FINAL WARNING: The Shining Star
dedicated sometime between 516-514 BC. Another Persian king,
Artaxerxes, appointed a Jew named Nehemiah as governor of
Jerusalem, and he repaired the walls to protect the Temple, and began
rebuilding the city.Judea soon came under the control of the Greeks (Alexander the
Great); and the Egyptian Greeks (or Ptolemies), who allowed
governorship by the high priests. A third ruler, a Syrian Greek
(Seleucid) known as Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), who sided with the
Jewish faction known as the Hellenists, appointed a high priest who
initiated pagan worship in opposition to the Orthodox faction. An
attack in 170 BC killed many Jews, and again Temple treasures were
taken. Antiochus desecrated the Temple by sacrificing a pig on the
altar, placing a pagan idol in the Holy of Holies, and burning copies of
the Torah. An Orthodox priest named Mattathias Maccabee (“the
hammerer”) began a revolt, which ended in 164 BC when his third son,
Judas took control of Jerusalem, purified the Temple, and resumed the
daily offerings. However, their control ended in 63 BC when Rome
invaded.Over the years, the condition of the building declined, and around 20-
19 BC, Herod the Great undertook the restoration of the Temple in
order to win the favor of the Jews. Most of the construction was
completed within ten years, although minor restoration work continued
until 64 AD. The rebuilt Temple, known as the Temple of Herod, was
twice as high, and much wider. During this period of Roman rule, an
imperial sacrifice had to be offered to the emperor, in addition to the
traditional Jewish sacrifice. This came to an end in 66 AD, when
Eleazar, the son of a captain of the Temple, initiated an uprising of
Jewish zealots, which brought the Tenth Legion from Rome. They
failed to defeat the Jewish freedom fighters and a massive revolt
ensued, which resulted in Judea being returned to the control of the
Jews. Emperor Nero then sent Vespasian, Rome’s best military leader,
and his army, to end the rebellion. By 69 AD, Rome regained control of
all Judea, except for Jerusalem. Vespasian, who became the new
emperor, gave his son Titus the task of securing Jerusalem. A military
operation was launched which ended in 70 AD, when the Temple was
set on fire by the Roman Tenth Legion (consisting of 80,000 men)
under Titus, who pried the Temple apart stone by stone, and threw
them into the valley southeast of Jerusalem. A portion of the Western