A couple of weeks back, Rich Leonardi put me onto The Jerusalem Post’s feature on Julian the Apostate. To mark the ninth of Av, a fast day that recalls the destruction(s) of the Temple(s), the paper commemorated “the Third Temple that wasn’t,” the emperor Julian’s abortive project to rebuild the Temple. He had no great love for the Jews, but rather he wished to show Christian claims to be false. The project met with several calamities, amply recorded by the Fathers of the Church, and soon enough Julian met his end on the battlefield.

We’ve mentioned Julian often here, and warmly recommended a recent biography.