Footnote 1 – Reconstructing Herod’s Temple Mount in Jerusalem

According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Herod began to build the Temple in the 18th year of this reign (19 B.C.); the Temple itself took only 18 months to build and the cloisters were completed within eight years. However, a reference in the Gospel of John 2:20 (“It has taken 46 years to build this Temple”) suggests that the project continued for a much longer time.