Travel lovers know that all travels are primarily aimed at exploring our world, history and learning about the most amazing wonders. That is why a trip to Israel will not leave any curious wanderer indifferent. And you can start your fascinating acquaintance with this religious center by getting acquainted with the historical legends and facts of the Temple of Solomon.
The construction of this type of buildings in ancient Israel was possible only if all the people of the country were fully united. And according to legend, it was at such a spiritual moment in the life of the people of Israel that the construction of one of the greatest structures on our planet was announced. It was King Solomon who led the process at that time. Guided by the instructions of his father David, a beautiful cathedral was erected on the Temple Mount, where the Israelites could worship God.
Interesting! It is thanks to the decision of the king to erect this structure that 12 generations have considered Jerusalem the center of the religious life of Israel.
According to legend, in the Temple of King Solomon there were relics very important for all Christians:
- The Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Tablets of the Covenant;
- cherubs;
- temple utensils.
I would like to talk about the latter in more detail. It is believed that these items included the Great Altar of Burnt Offering, the golden altar of incense, the golden Menorah, and the table of the showbread.
Interesting! The Jewish faith believes that the temple will be rebuilt and that it is ordained to become a center of spirituality not only for the people of Israel, but for the entire world population.
Construction
King David and young Solomon
King David, who was the father and predecessor, during the reign of the people was able to prepare for the construction of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. In wars, he was able to get a lot of precious metals (gold, silver, copper) and decided to present them as a gift to God. Therefore, Solomon, who began building after his father, had at his disposal a lot of valuable materials. He also placed at his disposal a previously developed plan, drawn up together with the Sanhedrin.
It is no longer possible to give an exact date for the start of construction work, but the most common number is 966-64 BC. The whole process lasted about 7 years, the lighting of the place happened in a year. During this sacred action, the Ark of the Covenant was installed in the room and a sacred prayer was also said by the King himself. The celebration of this event, according to legend, lasted 14 days.
Interesting! The sacred building was part of the entire palace complex, but to a large extent prevailed over other buildings in beauty and luxury.
Architecture
The difficulty in describing the architecture of the building lies in the fact that almost no sources have survived to this day that could tell how the building looked. The main descriptive options that show both fictional and true luxury are:
- 3 Kings;
- 2 Pair;
- Description of Ezekiel.
The territory is divided into the courtyard part (Azara) and the building of the Shrine (Heikhal). The courtyard, according to known facts, was divided into two components - external and internal. The first was intended for people and served as a place for prayers, the second - for the entrance of the clergy. There was also an altar of burnt offering.
On a note! For such a majestic process, the King ordered the stones to be hewn and the Lebanese cedars to be delivered by sea.
The large building was fitted with a flat roof of cedar logs, which rested on the building's central columns. The interior decoration was decorated with gold and cedar logs. There were also voluminous cherubs, palm trees and flowers. The layout was combined from 3 rooms - the Porch, the Hall and the Holy of Holies. It was possible to climb into the first room by stairs, which were framed on both sides by copper columns. . The right pillar in the porch of Solomon's temple was called Jachin, and the left one was Boaz. The columns were decorated with crowns. Divine services were conducted in the second room, inside there was the Golden Menorah.
On a note! At the moment there is not a single historical source that does not belong to the Jews. However, given that the building was erected by the Phoenicians, it is believed that many oriental motifs were present in it.
The third room - the Holy of Holies - was special, and had no lighting, either natural or from candles.
Third temple
Temple of King Solomon in Jerusalem
Given the centuries-old history of the sacred building, and the fact that it is still considered one of the most important shrines of the entire Christian world, the desire to restore it is fully justified. Based on historical data, it is known that during its history the building was restored twice, and twice it was completely destroyed. However, the prophecy says that when the third restoration occurs, the Second Coming will occur.
In 2015, the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem was decided to be restored, which caused a storm of joy and controversy. However, there is an explanation for both.
Figures of history and religion say that it is possible to start restoring the Third Temple of Solomon right now, because a lot of work has already been done for this. Studied the structure, its architecture, materials. Careful restorations of many shrines have been carried out, in particular the Golden Menorah and the Ark of the Covenant.
However, all this does not matter, because at the moment, on the site where the holy building should be, the Muslim Dome of the Rock has been erected. And therefore, further actions will depend only on whether both sides can come to a compromise.
Brazilian counterpart
In the end, I would like to talk about the Temple of Solomon in Brazil. In 2014, a copy of the legendary building was opened to the public in Sao Paulo. The creators of such a work of architectural and religious art explained that they created it so that representatives of all nationalities and all religions could feel the pure and real Faith. Such a decision will provide an opportunity for all people on earth to plunge into our past.
In all religions, the temple is considered a sacred place where the Deity makes his presence known to people in order to receive their worship, expressed in a cult, and make them partakers of his mercy and life. His usual residence does not belong to the earthly world, but the temple is identified with it to some extent, so that through the temple a person enters into contact with the world of the gods. We find such original symbolism in the Old Testament. The Temple in Jerusalem marks the presence of God among the people. But this is just a sign of a temporary nature, which will be replaced in the New Testament by a sign of a different kind: the Body of Christ and His Church.
The Jews of patriarchal times did not know the temple. They had sacred places where they "called on the name of Yahweh." Then Israel has a portable sanctuary, through which God can constantly dwell among His people, who are led by Him through the wilderness. The Tabernacle of the Covenant, an idealized description of which, partly inspired by the future temple, we see in Exodus 26-27, is the meeting place of the people with God. God dwells in it between the cherubim, above the purgatory that covers the Ark of the Covenant. God prophesies there: hence the name given to the tabernacle: "Tabernacle of Testimony." The presence of God there is both tangible and hidden: behind the cloud lies His radiant glory. Thus, the memory of the Sinai Covenant is maintained in the central sanctuary of the entire Israelite alliance. When he established himself in Canaan, the sanctuary common to the tribes of Israel is established successively on Ebal, in Shechem, in Shiloh. From the very beginning, this sanctuary retained an ancient character, which sharply distinguished it from the Canaanite sanctuaries, which usually represented stone temples: the God of Sinai does not want any contact with the pagan culture of Canaan. The sanctuary common to all the tribes of Israel, David establishes in Jerusalem, after he transferred there the Ark of the Covenant, captured and returned by the Philistines (2 Kings 6). Jerusalem conquered by him became not only the political capital, but also the religious center of Yahweh. Having organized the monarchy along the lines of the neighboring kingdoms, though without compromising the idiosyncrasies of Israel, David conceived the idea of modernizing the place of traditional worship.
