Josephus on the Temple: his later account

Antiquities of the Jews XV 11:1-7 (Whiston translation)

1. 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 called them

together, and spake thus to them: "I think I need not speak to

you, my countrymen, about such other works as I have done since I

came to the kingdom, although I may say they have been performed

in such a manner as to bring more security to you than glory to

myself; for I have neither been negligent in the most difficult

times about what tended to ease your necessities, nor have the

buildings. I have made been so proper to preserve me as

yourselves from injuries; and I imagine that, with God's

assistance, I have advanced the nation of the Jews to a degree of

happiness which they never had before; and for the particular

edifices belonging to your own country, and your own cities, as

also to those cities that we have lately acquired, which we have

erected and greatly adorned, and thereby augmented the dignity of

your nation, it seems to me a needless task to enumerate them to

you, since you well know them yourselves; but as to that

undertaking which I have a mind to set about at present, and

which will be a work of the greatest piety and excellence that

can possibly be undertaken by us, I will now declare it to you.

Our fathers, indeed, when they were returned from Babylon, built

this temple to God Almighty, yet does it want sixty cubits of its

largeness in altitude; for so much did that first temple which

Solomon built exceed this temple; nor let any one condemn our

fathers for their negligence or want of piety herein, for it was

not their fault that the temple was no higher; for they were

Cyrus, and Darius the son of Hystaspes, who determined the

measures for its rebuilding; and it hath been by reason of the

subjection of those fathers of ours to them and to their

posterity, and after them to the Macedonians, that they had not

the opportunity to follow the original model of this pious

edifice, nor could raise it to its ancient altitude; but since I

am now, by God's will, your governor, and I have had peace a long

time, and have gained great riches and large revenues, and, what

is the principal filing of all, I am at amity with and well

regarded by the Romans, who, if I may so say, are the rulers of

the whole world, I will do my endeavor to correct that

imperfection, which hath arisen from the necessity of our

affairs, and the slavery we have been under formerly, and to make

a thankful return, after the most pious manner, to God, for what

blessings I have received from him, by giving me this kingdom,

and that by rendering his temple as complete as I am able."

2. And this was the speech which Herod made to them; but still

this speech aftrighted many of the people, as being unexpected by

them; and because it seemed incredible, it did not encourage

them, but put a damp upon them, for they were afraid that he

would pull down the whole edifice, and not be able to bring his

intentions to perfection for its rebuilding; and this danger

appeared to them to be very great, and the vastness of the

undertaking to be such as could hardly be accomplished. But while

they were in this disposition, the king encouraged them, and told

them he would not pull down their temple till all things were

gotten ready for building it up entirely again. And as he

promised them this beforehand, so he did not break his word with

them, but got ready a thousand waggons, that were to bring stones

for the building, and chose out ten thousand of the most skillful

workmen, and bought a thousand sacerdotal garments for as many of

the priests, and had some of them taught the arts of

stone-cutters, and others of carpenters, and then began to build;

but this not till every thing was well prepared for the work.

3. So Herod took away the old foundations, and laid others, and

erected the temple upon them, being in length a hundred cubits,

and in height twenty additional cubits, which [twenty], upon the

sinking of their foundations  fell down; and this part it was

that we resolved to raise again in the days of Nero. Now the

temple was built of stones that were white and strong, and each

of their length was twenty-five cubits, their height was eight,

and their breadth about twelve; and the whole structure, as also

the structure of the royal cloister, was on each side much lower,

but the middle was much higher, till they were visible to those

that dwelt in the country for a great many furlongs, but chiefly

to such as lived over against them, and those that approached to

them. The temple had doors also at the entrance, and lintels over

them, of the same height with the temple itself. They were

adorned with embroidered veils, with their flowers of purple, and

pillars interwoven; and over these, but under the crown-work, was

spread out a golden vine, with its branches hanging down from a

great height, the largeness and fine workmanship of which was a

surprising sight to the spectators, to see what vast materials

there were, and with what great skill the workmanship was done.

