The Talmud quotes Herod's temple as the most magnificent building in the world (The Babylonian Talmud, Bava Bathra 4a). However, when Herod first announced his plan to rebuild the Jewish temple on Mount Moriah (Jewish Antiquities, Book 15, Chaper 11, 382-387) his offer was not, to say the least, welcomed. Herod, son of Antipater the Idumean, reigned over Judea in the years 40-4 BCE. Following his ascendance to the throne he not only ordered the assassination of his Hasmonean rivals, but also confiscated the possessions of the aristocracy of Jerusalem in order to pay his debts to Rome and to his army. These doings won him such a bad reputation among the Jewish people, that even his marriage to Mariamne, a Hasmonean princess, did not improve his standing in their eyes. Thus, the Jews were very reluctant to allow Herod to replace the modest temple built some 470 years earlier by the Returnees to Zion from Babylonia. Not until King Herod laid out all the building materials required for the construction of the Temple Mount at the foot of the mountain and trained some 10,000 priests as builders, were the Jews agreeable to his grand offer (Jewish Antiquities, Book 15, Chapter 11, 388-390).

What was in it for Herod? The building operations undertaken by Herod and other Roman rulers served as a living monument of their accomplishments. The monumental architecture evidenced throughout the Roman Empire determined a ruler's status. The rebuilding of the temple compound by Herod also served an economic purpose. An expanded Temple Mount could accommodate multitudes of pilgrims contributing to the prosperity of the city. Herod's gain was, therefore, both political and economical.