TEMPLE MOUNT

Temple of Solomon BD

Psalms 120-134

JS Matt 1:3-4

Temple of Herod BD

2 Chron 3:1

Moriah BD

Herod BD

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Temple of Solomon BD The Hebrew word for temple is nearly equivalent to the English palace and is used of the palaces of Ahab and the king of Babylon (1 Kgs. 21:1; 2 Kgs. 20:18, etc.) and also occasionally of the Mosaic tabernacle (1 Sam. 1:9; 3:3).

The Hill of Zion seems to have been chosen by God as His dwelling-place early in David’s reign (2 Sam. 6:17). The exact position of the temple, the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, was indicated by an angel of the Lord during the plague and the command received through the prophet Gad to build an altar there (1 Chr. 21:15, 18, 26–28). This threshing floor is placed on Mount Moriah in 2 Chr. 3:1.

The temple was built after the model of the tabernacle, the dimensions of each part being exactly double. The temple proper, or interior, was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits broad, 30 cubits high (15 cubits was the tabernacle’s height if its roof was right-angled). It had in addition a porch 10 cubits deep in front. The materials of the temple—gold, silver, iron, copper, timber, and stone—had been collected by David (1 Chr. 22:14). He had also planned the house and its furniture to its details (1 Chr. 28:11–20), had collected a number of skilled workmen capable of executing the work (1 Chr. 22:15), and had bound over the princes and people of Israel to zealous cooperation and costly gifts. Still, to Solomon belongs the credit of the actual accomplishment of the work.

The temple walls were composed of hewn stone made ready at the quarry. The roof was of cedar and the walls were paneled with it. The cedar was carved with figures (cherubim, palm trees, and flowers) and was overlaid with gold fitted to the carving. The floors were of fir or cypress wood, overlaid with gold. The communication between the Holy Place and Holy of Holies was by a doorway with two doors of olivewood carved like the walls and overlaid with gold. From 2 Chr. 3:14 we learn that a veil hung in front of the door. The door of the temple was of cypress on posts of olivewood, carved and overlaid as elsewhere. It folded back in two pieces on each side. In front of the porch stood two great pillars of hollow brass, called Jachin and Boaz. These with their capitals were 23 cubits high. The small size of the temple proper in comparison with modern churches is to be noticed. It is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that the worshippers remained outside; only the priests went within.

All the materials for the house were prepared before they were brought to the site. The building was completed in seven years. There were two temple courts. The inner court was surrounded by a wall consisting of three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams (1 Kgs. 6:36). This was called the court of the priests, or, from its elevation, the upper court (2 Chr. 4:9; Jer. 36:10). The outer or great court was for the use of the people. Nothing is said about its walls, but it was entered by doors of brass.

The furniture of the temple was similar to but not identical with that of the tabernacle. In the Holy of Holies stood the old Mosaic ark with the mercy seat; but the cherubim overshadowing the mercy seat were new. They were larger in size; their wings touched in the middle and reached each wall of the Holy of Holies. They were also different in posture. In the Holy Place all was new. The altar of incense was made of cedarwood overlaid with gold. Instead of one golden candlestick and one table of shewbread there were ten, five on each side. In the outer court stood the brazen altar of the same pattern as that of the tabernacle, but enormously larger (2 Chr. 4:1). Ahaz superseded it with an altar of Damascus pattern (2 Kgs. 16:11–16). Between the altar and the porch was the brazen sea for the washing of the priests. It had a brim like the flower of a lily, and it stood upon 12 oxen, three looking north, south, east, and west. These were given to Tiglath-pileser by Ahaz (2 Kgs. 16:17). On each side of the altar were five figured brazen stands for five brazen lavers for washing the sacrifices (1 Kgs. 7:38–39).

The house was consecrated at the feast of the seventh month, the Feast of Tabernacles (1 Kgs. 8:2; 2 Chr. 5:3). When the priests came out from setting the ark in the Holy of Holies, the house was filled with a cloud, “so that the priests could not stand to minister” (2 Chr. 5:13–14). After Solomon had prayed, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices (2 Chr. 7:1). The feast of dedication lasted 14 days (1 Kgs. 8:64–65). In this ceremonial Solomon appears to be the principal personage, even as Moses (not Aaron) was at the dedication of the tabernacle.

The wealth gathered by David and lavished by Solomon on the temple was enormous. The skill necessary for the elaborate work in gold and brass was supplied from Tyre. Hiram, on his mother’s side of the tribe of Naphtali, was fetched by Solomon for the purpose (1 Kgs. 7:14).