It is difficult to judge from fragmentary data on the construction activities of the Israelites in the first half of the 10th century BC. It seems that its principles were only developed using the traditions of predecessors, neighbors and opponents. Probably, the meagerness of construction evidence from the time of Saul and David can be associated with unrelenting military tension, which by no means contributes to either the creation or preservation of architectural complexes. The more stable time of Solomon (965-928 BC), marked by the establishment of broad trade and cultural ties that extended to Cilicia, Egypt, Mesopotamia and South Arabia, could lead to a noticeable intensification of both construction activities and other crafts. In support of this, it is appropriate to recall the words of Solomon addressed to David's friend Hiram, king of the Phoenician city of Tyre, in the message about the plan to build a temple in Jerusalem: “You know that David, my father, could not build a house in the name of the Lord his God, because wars with the surrounding nations, until the Lord subdued them under the soles of his feet. Now the Lord, my God has given me peace from everywhere: there is no adversary and no more obstacles. And behold, I intend to build a house in the name of the Lord my God…” (1 Kings 5:3-5).
The idea of the construction and urbanization process of Solomon's time is noticeably more concrete and chronologically definite. But even here the archaeological evidence is far from complete. The main buildings of Jerusalem are better known from narrative sources, primarily from biblical texts, than from their real remains. First of all, this concerns the legendary temple and palace on the Temple Mount - the top of the ridge north of Ophel. The description of the temple and its construction in the Bible (1 Kings 5:16; 6:14-38; 2 Chronicles 4) is quite specific and detailed. Its main provisions are as follows: the temple stood on a podium and was a rectangular structure 25 by 50 meters with a height of about 15 meters and a wall thickness of up to 6 meters. The three-part scheme of the temple with the location of all three components on a single long axis has been known in Palestine since the end of the Middle Bronze Age and can be considered traditional for Canaanite, and then Phoenician temple architecture. Mazar, who gave a concise and extremely clear description of the temple based on an exhaustive analysis of the biblical text, emphasizes the continuity of building traditions, noting that even the thickness of the walls of Solomon's temple was the same as that of the Middle Bronze Age temple in Shechem. In terms of overall size, the temple exceeded the known examples of both Canaanite and Phoenician temple architecture. The interior, according to the biblical description, consisted of a portico, a sanctuary and a davir - a room for the holy of holies; the entrances to all three parts lay on a single central axis. At the same time, the holy of holies was not separated from the sanctuary by a wall - a curtain or a wooden partition is supposed here. In addition, the holy of holies was raised to a podium, and several steps led up to it. On the longitudinal sides of the temple there were three-story auxiliary rooms that could serve as the royal treasury and at the same time were an additional support for the heavy roof to the walls of the main hall. In front of the temple - along its entire width - a narthex 5 meters wide was built. The appearance of such a plan of temple structures is associated with the buildings of the 2nd millennium BC in Canaan and Northern Syria. Mazar points to the unconditional prototypes of the Solomon Temple in the Middle Bronze Age of Ebla, Megiddo, Shechem, and to the preservation of the same plan in the subsequent period, which is documented by the temple of the 8th century BC at Tell Taynat. He rightly points out that the abundant use of imported cedar wood in the construction of Solomon's temple recorded in the biblical description corresponds to the use of the same material by the creators of the Canaanite and Philistine temples. Gold was also quite generously used, primarily for lining the interior of the temple, lining the wooden altar that stood in front of the holy of holies, as well as for the production of numerous religious accessories.
The ark of the covenant was transferred from the city of David to Solomon's temple and placed in the holy of holies, where it was flanked by the outstretched wings of two cherubim carved from olive wood and overlaid with gold. Cherubim were like a sphinx: they had the body of a lion or a bull, the wings of an eagle and the head of a man. This ornamental motif was widespread in the art of the Canaanites, Phoenicians and Syrians of the Bronze and Iron Ages, like other temple decorations, such as ornamental lattices, palmettes, fruits and flowers, chains, borders, images of fantastic and real animals. Undoubtedly, the use of the famous Phoenician ivory carving. Two ornamented copper columns - Jachin and Boaz, - standing at the facade of the Solomon Temple and flanking the entrance to it, were purely decorative and did not carry a constructive function. But they bring to mind two bases of columns, also of no constructive significance, discovered in the temple of the Late Bronze Age in Azora. Absolutely the same columns flanking the entrance with volute completion are shown on the clay model of the sanctuary from Tell el-Fara. It should be noted that the manufacture of these large copper products is associated with the biblical narrative with the master Hiram from Tire, who “possessed the ability, art and ability to make all kinds of things from copper. And he came to King Solomon, and did all kinds of work for him” (1 Kings 7:14). This is another confirmation of close ties with the Phoenician craft centers, famous, among other things, for copper products. A number of the latter are listed in the biblical description of the temple, and then the palace of Solomon - stands for ritual bowls with large wheels, decorated with images of lions, oxen and cherubs, washbasins, spatulas, decorative images of fruits, "cast copper sea" - a large round pool with a diameter of about 5 and a depth of about 2.5 m with a relief ornament, standing on 12 figures of oxen. All objects of the liturgical cult, like the temple itself, are deeply symbolic and representative in the New Testament sense. For example,the copper sea (washbasin) means Christ's sanctification and the rebirth of mankind by the Holy Spirit. The golden altar (censer) symbolizes Christ in heaven, Mediator and Advocate. The tables for the showbread represent Christ as the Beginning and Cause of the fellowship of the faithful. Gold bears witness to Christ and the Church of the redeemed as the light of the world. The tree used in the construction of the temple: shittim, cedar, cypress symbolize respectively humanity, incorruptibility and resurrection. The altar of burnt offerings is Christ and His atoning death, the propitiation for our sins.
