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Then Judas assembled his army and went to the city of Adullam. As the seventh day was coming on, they purified themselves according to the custom, and kept the sabbath there (2 Macc 12:38).

Decree of the people of Halicarnassus. "In the priesthood of Memnon, son of Aristides and, by adoption, of Euonymus . . . of Anthesterion, the people passed the following decree on the motion of Marcus Alexander. Whereas at all times we have had a deep regard for piety toward the Deity and holiness, and following the example of the people of Rome, who are benefactors of all mankind, and in conformity with what they have written to our city concerning their friendship and alliance with the Jews, to the effect that their sacred services to God and their customary festivals and religious gatherings shall be carried on, we have also decreed that those Jewish men and women who so wish may observe their Sabbaths and perform their sacred rites in accordance with the Jewish laws, and may build synagogues near the sea, in accordance with their native custom. And if anyone, whether magistrate or private citizen, prevents them, he shall be liable to the following fine and owe it to the city" (Josephus, Ant. 14.256–258).

For to whom should we make thank-offering save to God? and wherewithal save by what He has given us? for there is nothing else whereof we can have sufficiency. God needs nothing, yet in the exceeding greatness of His beneficence to our race He bids us bring what is His own. For if we cultivate the spirit of rendering thanks and honour to Him, we shall be pure from wrongdoing and wash away the filthiness which defiles our lives in thought and word and deed. For it is absurd that a man should be forbidden to enter the temples save after bathing and cleansing his body, and yet should attempt to pray and sacrifice with a heart still soiled and spotted. The temples are made of stones and timber, that is of soulless matter, and soulless too is the body in itself. And can it be that while it is forbidden to this soulless body to touch the soulless stones, except it have first been subjected to lustral and purificatory consecration, a man will not shrink from approaching with his soul impure the absolute purity of God and that too when there is no thought of repentance in his heart? He who is resolved not only to commit no further sin, but also to wash away the past, may approach with gladness: let him who lacks this resolve keep far away, since hardly shall he be purified. For he shall never escape the eye of Him who sees into the recesses of the mind and treads its inmost shrine (Philo, Deus. 7–9).

While most commentators have taken this as a reference to practices within pagan temples, Philo's use of "temples" (hiera) here is best understood as an allusion to the Egyptian synagogues since his audience is primarily Jewish and he recommends worship within the structure--advice he would hardly give to his audience if the building were understood as an idol temple ("sacrifice" [thyein] can be used of any religious ritual). Philo's exhortation to enter the presence of God not only outwardly cleansed but inwardly purified finds parallels in earlier Jewish writings (e.g., Ps 51:7).