The temple was shorn of some of its magnificence by Shishak of Egypt in the reign of Solomon’s son (1 Kgs. 14:26). It was often spoiled of its treasures, whether by foreign enemies (Shishak, Jehoash of Israel, Nebuchadnezzar) or by kings of Judah (Asa, Joash, Ahaz, Hezekiah) to buy off the attack or purchase the alliance of foreign powers. It was restored by Joash and by Josiah. Some works in connection with it were taken in hand by Jehoshaphat (2 Chr. 20:5), Jotham (2 Kgs. 15:35), and Hezekiah (18:16). It was polluted by Athaliah (2 Chr. 24:7), Ahaz (29:5, 16), and above all, Manasseh (2 Kgs. 21:4–5, 7). It was cleansed by Hezekiah (2 Chr. 29:16) and Josiah (2 Kgs. 23:4, 6, 12). Finally it was burned to the ground and utterly destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kgs. 25:9), all that was valuable in it being carried to Babylon (25:13, etc.). The vessels of silver and gold were afterwards restored by Cyrus and Darius (Ezra 1:7–11; 6:5).

Psalms 122 

1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.

2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.

3 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:

4 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.

5 For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

7 Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.

8 For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.

9 Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.

JS Matt 1:3-4

3 And Jesus said unto them: See ye not all these things, and do ye not understand them? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here, upon this temple, one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

4 And Jesus left them, and went upon the Mount of Olives. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying: Tell us when shall these things be which thou hast said concerning the destruction of the temple, and the Jews; and what is the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world, or the destruction of the wicked, which is the end of the world?

Temple of Herod BD To win popularity with the Jews, Herod, in the 18th year (17 B.C.) of his reign, proposed to rebuild the temple of Zerubbabel. The Jews feared lest, having pulled down, he should be unable to rebuild, and to reassure them, Herod promised to gather materials before he began the work. The area of the temple site was inadequate for his design, and to enlarge it he built up a wall from the bottom of the valley, binding rocks together with lead and iron and filling up the hollows. By this means he obtained a site nearly square, each side being 600 feet. The temple proper was built by the priests themselves in a year and six months. The cloisters (the specialty of Herod’s temple) and outer enclosures were built in eight years. Other buildings were added from time to time. The work was proceeding all through our Lord’s earthly life, and the design was not complete till the year A.D. 64, only six years before the temple’s final destruction.

The temple area was divided into courts, and the outer courts stood on the lowest ground. Ascents were made by steps successively from the court of the Gentiles to the court of the women, the courts of the men of Israel and of the priests, and the temple itself. In the midst, not in the center of the site (but somewhat to the north and west of it), on the exact site of the temple of Solomon, with its porch facing the east and its Holy of Holies to the west, was placed the temple itself. It was thus visible from every part of the city. The temple area was surrounded on all sides by a high wall. Cloisters ran all around the wall. Those on the eastern side were called Solomon’s Porch and were rebuilt by Herod. The cloisters, with the open space, about 30 cubits wide, adjoining them on the inside, formed the court of the Gentiles.

The court of the women comprised the easternmost portion of the inner temple. It was entered on the east by Nicanor’s Gate, a gate of Corinthian brass, reckoned to be the principal gate. This is without doubt the gate “called Beautiful” of Acts 3:2. A wall separated the more sacred portions of the temple toward the west from the court of the women. From the latter the court of the men of Israel was reached by an ascent of 15 steps. A partition one cubit high compassed the holy house and altar and kept the people from the priests. The eastern part of this enclosure was called the court of the priests, and in it stood the huge altar of burnt offering and the laver for the priestly purifications. Twelve steps led from the court of the priests to the temple itself. The temple was 100 cubits long, 100 or 120 cubits high, the center being higher than the wings; 100 cubits broad at the porch, 60 cubits behind. The Holy Place and Holy of Holies were the same size as in Solomon’s or Zerubbabel’s temple. In front of the temple was a remarkable gateway without doors, with lintels above, adorned with colored and embroidered curtains. It was covered with gold, and a golden vine was spread upon it. Thirty-eight little chambers in three stories surrounded the temple, 15 on the north, 15 on the south, and 8 on the west.

The temple, like that of Zerubbabel, had no ark. A stone was set in its place, on which the high priest placed the censer on the Day of Atonement. It followed the tabernacle (not Solomon’s temple) in having only one candlestick and one table of shewbread.

