DID YOU KNOW?
Was Jerusalem’s temple ever rebuilt after 70 C.E.?
JESUS stated that not a stone of Jehovah’s temple would be left standing upon a stone—a prophecy that was fulfilled when the Roman army under Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 C.E. (Matt. 24:2) Later, Emperor Julian planned to rebuild the temple.
Julian has been called the last pagan emperor of Rome. This nephew of Constantine the Great received a so-called Christian education. Yet, after being proclaimed emperor in 361 C.E., he openly rejected that education and the corrupt form of Christianity of his day in favor of paganism. History books refer to him as “the Apostate.”
Julian loathed Christianity. One reason may well have been that as a six-year-old, he saw its representatives murder his father and kinsmen. Julian, according to church historians, encouraged the Jews to rebuild their temple, in the belief that this would prove that Jesus was a false prophet.a
That Julian planned to rebuild the temple is beyond doubt. Historians debate whether he actually began the rebuilding work and if he did, what caused the work to be abandoned. One thing, however, is certain. Julian was killed less than two years after coming to power, and his project died with him.
The temple as it may have appeared in Jesus’ day, overlaid on today’s site
a Jesus did not say that the temple would never be rebuilt but that it would be destroyed, which it was in 70 C.E.