The Sanctuary Service grounds, and connected with the temple court by an under- ground passage. A few years later he decided to rebuild the temple on a grander scale than ever before. The Jews were distrustful of him, and would not let him proceed with the building until he had proved his good faith by collecting the material necessary for the structure before any of the old was taken down. This he willingly did. The priests also insisted that no common person should work on the temple, and that it would be necessary for the priests them- selves to erect the temple structure. For this reason some years were spent in training a thousand priests to be masons and carpenters to work on the sanctuary. They did all the work connected with the two apartments of the temple. Al- together, ten thousand skilled workmen were employed in the course of construction. Building operations began about 20 B.c. The temple proper was finished in a year and a half, but it took eight more years to complete the court and the cloisters. John 2:20 states that the temple at the time of Christ had been forty and six years in building; in fact, it was not until about 66 a.p., just before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, that the temple was completely finished. Herod’s temple was a most beautiful structure. It was built of white marble covered with plates of gold, set on an eminence with steps leading up to it from every direction, constituting a series of terraces. It rose to a height of four hundred feet above the valley below and could be seen from a great distance. Josephus likens it to a snow-covered moun- tain. It was a thing of beauty, especially when seen from the Mount of Olives in the morning as the sun shone upon it. It was one of the wonders of the world. The size of the two apartments, the holy and the most holy, was the same as in Solomon’s temple; that is, the temple proper was about ninety feet in length and thirty in width. The holy place was separated from the most holy 38