Lorenzo Palon

What Second Temple Jews Were Really Waiting For—And Why It Still Matters

When people today talk about “salvation,” it often means a private spiritual rescue—usually about going to heaven after death. But in the Jewish world of the Second Temple period, the hope was far more concrete, collective, and this-worldly. It wasn’t about escaping earth. It was about God returning to fix it.

They weren’t hoping to leave the world. They were hoping for God to come back and make it right (cf. Isaiah 40:9–11; Zechariah 14:3–9).

Back from Babylon, But Still in Exile

On paper, the exile had ended. The Persians had allowed many Jews to return and rebuild the Temple around 516 BCE. But as the centuries passed, the deep sense remained: this isn’t the real return we were promised.

The prophets had spoken of more than just going home—they’d described a dramatic, irreversible act of God. “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing… sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:10). Ezekiel envisioned the glory of YHWH returning to a renewed Temple (Ezekiel 43:4). But the rebuilt Temple under Zerubbabel lacked the unmistakable glory-cloud that had once filled Solomon’s (cf. 1 Kings 8:10–11).

As one later Jewish text puts it bluntly, “We are slaves today—even in the land you gave our ancestors” (Nehemiah 9:36). That was the reality: still under foreign rule. First Persia, then Greece, then Rome.

What They Were Actually Hoping For

Jewish writings from the Second Temple era are clear: they were waiting for God to act again—as He had in Egypt. This was not about spiritual improvement but national, cosmic rescue.

They expected:

• A second exodus. “Just as it was in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders” (Micah 7:15; cf. Isaiah 11:16; Hosea 2:14–15).
• A new Davidic king. “Raise up for them their king, the son of David… to rule over your servant Israel” (Psalms of Solomon 17:21; cf. Jeremiah 23:5–6; Ezekiel 37:24).
• Cleansing and covenant renewal. “He will purge Jerusalem, making it holy as of old” (1 Enoch 90:29; cf. Ezekiel 36:25–27; Jeremiah 31:31–34).
• The return of God’s presence. “Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” (Isaiah 40:5; cf. Malachi 3:1; Haggai 2:7–9).

The Temple had been rebuilt, but the sense remained that God had not fully returned. As the Book of Sirach mourns: “How glorious was he [Simon the high priest]… when he came out of the Temple! Like a star shining among clouds…” (Sirach 50:7). Longing for visible glory still hung in the air.

Why This Still Speaks Today

1. It reframes salvation.
If the ancient hope was for God to restore His world, then faith today isn’t about escaping earth—it’s about seeing it healed. That gives weight to justice, mercy, ecology, and economics. God’s kingdom doesn’t wait for the next life. It breaks in now. “The kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:21; cf. Matthew 6:10; Romans 8:18–21).

This is what Paul meant when he said creation groans, waiting for liberation (Romans 8:22–23). And it’s what Jesus announced when He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… to proclaim liberty to the captives” (Luke 4:18–19; cf. Isaiah 61:1–2).

2. It validates waiting.
Ancient Jews knew the ache of living between promise and fulfillment. So do we. Modern believers often feel the tension: we believe Jesus reigns, but the world still groans. This is the now-and-not-yet of kingdom faith. The waiting isn’t weakness—it’s fidelity. “Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come” (Habakkuk 2:3; cf. Hebrews 11:13, Romans 8:25).

Jesus Himself affirmed this tension when He taught about the wheat and weeds growing together until the harvest (Matthew 13:24–30). Patience is not passivity—it’s a form of protest that refuses to give up hope.

3. It roots faith in a bigger story.
You aren’t just saved from something; you’re saved into a story. A long, slow story of covenant, promise, resistance, and redemption. It started before you, and it will continue after you. As the rabbis taught, “In every generation, one must see oneself as though he personally came out of Egypt” (Mishnah Pesachim 10:5; cf. Exodus 13:8; Deuteronomy 6:20–23).

Jesus picked up this thread, too. At the Last Supper, He didn’t offer a new religion—He reinterpreted Passover: “This is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20; cf. Exodus 24:8, Jeremiah 31:31). He wasn’t starting over. He was fulfilling.

4. It reignites the expectation of God’s presence.
God returning to Zion wasn’t just poetry. It was a real hope. And for many today, that fire has gone out. We’ve grown used to absence, to silence. But the Jewish hope reminds us to cry out again—for God to show up, not just one day, but now. “O that you would rend the heavens and come down!” (Isaiah 64:1; cf. Psalm 80:1–3; Malachi 3:1).

The early church believed that this cry had been answered in Jesus. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14; cf. Matthew 1:23, Colossians 1:19). But they also knew the full unveiling of that glory was still to come (Revelation 21:3–5).

The Hope Wasn’t Wrong—Just Misunderstood

Second Temple Jews expected deliverance. They just didn’t expect it to come through a crucified king. But their expectations weren’t off base—they were rooted in the prophets. What Jesus did was fulfill the promises in a surprising key: suffering before glory, death before resurrection, cross before crown (cf. Isaiah 53:3–12; Zechariah 12:10; Psalm 22).

The early church didn’t abandon Jewish hope. They claimed it had finally begun to be fulfilled—in Jesus, in the outpouring of the Spirit, in the birth of a new people. The exile had ended (cf. Luke 1:68–79; Acts 2:33), but the world’s healing wasn’t finished.

And it still isn’t.

So the real question is:
Are we living like people who are just waiting to escape?
Or like people called to join God’s work of bringing heaven to earth?

The second kind of life is messier. Slower. But it’s the one that’s true to the story we’ve inherited—and the one the world still needs (cf. Matthew 5:13–16; Philippians 2:15; Revelation 22:1–2).

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Bibliography

• Richard Bauckham. Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament’s Christology of Divine Identity. Eerdmans, 2008.
• E.P. Sanders. Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63 BCE–66 CE. Trinity Press International, 1992.
• N.T. Wright:
  • Jesus and the Victory of God. Fortress Press, 1996.
  • The New Testament and the People of God. Fortress Press, 1992.
  • Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Fortress Press, 2013.
• James Kugel. The Bible As It Was. Harvard University Press, 1997.
• John J. Collins. Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora. Eerdmans, 2000.
• Lester L. Grabbe. An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism: History and Religion of the Jews in the Time of Nehemiah, the Maccabees, Hillel and Jesus. T&T Clark, 2010.