Bible Timeline · About 520 to 516 BC

The Second Temple Is Built

The exiles laid the foundation of a new temple soon after they came home, but opposition stopped the work for years. In 520 BC the prophets Haggai and Zechariah stirred the people, and under Zerubbabel the temple was finished about 516 BC.

Read it in the Bible: Ezra 3-6 Haggai 1-2 Zechariah 4 Zechariah 6:12-13 John 2:19-21

The Second Temple was the house of God rebuilt in Jerusalem after the exile. The returning exiles laid its foundation soon after 538 BC, but the work stalled for about sixteen years. Then in 520 BC, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah fired the people up, and under the governor Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua they finished it in the sixth year of King Darius, about 516 or 515 BC. This temple, later rebuilt and expanded by Herod the Great, was the temple Jesus knew.

Who Rebuilt the Temple After the Exile?

The leaders were Zerubbabel and Joshua, also called Jeshua. Zerubbabel was the grandson of King Jehoiachin, so he was from the royal line of David. Joshua was the high priest. Together they stood for the two offices God's people needed, king and priest.

In the second year after they returned, they laid the foundation. It was a loud day.

And they sang responsively with praise and thanksgiving to Yahweh: “For He is good; for His loving devotion to Israel endures forever.” Then all the people gave a great shout of praise to Yahweh, because the foundation of the house of Yahweh had been laid. But many of the older priests, Levites, and family heads who had seen the first temple wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this temple. Still, many others shouted joyfully. Ezra 3:11 to 12

The young shouted for joy. The old men who remembered Solomon's temple wept, because the new one looked so small. Ezra says you could not tell the shouting from the crying.

Why Did the Temple Work Stop?

The people already living around Jerusalem offered to help. Zerubbabel said no, because their worship was mixed with other gods. Then those neighbors turned against the project. They scared the builders, hired advisers to work against them, and wrote letters to the Persian court.

Thus the construction of the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. Ezra 4:24

For about sixteen years, the foundation just sat there. The people got busy with their own houses and farms. It is easy to judge them, but most of us know what it is like to start something for God and let it slide.

What Did Haggai Tell the People?

In 520 BC, in the second year of King Darius I, God sent a prophet named Haggai. His four short messages are each dated to the day, and they hit hard.

“Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” Haggai 1:4

He told them to think about their ways. They planted a lot but harvested little. They earned wages to put into a bag with holes in it. Why? Because God's house was in ruins while they were fixing up their own. It is one of the most practical sermons in the Bible, and it worked. In just over three weeks, the people went back to work, Haggai 1:14 to 15.

Haggai also gave a big promise. The new temple looked plain, but God said its glory would be greater than the first.

The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says Yahweh of Hosts. And in this place I will provide peace, declares Yahweh of Hosts.” Haggai 2:9

What Did Zechariah Add?

Zechariah was a priest and prophet who started preaching just two months after Haggai. He saw eight visions in one night, full of horses, lampstands and flying scrolls. They all said the same thing. God was coming back to Jerusalem, and the temple would be finished.

Zerubbabel faced a mountain of problems. God's message to him became one of the best known verses in the prophets.

So he said to me, “This is the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says Yahweh of Hosts. Zechariah 4:6

Zechariah also looked far ahead. He spoke of a man called the Branch who would build the temple of Yahweh and be both priest and king, Zechariah 6:12 to 13. He saw Jerusalem's King coming humble and riding on a donkey, Zechariah 9:9, which Jesus fulfilled on Palm Sunday.

How Did the Persian King Help?

When building started again, the local Persian governor, Tattenai, asked who had given permission. He wrote to King Darius. Darius had his archives searched, and the original decree of Cyrus was found in the fortress of Ecbatana.

Leave this work on the house of God alone. Let the governor and elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its original site. Ezra 6:7

Darius went further. He ordered that the costs be paid from the royal taxes and that anyone who interfered would be punished. The people who tried to stop the project ended up helping pay for it. God has a sense of humor.

When Was the Second Temple Finished?

And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. Ezra 6:15

The sixth year of Darius was 515 BC by most counts, and Adar falls in late winter, so it was finished about March 515 BC. Many books round it to 516 BC. That is about seventy years after Solomon's temple was burned in 586 BC, which many see as one fulfillment of Jeremiah's seventy years.

The people dedicated the temple with sacrifices for all twelve tribes and celebrated Passover with joy, Ezra 6:16 to 22.

Was the Second Temple Different From Solomon's?

Yes. It was much plainer. The Ark of the Covenant was gone, so the Most Holy Place was empty. The Bible never says God's glory cloud filled this temple the way it filled Solomon's in 1 Kings 8.

This temple stood for about 585 years, longer than Solomon's. That is why historians call the years from 516 BC to AD 70 the Second Temple period. It was defiled by Antiochus IV and rededicated by the Maccabees. Starting about 20 BC, Herod the Great rebuilt and expanded it into one of the wonders of the Roman world. Because worship never stopped, Jews still counted Herod's grand version as the same second temple. The Romans destroyed it in AD 70.

How Does the Second Temple Point to Jesus?

Remember Haggai's promise that the latter glory would be greater than the former. The new temple never had the gold or the cloud of Solomon's. So how did it have greater glory?

Christians answer that the glory of God walked into it in person. Jesus was dedicated there as a baby, taught there as a boy, and cleansed it as a man. He said that something greater than the temple was here in Matthew 12:6, and He called His own body the temple in John 2:19 to 21. The Second Temple was the stage where God's true dwelling with humanity, Jesus, showed up.

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Questions People Ask

When was the Second Temple completed?

Ezra 6:15 says it was finished on the third day of Adar in the sixth year of King Darius. That was about March 515 BC, though many sources round it to 516 BC. Work had restarted in 520 BC after a long pause.

Who built the Second Temple?

The returning exiles built it under Zerubbabel the governor, a descendant of King David, and Joshua the high priest. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraged them, and the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius gave permission and funding.

Is the Second Temple the same as Herod's temple?

Yes, in Jewish reckoning. Herod the Great rebuilt and greatly expanded the Second Temple starting about 20 BC, but worship never stopped, so it was counted as the same temple. The Romans destroyed it in AD 70.

What does not by might nor by power mean?

In Zechariah 4:6 God told Zerubbabel that the temple would be finished not by human strength or resources, but by God's Spirit. It means God's work gets done through His power, not ours, even when the problems look like mountains.

Sources

← Cyrus Lets the Jews Go Home Esther: For Such a Time as This →

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