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I am reading 「花咲かじいさん」and there is a phrase used a lot like...
隣のおじいさんは言いました。
I have not seen this before and it doesn’t make sense to me from my understanding of 隣 meaning “next to”.
What does it mean here? Is it like a temporal “next”. Like... “Then the old man said...”?
No, doesn't mean "then" or "next" in a temporal sense. Depending on the context, the phrase you have quoted means either "the elderly man next to [someone]" or "the elderly man who lives [or lived] in the house next door."
