1. See Ehud Netzer, “Herod’s Building Program,” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman, 6 vols. (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 3:169–72.

2. For a complete listing of other structures built by Herod, see Josephus, Antiquities vol. 8, appendix D, 579.

3. See Ehud Netzer, “Herodium,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, 3:176–180.

4. See Ehud Netzer, “Jericho,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, 3:723–40.

5. Josephus, Antiquities 15.341.

6. See Robert J. Bull, “Caesarea Maritima: The Search for Herod’s City,” Biblical Archaeology Review 8 (May–June 1982): 27.

7. Josephus, Antiquities 15.331–32.

8. Bull, “Caesarea Maritima,” 29.

9. See Robert L. Hohlfelder, “Caesarea beneath the Sea,” Biblical Archaeology Review 8 (May–June 1982): 44.

10. Josephus, Jewish War 1.411–12.

11. See Linley Vann, “Herod’s Harbor Construction Recovered Underwater,” Biblical Archaeology Review 9 (May–June 1983): 10–14.

12. Barbara Burrell, Kathryn Gleason, and Ehud Netzer, “Uncovering Herod’s Seaside Palace,” Biblical Archaeology Review 19 (May–June 1993): 50–57, 76.

13. See Leen Ritmeyer, “Locating the Original Temple Mount,” Bibilical Archaeology Review 18 (March–April 1992): 24–45, 64–65.

14. Approximately 1,550 feet (north-south) by 1,000 feet.

15. Ehud Netzer, “Temple, Jerusalem” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6:365. Netzer also points out that the platform’s retaining walls were made of stone blocks varying in size. The largest block discovered thus far measures more than forty feet long. It is estimated that this stone weighs more than 100 tons (for comparison, the largest stone at Stonehenge weighs 40 tons).

16. Traditionally, the southeast corner has been identified as the location for the second temptation. I believe the argument is stronger for the southwest corner. Since a possible focus of the second temptation was that of worldly recognition, the southwest corner makes better sense. An individual falling without harm from this corner would have been in full view of all the people in the busiest areas surrounding the temple platform, whereas the same event happening at the southeast corner would have been seen by a much smaller population.

17. The royal portico rested atop Herod’s extension of the platform’s southern end. Although the portico was completely destroyed, much of Herod’s extension remains to this day. Ritmeyer believes that his study of this extension has provided sufficient information to determine the longitudinal axis of the three rows of pillars (the fourth row was part of the portico’s southern wall) that supported the portico’s roof. See Leendert Petrus Ritmeyer, “The Architectural Developments of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester, 1992), 237–52.

18. Josephus, Antiquities 15.411, 413–16.

19. It is interesting to note that the animals were probably held at the north end of the temple platform as the pools in which the animals were washed were located just to the north of the platform. The cleansing of the temple was not a small incident. It could have ranged across the entire length of the platform.

20. Due to political sensitivities and the fact that buildings have been constructed over the previous location of the Antonia Fortress, it is not possible to conduct any archaeological excavations in the area. However, Michael Burgoyne has located what he believes to be a wall (over thirteen feet thick) remaining from the Antonia Fortress. See Michael Hamilton Burgoyne, Mamluk Jerusalem: An Architectural Study (London: Published on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem by the World of Islam Festival Trust, 1987), 204.

21. Josephus, Jewish War 5.242.

22. Josephus, Jewish War 5.222–23.

23. Josephus, Jewish War 5.210.

24. Josephus, Jewish War 5.212.

25. There are several reasons for presuming that Jesus did not enter the temple itself. First, according to Jewish law, Jesus did not hold the proper priesthood office to enter the temple. If he had entered the temple, mention of this event and the corresponding outrage by the Jewish leaders probably would appear in the Gospels. Second, two Greek words with significant differences in meaning have been translated simply as “temple” in the King James Version. The Greek word naos most often refers to the actual temple structure. The Greek word hieron refers to the “temple at Jerusalem, including the whole temple precinct w.[ith] its buildings, courts, etc.” Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, trans. William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), s.v. “hieron.” For example, in Luke 1:9, Zacharias burned incense in the naos. In Matthew 21:12, Jesus went in to the hieron to cast out those who “sold and bought,” meaning he did not enter the temple itself but the surrounding precinct. The word hieron is used in the references to Jesus being in the temple.

26. Netzer, “Herod’s Building Program,” 3:172.

Andrew Teasdale

BYU Studies Publications