Solomon built the First Temple
Before Solomon, Israel worshipped at the tabernacle, the movable sanctuary first made in Moses’ day. David wanted to build a permanent house for the Lord, but God appointed his son Solomon for that task. Solomon began the work in Jerusalem in the fourth year of his reign, using the plans and materials prepared for the project (1 Kings 6:1).
The temple was far more than an impressive building. It was the central place for Israel’s sacrifices, prayers and festivals. Its innermost room, the most holy place, held the ark of the covenant. When the priests brought the ark in, God’s glory filled the house, showing that the Lord had accepted this place for his name (1 Kings 8:10-11). Yet Solomon himself knew that God could not be contained by any building, not even this beautiful temple (1 Kings 8:27).
And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.
Why it is called the First Temple
People call Solomon’s building the First Temple to distinguish it from the temple built later by the Jewish people who returned from exile. The name is useful, though the Bible usually just calls it the house of the Lord or the temple.
Solomon’s temple stood for centuries, but Judah eventually turned persistently to other gods and injustice. Babylon conquered Jerusalem and burned the temple in 586 BC (2 Kings 25:8-9). Its loss was devastating. The temple had been the heart of national worship, but its destruction also showed that religious buildings could not protect a people who refused to listen to God.
And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar–adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.
The Second Temple and Herod’s work
After Babylon fell, Persian rulers allowed Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem. Under leaders such as Zerubbabel and Jeshua, they rebuilt the temple. The work was completed during the reign of Darius (Ezra 6:14-15). This was the Second Temple.
Some older people who remembered Solomon’s temple wept when they saw the foundations of the new one, because it seemed so modest by comparison (Ezra 3:12). Through Haggai, God encouraged the people not to despise that smaller beginning and promised future glory for the house (Haggai 2:3-4).
Centuries later, Herod the Great renovated and dramatically enlarged the Second Temple complex. This is the temple Jesus visited. When people said it had taken forty-six years to build, they were referring to Herod’s long building programme (John 2:20). So Herod’s temple was not usually counted as a third temple. It was the Second Temple, extensively rebuilt and expanded.
And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
How many temples were there?
The straightforward answer is two historical Jerusalem temples: Solomon’s First Temple, then the Second Temple built after the exile and later enlarged by Herod. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, as Jesus had warned when he spoke of the temple’s stones being thrown down (Matthew 24:1-2).
You may hear people speak of a future “third temple”. Christians do not all read the relevant passages in the same way. Ezekiel records a detailed temple vision (Ezekiel 40:2-4), while Revelation also speaks of a temple (Revelation 11:1-2). Some understand these as pointing to a future physical building, and others understand them symbolically or as part of Ezekiel’s vision of restored worship.
For Christians, the deepest point is that access to God does not now depend on a Jerusalem building. Jesus spoke of his own body as the true temple, pointing ahead to his death and resurrection (John 2:19-21). The temples matter because they tell the story of God dwelling among his people, a story fulfilled in Christ.