He also encompassed the entire temple with very large cloisters,

contriving them to be in a due proportion thereto; and he laid

out larger sums of money upon them than had been done before him,

till it seemed that no one else had so greatly adorned the temple

as he had done. There was a large wall to both the cloisters,

which wall was itself the most prodigious work that was ever

heard of by man. The hill was a rocky ascent, that declined by

degrees towards the east parts of the city, till it came to an

elevated level. This hill it was which Solomon, who was the first

of our kings, by Divine revelation, encompassed with a wall; it

was of excellent workmanship upwards, and round the top of it. He

also built a wall below, beginning at the bottom, which was

encompassed by a deep valley; and at the south side he laid rocks

together, and bound them one to another with lead, and included

some of the inner parts, till it proceeded to a great height, and

till both the largeness of the square edifice and its altitude

were immense, and till the vastness of the stones in the front

were plainly visible on the outside, yet so that the inward parts

were fastened together with iron, and preserved the joints

immovable for all future times. When this work [for the

foundation] was done in this manner, and joined together as part

of the hill itself to the very top of it, he wrought it all into

one outward surface, and filled up the hollow places which were

about the wall, and made it a level on the external upper

surface, and a smooth level also. This hill was walled all round,

and in compass four furlongs, [the distance of] each angle

containing in length a furlong: but within this wall, and on the

very top of all, there ran another wall of stone also, having, on

the east quarter, a double cloister, of the same length with the

wall; in the midst of which was the temple itself. This cloister

looked to the gates of the temple; and it had been adorned by

many kings in former times; and round about the entire temple

were fixed the spoils taken from barbarous nations; all these had

been dedicated to the temple by Herod, with the addition of those

he had taken from the Arabians.

4. Now on the north side [of the temple] was built a citadel,

whose walls were square, and strong, and of extraordinary

firmness. This citadel was built by the kings of the Asamonean

race, who were also high priests before Herod, and they called it

the Tower, in which were reposited the vestments of the high

priest, which the high priest only put on at the time when he was

to offer sacrifice. These vestments king Herod kept in that

place; and after his death they were under the power of the

Romans, until the time of Tiberius Caesar; under whose reign

Vitellius, the president of Syria, when he once came to

Jerusalem, and had been most magnificently received by the

multitude, he had a mind to make them some requital for the

kindness they had shewn him; so, upon their petition to have

those holy vestments in their own power, he wrote about them to

Tiberius Caesar, who granted his request: and this their power

over the sacerdotal vestments continued with the Jews till the

death of king Agrippa; but after that, Cassius Longinus, who was

president of Syria, and Cuspius Fadus, who was procurator of

Judea, enjoined the Jews to reposit those vestments in the tower

of Antonia, for that they ought to have them in their power, as

they formerly had. However, the Jews sent ambassadors to Claudius

Caesar, to intercede with him for them; upon whose coming, king

Agrippa, junior, being then at Rome, asked for and obtained the

power over them from the emperor, who gave command to Vitellius,

who was then commander in Syria, to give it them accordingly.

Before that time they were kept under the seal of the high

priest, and of the treasurers of the temple; which treasurers,

the day before a festival, went up to the Roman captain of the

temple guards, and viewed their own seal, and received the

vestments; and again, when the festival was over, they brought it

to the same place, and showed the captain of the temple guards

their seal, which corresponded with his seal, and reposited them

there. And that these things were so, the afflictions that

happened to us afterwards [about them] are sufficient evidence.

But for the tower itself, when Herod the king of the Jews had

fortified it more firmly than before, in order to secure and

guard the temple, he gratified Antonius, who was his friend, and

the Roman ruler, and then gave it the name of the Tower of

Antonia.

