The second temple was a temple that was built in Jerusalem. The era for which this temple stood was between 516 BCE-70CE and also referred to as the second temple period. After King Cyrus’s first year reign over Babylon he issued a decree ordering that the second temple were to be constructed. King Cyrus instilled the cultic items that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon once removed from the Jerusalem temple. Cyrus gave a guy named Sheshbazzar the cultic items. Sheshbazzar along with many other people brought the necessary vessels to the site of where a temple once stood and now being rebuilt. Many years later the temple resumed being made and it wasn’t until the sixth year of the reign of King Darius the Great when it was complete. The civil leader in the effort of rebuilding the second temple was Zerubbabel who was a descendant of David. Two prophets named Haggai and Zechariah motivated Joshua, Zerubabbel, and the people to complete the task of building it which officially marked the era known as the second temple period.
The Letter of Aristeas was a lengthy document that recalls how the Ptolemy’s, which was the Greek family, that…show more content… They were the first to take the necessary steps to oppose Antiochus’s IV decrees, which basically made it impossible to carry out the rites and practices of the traditional Jewish way of life. Mattathias was the patriarch of the Hasmonean clan who rejected the Kings new policy offerings, which were not by any means the same as the traditional Jewish customs. Mattathias said, “Let everyone who is zealous for the law and supports the covenant come out with me” (VanderKam 21). Soon after this many people opposed Antiochus and retaliated and actually defeated the Seleucid forces. By the year of 162 BCE Antiochus’s decrees were officially repealed. The Hasmoneans did this to protect the Jews. They were in a process of purifying the temple from the defilement it had recently