Good day Worthy Knights,

In this part 72, The Third Temple                                                                               (Wikipedia)

The Third Temple (Hebrew: בית המקדש השלישי‎, Beit haMikdash haShlishi, literally: The House, the Holy, the Third) would be the third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, after Solomon’s Temple and the rebuilt Second Temple.

Although it remains unbuilt, the notion of and desire for a Third Temple is sacred in Judaism, particularly Orthodox Judaism, and anticipated as a place of worship. The prophets in the Hebrew Bible called for its construction to be fulfilled prior to, or in tandem with, the Messianic age. The rebuilding of the Third Temple also plays a major role in some interpretations of Christian eschatology.

There was an aborted project under Roman emperor Julian (361–363 CE) to rebuild the Temple. Julian is traditionally called Julian the Apostate due to his policy of reversing Emperor Constantine’s Christianization campaign by restoring traditional religious practices and holy places across the Empire. It was as part of this policy that Julian permitted the Jews to build a Third Temple. Rabbi Hilkiyah, one of the leading rabbis of the time, spurned Julian’s money, arguing that gentiles should play no part in the rebuilding of the temple.

According to various ancient sources, including Sozomen (c. 400–450 CE) in his Historia Ecclesiastica and the pagan historian and close friend of Julian, Ammianus Marcellinus, the project of rebuilding the temple was aborted because each time the workers tried to build the temple using the existing substructure, they were burned by terrible flames coming from inside the earth and an earthquake negated what work was made.

Julian thought to rebuild at an extravagant expense, the proud Temple once at Jerusalem, committed this task to Alypius of Antioch. Alypius set vigorously to work, and was seconded by the governor of the province; when fearful balls of fire, breaking out near the foundations, continued their attacks, till the workmen, after repeated scorching, could approach no more: and he gave up the attempt.

The failure to rebuild the Temple has been ascribed to the Galilee earthquake of 363 CE, and to the Jews’ ambivalence about the project. Sabotage is a possibility, as is an accidental fire. Divine intervention was the common view among Christian historians of the time. When Julian was killed in battle after a reign of less than three years, the Christians reasserted control over the empire, and the opportunity to rebuild the Temple ended.

His attempt to defy the Gospel and rebuild the temple at Jerusalem was brought to nothing by fire and earthquake.

The Galilee earthquake of 363 was a pair of severe earthquakes that shook the Galilee and nearby regions on May 18 and 19. The maximum perceived intensity for the events was estimated to be VII (Very strong) on the Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik  (MSK) scale. The earthquakes occurred on the portion of the Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault system between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.

Sepphoris, north-northwest of Nazareth, was severely damaged. Nabratein and the Nabratein synagogue (northeast of Safed) were destroyed. Petra, in what is now Jordan, was fatally damaged.

During much of the 2nd–5th centuries of the Common Era, after the Roman defeat of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, Jews were banned from Jerusalem.

When the empire started becoming Christian under Constantine the Great, they were given permission to enter the city once a year, on the Tisha B’Av, to lament the loss of the Temple at the wall.