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[380]
AND now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and after the
acts already mentioned, undertook a very great work, that is, to build
of himself the temple of God, 1
and make it larger in compass, and to raise it to a most magnificent altitude,
as esteeming it to be the most glorious of all his actions, as it really
was, to bring it to perfection; and that this would be sufficient for an
everlasting memorial of him; but as he knew the multitude were not ready
nor willing to assist him in so vast a design, he thought to prepare them
first by making a speech to them, and then set about the work itself; so
he called them together, and spake thus to them: "I think I need not
speak to you, my countrymen, about such other works as I have done since
I came to the kingdom, although I may say they have been performed in such
a manner as to bring more security to you than glory to myself; for I have
neither been negligent in the most difficult times about what tended to
ease your necessities, nor have the buildings. I have made been so proper
to preserve me as yourselves from injuries; and I imagine that, with God's
assistance, I have advanced the nation of the Jews to a degree of happiness
which they never had before; and for the particular edifices belonging
to your own country, and your own cities, as also to those cities that
we have lately acquired, which we have erected and greatly adorned, and
thereby augmented the dignity of your nation, it seems to me a needless
task to enumerate them to you, since you well know them yourselves; but
as to that undertaking which I have a mind to set about at present, and
which will be a work of the greatest piety and excellence that can possibly
be undertaken by us, I will now declare it to you. Our fathers, indeed,
when they were returned from Babylon, built this temple to God Almighty,
yet does it want sixty cubits of its largeness in altitude; for so much
did that first temple which Solomon built exceed this temple; nor let any
one condemn our fathers for their negligence or want of piety herein, for
it was not their fault that the temple was no higher; for they were Cyrus,
and Darius the son of Hystaspes, who determined the measures for its rebuilding;
and it hath been by reason of the subjection of those fathers of ours to
them and to their posterity, and after them to the Macedonians, that they
had not the opportunity to follow the original model of this pious edifice,
nor could raise it to its ancient altitude; but since I am now, by God's
will, your governor, and I have had peace a long time, and have gained
great riches and large revenues, and, what is the principal filing of all,
I am at amity with and well regarded by the Romans, who, if I may so say,
are the rulers of the whole world, I will do my endeavor to correct that
imperfection, which hath arisen from the necessity of our affairs, and
the slavery we have been under formerly, and to make a thankful return,
after the most pious manner, to God, for what blessings I have received
from him, by giving me this kingdom, and that by rendering his temple as
complete as I am able."
1 We may here observe, that the fancy of the modern Jews, in calling this temple, which was really the third of their temples, the second temple, followed so long by later Christians, seems to be without any solid foundation. The reason why the Christians here followed the Jews is, because of the prophecy of Haggai, 2:6-9, which they expound of the Messiah's coning to the second or Zorobabel's temple, of which they suppose this of Herod to be only a continuation; which is meant, I think, of his coming to the fourth and last temple, of that future, largest, and most glorious one, described by Ezekiel; whence I take the former notion, how general soever, to be a great mistake. See Lit. Accorap. of Proph. p. 2.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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