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Day 147: Temple Worship
Chapter 5: The Continued Successes of King Solomon
1 Kings 5:9-14 ~ Solomon's fame and accomplishments
The extent of Solomon's empire is defined as extending from "the River" of the Euphrates to the Gulf of Aqaba and from Tyre and the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, which included Philistine territory, to the border with Egypt. Solomon maintained his kingdom for a forty year period through international diplomacy and an effective internal government
Preparations for Building the Temple
Rendering of the Temple
1 Kings 5:15-20 ~ Solomon's request to King Hiram of Tyre
Hiram was the Phoenician king of the great trading centers of Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. "Friendship" meant that he had a covenant treaty relationship with David, and he sent an embassy expressing his wish to continue that relationship with David's successor. Solomon intends to continue the relationship between the two countries and proposes an extension to the treaty concerning aid in building Yahweh's temple.
1 Kings 5:21-26 ~ The treaty between Hiram and Solomon
That Hiram blessed Yahweh does not mean he worshipped Israel's God. Pagan peoples were very ecumenical and their common complaint was that Israelites (later Jews and Christians) were intolerant in failing to show the same respect for their gods. It was their belief that different regional gods favored certain regional peoples (see 10:9). Hiram also offers to provide juniper wood. The juniper is a small tree or large shrub with fragrant wood from which an essential oil can be extracted. Essential oils were used for medicine, incense, and perfumes.
A kor dry measure had the capacity of 12.50 bushels or 450.0 liters; the liquid measure was 120 gallons or 450 liters per core. The amount to be paid to Hiram was about 125,000 bushels of wheat and 115,000 gallons of olive oil. Compare the twenty thousand kor of wheat and twenty thousand kor of pure oil Solomon gave Hiram every year with the daily provisions for Solomon's household in 5:2 which was thirty measures [kor] of fine flour and sixty measures [kor] of meal. The quantity of grain given to Hiram's court is almost twice Solomon's yearly allotment and was evidently hard even for fruitful Israel to provide. It appears Hiram struck a very advantageous treaty. A large debt was accumulated over the years, and in 9:11-14 a transfer of land to Hiram had to be made to settle the debt.
1 Kings 5:27-32 ~ Work to collect the materials for the Temple begins
Solomon imposed the collection of thirty thousand men throughout Israel to gather the materials that were being assembled in Lebanon. These men spent a month working in Lebanon and then two months in their home villages before being rotated back to work in Lebanon. Solomon's royal official, Adoram (mentioned in 4:6), was in charge of collecting the workers and arranging their schedule. They were all Canaanite laborers (see 2 Chr 2:16-17).
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CHALLENGE: “If Jesus existed, why isn’t he mentioned by non-Christian sources?”
DEFENSE:Jesus was mentioned by multiple non-Christian historians within a century of his ministry.
The Roman historian Suetonius (died c. 122) appears to refer to Jesus when he records that the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome in A.D. 49 “since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus” (The Twelve Caesars, “Claudius” 25). “Chrestus” is just one vowel different than the Latin word for “Christ”—Christus. Many scholars think this refers to the disturbances that occurred in Jewish communities when the Christian message was first preached, as in the book of Acts.
Suetonius also records that during the reign of Nero, “Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition” (ibid., “Nero” 16). The Roman historian Tacitus (died c. 117) goes into more detail and describes how Nero tried to deflect the blame for the Great Fire of Rome in A.D. 64 onto the Christians. He explains: “Christ, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate,” and he records that Nero’s harsh persecution moved many to have sympathy for the Christians (Annals 15:44).
Around A.D. 110, the Roman official Pliny the Younger and the Emperor Hadrian had an exchange of letters discussing Christians and how they were to be prosecuted. Pliny records that, in their worship services, Christians “sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god” and that true Christians cannot be compelled to “curse Christ” (Letter 96).
In his Antiquities of the Jews, written around A.D. 93, the Jewish historian Josephus mentions Jesus twice. The first passage focuses on Jesus (Antiquities 18:3:3). Unfortunately, this passage was later edited by a Christian scribe, forcing scholars to try to reconstruct what Josephus originally said about Jesus.
The second passage occurs when Josephus recounts that James the Just, the “brother” of Jesus, was put to death in A.D. 62. There is no doubt about this passage, in which Josephus refers to “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James” (Antiquities 20:9:1). This indicates Jesus was more famous than James, for it mentions him first and identifies James with respect to him.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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