So, a detailed description of the construction, layout and appearance of the Temple is given in 1 Kings. 5-7. Solomon did not spare either money or people - after all, it was the Temple of God. Stones were hewn only in a quarry, so that neither a hammer, nor an adze, nor any other iron tool could be heard in the Temple during construction. When the construction of the Temple was completed, the celebration of consecration took place. The cloud of God's presence filled the temple; the service was led by the king himself: “The Lord said that he was pleased to dwell in darkness; I have built a temple for you to dwell in, a place for you to dwell forever.” The Temple in Jerusalem became the center of God's worship, although the ten seceding tribes erected their own sanctuaries elsewhere. According to Western scholars, the temple was supposed to be only the first and best of the many sanctuaries scattered in the country, only especially sacred due to the possession of the national palladium, the ark of the covenant; moreover, it was a royal sanctuary, on which the splendor emanating from the king extended. It is in this sense that he received the greatest importance for Israel as the central point of her political and religious life, the significance of which has gone far ahead of all human calculations.
Solomon's temple especially increased the prestige of the Jerusalem sanctuary, although some prophets (notably Nathan) believed that the temple was a dangerous innovation compared to the ancient tradition. The Lord appeared to Nathan and said that He dwelt in a tent, and He did not need any house. Although the existence of other sanctuaries was still admitted, but the connection that gradually connects the faith of Israel with Jerusalem is affirmed. Jerusalem was a Canaanite city, but here it is woven into the chain of sacred promises and becomes a sacred center, and to this day this status remains for it. The temple was both the national sanctuary of the people of Israel, which kept the ark, and the royal building.
So, the religion of Yahweh is so strong that it can be enriched even with the achievements of Canaanite culture without changing the Sinai tradition, especially since the center of the temple was a symbol of this tradition. This tradition is clearly established in the temple; thus the Jerusalem sanctuary is the successive center of worship for the tribes of Israel. Moreover, by manifesting His glory there in the cloud, God clearly shows that the temple is pleasing to Him as a place where He "allows His name to abide." Of course, God himself is not connected with this visible sign of His presence: the heaven of heaven does not contain Him, much less the earthly house; but in order to enable His people to meet Him more tangibly, He chose this place, of which He said, "My name will be there" (1 Kings 8:29). From now on, without canceling all other sanctuaries, the Temple of Jerusalem becomes the center of worship of Yahweh. Pilgrims from all over the country flock there, “to appear before the face of God,” and for the faithful, the temple is an object of touching love. Everyone knows that God is "in heaven". The temple is, as it were, the likeness of His heavenly palace, which, to some extent, is located in this world. Consequently, the worship that takes place in the temple acquires the significance of an official cult: it is in it that the king and the people serve the national God.
After the end of the era of the prophets, despite the attachment to the stone temple, a new trend of thought began to take hold. The ominous predictions about the temple, and then its destruction and the experience of captivity, clearly showed the need for a more spiritual worship, consistent with the requirements of the religion of the heart proclaimed by Deuteronomy and Jeremiah. In the land of exile, they understood better that God is everywhere where He reigns, where He is worshiped. For His glory was revealed to Ezekiel in Babylon. And so, towards the end of the captivity, some prophets warn the Jews against excessive attachment to the temple of stone, as if the spiritual worship required by God, the worship of the "humble and contrite in spirit" would be better combined with the spiritual presence of God, cut off from outward signs. Yahweh abides in heaven and from there he hears the prayers of his faithful, wherever they ascend.
Jesus Christ, like the prophets, deeply reveres the Jerusalem temple. The Mother of God brings Him to the temple. He comes there for celebrations as a meeting place with His Father. He approves of divine services, but condemns the formalism that distorts their meaning. The temple for Him is the House of God, the house of prayer, the house of His Father. He is indignant, for it is being turned into a house of trade, and with a prophetic gesture drives out the dealers in sacrificial animals from the temple in order to cleanse it, and at the same time He announces the destruction of this magnificent building, from which there will be no stone upon stone. When He was judged, He was even blamed for the words that He would destroy this sanctuary created by the hands of people, a man-made temple, and in three days would erect another, not made by hands; the same accusation is mockingly repeated during His death throes on the cross (Matt. 27:39). We are talking about words, the meaning of which will be explained only in the future. But at His last breath, the veil of the temple was torn in two, and this means that the ancient sanctuary lost its sacred character: the Jewish temple ceased to fulfill its purpose, that is, to be a sign of the presence of God. This appointment is now being fulfilled by another sign by the Body of Christ itself. In the gospel of John, the mysterious words about the temple destroyed and rebuilt in three days are given in the story of the cleansing of the temple (John 2:19). But John adds, "He spoke of the temple of His Body," and the disciples understood this after His resurrection. Here is the new and final temple, the temple not made by hands, where the Word of God dwells with people, as it once did in the tabernacle of the Covenant. But in order for the temple made of stone to lose its significance, the death and resurrection of Jesus were necessary: the temple of His Body was destroyed and rebuilt - such is the will of His Father. After the resurrection of Christ, this Body, the sign of God's presence in this world, was transformed in such a way that it is possible for Him everywhere and at all times to abide in the sacrament of the Eucharist. The ancient temple has only to disappear. During the transition period, Christians continue to go to the Temple in Jerusalem. As long as Judaism has not yet completely lost its connection with the new cult, the beginning of which was laid by Jesus Christ; if the Jewish people were converted, they could play a part in the conversion of the whole world. But the signs of a break were already clear. Stephen, praising the worship of God in the spirit, as if foretells the death of the man-made temple, and these words are considered blasphemous and lead to the death of Stephen. A few years later, the destruction of Jerusalem, during which the temple was also destroyed, led to an even greater ossification of Judaism. But even before that, Christians do not realize that they themselves constitute a new temple, a spiritual temple, a continuation of the Body of Christ. Paul teaches: The Church is the Temple of God, built on Christ, the foundation and cornerstone (1 Corinthians 3:10-17; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Eph. Spirit,” Jews and Gentiles alike (Eph. 2:14-19). Every Christian is himself a temple of God, for he is a member of the Body of Christ, and his body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Both statements are mutually related: the body of the resurrected Jesus, in whom “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells” (Col. 2:9), is the temple of God par excellence, and Christians, members of this body, together form a spiritual temple with it. In faith and love they must work together to build it up. So, Christ is a living stone, rejected by people, but chosen by God. The faithful, being also living stones, form together with Him a spiritual building for the holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices (1 Pet. 2:4). This is the final temple - the temple not made by hands. This is the Church, the Body of Christ, the meeting place of God with people, a sign of God's presence in this world. The ancient sanctuary was only a prototype of this temple, bright, but imperfect, temporary, receded into the past.
