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Day 148 Solomon's Wealth
Chapter 6: Construction of the Temple
1 Kings 6:1-14 ~ The Temple Building
Yahweh gave the entire plan for the Jerusalem Temple to His servant David (1 Chr 28:11-19) just as He gave His servant Moses the plans for the desert Tabernacle in Exodus (25:8-31:18).
The Temple was patterned after the desert Sanctuary and its Tabernacle, but its dimensions in most cases were doubled. All the dimensions are interior measurements and do not take into consideration the thickness of the stone walls or the thickness of the walls separating the Holy Place (Hekel) and the Holy of Holies (Debir). The length of the common cubit was about 17.5 inches. Toward the end of the monarchial period a larger cubit called a "royal cubit" measure was adopted and was defined as "a cubit plus one handbreadth," or about 20 inches (see Ez 40:5; 43:13). 2 Chronicles 3:3 provides the information that the dimensions for Solomon's Temple were given according to the "former measure." According to the common cubit, the dimensions of the Temple in verse 2 were about 90 feet long, by 30 feet wide and 45 feet high.
The Sanctuary was divided into three parts: a porch, a long main room (Hekal = Holy Place) and the inner sanctum (Debir = Holy of Holies). The dimensions in verse 3 are about 30 feet by 15 feet and ran along the front length (entry) of the main Sanctuary.
The lowest floor of the annex located outside the main Sanctuary was about 7 and a half feet wide (also see verses 10 and 24), the middle annex was about 9 feet wide, and the third was about 10 and a half feet.
To maintain the sanctity of the space, all work was carried on off-site; only the finished stones and paneling were brought to the site and were installed as quietly as possible.
1 Kings 6:15-22 ~ The Holy of Holies (Debir)
The 20 cubits from the floor of the far wall of the Holy of Holies (west end of the building) to the beams of the ceiling is c. 30 feet. The 40 cubits that was the length of the Holy Place from the entrance to the entrance to the Holy of Holies is c. 60 feet. The Holy of Holies (Debir) was 30 feet long by 30 feet wide by 30 feet high from the floor to the ceiling.
This is a reference to the Altar of Incense that stood between the Holy Place (Hekal) and the Holy of Holies (Debir); see the description given to Moses in Exodus 30:1-10. It was to be a wooden column about 1 and a half feet long and wide and about three feet high; it was to have four protrusions on the top (horns), and it was to be completely overlaid with gold with a golden fence around the top to hold the coals on which the sacred incense was burned. Evidently the original incense altar had been lost when the Philistines destroyed the Sanctuary at Shiloh. Shiloh had been the home of the Sanctuary for more than 200 years before it was destroyed by the Philistines (Josh 18:1; 1 Sam 1:3; 4:17; Ps 78:60; Jer 7:12-14; 26:6). According to 2 Chronicles 3:14, a "curtain" also hung between the two sacred spaces as in the desert Sanctuary in Exodus 26:31-33; this would account for the mention of the gold chains or rings from which a curtain could be hung in the literal translation of verse 21.
1 Kings 6:23-30 ~ The Winged Cherubim
Each winged cherub was 15 feet high. Cherubim (plural for cherub) are angelic creatures who are God's spiritual servants.
Question: What do we know about these creatures from Scripture? See Gen 3:24; Ex 25:10-22; 37:7-9; Num 7:89; 1 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 6:2; 2 Kng 19:15; 1 Chr 13:6; Ps 80:2; 99:1; Is 37:16; Ez chapter 1.
Answer:
- Cherubim armed with flaming swords were stationed at the entrance to the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:24).
- Two cherubim of gold were built on top of the Mercy-seat of the Ark of the Covenant, facing each other with their winds spread out, and it was between the cherubim that Yahweh spoke to Israel (Ex 25:10-22; 37:7-9; Num 7:89).
- Yahweh was enthroned upon the cherubim (1 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 6:2; 2 Kng 19:15; 1 Chr 13:6; Ps 80:2; 99:1; Is 37:16).
- In the Book of Ezekiel, the prophet sees cherubim as Yahweh's living chariot (Ez chapter 1).
