The Eschatological Role of the Jerusalem Temple: An Examination of the Jewish Writings dating from 586 BCE to 70 CE

This research aims to investigate the role or roles of the physical Jerusalem temple within the second temple Jewish writings in terms of whether the physical temple has any role to play in relation to the pivot point in eschatology. The pivot point or fulcrum in time refers to the end of the exile and perhaps the beginning of the eschaton. The exile may be theological, but many second temple Jewish texts address the physical gathering of the children of Israel to the land of Israel (i.e., from physical exile, even if the text also addresses a theological exile), thus, making the return a complete ingathering of the children of Israel. The passages of these ancient texts have been analysed before, but never with this lens. Looking to see if there is any role the Jerusalem Temple performs in expected eschatological events will at least allow an answer to be given, which is better than never asking the question in the first place, which has been the case until now. This study produces results as the Jerusalem Temple has always been a place of great expectations.