In the New Testament, the symbolism of the ancient temple is applied in a different way and in a different direction. Already Judaism saw in it, as it were, a reproduction of the heavenly abode of God, which in the apocalypses began to be presented on the model of an earthly temple. In this sense, the Epistle to the Hebrews describes the sacrifice of Christ the Priest through death, resurrection and ascension. At the end of His earthly life, He entered the heavenly sanctuary, stained not with the blood of sacrificial animals, as in a symbolic cult, but with His own blood (Heb. 9:11-14:24). He entered there as a forerunner that we might draw near to God: “Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). United with this one Priest, we can, in turn, rejoice in the presence of God, penetrating faith into this holy of holies, where God dwells: “Which is like an anchor of the soul, safe and strong, and enters into the interior behind the curtain” (Heb. 6:19). In the Apocalypse of John, the image of the heavenly temple is compared with the image of the earthly temple, that is, the Church, where the faithful offer worship to God. The pagans trample on the outer court of the temple: this image of fierce persecution of the Church is vividly expressed in (Rev. 11:1-2): “And there was given me a reed like a rod, and it was said: Arise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship in it. And exclude the outer court of the temple and do not measure it, for it was given to the Gentiles: they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. (This fragment is connected with the dual meaning of Old Testament symbolism. When a clairvoyant is commanded to measure the temple of God with a cane, as in the East they measured a building with marked sticks, this is connected with the symbol used in the fortieth chapter of the prophet Ezekiel, in the second chapter of Zechariah. Measurement meant a near end : God measures in order to break. This is how the Jerusalem temple was measured before its fall. "Measure to remember what it was." But at the same time, this symbol says: measure, save the measurement, so that you can restore it later. The command has two meaning: the destruction of the Temple and, at the same time, its revival.We are talking about the era of the war between Judea and Rome, when the temple was already on the verge of falling, and the apostle here says that the time of its destruction has come, it is measured and will soon be destroyed , and after it there will already be a New Jerusalem, a heavenly City and a heavenly Temple.) But there is also a temple in heaven where the slain Lamb abides on the throne, and where the ministry of prayer and praise is performed: (Rev. 7:15): “For this reason they are now before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple, and He who sits on the throne will dwell in them.” The Old Testament temple may be destroyed, but John the seer tells us that there is a Temple that this is the heavenly Temple, and that all who have washed their garments in the blood of the Lamb, that is, received baptism and the redeeming power of the sufferings of Christ, day and night will serve Him who sits in the Temple. This Temple is already a heavenly Temple, a universal Temple, a universal Church.
At the end of time, this will be no more. When the heavenly Jerusalem - the bride of the lamb, adorned for eternal marriage - descends from heaven, there will be no more need for a temple, for God Himself and the lamb will be a temple: “But I did not see a temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb » (Rev. 21:22). Then the faithful will have access to God without needing any sign, or rather, they will see Him face to face in order to be fully involved in His life.
PriestMaximMishchenko
"Dictionary of Biblical Theology". Publishing house "Life with God". Brussels, 1974. Pp. 1210.
"Dictionary of Biblical Theology". Publishing house "Life with God". Brussels, 1974. Pp. 1211.
David's provision of building materials, described (in 1 Chronicles 22:14): “And behold, in my poverty I prepared for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver, but brass and iron have no weight, because they are many; and I also prepared wood and stones, and you add to this.” This passage symbolizes Christ and His work on earth: “I have glorified you on earth, I have finished the work that you gave me to do” (John 17:4).
(1 Chronicles 29:2): “With all my might I have prepared for the house of my God gold for things of gold, and silver for things of silver, and copper for things of brass, iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood, onyx stones and stones inserted, beautiful and multi-colored stones, and all kinds of expensive stones, and a lot of marble. The foundations “beautiful and multicolored stones” represent in the revelation the Word of Christ redeemed and reborn sinners: “being established on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, having Jesus Christ Himself as the cornerstone stone on which the whole building, being built in harmony, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, on which you too are built into a habitation of God by the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:20-22). Men A. “Appendix to the Bible. Commentary on the Old Testament. Publishing house "Life with God". Brussels, 1989. Pp. 2442.
Merpert, N. "Essays in the Archeology of Biblical Lands." BBI, M., 2000. Pp. 240.
Merpert, N. "Essays in the Archeology of Biblical Lands." BBI, M., 2000. Pp. 242.
5 (Rev. 3:12): “He who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out any more; and I will write on it the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my new name.” In the Jerusalem temple, the sacred names were inscribed on two copper columns Jachin and Boaz, standing in front of the entrance. The name of God will be written on faithful people and churches, that is, they will become sacred, as part of the temple of the Kingdom of God, the New Jerusalem, descending from heaven.
Merpert, N. "Essays in the Archeology of Biblical Lands." BBI, M., 2000. Pp. 244.
