II Temple times in Jerusalem

[D. Medvedev Fan]

I'm reading an article that makes reference to something with II Temple. For example, "According to the survey by Amos Kloner, 12.4% of all the II Temple vurials were west of the city." What is it talking about II Temple? What time period would that be?

[shunyadragon]

I'm reading an article that makes reference to something with II Temple. For example, "According to the survey by Amos Kloner, 12.4% of all the II Temple vurials were west of the city." What is it talking about II Temple? What time period would that be?

There is a great deal of controversy about the second temple and contradictions in the OT do not help sort things out. It is a great topic for a thread I sort of wanted to start.

I will assume you refer to burials, ie graves and tombs.
The first? temple in Jerusalem was destroyed about 586 BCE by the Babylonians, who conquered the region and Judah became a province of Yehud.

The second temple was rebuilt sometime after the Persians conquered the Babylonians and became dominant from ~538 to 333 BCE), but when? The second temple period probably refers to the period when the city was first rebuilt and occupied with the second temple, which may get a little tricky.

Haggai and Zechariah place the rebuilding process in the reign of King Darius (Darius I 522-486 BCE; Darius II 424-405 BE; Darius III 337-330 BCE). Ezra 1-6 begins the rebuilding in the reign of King Cyrus (Cyrus I 559-530 BCE; Cyrus II 404-401 BCE), but stopped unfinished, and it was not completed until sometime in the reign of Darius.

One of the problems is that in both cases the temple would have been rebuilt during a time when the city that was a ghost town or at best back water settelments in the ruins of a city. In the book of Nehemiah, the city was not rebuilt or repopulated until ~ 70-160 years later during the reign of King Artaxerxes, ~ the 20-21st year. There were three kings with this name (Artaxerxes I 465-425 BCE; Artaxerxes II 405/404-359/358 BCE; Artaxerxes III 359/358-338 BCE). Artaxexes III's reign was too short to be the one, therefore the city unlikely existed before between ~445 and 384 BCE. Why begin rebuilding a temple when there was not a city there?

I took these notes from my personal Bible time scale. If the debate continues I will check for sources.

When was it built?, what was it?, and where was the seond temple? are interesting questions.

[Dr. Jack Bauer]

I'm reading an article that makes reference to something with II Temple. For example, "According to the survey by Amos Kloner, 12.4% of all the II Temple vurials were west of the city." What is it talking about II Temple? What time period would that be?Hi Joan. In a nutshell, "II Temple" refers to the second temple, the period called "second temple Judaism." It refers to the era of the second temple, which replaced the one destroyed just before Judah was taken into exil in Babylon. It was built when they returned from exile, and lasted unti AD70 when the Romans sacked Jersualem and tore the temple down, ending the "second Temple" period.

[shunyadragon]

Hi Joan. In a nutshell, "II Temple" refers to the second temple, the period called "second temple Judaism." It refers to the era of the second temple, which replaced the one destroyed just before Judah was taken into exil in Babylon. It was built when they returned from exile, and lasted unti AD70 when the Romans sacked Jersualem and tore the temple down, ending the "second Temple" period.

Yes, the end of the Second Temple Period is well known, but the rest is a bit foggy.