how to make animal sacrifice.[61]
Finally, no discussion of the third temple would be complete without mentioning the quest for the elusive “red heifer,” a project of the Temple Institute which has attracted international attention.
According to the command of the Lord to Moses and Aaron in Numbers 19:1-10, the people of Israel must procure “a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and upon which a yoke has never come.” As author Victoria Clark describes it, the ritual sacrifice of the heifer “will supply the ashes necessary for the purification of, first the builders, and then the future priests of the Temple. According to divine instructions detailed in Numbers 19, the animal must be without a single blemish and red from head to toe. If there were nine such heifers between the late thirteenth century BC when Moses lived and the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70, there have been none at all in the intervening almost two thousand years.”[62] (The 12th century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides had proclaimed that the appearance of the tenth heifer would signal the coming of the Messiah).
American Christian Zionists came to the rescue, first in the person of Clyde Lott, a Pentecostal preacher and cattle breeder from Mississippi. After prolonged negotiations with orthodox rabbis of the Temple Institute in the 1990s, Lott prepared to ship thousands of red angus cattle to Israel, where the perfect red heifer, in accordance with rabbinic guidelines, could be bred. Lott toured the United States, speaking at churches and conferences and raising significant funds. Donors were solicited to sponsor, for example, the purchase of one red heifer for $1000, or a half-heifer, or airfare for one cow at $341.[63]
The red heifer project evoked the full range of predictable reactions in largely secular Israel where, for example, Jewish author Gershom Gorenberg sarcastically referred to Lott and his associates as “cattlemen of the Apocalypse.” The Temple Institute has had at least two “near misses” in its breeding efforts over the years. This includes the much-publicized 1996 birth of Melody, a pure red calf which inconveniently developed a clump of white hairs on her tail before the age of two.[64] Undaunted, Jewish activists with the support of American Christian Zionists continue their quest for the perfect red heifer.
In 2022, another American rancher from Texas delivered five young red heifers to Israel, which were welcomed with due ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport. According to the Jerusalem Post, “if they remain 100% red and avoid any blemishes which would disqualify them, they will each be eligible to be used to create the ashes required by Jewish law to purify those who have been in contact with a dead body.”[65] For the uninitiated, orthodox Jewish belief considers all Jews, including priests, to be impure from contact with a corpse and therefore unable to enter the temple. However, priests (kohanim) would be permitted to conduct services in the temple once they were purified with the ashes of a red heifer, “making the creation of such ashes a necessary requirement for any attempt to reestablish the Temple.”[66]
Concluding remarks
The three-thousand-year history of temples within the Jewish community is largely a story of tragedy due to pride, disbelief, and punishment. In the divine plan, the advent of the messiah and the establishment of His Church were designed to convince the Jews that the temple and the Mosaic sacrifice were no longer necessary, having been replaced by the new covenant. Christ Himself in His mystical body was the true temple (John 2:19-22), the great high priest (Heb 4:14), and the sacrificial Lamb of God (John 1:29). As for the temple in Jerusalem, it was destined for the dustbin of history.
Christ even addressed this issue to the Samaritans. The woman at the well queried Him:
‘Our fathers worshiped on this mountain [Mount Gerizim]; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.’Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth [author’s emphasis], for such the Father seeks to worship him.’ (John 4:20-23).
In his writings, St. Paul reinforced this concept of Christ’s mystical body: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.” (1 Cor 3:16-17).
Unfortunately, the rise of Protestantism in the sixteenth century, which was further skewed by Christian Zionism in the nineteenth century, has corrupted the concept of “temple” as ordained by God in His plan of salvation. Today millions of western Christians approve and even support the building of a third temple in Jerusalem, complete with animal sacrifice and dozens of arcane rules which were abolished by the supreme sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. How is it that Christian Zionists, who presumably believe in baptism, also accept the requirement for the slaying of a red heifer in order to purify a Jew? Is the re-institution of the Jewish temple and its old testament rituals not the ultimate rejection of the Son of God, who fulfilled the Law and the prophets? (Matt 5:17).
Most of the prerequisites for a third temple are now in place. The only exceptions are access to the Temple Mount and a suitable red heifer. As the occupying power in East Jerusalem, the Israeli government could at any time authorize destruction of the Muslim structures on the temple mount, thereby allowing construction on the temple to commence.
However, the Israelis know full well that such a move would enrage the Muslim world. Nevertheless, in the era of Donald Trump there seems to be new possibilities.
During his first administration, Trump brokered what became known as the Abraham Accords between Israel and four Arab countries. Likewise, his administration witnessed the creation of the Abrahamic Family House, a previously unimagined “interfaith complex” consisting of a mosque, a Catholic church, and a synagogue in Abu Dhabi. Given his considerable ego and “lame duck” status as president, it would be entirely typical of Trump to broker some arrangement that would allow construction of the third temple. Further, Trump is a real estate man by trade – he can relate to (and possibly envies) the grand roles of Solomon, Cyrus, and Herod in building the previous temples. Rabbi Yosef Berger, quoted at the top of this article, stated in November that “Like Cyrus, God put Donald Trump in power in order to build the Temple and pave the way for Moshiach [messiah].” The Temple will be built by non-Jews, which “will only be fully revealed after Trump fulfills this role.”[67]
Finally, we note an intriguing comment by David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, in 1962. Writing for Look Magazine, the self-proclaimed atheist predicted:
In Jerusalem, the United Nations (a truly United Nations) will build a Shrine of the Prophets to serve the federated union of all continents; this will be the seat of the Supreme Court of Mankind, to settle all controversies among the federated continents, as prophesized by Isaiah.[68]
Was Ben Gurion, knowingly or otherwise, predicting the third temple? He seems to be referring to a venue that invokes Jewish pre-eminence over the Gentiles rather than one designed to worship Almighty God. Another act of pride rather than humility. Whatever the future brings concerning a third temple – with or without Donald Trump – it cannot be pleasing to God and will, sooner or later, suffer the same fate as the previous temples. For “Christ Jesus himself [is] the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” (Eph 2:20-21).
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