Men A. “Appendix to the Bible. Commentary on the Old Testament. Publishing house "Life with God". Brussels, 1989. Pp. 2442.
"Bible Encyclopedia". RBO. M., 2002. Pp. 125.
"An Illustrated History of Religion". Reprint. M., 1993. Volume 1. Pp. 294.
"Dictionary of Biblical Theology". Publishing house "Life with God". Brussels, 1974. Pp. 1214.
"Dictionary of Biblical Theology". Publishing house "Life with God". Brussels, 1974. Pp. 1216.
Men' A. "Commentary on the Apocalypse of John the Evangelist." Riga, 1992.
(Shaul). By transferring the Ark of the Covenant - a symbol of the presence of God - to a city that did not belong to any of the tribes and was in the personal possession of the king, David thus turned his capital into a holy city around which the religious life of all twelve tribes of Israel was concentrated.
Construction of Solomon's Temple
During the years of his reign, King David made significant preparations for the construction of the Temple. He dedicated the metals and vessels made of gold, silver and copper that he obtained in wars, as well as received as a gift to God. He left Solomon vast reserves of gold and silver, and innumerable amounts of iron and copper. From the remnants of the original inhabitants of Canaan, he compiled a cadre of workers for the extraction and delivery of hewn stones for the Temple. The famous Lebanese cedars were brought to him by sea by the Phoenicians.
The construction of the Temple itself lasted 7 years: from 957 to 950. BC e. (according to other sources, from 1014 to 1007). The work was completed in the eighth month of the 11th year of the reign of Solomon. The celebration of the consecration of the Temple was made the next year, in the seventh month, before the feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles), and was celebrated with the greatest solemnity, with the participation of the elders of Israel, the heads of tribes and clans. The Ark of the Covenant was solemnly installed in the Holy of Holies, and Solomon offered a public prayer, the beginning of which reads:
The Temple built by Solomon in Jerusalem was fundamentally different from everything that preceded it in Jewish history. For the first time, the Temple was erected as a permanent and solid stone building in a very specific and special place.
The sacred territory of the Temple had two main parts: the courtyard ( Azara) and the Temple building ( Heikhal).
Temple Court
The courtyard occupied a large area and was divided into two parts: the outer courtyard and the inner one.
In the "outer courtyard", in addition to the main entrance from the east, there were also entrances from the north and from the south (from the side of the palace). From these three sides, buildings for priests and storerooms adjoined it. The kings could enter this courtyard directly from the palace through the upper gallery ( Alia, ), so they didn't have to go through the outer courtyard. At the entrance to the courtyard there was something like an oratory ( Amud, that is, "pillar"), with which the kings addressed speeches to the people. In this courtyard, in front of the entrance to the Porch, stood a large copper Altar of burnt offering, on which animal sacrifices were made. It was a square three-stage structure 20 cubits long, 20 wide and 10 high.- The first step (10 × 10 m), immersed in the ground and surrounded by a ditch, was 1 m high;
- the second step (8 × 8 m) - 2 m high;
- the third (6 × 6 m) - 2 m high - was called Harel, at its corners there were four "horns".
Temple building
The building of the Temple was made of stone and was located in the center of the courtyard. Its length was 60 cubits (from east to west), width - 20 cubits (from north to south) and height - 30 cubits (respectively 30 × 10 × 15 m). The temple was thus twice the length and width of the Tabernacle of Moses, and three times the height. However, the given figures indicate only the internal dimensions of the Temple building, the thickness of its walls is not indicated, however, in the description of the Temple of Ezekiel, it is 6 cubits. The roof of the Temple was flat and was made of cedar logs and planks. She did not rest on the columns in the center of the hall, as was the custom in temple construction of this period. The inner walls of the Temple were sheathed with cedar and covered with gold, as well as its floor and towers over the Holy of Holies and over the Porch. Their decoration consisted of convex images of cherubs, palm trees and blooming flowers, enclosed in square lattice cells. In plan, the building of the Temple was oblong in shape and consisted of three adjacent rooms of the same width - the Porch ( Ulam), Zala ( Heikhal or Kodesh) and Holy of Holies ( Dvir or Kodesh HaKodashim ).
They climbed the stairs to the narthex, and on both sides of the entrance there were two copper columns: the right one was called " Yachin”, left “ Boaz» . Each column had a circumference of 12 cubits and was 18 cubits high, and another 5 cubits was occupied by a crown. In the porch, apparently, nothing fit.- Sanctuary Heikhal, where worship was conducted, was the largest room of the Temple and was not inferior in size to the large temples of the Middle East. It was 30 cubits long, 20 wide and 30 high (approximately 15 x 10 x 15 m).
A three-tiered stone structure adjoined the Temple building from three sides (with the exception of the front, eastern one), yatzia(יציע), with many rooms, wholesome(צלעות). Seems to be, yatzia was a covered gallery. Each of its floors was divided into approximately 30 rooms, which were used as storage rooms and for other ancillary purposes. The entrance to the rooms was from the south side, from where a winding staircase led to all three tiers. Each room had one window with bars.
The foundation on which the Temple's base stood seemed to be quite high, so that its first floor was at the level of the second floor of the gallery. The length of the rooms of the lower floor was 5 cubits, the middle floor was 6 cubits, and the third, upper floor was 7 cubits, which was the result of a decrease in the thickness of the walls. At the very bottom, the outer wall of the Temple building, apparently, was 6 cubits, on the second floor this thickness decreased to 5 cubits, and on the third floor it already reached three cubits. The narrowing of the wall at the top left more space for the gallery, for which the outer wall of the Temple served as the inner wall. The floors of the gallery, therefore, did not narrow upwards, like a pyramid, but, on the contrary, expanded.
