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RECONSTRUCTION BY LEEN RITMEYER

SANCTUARY FOR THE AGES. Few buildings captivated the imaginations of biblical and postbiblical authors more than the Jerusalem Temple, whether as the hoped-for grand sanctuary of God’s people returned to the land or a glorious, heavenly shrine in an eschatological age to come. Ancient authors differed, however, in how they imagined key details of the Temple and especially its role within an idealized Jerusalem cityscape. In the Temple Scroll, for example, the Temple and its gated inner court (see reconstruction above) were surrounded by a series of outer courts intended to house the gathered clans of Israel’s 12 tribes.