1. Ezra 6:15 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

When was the temple completed?

Ezra 6:15 (ESV)

15 and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

Adar was a month corresponding to February or March. The sixth year of Darius would be 515 BC. The third day of the month of Adar would make the completion date March 12, 515 BC.1 This means that the second temple was completed almost exactly seventy years after the destruction of the first temple.2 Solomon’s temple stood for almost 400 years (959–586 BC). This temple would stand for almost 600 years (until its destruction by the Romans in AD 70).