Emperor Julian and the Rebuilding of the Temple

In the wake of the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE), Jews had been removed from Jerusalem and its environs, but when Julian became emperor of Rome in 361 CE, plans were made to return Jews to Jerusalem and rebuild the Jewish Temple. Julian’s support for rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem is explained by his intense opposition to Christianity and his efforts to return the empire to its former paganism (hence his moniker “the Apostate,” that is, one who has abandoned the faith, in this case, Christianity). Socrates Scholasticus, an ecclesiastical historian in the generation after Eusebius, offers a narrative filled with legends and miracles surrounding Julian’s aborted project, perhaps indicating the increasing spread of Christian anti-Judaism during the early Byzantine period. Sozomen’s account has much in common with that of Socrates Scholasticus. The church father Jerome also wrote of these events in his commentary on the book of Daniel. See also “Julian’s Effort to Rebuild the Temple.”