5. Now in the western quarters of the enclosure of the temple

there were four gates; the first led to the king's palace, and

went to a passage over the intermediate valley; two more led to

the suburbs of the city; and the last led to the other city,

where the road descended down into the valley by a great number

of steps, and thence up again by the ascent for the city lay over

against the temple in the manner of a theater, and was

encompassed with a deep valley along the entire south quarter;

but the fourth front of the temple, which was southward, had

indeed itself gates in its middle, as also it had the royal

cloisters, with three walks, which reached in length from the

east valley unto that on the west, for it was impossible it

should reach any farther: and this cloister deserves to be

mentioned better than any other under the sun; for while the

valley was very deep, and its bottom could not be seen, if you

looked from above into the depth, this further vastly high

elevation of the cloister stood upon that height, insomuch that

if any one looked down from the top of the battlements, or down

both those altitudes, he would be giddy, while his sight could

not reach to such an immense depth. This cloister had pillars

that stood in four rows one over against the other all along, for

the fourth row was interwoven into the wall, which [also was

built of stone]; and the thickness of each pillar was such, that

three men might, with their arms extended, fathom it round, and

join their hands again, while its length was twenty-seven feet,

with a double spiral at its basis; and the number of all the

pillars [in that court] was a hundred and sixty-two. Their

chapiters were made with sculptures after the Corinthian order,

and caused an amazement [to the spectators], by reason of the

grandeur of the whole. These four rows of pillars included three

intervals for walking in the middle of this cloister; two of

which walks were made parallel to each other, and were contrived

after the same manner; the breadth of each of them was thirty

feet, the length was a furlong, and the height fifty feet; but

the breadth of the middle part of the cloister was one and a half

of the other, and the height was double, for it was much higher

than those on each side; but the roofs were adorned with deep

sculptures in wood, representing many sorts of figures. The

middle was much higher than the rest, and the wall of the front

was adorned with beams, resting upon pillars, that were

interwoven into it, and that front was all of polished stone,

insomuch that its fineness, to such as had not seen it, was

incredible, and to such as had seen it, was greatly amazing. Thus

was the first enclosure. In the midst of which, and not far from

it, was the second, to be gone up to by a few steps: this was

encompassed by a stone wall for a partition, with an inscription,

which forbade any foreigner to go in under pain of death. Now

this inner enclosure had on its southern and northern quarters

three gates [equally] distant one from another; but on the east

quarter, towards the sun-rising, there was one large gate,

through which such as were pure came in, together with their

wives; but the temple further inward in that gate was not allowed

to the women; but still more inward was there a third [court of

the] temple, whereinto it was not lawful for any but the priests

alone to enter. The temple itself was within this; and before

that temple was the altar, upon which we offer our sacrifices and

burnt-offerings to God. Into none of these three did king Herod

enter, for he was forbidden, because he was not a priest.

However, he took care of the cloisters and the outer enclosures,

and these he built in eight years.

6. But the temple itself was built by the priests in a year and

six months; upon which all the people were full of joy; and

presently they returned thanks, in the first place, to God; and

in the next place, for the alacrity the king had showed. They

feasted and celebrated this rebuilding of the temple: and for the

king, he sacrificed three hundred oxen to God, as did the rest

every one according to his ability; the number of which

sacrifices is not possible to set down, for it cannot be that we

should truly relate it; for at the same time with this

celebration for the work about the temple fell also the day of

the king's inauguration, which he kept of an old custom as a

festival, and it now coincided with the other, which coincidence

of them both made the festival most illustrious.

7. There was also an occult passage built for the king; it led

from Antonia to the inner temple, at its eastern gate; over which

he also erected for himself a tower, that he might have the

opportunity of a subterraneous ascent to the temple, in order to

guard against any sedition which might be made by the people

against their kings. It is also reported,  that during the

time that the temple was building, it did not rain in the

daytime, but that the showers fell in the nights, so that the

work was not hindered. And this our fathers have delivered to us;

nor is it incredible, if any one have regard to the

manifestations of God. And thus was performed the work of the

rebuilding of the temple.