The Second Temple refers to the temple rebuilt by the exiles who returned to Judah upon the proclamation of an edict by Cyrus in 538, under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the priest. Their rebuilding soon attracted the attention and opposition of the people living in the land, and for a while it stalled until 521 BC when circumstances once again became favourable to the Jews with the ascension to the Persian throne by Darius. Encouraged the prophetic ministies of Haggai and Zechariah the Jews completed the temple about 516/5 BC. It was likely that the temple was re-furbished from time to time since then, but the most spectacular work was done to it by Herod the Great beginning about 20 BC. The finishing touches were finished in 63 AD. It was so magnificent that Josephus could claim that one has not seen a great building until one has beheld the temple. It was an opinion the disciples of Jesus would have concurred (Matt 24:1-2; Mk 13:1-2; Lk 21:5-6). But it would not last long; it was totally razed by Titus in 70 AD during the First Jewish Revolt.
The years roughly between the rebuilding of the temple in 538 BC to its final destruction in is, conveniently, referred to by historians as the Second Temple Era.
The Second Temple era was marked by great changes for the Jews. Jews were no longer confined to the Palestinian hinterland; the majority of them resided in the Diaspora in cities in half of the then-known world. Instead of the temple, the synagogue became the center of their normal religious life. Hebrew was no longer their vernacular language, Aramaic was, with Greek as well. Culturally and intellectually, they were shaped more and more by Hellenism, i.e., Greek way of life. Though for a period of about a hundred years they were ruled by their own kind under the Hasmoneans, most of their political life was dominated by foreigners; the Persians, the Ptolemies, the Seleucids, and then, with the end of the Hasmoneans, by the Romans.
The Second Temple Era was the background against which Jesus and the early disciples lived out their lives and ministry. An appreciation of the history, cultures and intellectual climates of the period is, therefore, essential for understanding the NT.
Resources:
Larry R. Helyer, "The Necessity, Problems, and Promise of Second Temple Judaism for Discussions of New Testament Eschatology," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 47/4 (December 2004): 597-615.
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