Someone poses the question, “Was Herod’s Temple authorized by God?” Herod the Great spent decades building the Temple to ingratiate the Jews to him. The Temple in existence at the time of Herod was enlarged and aggrandized in a building project that began in 20 B.C. and was not completed until A.D. 64 – a mere six years before it was destroyed in the war between Rome and the Jews. During the ministry of Jesus, the Temple had been under construction for 46 years (John 2:20).
Jesus in Mark 11:15-17 acknowledged that Herod’s Temple was the house of God. Hence, that Temple was authorized through our Lord’s acknowledgement of it as belonging to God. This is so despite the lack of any divine mandate for Herod’s construction project relating to the Temple.
The first Temple was authorized specifically by God (1 Chronicles 22:8-10). Later, though, the Temple was plundered several times before finally being destroyed by the Babylonians. Following the Persian conquest of the Babylonians, subsequently the Temple was rebuilt at the instigation of God (2 Chronicles 36:23; Ezra 1:1-4).
Herod the Great was rebuilding or adding to the Temple that was previously authorized by God. By reason of the fact that the first two constructions of the Temple were authorized by God and the fact that the second Temple was still standing when Herod remodeled it, as well as our Lord’s acknowledgement of it being the house of God, attests to Herod’s Temple being authorized by God. In addition, Jesus during His life and ministry as well as the early apostles-led church frequented the Temple without distinguishing it from God’s ownership.
In conclusion, Herod’s Temple was authorized not because Herod had anything to do with it, but because God authorized the construction especially of the second Temple, which was still standing in Herod’s day. Herod the Great remodeled the standing, authorized Temple. Finally, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit-led early church recognized Herod’s Temple as belonging to God, hence authorized by Him.
