I have been reading some chapters in the book, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, by Alfred Edersheim. Dr. Edersheim, a Jewish man born in Austria in the 1800’s, turned to Jesus as a young man. After further education, he served as a pastor, and he had a gift for preaching. He also developed into a biblical scholar.
In the first chapter, addressing the second temple period from around the time of the Messiah, Dr. Edersheim gave a detailed and academic description of the vast compound of the temple, including walls, gates, towers, the palace of the high priest, and the specific temple area. In the second chapter, he gave a detailed and academic description of the specific temple complex, illustrating its magnificence.
The thesis which flowed naturally from his writing for those first two chapters: A person coming to Jerusalem 2,000 years ago would have had a reason to be in awe of the city of Jerusalem. As Dr. Edersheim said, “As the pilgrim bands ‘came up’ from all parts of the country to the great feasts, they must have stood enthralled when its beauty first burst upon their gaze.” (1)
Dr. Edersheim went on to state: “…isolated in its grandeur, stood the Temple Mount….the Temple itself stood out a mass of snowy marble and of gold, glittering in the sunlight against the half-encircling green background of Olivet. In all his wanderings the [Jewish person] had not seen a city like his own Jerusalem. Not Antioch in Asia, not even imperial Rome herself, excelled it in architectural spendour.” (2)
The original temple built by Solomon was simple. The temple and the temple grounds built under the reign of King Herod were elaborate. The work took 46 years! But the tragedy was that the simple purpose of the temple ended up being distorted. Did some religious leaders work to protect their mode of power and control over their grandiose institution, rather than submitting to God? Was there a shift for some religious leaders from heartfelt sacrifice to grandiose ritual?
Only God truly knew and knows the motivation of everyone’s heart. Now Jesus at one point did expose the motivation of some Pharisees: “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?” (John 7:19 NIV).
The tragic irony is that if those leaders would have submitted to Him, their blessings would have infinitely exceeded their power and money as religious leaders.
A follower of Jesus no longer needs the temple in Jerusalem or its services. Jesus fulfilled the core purpose of the temple: “…[the Father] loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (I John 4:10).
And it was only about 40 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Roman leaders in 70 A.D. May we take to heart a revelation from Scripture about the new temples God has for the world today. Paul was speaking to followers of Jesus when he said: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (I Corinthians 3:16).
Hunter Irvine
Scripture Love Blog
(1) Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services (1874; repr., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 4-5.
(2) Ibid., 5-6.
