Case file · High strangeness
Fire stops the rebuilding of the Temple
When Emperor Julian ordered the Jerusalem Temple rebuilt in 363, the pagan historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that 'fearful balls of fire' burst from the foundations, burning workmen, and the work stopped.
363 CE · 31.78, 35.23 · status: account
The account
Christian writers (Gregory of Nazianzus, Rufinus, Socrates) added crosses on clothes and an earthquake. A major earthquake did strike Galilee on 19 May 363, and Julian died in Persia weeks later, ending the project.
The sceptical view
Explanations include the 363 earthquake and ignition of gas trapped in underground cavities; the Christian versions grew over time.