Herod's Temple: Dimensions, History, and Why It Matters for the New Testament
Bible Reference / Bible Facts / Measurements and Objects
In Short
Herod's Temple was Herod the Great's massive rebuilding of the Second Temple, begun around 20 BCE and destroyed by Rome in 70 CE. The sanctuary kept the traditional floor plan of the Holy Place and Most Holy Place, but Herod raised its front to about one hundred cubits, roughly 150 feet. He also doubled the Temple Mount into a platform of about 36 acres, held up by retaining walls built of stones weighing hundreds of tons. Scripture gives few measurements, so the picture comes from Josephus, the Mishnah, and archaeologists such as Benjamin Mazar, Leen Ritmeyer, and Ehud Netzer. This is the Temple where Jesus was presented as a baby, where he taught, and where the first believers in Acts met every day.
Solomon's Temple vs. Herod's Temple
Herod did not build from scratch. He rebuilt the modest Second Temple that returning exiles finished in 516 BCE (Ezra 6:15), keeping its sacred core while transforming everything around it. For the original, see What Were the Dimensions of Solomon's Temple?
When I became a Christian in high school and later sensed a call to ministry, my church gave me a Bible Dictionary. I remember combing through it, fascinated by all the intricacies of the stories and especially the temple. I gazed over cutaways of the Tabernacle and the Temple, imagined what happened there, and learned about the symbolism present in the adornment. Below, I compare and contrast Solomon’s Temple, which was destroyed when Babylon conquered them, and Herod’s Temple, which was destroyed by the Roman Empire.
| Feature | Solomon's Temple | Herod's Temple |
|---|---|---|
| Built | About 966 to 959 BCE | Begun about 20 BCE; finished about 63 CE |
| Destroyed | 587 BCE, by Babylon | 70 CE, by Rome |
| Sanctuary height | 30 cubits, about 45 ft (1 Kings 6:2) | About 100 cubits, about 150 ft (Josephus; Mishnah) |
| Holy Place | 40 x 20 cubits | 40 x 20 cubits |
| Most Holy Place | 20-cubit cube, with the Ark | 20 x 20 cubits, empty |
| Platform | Smaller hilltop enclosure | About 36 acres, roughly 500 cubits square per the Mishnah |
| Courts | Inner and outer court | Court of the Gentiles, Women, Israel, and Priests |
| Main sources | 1 Kings 6 to 7; 2 Chronicles 3 to 4 | Josephus, Mishnah tractate Middot, archaeology |
Herod's Temple Timeline
About 20 BCE. In the eighteenth year of his reign, Herod announces the project. To protect ritual purity, he trains about a thousand priests as masons and carpenters to work on the sanctuary (Josephus, Antiquities 15.380–390).
About 18 BCE. The sanctuary itself is finished in about a year and a half. The courts and porticoes take about eight more years.
4 BCE. Herod dies. Work on the wider complex continues under his successors. See The Herodian Dynasty Family Tree.
About 27 to 28 CE. At Passover, Jesus' opponents say, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years" (John 2:20).
About 63 CE. The whole complex is finally completed, putting thousands of workers out of a job.
70 CE. Roman legions under Titus burn the Temple at the end of the Jewish revolt. See When Did the Second Temple Get Destroyed?
The whole building stood complete for only about seven years before it fell.
The Dimensions of Herod's Temple, from the Outside In
The Temple Mount Platform
Herod's most dramatic achievement was the platform. The Mishnah describes the Temple Mount as five hundred cubits square (Middot 2:1). The platform Herod actually built was larger and slightly irregular: about 1,590 feet on the west, 1,540 on the east, 1,030 on the north, and 920 on the south, roughly 36 acres in all. Leen Ritmeyer's reconstruction suggests Herod doubled the earlier Hasmonean platform by filling valleys and building enormous retaining walls around the hill.
The stones are staggering. Excavations at the southwest corner, begun by Benjamin Mazar after 1967 and continued by Ronny Reich, uncovered blocks more than thirty feet long. The largest known stone, in the Western Wall tunnels, is about 44 feet long and is estimated to weigh several hundred tons. The Western Wall where people pray today is part of Herod's retaining wall, not the Temple itself.