History of Solomon's Temple
The magnificent building of the Temple made it from the very beginning the central sanctuary for all of Israel, although local sanctuaries continued to exist along with it - bamot. It became customary to ascend three times a year to the Jerusalem Temple, as before to the Tabernacle, which was located in Shiloh (Shiloh). However, the deterioration of the political situation at the end of Solomon's reign and in the days of his successors was reflected in the fate of the Temple. In order to undermine the status of Jerusalem as the spiritual and political center of all Israelite tribes, the founder of the Israeli (Northern) kingdom, Jeroboam I (930 BC), restored the sanctuaries in Bethel (Bethel) and Dan and turned them into a kind of Jerusalem temple. In both temples, Jeroboam installed golden calves.
Sometimes the Jewish kings themselves, when in need of money, took from the treasures of the Temple. So, Asa, in order to bribe the Aramaic king Benhadad (Ben-Hadad I), took all the silver and gold that were stored in the Temple. King Ahaz did the same, and later “chopped ... the walls at the stands, and removed the washing bowls from them; and he removed the sea from the copper oxen that were under him, and placed it on a stone pedestal ”to pay tribute to the Assyrian king Tiglathpalasar. Even the pious king Hezekiah (Hezkiyau), in order to pay a large indemnity to Sennacherib, "removed gold ... from the doors of the house of the Lord and from the door posts ... and gave it to the king of Assyria" .
Nevertheless, the restoration of the Temple was also carried out. So, it is known about the repairs of the Temple under Joash (Jehhoash), Joatham and Josiah (Joshiyahu). During the last renovation, a scroll of the Law was found, leading to religious reform.
“In the year 1118 in the East, the knights of the crusaders - among them Geoffrey de Saint-Omer and Hugo de Payens - devoted themselves to religion, having made a vow to the Patriarch of Constantinople, whose see had always been secretly or openly hostile to the Vatican since the time of Photius. The openly acknowledged purpose of the Templars was to protect Christian pilgrims in holy places; secret intention - to restore the Temple of Solomon according to the model indicated by Ezekiel. Such a restoration, predicted by the Jewish mystics of the first centuries of Christianity, was the secret dream of the Eastern Patriarchs. Restored and dedicated to the Universal cult, the Temple of Solomon was to become the capital of the world. The East was to prevail over the West, and the Patriarchy of Constantinople was to take precedence over the Papacy. To explain the name Templars (Templars), historians say that Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, gave them a home in the vicinity of Solomon's temple. But here they fall into a serious anachronism, because during this period not only not a single stone was left even from the Second Temple of Zerubbabel, but it was also difficult to determine the place where these temples stood. It must be assumed that the house given to the Templars by Baldwin was not located in the vicinity of Solomon's Temple, but at the place where these secret armed missionaries of the Eastern Patriarch intended to restore it.
The Templars considered their biblical model to be the masons of Zerubbabel, who worked with a sword in one hand and a mason's spatula in the other. Since the sword and spatula were their signs in the following period, they declared themselves the Masonic Brotherhood, that is, the Brotherhood of Stonemasons. The shoulder blade of the Templars consists of four parts, triangular shoulder blades are arranged in the form of a Cross, constituting a Kabbalistic pantacle known as the Cross of the East.Eliphas Levi (Abbé Alphonse Louis Constant), History of Magic
Temple of Solomon in Western culture
Sir Isaac Newton
Drawing of the Temple in Jerusalem by Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton considered Solomon's Temple the prototype of all temples in the world. According to him, " Solomon's Temple is the oldest of the great temples. On his model, Sesostris built his temples in Egypt, and from here the Greeks borrowed their architecture and religion.» . In his work, Newton devotes a large chapter (Chapter I) to describing the structure of Solomon's Temple.
The Temple of Solomon was for him a drawing of the Universe, the bearer of all the secrets of the world, and he believed that the laws of nature and the Divine Truth were encoded in its structure and in the proportions between its various parts, and by studying the dimensions of the Temple, they could be deciphered. Newton devoted all the last years of his life to calculating the structure of the Jerusalem Temple.
Masonic movement
The construction of the Temple in Jerusalem had a significant impact on the ideas of the Masonic movement (the brotherhood of "free masons"). The Temple is the central symbol of Freemasonry. According to the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (1906 edition), " Each lodge is a symbol of the Jewish temple».
According to Masonic legend, the emergence of Freemasonry dates back to the time of King Solomon, who " is one of the most skillful in our science, and in his time there were many philosophers in Judea". They connected and presented a philosophical matter under the guise of building the Temple of Solomon: this connection has come down to us under the name of Freemasonry, and they justly boast that they originated from the construction of the temple».
Solomon commissioned Hiram Abiff, an architect from Tire, to oversee the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Hiram divided the workers into three classes, which, according to the Masons, served as a prototype of the degrees of Freemasonry and the special symbolic language of the Masonic brothers.
According to another version, Freemasonry comes from the Order of the Templars (Templars), which was defeated by the French King Philip IV and Pope Clement V.
Among other things, great importance in the teachings of Freemasonry is attached to the columns of the Temple of Solomon, which were called Yachin and Boaz.
“The gate for the initiate, the exit to the light for the seeker, the pillars of the temple of Jerusalem. B:. - North column and I:. - South column. The symbolic columns are reminiscent of obelisks inscribed with hieroglyphs that towered in front of Egyptian temples. They are also found in two rounded portals of Gothic cathedrals.
<...>The northern column also symbolizes destruction, primordial Chaos; South - creation, orderliness, system, internal interconnection. These are Earth and Space, Chaos and Amber.
Steps can be depicted between the columns of the Temple, which symbolize trials and purification by the elements upon receiving Masonic initiation.
Footnotes and sources
- II Sam. 7:6 (Hereinafter from Mosad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem, 1975)
- II Sam. 6
- Probably " Arawna" is not a proper name, but means "king" in the Jewish language.
