Rebuilt 537-516 B.C.

Rebuilt 537-516 B.C.

There are no materials for a history of Jerusalem during the period of the captivity, or even during the centuries following the return. The view advanced by Kosters and supported especially by Wildeboer and Cheyne will be criticized elsewhere (see Zerubbabel); but there seems to be no really valid ground for doubting the tradition reported by the chronicler in Ezra iii. of a first return under Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel in 539, during the reign of Cyrus; though Kosters may be right in pointing out that the Judahites who had been left in the city must have continued the worship of Yhwh in some manner or other. In the seventh month of that year there was a great gathering in Jerusalem, and the altar of burnt offering was again set up—presumably upon the place it had formerly occupied. The reconstruction of the Temple was begun in the second month of the second year (537; Ezra iii. 8 et seq.). Though this was attended with great ceremony (ib. verses 10-11), it is entirely ignored by the accounts in Ezra v. 2; Hag. i. 14, ii. 15; and Zech. viii. 8, which place the commencement of the building seventeen years later, in 520, during the reign of Darius Hystaspes, under the same Zerubbabel and the high priest Jeshua. But as nothing is said in Ezra iii. of the amount of building done, it may be surmised that it did not extend beyond the mere foundations, the work being interrupted by the evil devices of the Samaritans (ib. iv.), who made complaint to the suzerain in Babylon. Even the erection of the building of the year 520 was not uninterrupted, Tatnai, governor of Cœle-Syria and Phenicia, making a second reference of the matter to Babylon necessary (Ezra vi.). It was at lengthfinished in 516 (ib. verse 15). For the Temple building itself see Temple.

It is possible that the Birah or fortress was built at this time, though it is first mentioned in Neh. ii. 8. It was twice rebuilt in later times: once ("Ant." xv. 11, § 4, "Baris") by the Hasmonean kings, and a second time by Herod, who renamed it "Tower of Antonia." It was a strong, square building in the northwestern corner of the Temple mount, of some extent, as it had several gates. It was here that the high priests' vestments were kept (ib. xviii. 4, § 3), if the tower "built" by the high priest Hyrcanus is to be identified with Antonia, as is done by Josephus.

Jerusalem