This platform sits on the ridge Scripture calls Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1), the place where Abraham was sent to offer Isaac and where God provided the sacrifice (Genesis 22:2, 14). See Yahweh Jireh, the LORD Will Provide.
The Court of the Gentiles
The largest open space, the Court of the Gentiles, surrounded the inner courts and was open to everyone. It was large enough for tens of thousands of festival pilgrims. Ritual baths (mikva'ot) found near the southern steps show the heavy foot traffic of worshipers purifying themselves before going up. This is most likely where the money changers and animal sellers set up, and where Jesus overturned their tables. See Jesus Clears the Temple (John 2:13–22) and Jesus Cleansing the Temple (Luke 19:45–48).
A low stone barrier called the soreg separated this court from the inner courts. Two Greek inscriptions from it have been found, warning that any foreigner who passed it would be responsible for their own death. That wall stands behind Paul's words that Christ "has broken down the dividing wall" (Ephesians 2:14), and behind the riot in Acts 21 when Paul was accused of bringing a Gentile past it.
The Inner Courts
Past the barrier, the courts rose in steps of holiness:
The Court of Women, open to all Israelites, men and women. The temple treasury chests stood here, where Jesus watched a widow give two small coins (Mark 12:41–44).
The Court of Israel, a narrow strip for Israelite men.
The Court of the Priests, surrounding the sanctuary, where the great altar of burnt offering and the laver stood. The Mishnah gives the altar a base of thirty-two cubits square (Middot 3:1).
Though exact measurements vary among sources, the progression is clear: each step inward was smaller and more restricted, emphasizing reverence as worshipers drew closer to the sanctuary.
The Sanctuary
At the center stood the sanctuary, which Herod rebuilt in white stone and gold. Josephus says its front rose a hundred cubits high and a hundred wide (Antiquities 15.391), and the Mishnah gives the same figures (Middot 4:6). That made it more than three times taller than Solomon's Temple, the tallest building in Jerusalem.
Inside, Herod kept the sacred floor plan. The Holy Place measured forty cubits by twenty and held the golden lampstand, the table of the bread of the Presence, and the altar of incense. A great curtain separated it from the Most Holy Place, twenty cubits square. The Ark of the Covenant had been lost since the Babylonian conquest, so the Most Holy Place stood empty. Josephus says "there was nothing at all in it." The room still kept its meaning as the dwelling place of God's name. It was this curtain that "was torn in two, from top to bottom" when Jesus died (Mark 15:38).
Gates and Colonnades
Colonnades lined all four sides of the platform, offering shade and space for teaching and discussion. Two stand out in the New Testament:
The Royal Stoa ran along the southern wall. Josephus describes it with 162 columns in four rows, a basilica-style hall that Ehud Netzer and Ritmeyer reconstruct as one of the grandest structures of the ancient world. It served for meetings, teaching, and commerce.
Solomon's Portico ran along the eastern wall. Jesus walked there during the festival of Dedication (John 10:23), and the early church gathered there in Acts.
Of the gates, the Beautiful Gate is the best known to Bible readers, the place where Peter and John healed a man lame from birth (Acts 3:2). It is often identified with the Nicanor Gate, a famous bronze gate leading into the inner courts, though scholars debate its exact location. The Huldah Gates on the south, reached by a broad stairway still visible today, were the main entrance for pilgrims.
Herod's Temple in the Life of Jesus
The dimensions of Herod's Temple help explain many Gospel scenes. Its scale shaped where crowds gathered, where teachers sat, and how far a voice could carry.
As an infant, Jesus was presented in the Temple, where Simeon and Anna recognized him (Luke 2:22–38). See Jesus Is Presented in the Temple.
At twelve, he stayed behind, "sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions" (Luke 2:46). See The Boy Jesus in the Temple.
In his ministry, he cleared the courts and spoke of his body as the true temple (John 2:19–21). See Destroy This Temple (John 2:19).