- II Sam. 24:18ff; I Chron. 21
- II Chron. 3:1
- II Sam. ch. 7
- I Chron. 22:5
- II Sam. 8:8, 10, 11
- I Chron. 22:14
- I Chron. 22:1
- I Chron. 22:4
- I Chron. 22:11
- I Chron. 22:16-18
- I Chron. 29:9
- I Chron. 28:11-18
- I Chron. 28:19
- I King. 6:1, 37; II Chron. 3:1, 2
- sometimes he is identified with the main tax collector of Solomon - Adoniram
- I King. 5:10
- I King. 5:17, 18
- I King. 6:7
- I King. 7:46
- I King. 5:13, 14
- II Chron. 2:16, 17; cf. I King. 9:20-22
- I King. 5:16; II Chron. 2:18
- I King. 6:37-38
- I King. 8:1-66, II Chron. 5:1-7, 10
- II Chron. 7:8, 9
- Ezek. 40:17
- II Chron. 4:9
- II Chron. 20:5
- Jeremiah. 19:14; 26:2
- Isaiah 1:12
- Jeremiah. 36:10
- Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews VIII, 3:9
- עולה (I Samuel 10:5) or עליה (II Chronicles 9:4)
- II King. 11:14; 23:3
- Joel 2:17
- II Chron. 4:1
Solomon's Temple was one of the most impressive architectural structures in Jerusalem. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times, but in 70 AD. was wiped off the face of the earth by the armies of Rome.
Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem was erected on a 9 foot platform. A staircase with 10 steps led to its entrance, columns were located on both sides of it, the names of which have come down to us as Boaz and Jachin. The meaning of these names, unfortunately, is currently not yet unraveled.
The temple of King Solomon was divided into three parts inside. One of them was a sanctuary in which there were several windows under the ceiling. The floor was made of cypress boards, and the walls were sheathed with cedar. This part had a flat roof supported by large logs. Flowers, palm trees, chains and cherubs were depicted on the doors and walls.
Solomon's temple had another room in which there was a small altar carved from cedar, trimmed with gold, as well as various lamps and a table for loaves. The location of the altar is the same as in the Canaanite temples - right in front of the stairs leading to the next room.
The third room was called the Holy of Holies, and it was the abode of God. It had no windows, but there were two 15-foot cherubs trimmed with gold. Their outer wings reached the walls, while the inner wings touched each other in the very center of the hall. It is believed that this is where
Solomon's temple also had an inner courtyard located in front of it. There was an altar for offerings, which looked like a well-known (ziggurat) and a copper sea.
This temple was built for 7 years, in the 10th century BC. On the Feast of Tabernacles, it was consecrated, and the "Ark of the Covenant" was brought into it. After that, King Solomon entered it and said a prayer, after which the fire descended from heaven and scorched the sacrifices presented to the Lord on the altar.
The most grandiose and solemn services have always been held here. Sometimes the servants of the temple could not even continue the service, because with a large crowd of people in elegant clothes, singing and sounding music, it was filled with a cloud of the Glory of the Lord.
Alas, this temple was not destined to exist for a long time. Three and a half centuries later, Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, and the temple was destroyed to the ground. The Jewish people were taken captive, and nothing has been known of the ark since.
After returning, it was rebuilt, but it was no longer so beautiful, which people were very sorry about. During the reign of King Herod, the temple was expanded and richly decorated, it began to look like a shining mountain peak. But, unfortunately, the troops of the Roman Empire destroyed it, this time for good.
To date, only a small section of the western wall has remained of it, not far from Mount Moria, on top of which it was located. This place is called and is the greatest shrine of the Jews.
Solomon's Temple was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful buildings in Jerusalem, and it is thanks to him that today this city is the greatest religious center, which attracts pilgrims from all over the world.
Although the First Temple in Jerusalem was built by King Solomon, the preparations for its construction began in the previous kingdom. Jerusalem of that time was much smaller than the present, of its four hills, only one was inhabited - Mount Zion. After taking the city, David surrounded it with a wall.
Mount Moriah adjoined Zion on the east side. It was occupied by the field of a local resident, the Jebusite Orna. In the middle of the field, on the upper ridge of the mountain, a threshing floor was arranged. King David bought this mountain from Orna for 50 shekels of silver (according to other sources, for 600 shekels of gold). It is quite possible that the mountain was bought in parts: first a small part of it for 50 shekels of silver, and then other areas adjacent to it - for only 600 shekels of gold.
The building material prepared by King David for the temple is gold, silver (although it is not mentioned in the decoration of Solomon's Temple), copper, precious stones, iron, cedar beams, marble, stone. The Jerusalem Temple was the only one in the entire kingdom of Israel and therefore demanded all kinds of splendor.
David carried out the plan of the Temple, in general and in particular, which he handed down to his heirs in a solemn testament and with an insistent demand to fulfill it.
Temple of Solomon
Despite the abundance of building material prepared by David, it was not enough even to start work, there were especially few stones and timber. Therefore, King Solomon, embarking on the construction of the Temple, concluded an agreement with the Tyrian king Hiram, according to which he undertook: to supply Solomon with cedar and cypress wood, hewn ready-made stones from the Lebanese mountains; cutting down timber and processing stones should be left to the people sent by Solomon, but for guidance, put Phoenician craftsmen over them, as more experienced in the matter; to deliver wooden beams from Lebanon by sea on rafts to Jaffa, the nearest pier to Jerusalem. For his part, Solomon had to supply wheat, wine, oil to Tire. There is evidence that King Solomon concluded a similar agreement with the Egyptian king.
At the site of the construction of the Temple, neither an ax, nor a hammer, nor any other iron tool was heard: wood and stone finishing work was carried out in Lebanon, foundry work was performed in the Jordanian valley.
Before proceeding with the construction of the Temple, it was necessary to find a place corresponding to the plan for it. In its original form, the ridge of Mount Moriah was very steep, it could hardly accommodate the body of the temple and the altar. For the courtyards, which were supposed to surround the Temple on all sides, there was no place at all. In addition, in its original direction, the mountain range ran diagonally - not directly from north to south, but from northwest to southeast. And the Temple and its courtyards had to be clearly oriented (like a tabernacle) in the correct relationship to the four cardinal points. Therefore, in preparation for the construction of the Temple, it was required: a) to expand the upper part of the mountain to the dimensions provided for by the plan of the Temple;
b) to change or align the direction of the ridge so that the area prepared for the Temple would face the four cardinal directions as accurately as possible.
