When Israel became a settled nation they replaced the Tabernacle with a permanent temple in Jerusalem. King David received instructions from God for the design of the Temple, and collected together materials for its construction, but his son King Solomon was responsible for the building and equipment of the Temple and ordering its routine. It formed a focal point for worship in Israel (see 2 Chronicles 6:7-10).

Solomon's Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, and replaced with a smaller building by the returning exiles seventy years later, on the instructions of Cyrus (see Ezra ch.6).

In the lifetime of Jesus, King Herod built a magnificent new Temple, and this was continually added to over a period of years until it was destroyed by the Roman army which besieged Jerusalem in 70 AD (see Matthew 24:1).
When Jesus was on trial before Pilate, the first accusation brought against him was that he had said he would destroy and rebuild the Temple in three days (in Matthew 26:61), but John in his Gospel tells us that Jesus had meant the temple of his body (in John 2:18-22). (See BODY).

The prophet Ezekiel in the last part of his book, gives a specification for a Temple to be erected at a future time when Israel would be restored to their land. This is regarded by some as a literal project for the future when Christ is on the earth again. The instructions include a detailed ritual and a complete way of practical and spiritual life for a perfect existence under God. This may be its purpose, but a practical interpretation is at variance with the thought expressed elsewhere by the prophets and apostles that God does not require a building to live in, but that He lives in the hearts and minds of His faithful children: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? says the Lord." (Acts 7:49; quoting Isaiah 66:1-2). The apostle Peter writes: "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…." (1 Peter 2:5).

The apostle John, given a symbolic vision of the New Jerusalem, says: "I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." (Revelation 21:22).