Along the walls of the inner temple were placed chambers for various purposes connected with the temple services. At the north end of the court of the women stood the treasury; at its south end the Gazith, or chamber of hewn stone, in which the Sanhedrin sat. At the northwest corner of the temple, Herod erected the fortress of Antonia. From its southeast tower, 70 cubits high, the whole temple could be viewed. A Roman legion formed its garrison. Subterranean passages connected it with the temple cloisters, and through these the Roman soldiers poured down to repress the constantly occurring disturbances in the temple courts.

Of the places above mentioned, the court of the women was the scene of the Lord’s temple teachings. In the Treasury, at its northern end, He taught (John 8:20); over against the Treasury, He sat and watched the people casting in their alms (Mark 12:41). It was the court of the Gentiles that He purified from the moneychangers; and in Solomon’s Porch, at its east end, He walked in the winter (John 10:22). To the same porch gathered all the people greatly wondering (Acts 3:11), after Peter and John had healed the lame beggar who sat at the Beautiful Gate (the gate between the courts of the Gentiles and the women). Inside the Chel and in the court of the women, the Jews from Asia laid hands on Paul. They dragged him down the 14 steps into the court of the Gentiles (the temple gates being shut behind), and then from the Tower of Antonia through the cloisters the chief captain of the band ran down to rescue him (Acts 21). In the court of the men of Israel at the Feast of Tabernacles the Lord watched the priest bring the water from the Pool of Siloam through the water gate and pour it upon the altar of burnt offering (John 7). The veil that was rent at Christ’s Crucifixion hung between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The pinnacle that was the scene of one of His temptations was perhaps the roof of one of the porches.

In A.D. 70, on the evening of the anniversary of the destruction of the first temple, Herod’s temple was taken and destroyed by the army of Titus. A temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was erected on the site by Hadrian.

2 Chron 3:1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Moriah BD

(1) The land of, the district where was found the mountain on which Isaac was offered in sacrifice (Gen. 22:2); probably the same district as that in which was the “plain (or oak) of Moreh.”

(2) Mount Moriah, the hill on which Solomon built the temple (2 Chr. 3:1); a tradition first recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus, who regards this as identical with (1).

Herod BD The following genealogical table shows the relationship between the various members of the Herodian family mentioned in the New Testament.

The Herodian family were Idumeans by birth but had become converts to the Jewish faith. Their object was to found, under the protection of Rome, a semi-independent kingdom. By his marriage with Mariamne, Herod the Great allied himself with the family of the Maccabees, who had been for several generations the leaders of the patriotic party among the Jews. Herod was a successful ruler and was on terms of friendship with Augustus, the Roman Emperor. In order to gain favor with his subjects, with whom he was most unpopular, he rebuilt the temple at an immense cost. (See Temple of Herod.) His reign was disgraced by many acts of cruelty. In a fit of jealousy he had his wife, whom he dearly loved, put to death; later on he had her two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, also murdered. In the same year in which he gave the order for the massacre of the infants at Bethlehem, he had Antipater, another of his own sons, put to death. A few months later Herod himself died. His kingdom was then divided between three of his sons: Archelaus, who received Judea, Idumea, and Samaria; Antipas, who had Galilee and Perea; and Philip, who had the northeast districts of Palestine.

After a reign of nine years Archelaus was deposed by Augustus, and Judea was attached to the Roman province of Syria, being governed by a prefect. Antipas (called in the New Testament “Herod the tetrarch”) built as his capital Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee; he is frequently mentioned in the Gospels (Matt. 14:1; Mark 6:14; Luke 9:7; 13:31; 23:7–15). He took as his wife Herodias, the wife of his half-brother Philip. He was deposed by the Emperor Caligula and banished to Lugdunum in Gaul, A.D. 39. Philip made Caesarea Philippi (previously called Panias) his capital and remained in possession of his tetrarchy until his death in A.D. 33. His territory then became part of the province of Syria, but in A.D. 37 it was given by Caligula, along with Abilene (the tetrarchy of Lysanias), to Agrippa, who was allowed to assume the title of king. On the deposition of Antipas he obtained the tetrarchy of Galilee, and in A.D. 41, on the accession of the Emperor Claudius, he received Judea and Samaria as well, and so became ruler of the whole territory governed by his grandfather. He lived in Jerusalem and was anxious to be regarded as an orthodox Jew. He began a persecution of the Church and put James to death, Peter escaping by a miracle (Acts 12:1–23). His death is described in Acts 12:20–23. His son, Agrippa Ⅱ, was allowed by the Emperor Claudius to succeed to only a small part of his father’s dominions. He is mentioned in Acts 25:13. He was the last of the Herods.