event · E0015
Herod Rebuilds the Temple בניין הורדוס
Herod tore the aging Second Temple down to its foundations and raised in its place the vast white-and-gold complex whose retaining walls still stand in Jerusalem. The sages had no love for the builder — the Gemara tells the project's origin in his guilt over the sages he had killed — yet they gave the building itself their highest praise: whoever has not seen Herod's building has never seen a beautiful building in his life.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- בניין הורדוס
- Also known as
- Herodian Temple
- Era
- second-temple
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3742 AM
- Academic
- begun c. 20–19 BCE (Herod's eighteenth year)
- Date range
- c. 20–19 BCE
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| "מי שלא ראה בנין הורדוס לא ראה בנין נאה מימיו" — whoever has not seen the building of Herod has never seen a beautiful building in his life. With what did he build it? Rabbah said: with stones of shisha and marmara... he considered coating it with gold, but the Rabbis told him: leave it, for it is more beautiful as it is, for it looks like the waves of the sea.
Hebrew verified against the Sefaria text of Bava Batra 4a. |
rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| Josephus dates the start of the reconstruction to the eighteenth year of Herod's reign (c. 20–19 BCE) and describes the doubling of the Temple platform and the new sanctuary in detail. | external | ★★★★★ | |
| The Herodian platform's retaining walls — including the Western Wall — survive in situ, their courses of drafted-margin ashlars a signature of Herodian construction. | archaeology | ★★★★★ |