Early Accounts of the Temple of Jerusalem

Event Description

Event Date

Later Documents Recording The Event

Views

The Tabernacle of Moses

c. 1250 BCE

Exodus 24–31

View View

King David prepares the Temple

1000 BCE

I Chronicles 21–29

II Samuel 6–8, 24

View

The Temple of King Solomon

961 BCE

I Kings 5–8

II Chronicles 2–6

View

Solomon's Temple (Josephus)

961 BCE

Josephus, Antiquities 8:3–5

View

Sennacherib's war with Hezekiah

701 BCE

Sennacherib's cuneiform cylinder

Alternate source

The Temple is destroyed

586 BCE

II Kings 24–25

II Chronicles 36

Ezekiel's vision of a new Temple

c. 580 BCE

Ezekiel 40–48

View

The Second Temple is built

515 BCE

Ezra 1, 3, 5–6

I Esdras 6

Jerusalem is rebuilt

440 BCE

Nehemiah 1–3, 12

View

Description of the Temple

c. 200 BCE

Letter of Aristeas 83–120

The Temple is plundered, rebuilt

167 BCE

I Maccabees 1–4

View

The Second Temple of Herod

c. 20 BCE

Josephus, Antiquities 15:11

18:4

20:9

View

Herod's Temple (continued)

c. 20 BCE

Josephus, Wars 1:21

Wars 5:4–5

Apion 2:8

View

The Temple Warning Inscription

c. 20 BCE

The Temple Warning Inscription Stone

The Temple is destroyed

70 CE

Josephus, Wars 6:1–10

The Seige by Titus

70 CE

Tacitus, The Histories, V, 1–14

The Destruction by Titus

70 CE

Cassius Dio, Roman History, LXV, 1–12

Titus's Triumphal Procession

71 CE

Josephus, Wars 7:5

View

The Second Temple as it was

c. 100 CE

The Mishnah, the tractate Middot 1–5

Emp. Hadrian Builds up Jerusalem

117 CE

Epiphanius, De Mensuribus et Ponderibus, 14–15

Emp. Hadrian's Destruction

135 CE

Cassius Dio, Roman History, LXIX, 12–14

Emp. Hadrian's Interdiction

135 CE

Eusebius, Church History, IV, 6

The Pilgrim from Bordeaux

333 CE

The Itinerary

View