The statues of the winged cherubim do not violate the first command from the Ten Commandments that You shall have no other gods to rival me. You shall not make yourself a carved image or nay likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the creatures under the earth (Ex 20:3-4); which is clarified in Deuteronomy by the addition of the command: you must not bow down to these gods or serve them (Dt 5:7-9). The command was a prohibition against images that were to be worshipped (like the Golden Calf), but not statues or depictions of images that were to assist in the worship of the One True God or to recall the history of the covenant people. It was God who gave the plan for the Temple to David just as He gave the plan of the desert Sanctuary to Moses. It was God who commanded the statues of the cherubim be placed on the lid of the Mercy-seat that covered the Ark of the Covenant (Ex 25:10-22), it was God who commanded Moses to make an image of the serpent on the staff to heal the people of snake bites during the wilderness journey (Num 21:6-9), and it was God who gave the plan for the huge winged cherubim to spread their wings of protection over the Ark of the Covenant in Solomon's Temple (1 Kng 8:6-7).
Concerning the question of icons and other images in Christian worship, the Church has ruled that veneration (holding in honor) of images is not contrary to the first commandment which prohibits idols. The Church has decreed that the honor rendered to an image (like the Christ crucified or a statue of Mary of other saints) passes to its prototype; therefore "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it" (CCC 2132; also see CCC 2129-2131). St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: "Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is" (Suma Theologiae II-II, 81, 3 ad 3). If a total prohibition was the case, then all images would have been prohibited and God would not have commanded the use of images in liturgical worship. If that was the case, we would all have to rid our homes of all paintings or photographs of people of aspects of the created order.
The wings of each winged cherubim spanned 15 feet so the combine wings spanned the space of 30 feet. Like its dimensions in the desert Sanctuary that was a cube measuring c. 15 feet by 15 feet by 15 feet, the Holy of Holies of Solomon's Temple was a cube that measured c. 30 feet by 30 feet by 30 feet. The sacred space's 3 times dimensions prefigured the concept of the Triune God that will be revealed by Jesus in the New Covenant. He is the One God in Three Persons who spans the universe in height, width, and depth. Israel's most sacred shrine, the Ark of the Covenant, was placed between the outstretched wings of these two gold covered statues of cherubim (1 Kng 8:6-7).
The plan of the Holy Place (Hekal) and Holy of Holies (Debir). The two bronze pillars that supported the porch were named Jachin and Boaz (1 Kng 7:21).
1 Kings 6:31-38 ~ The doors and the inner court outside the Sanctuary
The doors for both the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies were paneled folding doors made of wild olive wood and carved with cherubim, palm trees and rosettes, all overlaid with gold. The inner court was the Court of the Priests that was immediately outside the Sanctuary where the Altar of Sacrifice was located.
Solomon came to the throne in c. 970 BC. Counting as the ancients counted without the concept of a zero place value and with 970 counting as year 1 of Solomon's reign, the building of the Temple began in the spring of the fourth year of Solomon's reign in c. 967 BC and the Temple was completed in Solomon's eleventh year in c. 960 BC. It took seven years to build the Temple, and it was finished in the month of Bul = October/November.
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A Daily Defense
DAY 148 Dependent Historical Sources?
CHALLENGE:“The historical sources that mention Jesus are all dependent on what they’ve heard from Christians. Why should we believe what they say?”
DEFENSE: The extent to which they are dependent on Christians for their information is questionable, and even if they derived all of it from Christian sources that would not make them unreliable. The sources we cited probably have different degrees of dependence on Christian sources for their information about Jesus:
• Suetonius is not known to have interviewed any Christians. He did have access to the official Roman archives when writing The Lives of the Caesars. He also had contact with various learned Romans. The fact that he seems to mistake the word Christus as Chrestus is a sign that he was getting his information from non-Christian sources.
• Tacitus also is not known to have interviewed any Christians. He did, however, use official Roman records in writing the Annals, and it is likely he took his information about Jesus from them.
• Pliny the Younger interviewed Christians about their practices, and it may be that, in writing his Letters, he was largely dependent on these interviews and what was commonly said about Christians in Roman society.
• Josephus probably encountered Christians, but he also had access to Jewish records that he used in Antiquities of the Jews. He also was born in Palestine in A.D. 37, and there were many non-Christian Jews living there who had independent knowledge of Jesus.
The assertion that these authors derived their knowledge of Jesus exclusively from Christian sources is implausible. While they may have gained information from Christian sources (especially Pliny the Younger), they also had independent information.
Even if they did not, it would not deprive their writings of value. Information is not to be dismissed if it can be traced to a Christian source. Historians do not systematically reject what is said by Christians and treat such sources as “guilty until proven innocent.” To do so would simply be anti-Christian bias.
Even if everything these authors wrote was derived from Christian sources—which is very unlike—it still reveals what was being said in their day about Christ and Christianity, and this itself provides a powerful argument for the existence of Jesus (see Day 8).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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