TEMPLE
500
TEMPLE
who have attempted to reconstruct the Temple of Solo-
mon in its architectural details.
Archileclure and Measurement. — Solomon repro- duced in solid materials and double proportions the Tabernacle which Moses had built in the desert (Wis- dom, ix, 8), the entire plan of which is therefore out- lined (Ex., xxvi, xxxvi). With regard to the style adopted by the Phoenician architects we know sim- ply that at that period the architecture of all Semitic jieoples was very similar to that of the Egyjitians. In Egypt there were two measures of length; the smaller cubit formed of the breadth of six hands or twenty- four finders and equal to 1 ft. 5?4 inches; the large or royal cubit, which was a handljreadth (three inches) longer. The lesser cubit of six hands, or twenty-four fingers, existed in the eastern empire, but it was some- what longer, being equal to 1 ft. 7j inches. The large or royal cubit was likewise longer, being equal to 1 ft. 9g inches. Now judging from the excavations made at Taanath and Megiddo in Palestine the royal Babylonian cubit, introduced by the long Chaldean domination, was the one in use at that time (Ben- zinger, "Hebr. Archaologie", 190). It is probable that only the small cubit was in use at the time of the Babylonian Captivity, hence the sacred writer (II Par. iii, 3) gives the dimensions of the Temple by the "first measure", or ancient cubit, and Ezechiel (xl, 5; xliii, 1.3) adds to each cubit a handbreadth (the ancient pahnus minor, one-sLxth of the small cubit) in order to obtain the length given in the Book of Kings. The royal Babylonian cubit therefore was the niesura veris- sima (Ezech., xliii, 13) used in the construction of the Temple of Solomon.
The Holy Place; the Holy of Holies. — The house of God was of rectangular shape, sixty cubits long from east to west by twenty cubits wide and thirty high (III Kings, vi, 2; II Par., iii, 3). These were the in- terior dimensions which did not include the thickness of the walls, as is shown by numerous texts. This space was divided into two chambers of unequal size. The first, the hekal, or Holy Place (see plan, fig. I), was forty cubits long by twenty wide. It was entered at the eastern end by a square gate (III Kings, vi, 33), ten cubits in breadth (Ezech., xli, 2). The frame- work was of wild-olive wood, furnished with two doors of cypress wood. Each door was subdivided verti- cally into two leaves which folded by means of hinges (III Kings, vi, 33, 34). On the other .side of the com- partment was a pentagonal-shaped gate (III Kings, vi, 31) with an opening of six cubits through a parti- tion wall two cubits in thickness (Ezech., xli, 3-4). It opened into the debir, or Holy of Holies (2), a chamber measuring twenty cubits every way.
The two doors of wild-olive wood in the gate opened towards the east and stood always open to allow the passage of fresh air and the smoke of in- cense to enter the interior, but a veil of byssus in vio- let, purple, and scarlet, embroidered with cherubim, always concealed the Holy of Holies (II Par., iii, 14), which was entered only by the high-priest once a year. On the doors of the two gates Solomon caused figures of cherubim, palm-trees, and blossoming flowers to be carved and overlaid with gold (III Kings, vi, 32, 35). The walls of dSbir and hekdl were lined with boards of cedar adorned with colocinths and flowers carved m relief and profusely overlaid with gold. Within the dSbir even the fir-wood floor was covered with plates of fine gold and the front was closed with chains of the same metal (III Kings, vi, 15).
Secondary (_'hiunhcr.-i. — The whole building, includ- ing the Holy of II(ili<'s which formed the chief part, was thirty cubits high. Now as the interior of the dehir was only twentj' cubits high there must have been above it a .space of ten cubits. The height of the Holy Place is not indicated in the Bible, but there is mention of "cenacjes", or ujiper chambers (11 Par., iii, 9); hence the Holy Place must have been of the
same height as the debir and like it have had above it a
chamber ten cubits high. The same text informs us
that these "upper chambers" were richly adorned
like those below and there is little doubt that the
Tabernacle was preserved in the large upper chamber
(III Kings, viii, 4; Par., v, 5), and in the lower one
relics and remembrances of the life in the desert. In
front of the hekal was the vestibule or porch (3) lUdm,
Greek irpovdos, of the same length as the Temple but
only ten cubits deep (III Kings, vi, 3); it was a kind
Fia. 1. Pl.\n of the Temple of Solomon
1. The Holj Place. 2. The Hol.v of Holies. 3. The porch.
4. Side chambera. 5-6. Doors of the side chambers. 7. Wind-
ing stairways. 8. Foundations. 9. Grand staircase. 10. Pillar
of Jachin. 11. Pillar of Booz.
of stately tower, recalling the pylons of the Egyptian temples and like them having a large gateway without doors. II Paralipomenon (iii, 4) states that its height was one hundred and twenty cubits. But a porch six times higher than it was long would be so out of pro- portion that many exegetes are inclined to reduce this figure to sixty cubits, the height of the porch of the Temple of Zorobabel. According to Ezechiel the walls were sLx cubits thick.
Along the three other sides of the sanctuary rose a building divided into three stories (III Kings, vi, .5-6), each story having thirty chambers [Ezech., xli, 6; Ant. Jud., VIII, iii, 2]. (4) The house of Jehovah was so sacred that the beams of cedar which sup- ported the ceilings of the side chambers were not suffered to be fastened to the walls of the Temple; hence in the walls of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies there were three recesses in which rested the ends of the joists. Thus the under (■hambers were five cubits in breadth, those of the first floor six cubits, and those of the second seven. Each story was five cubits high. The entrance was by a door (5) which opened to the south (III Kings, vi, 6-8); Ezechiel (xli, II) mentions another (6) on the north, which would be very natural. Ascent from one floor to another was made by means of a winding-stair (7), and it is very probable that the upper chambers, or cenacles, were reached by way of one of the stories of the porch. In these low-ceiled and narrow cells were preser\-ed the archives, the public treasure, the ac- cessories of worship, and the sacred vestments (cf. Ill, Kings, viii, 4; II Par., v, 5). In this manner the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies were completely surrounded by imposing structures.
Roofs and Windows. — The Temple was covered with a roofing formed of beams and |ilanks of cedar (III Kings, vi, 9). Any broad surface which rests on a framework instead of on arches of mason-work is imstable and cannot prevent the rain leaking through; hence it is our opinion that the roofs of Solomon's temple were sloping, and the planks covered with large slabs. On the other hand several writers con- sider that they were flat. The upper story of the Holy of Holies, the numerous small chambers of the
