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SERIES L --- THE NATION DIVIDES --- LESSON 06

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

KING SOLOMON BUILDS THE TEMPLE

From 1 Kings 6; 7:13-22; 2 Chronicles 3

King Solomon began to construct the great temple in the spring of the fourth year of his reign, exactly four hundred and eighty years after the people of Israel left their bondage in Egypt. It was the second day of the month of Ziv, the second month [which today would be April 17]. The construction site was on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, the place where Adonai had appeared to King David and where the threshing floor of Araunah [Oman] the Jebusite had been located. King David had chosen this site for the temple and Solomon confirmed that it would be built there. The main sanctuary of the temple, laid on a stone foundation, was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide and forty-five feet high [some records say a hundred and eighty feet high]. A covered porch ran along the entire thirty-foot width of the temple. This porch was fifteen feet wide, covered entirely on the inside, walls and ceiling, with pure gold. The building itself was lighted by a number of narrow windows. Rooms ran along both sides of the building. There were three stories, with the lowest story seven and a half feet wide, the second story nine feet wide and the third story ten and a half feet wide. The beams supporting these rooms did not enter into the wall of the main structure; they rested instead on blocks of stone which jutted out from the wall. The main structure was built of stone, cut into great rectangular blocks at the quarry. All the work was done at the quarry so that the temple itself could be put together without the sound of hammer, axe or any other iron tool. The entrance for the lowest story of the annex rooms was on the south side of the temple. From there a person went to the second story by a winding stairway and then up to the third story by another stairway. The entire building, including its beams and pillars, was panelled with cedar. The annex rooms were fastened to the main building with cedar. The floors were of cypress wood. The Most Holy Place, the inner room or sanctuary at the back of the main structure, was also panelled with cedar. This room was about thirty feet long and the main structure, apart from the Most Holy Place, was sixty feet long. The building was made of stone, panelled with cedar and the cedar was engraved with various designs; rosebuds, flowers, palm trees, angels and chains. The interior of the temple was overlaid with pure gold, with precious jewels set into place for added beauty. Everything was covered with pure gold, including the beams, walls, doors and even the thresholds. The thirty-foot-square room, the Most Holy Place or Holy of Holies, was also covered with pure gold, worth many millions of dollars. Even the large nails, twenty-six ounces in weight, were of pure gold. The upper rooms also were covered with pure gold. In the Most Holy Place or Holy of Holies, King Solomon placed two cherubim, carved from olive wood. Each was fifteen feet high and fifteen feet wide from the tip of one outstretched wing to the tip of the other outstretched wing. The cherubim were placed side by side so that the tips of their inner wings touched in the centre and each tip of their outer wings touched a wall. The two cherubim, with outstretched wings, reached across the entire width of the room. The two cherubim were exactly alike and were overlaid with pure gold. They stood on the floor and faced the main room. The opening between the main room and the Holy of Holies was a five-sided doorway, with two great olive-wood doors, decorated with carved cherubim, palm trees and flowers. All of this wood was overlaid with pure gold. The entrance was covered with a veil of fine-spun linen, blue and crimson in colour and decorated with cherubim. The wall of the inner courtyard of the temple was made of three layers of cut stone and a layer of cedar beams. At the suggestion of King Hiram, King Solomon brought a skilled craftsman named Hiram [or Huram] from Tyre. He was the son of a Jewish widow of the tribe of Naphtali. His father had been a craftsman in Tyre, skilled in working with bronze. At Solomon’s command, Hiram cast two large bronze pillars seventy-five feet high and eighteen feet around, with bronze four inches thick. The top parts of the pillars were bronze capitals, six feet wide and seven and a half feet high. Each capital had a trelliswork design, with a chain-like effect. There were seven rows of this design around each capital, with four hundred pomegranates in two rows. These two pillars were mounted at the entrance to the temple. The one at the right, which was the south side, was named Jachin and the one at the left, which was the north side, was named Boaz. The entrance had doorposts and double doors made of olive wood. The lintel and doorposts were made with five parts. Both of the great doors were decorated with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees and flowers, overlaid with pure gold. The foundation of the temple was laid in the month of Ziv [April-May] of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign. The entire temple was completed in the month of Bul [November] of the eleventh year of his reign. The work took over seven years to complete.

COMMENTARY

SOLOMON’S TEMPLE: A RECONSTRUCTION

The temple built by Solomon was a towering and beautiful building. It took seven years and six months to build. The temple carried out the plan given by YHVH at Sinai for the tabernacle, the ancient [Tent of Meeting.] No expense was spared to honour Adonai YHVH of Israel. The temple in Jerusalem was very different from synagogues and churches of today. Modern sanctuaries are designed for large groups to gather for worship and teaching. But Solomon’s temple was not a place for meetings. It was the [house of Adonai,] a place for the presence of YHVH to dwell among His people. Phoenician craftsmen built the temple with white limestone quarried in nearby hills. It was a simple design; a long rectangular building with three rooms. Two huge bronze pillars stood outside the doors to the entrance hall or vestibule. Beyond it was a larger room, the Holy Place, where the priests burned incense on the golden altar and kept the lamp stands and tables of showbread. The walls of this room were panelled with cedar and elaborately adorned with cedar carvings, gold and jewels. Through the door at the far end was the Holy of Holies; the most sacred area of the temple. The high priest entered here only once a year, bringing a special blood offering as a plea for YHVH to cleanse Israel from sin. In this windowless, private room stood the Ark of the Covenant. Winged beings carved of olive wood and plated with gold rested over the Ark. These were called cherubim and their outstretched wings served as a throne for the invisible YHVH of Israel. Guarding the Ark were two huge cherubim, seventeen feet high, with wings which brushed the sides of the room. Like the kings of any ancient countries, Solomon built his palace next to the temple. Small inner courts set each of these buildings apart from the others in the temple complex. A larger wall built of stone and cedar enclosed the two buildings in a courtyard called the [Great Court.] Here, the people gathered to worship and offer daily sacrifices. The huge sacrificial altar stood facing the temple, its sides plated with bronze from the temple treasuries. The [molten sea] also stood in the Great Court. This huge bronze basin weighed more than thirty tons and held thousands of gallons of water. Twelve bronze oxen representing the twelve tribes of Israel supported the basin. With this water, priests performed the ritual cleansings required in Israelite law. Nearby were ten tables and smaller basins where the priests cleansed and killed the animals to be sacrificed.

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