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Document Details : Title: The Emperor Julian's Order to Rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem Subtitle: A Connection with Oracles ? Author(s): SIMMONS, Michael Bland Journal: Ancient Near Eastern Studies Volume: 43 Date: 2006 Pages: 68-117 DOI: 10.2143/ANES.43.0.2018765 Abstract : By analyzing pagan and Christian sources from the Later Roman Empire, this study concludes that the emperor Julian was motivated by oracles, a good number possessing anti-Christian content, during the critical winter of 362–363 just before his Persian campaign, to develop an increasingly hostile programme against Christianity, and his reason for ordering the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem is best understood in this context. A new hypothesis is developed, which posits that Julian was inspired by the anti-Christian works of Porphyry of Tyre (e.g., Contra Christianos, Philosophia ex oraculis) to plan the destruction of the Church and to rebuild the Temple according to Neoplatonic interpretations of an oracle inspired by Porphyry which predicted the demise of Christianity 365 years after its inception. |
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