And King Solomon came up with a wise plan: to build on the eastern side of the mountain, starting from its sole, among the Kidron Valley passing here, a large and solid stone wall in the direction that the wall of the Temple court was supposed to have (that is, straight from north to south), and fill the gap between the wall and the slope of the mountain with earth.
In general, the Temple of Solomon was built according to the plan given for the tabernacle of Moses, only on a large scale and with such adaptations as were necessary in a rich, immovable sanctuary. The temple was divided into the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary and the porch, but it was larger and more magnificent than the tabernacle.
A large area was built around the inner section of the Solomon Temple - sections for the people (or a large courtyard). The second courtyard, or court of the priests, was twice the size of the tabernacle. Corresponding to the washbasin of the tabernacle at the altar of the Temple, there was a whole system of washing vessels: 10 artistically made washbasins on stands and a large pool for water, which was called the sea by its size.
The porch of the temple was a corridor 20 cubits long (according to the width of the body of the Temple) and 10 cubits deep. In front of him stood two large copper columns. The internal size of the Temple was partly doubled, partly tripled the size of the tabernacle.
The Holy of Holies and the sanctuary were separated by a stone wall with an olivewood door. The walls of the Temple itself were built of massive hewn stone, lined with white marble on the outside, but, like the doors of the tabernacle, inside they were covered with wooden lining, and then overlaid with gold leaf. The doors, the ceiling, and the cypress floor of the Temple were covered with gold.
On the walls of the tabernacle were depicted the figures of the same cherubs as on the embroidered cover that draped its inner walls. Cherubim were depicted on the walls of the Temple of Solomon, only an ornament in the form of plants was added.
Outwardly, the Temple struck with its grandeur, massiveness and strength, and inside - with wealth and splendor, unheard of even in the ancient world. The entire interior of the Temple was lined with wood - the walls and ceiling were cedar, and the floor was cypress, so that the stone inside the Temple was not visible. The wall boards were decorated with carvings of carved inward (rather than protruding) reliefs, the deeply carved main plots of the paintings never protruded above the plane of the wall. The paintings again depicted the figures of cherubs, but they were also supplemented by images of palm trees, colocynths (a kind of wild cucumbers) and blossoming flowers.
The choice of a palm tree is explained not only by the fact that it was the most beautiful and useful tree - a symbol of beauty, greatness and moral perfection. According to the ancients, Palestine was the birthplace of the palm tree, from where it spread throughout the ancient East. The palm tree in the Jerusalem Temple was a symbol of the triumph of God in the promised land. In the tabernacle, there were no images of a palm tree, since it was a desert sanctuary, arranged just on the way to Palestine.
The wooden boards that covered the stone walls (bars in the windows, the ceiling, the floor, the steps leading to the Holy of Holies) were in turn covered with gold leaf. Every nail with which the golden sheets were nailed was also golden. Multi-colored precious stones for decoration were also arranged along the gold.
In its external forms, the Temple resembled a ship expanding upwards, or Noah's Ark. Towering one above the other, internal platforms went out from the lower main part of the wall with three ledges. These ledges required special supports, which were three rows of columns with a fourth row of cedar pilasters. Thus, along the three walls of the Temple (northern, southern and western), colonnades (or covered alleys) were formed under wide canopies protruding in the upper parts of the wall.
When the Temple was ready, King Solomon called for its consecration of all the elders and many people. With the sound of trumpets and the singing of spiritual songs, the Ark of the Covenant was brought in and placed in the Holy of Holies under the overshadowing of two new colossal cherubs, spreading their wings so that the ends of the outer wings touched the wall, and the inner wings bent over the Ark. The glory of the Lord in the form of a cloud filled the Temple, so that the priests could not continue the service. Then Solomon ascended to his royal place, fell on his knees and began to pray to God that in this place He would receive the prayers of not only the Israelites, but also the pagans. At the end of this prayer, fire descended from heaven and scorched the sacrifices prepared in the Temple.
The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, plundered it, burned and destroyed the Temple of Solomon to the ground. Then the Ark of the Covenant perished. The entire Jewish people was taken into captivity (589 BC), only the poorest Jews were left on their land to cultivate vineyards and fields. In the destroyed Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah remained, who wept on the ruins of the city and continued to teach goodness to the remaining residents.
The Jews were in Babylonian captivity for 70 years. The Persian king Cyrus, in the very first year of his reign over Babylon, allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. Such prolonged captivity led them to the realization that only the Temple of Jehovah could stand in Jerusalem and in the kingdom of Judah. This conviction was so strong in them that they left Babylon only with royal permission to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
Forty-two thousand Jews went to their land. Those who remained in Babylon helped them with gold, silver and other property, and, moreover, with rich donations to the Temple. The king gave the Jews sacred vessels that had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar from the Temple of Solomon.
Returning to Jerusalem, the Jews first restored the altar to the Lord God, and the next year they laid the foundation of the Temple. Nineteen years later, the construction of the Temple was completed. In the reign of Herod (37-4 BC), who made a lot of efforts to expand and decorate it, the Temple reached a special flourishing and splendor. All structures were decorated with white marble and gold, and even the spikes on the roof of the Temple, made specifically to prevent pigeons from landing on it, were gold.
During the Jewish War, the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed for the second time in the year 70 AD, and the destruction of the Second Temple took place on the "ninth ab" according to the Jewish calendar, on the day of the destruction of the First Temple - more than 500 years later.
Today, only the surviving part of the western wall that surrounded the Temple Mount Moriah, on top of which stood the Temple of Jerusalem, reminds of the majestic building, which was the center of the spiritual life of the Jewish people. This part of the wall, built of huge stone monoliths, is 156 meters long. It is called the Wailing Wall (or Western Wall) and is the national shrine of the Jewish people.
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