The Jews were allowed only one temple. That is the Temple of the Jews, or the Jerusalem Temple, which is a symbolic shrine. The Jews sacrificed at the temple. There is only biblical reading, preaching and prayer in the synagogues. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, they do not have the Temple and the Sacrifice. The Jerusalem Temple was located on Mount Moriah, which Abraham had taken to offer up Isaac.
The Temple, built by Solomon in seven years in 960 BC, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 597 BC. Once again, the Jews rebuilt the shrine, but they were not as beautiful as Solomon. The shrine, which was built in 20 BC by Herod, was completed in 64 AD. In 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the shrine with no stone left on it.
The wall of mourning is known today as the wall on the west side that was left after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Here you can see the Jews praying with their heads to their walls. It is a prayer to regain the lost temple and homeland. They still gather from all over the world to observe the Passover today.
From 1948 to 1967, Jerusalem was occupied by the king of Jordan. At that time, Jews were denied entry. With Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, they were granted full freedom to pray there.
The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish life. In 66 CE, the war between the Jews and the Romans lasted for four years. It was Jerusalem, a small area, that challenged the Roman Empire, the world’s greatest power at the time. Florence, the governor of the Jews after Pilate, demanded a tax of 17 gold coins from the Temple Treasury in Jerusalem. The Jews did not want that. That’s the reason for the war. When Roman soldiers were unable to break down the walls of the Temple, the four-year-old war raged on, and the wooden doors were set on fire. A Roman soldier threw a burning torch into a room near the sanctuary. The firewood and the oil stored in the flames caught fire. The Temple of Jerusalem was demolished to fulfill Christ’s words. The Temple of Jerusalem was completely destroyed in the year 70 CE on the Passover.
The Palestine of Christ’s day was under Roman rule, but Jerusalem was under the rule of Caiaphas, the high priest, and Anna’s father-in-law. In addition, the poor were very hard under the Romans and the cruel Herod. The high priest’s position was a blend of power, money and dignity. The rule of Galilee was under Herod’s rule. His immoral life and the death of the Baptist made the people disgusted. He lived luxuriously in his new palaces, while the people were starving. Idolatry was forbidden to the Jews, and they hated the Romans because they had the Romans. Many revolutionaries were in Palestine at the time. They believed that the Messiah would be freed from all this. But the crucifixion of the Messiah disappointed them. They expected Christ to save them materially through war.
Christ honored the Temple of Jerusalem, which was important to Jews and “all nations.” But in fulfillment of Christ’s prophecies, the Temple in Jerusalem was demolished. There is no permission from God to build another physical shrine. Christ revealed the true church to men. The true temple is the temple of men. So the physical shrine, or symbolic shrine, no longer exists. We also see that the veil of the Temple was torn in two at Christ’s death!
