Glad you posted that, saved me the effort. The only thing I would add would be that even in Jesus' times the whole temple religion was a giant fraud. The place was destroyed by the Babylonians around 560 bc so when the second temple was built they didn't have the stuff to consecrate it. They would have needed another perfect red heifer for one thing but the contents of the arc in the holy of holies would have been gone forever at that point. Aarons staff, the fragments of the original 10 commandments and some mana from the wilderness were/are irreplaceable. The tearing of the veil at the crucifixion did symbolise the abolishment of any intermediaries between mankind and God but also revealed the fallacy of all religion. For those who don't understand the ongoing revelation and how all of these things were simply types or metaphors for what was completed by Christ you could do worse than read The Pascha of Melito of Sardis.