In his last week, he wept over the city (Luke 19:41–44) and predicted the Temple's fall. "As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, 'Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!' Then Jesus asked him, 'Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down'" (Mark 13:1–2). Those "large stones" are the very blocks archaeologists measure today. See Mark 13 Overview and Commentary and Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem.
At the cross, "the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom" (Mark 15:38). Hebrews says we now enter the sanctuary "by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)" (Hebrews 10:20). Jesus is our Great High Priest and the Lamb of God whose sacrifice the Temple's altar anticipated.
Herod's Temple in the Book of Acts
After the resurrection, the first Christians did not abandon the Temple. They made it their meeting place. Its courts and colonnades became the first public square of the church.
Daily gathering. "Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home" (Acts 2:46). See The Fellowship of Believers (Acts 2:42–47).
Healing at the gate. "One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o'clock in the afternoon" (Acts 3:1), and a lame man at the Beautiful Gate walked into the courts "walking and leaping and praising God" (Acts 3:8). See Healing at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:1–10) and Peter Speaks to the Onlookers (Acts 3:11–26).
Solomon's Portico. "And they were all together in Solomon's Portico" (Acts 5:12). See Signs and Wonders Among the People (Acts 5:12–16).
Preaching under orders. After the apostles were freed from prison, an angel said, "Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life" (Acts 5:20). See The Apostles Arrested and Freed (Acts 5:17–32).
Stephen's challenge. Stephen began his defense with God's promise to Abraham (Acts 7:2–8) and ended by reminding the council that "the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands" (Acts 7:48). See God's Promise Before the Land (Acts 7:1–8) and Tent, Temple, and God's Freedom (Acts 7:44–50).
Paul's arrest. The crowd seized Paul, shouting that "he has actually brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place" (Acts 21:28), the very offense the soreg inscriptions warned against. See Paul Arrested in the Temple (Acts 21:27–36).
Why Herod's Temple Matters
Herod's Temple was built from mixed motives. Herod was a ruthless king who wanted to win over his Jewish subjects and impress Rome. Yet God used his ambition to build the stage on which the gospel would first be preached. The vast Court of the Gentiles, a space open to the nations, became the place where the apostles proclaimed a Messiah for the nations.
The Temple's destruction in 70 CE, only seven years after it was finished, reshaped both Judaism and the church. Jewish worship turned to the synagogue, Torah, and prayer. Christians remembered Jesus' words that he himself was the temple, the meeting place between God and humanity, and the one Psalm 118 calls the stone the builders rejected (Mark 12:10). See Cornerstone, a Messianic Title of Jesus.
Herod's Temple was not only an architectural achievement. It was a setting where faith, community, and hope came together, and its stones still speak of a God who chose to make his presence known among his people.
FAQ
How big was Herod's Temple? The Temple Mount platform covered about 36 acres. The sanctuary rose about 100 cubits, roughly 150 feet, according to Josephus and the Mishnah.
How did Herod's Temple differ from Solomon's Temple? Herod kept the same inner floor plan but made the sanctuary about three times taller and vastly enlarged the platform and courts. Solomon's Most Holy Place held the Ark. Herod's was empty.
How long did it take to build Herod's Temple? The sanctuary took about eighteen months, the courts about eight years, and the full complex more than eighty years, from about 20 BCE to about 63 CE. John 2:20 refers to forty-six years of construction at the start of Jesus' ministry.
Is the Western Wall part of Herod's Temple? It is part of the retaining wall Herod built around the Temple Mount platform, not the Temple building itself.
What sources describe Herod's Temple? The Gospels and Acts mention its features. Josephus (Antiquities 15 and Jewish War 5) and the Mishnah tractate Middot give measurements, and excavations since 1967 have confirmed much of their picture.
Who destroyed Herod's Temple? The Roman army under Titus burned it in 70 CE, as Jesus had foretold (Mark 13:2).
Related Content
Works Consulted
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book 15, and The Jewish War, book 5
Mishnah, Middot
Leen Ritmeyer, The Quest: Revealing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Ehud Netzer, The Architecture of Herod, the Great Builder
Benjamin Mazar, The Mountain of the Lord
Dan Bahat, The Carta Jerusalem Atlas
Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services
