davidbrainerd wrote:Even after the Jerusalem temple is destroyed teachers could refer to the temple and its service as standing...
This is one of those shibboleths that sounds impressive at first but really is nonsense. Either the text was in fact written before A.D. 70, or it is evident from the text itself that the temple and its service are
not referred to "as standing" currently, in the writer's day. Hebrews, 1 Clement, and Diognetus 1-10 are examples of the former (cf.
A Study in 1 Clement and
Epistle to Diognetus). Josephus and the Epistle of Barnabas are examples of the latter.
davidbrainerd wrote:i.e. the one in Egypt the church and scholarship doesn't want us to know existed.
Nor did the Romans want it operating, after the war, and as a consequence, by A.D. 73 a Jewish temple in Egypt was (and would be) shut down, with any of its wealth confiscated (Josephus,
War of the Jews, 7.10).
Now Lupus did then govern Alexandria. Who presently sent Cæsar word of this commotion. Who having in suspicion the restless temper of the Jews for innovation, and being afraid lest they should get together again, and persuade some others to join with them, gave orders to Lupus to demolish that Jewish temple which was in the region called Onion, and was in Egypt. (18) Which was built, and had its denomination from the occasion following. Onias, the son of Simon, one of the Jewish High-priests, fled from Antiochus, the King of Syria, when he made war with the Jews, and came to Alexandria. And as Ptolemy received him very kindly, on account of his hatred to Antiochus, he assured him, that if he would comply with his proposal, he would bring all the Jews to his assistance. And when the King agreed to do it, so far as he was able; he desired him to give him leave to build a temple somewhere in Egypt, and to worship God according to the customs of his own country. For that the Jews would then be so much readier to fight against Antiochus, who had laid waste the temple at Jerusalem; and that they would then come to him with greater good will; and that by granting them liberty of conscience, very many of them would come over to him.
3. So Ptolemy complied with his proposals; and gave him a place one hundred and eighty furlongs distant from Memphis. (19) That Nomos was called the Nomos of Heliopolis. Where Onias built a fortress; and a temple, not like to that at Jerusalem, but such as resembled a tower. He built it of large stones, to the height of sixty cubits.27 He made the structure of the altar in imitation of that in our own country, and in like manner adorned with gifts: excepting the make of the candlestick. For he did not make a candlestick; but had a [single] lamp hammered out of a piece of gold; which illuminated the place with its rays, and which he hung by a chain of gold. But the intire temple was encompassed with a wall of burnt brick, though it had gates of stone. The King also gave him a large country for a revenue in money; that both the priests might have a plentiful provision made for them; and that God might have great abundance of what things were necessary for his worship. Yet did not Onias do this out of a sober disposition.28 But he had a mind to contend with the Jews at Jerusalem; and could not forget the indignation he had for being banished thence. Accordingly he thought, that by building this temple he should draw away a great number from them to himself. There had been also a certain ancient prediction made by [a prophet] whose name was Isaiah, about six hundred years before, that this temple should be built by a man that was a Jew in Egypt. And this is the history of the building of that temple.
4. And now Lupus, the governor of Alexandria, upon the receipt of Cæsar’s letter, came to the temple, and carried out of it some of the donations dedicated thereto, and shut up the temple itself. And as Lupus died a little afterward [about A.D. 75], Paulinus succeeded him. This man left none of those donations there: and threatened the priests severely, if they did not bring them all out. Nor did he permit any who were desirous of worshipping God there, so much as to come near the whole sacred place. But when he had shut up the gates, he made it intirely inaccessible: insomuch that there remained no longer the least footsteps of any divine worship that had been in that place. Now the duration of the time from the building of this temple till it was shut up again was three hundred and forty-three years.
So there's a reason people don't believe there were any Jewish temples still running within the Roman empire.
"... almost every critical biblical position was earlier advanced by skeptics." - Raymond Brown
