This is an investigation of issues surrounding the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple of Yahweh in the early Achaemenid Persian period. It focuses on the timing and purpose of the project, and the social and political circumstances in which it was undertaken. The study reflects on Ezra 1-6, Haggai, and Zechariah 1-8, early Achaemenid Persian administrative practices, and Judean hopes for restoration in order to question the contention that the Jerusalem temple was established as an economic and administrative centre around which competing groups struggled for socio-economic and political power.