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Among the projects that Julian the Apostate took on was the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. This was intended to deflate Christian apologetics who pointed to the destruction of the temple as a sign of Judaism's demise and Christianity's ascendency, both divinely authorized. But there were also Christians who hoped for a restored temple. Writing on Zechariah, Jerome complained of the "Jews and Judaizing Christians" who hoped for the "building up of Jerusalem, and the pouring forth of waters from its midst, flowing down to both seas." He continues, "Then circumcision is again to be practiced, victims are to be sacrificed and all the precepts of the laws are to be kept, so that it will not be a matter of Jews becoming Christians but of Christians becoming Jews. On that day, they say, when the Christus will take his seat to rule in a golden and jewelled Jerusalem, there will be no more idols nor varieties of worship of the divinity, but there will be one God, and the whole world will revert to solitude, that is, to its ancient state."
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 at 05:26 PM
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