The Building of the Temple

Solomon began to build the temple in the fourth year of his reign, in the second month, which the Macedonians call Artemisius and the Hebrews Iyar. This was five hundred and ninety-two years after the exodus from Egypt, one thousand and twenty years after Abraham came out of Mesopotamia into Canaan, and one thousand four hundred and forty years after the flood; and from Adam, the first man created, until Solomon built the temple, three thousand one hundred and two years had passed in all. The year in which the temple was begun was already the eleventh year of Hiram’s reign; and from the building of Tyre to the building of the temple two hundred and forty years had passed. [a]

The king laid the foundations of the temple very deep in the ground, and the material was strong stones, such as would resist the force of time. These were to bind themselves with the earth and become a base and a sure foundation for the structure to be raised on them. They had to be this strong in order to carry with ease that vast superstructure and its precious ornaments, whose own weight would be no less than that of the other high and heavy buildings the king designed to be very ornate and magnificent. They raised its whole body, right up to the roof, of white stone. Its height was ninety feet, its length the same, and its breadth thirty. Another building, equal to it in its measurements, was raised above it, so that the whole height of the temple was a hundred and eighty feet. Its front faced east. As for the porch, they built it in front of the temple. Its length was thirty feet, arranged to match the breadth of the house; it was fifteen feet wide, and its height was raised as high as a hundred and eighty feet. Around the temple he also built thirty small rooms, which were to hold the whole building together, lying close to one another, many in number, around its outside. He also made passages through them, so that one could go from one into another. Each of these rooms was seven and a half feet wide and the same in length, but thirty feet high. Above these there were other rooms, and others above those, equal in measurements and number, so that they reached a height equal to the lower part of the house; for the upper part had no buildings around it. These rooms were roofed with cedar. Each of them had a roof of its own, not connected with the other rooms; but for the other parts there was a covered roof common to them all, built with very long beams that passed through the rest and through the whole building, so that the middle walls, strengthened by the same timbers, might be made firmer. The part of the roof under the beams was made of the same material, all planed smooth into carved panels with gold fastened onto them. And as he enclosed the walls with boards of cedar, so he fixed on them plates of gold with carvings on them, so that the whole temple shone and dazzled the eyes of those who entered with the splendor of the gold on every side. The whole structure of the temple was built with great skill of polished stones, laid together so harmoniously and smoothly that the spectators could see no sign of any hammer or other builder’s tool. It was as if, without any use of them, all the materials had joined together of their own accord, so that the fitting of one part to another seemed natural rather than the work of tools. The king also devised an ingenious way up to the upper room over the temple, by steps in the thickness of its wall; for it had no large door at the east end, as the lower house had, but the entrances were at the sides, through very small doors. He also lined the temple, inside and out, with boards of cedar held tightly together by thick chains, so that this device served as a support and strength to the building. [c]

When the king had divided the temple into two parts, he made the inner house of thirty feet to be the most secret chamber, and appointed the part of sixty feet to be the sanctuary. He cut a doorway through the middle wall and set in it doors of cedar, overlaid with a great deal of gold with carvings on it. He also had curtains of blue, purple and scarlet, and of the brightest and softest linen, with most elaborate flowers worked on them, to be drawn before those doors. For the most secret place, whose breadth was thirty feet and its length the same, he dedicated two cherubim of solid gold. Each was seven and a half feet high, and each had two wings stretched out as far as seven and a half feet. So Solomon set them up not far from each other, so that with one wing they might touch the southern wall of the secret place and with the other the northern; their other wings, which met each other, were a covering for the ark, which was set between them. But nobody can tell, or even guess, what the shape of these cherubim was. He also laid the floor of the temple with plates of gold, and he added doors to the gate of the temple, matching the height of the wall but thirty feet wide, and glued gold plates onto them. In a word, he left no part of the temple, inside or outside, that was not covered with gold. He also had curtains drawn over these doors in the same way as they were drawn over the inner doors of the most holy place; but the gate of the porch had nothing of that sort. [h]

Solomon sent to Tyre, to King Hiram, for a craftsman whose name was Hiram. By birth he was of the tribe of Naphtali on his mother’s side, for she was of that tribe, but his father was Uriah, of the stock of the Israelites. This man was skilled in every kind of work, but his chief skill lay in working gold, silver and bronze, and he made all the mechanical works about the temple, according to Solomon’s wishes. This Hiram made two bronze pillars, hollow inside, with the bronze three inches thick; the pillars were twenty-seven feet high and eighteen feet around. On each of their capitals there was cast lily-work that stood on the pillar and rose seven and a half feet, and around it was network interwoven with small palms made of bronze, which covered the lily-work. Two hundred pomegranates in two rows were hung on it as well. One of these pillars he set at the entrance of the porch on the right hand and called it Jachin, and the other on the left hand and called it Boaz. [i]

Solomon also cast a bronze sea, in the shape of a hemisphere. This bronze vessel was called a sea because of its size, for the basin was fifteen feet across, and cast a handbreadth, about three inches, thick. Its middle rested on a coil that wound around in ten spirals, and that coil was a foot and a half across. Around it stood twelve oxen, facing the four winds of heaven, three toward each wind, with their hindquarters lowered so that the hemispherical vessel could rest on them; and the vessel itself was also curved inward all around. This sea held about 18,000 gallons. [m]

He also made ten bronze stands for as many square basins. Each stand was seven and a half feet long, six feet wide and nine feet high. The work was put together, with carving on its parts, like this. Four small square pillars stood, one at each corner, and the sides of the stand were fitted to them on each side. These sides were divided into three parts, and each space had a border fitted to support the basin, on which was engraved in one place a lion, in another a bull and an eagle. The small pillars had the same animals engraved on them as the sides. The whole work was raised up and stood on four wheels, which were also cast, with hubs and rims, and were about two and a quarter feet across. Anyone who saw the spokes of the wheels, how exactly they were turned and joined to the sides of the stands, and how well they fitted the rims, would marvel at them; and yet that is how they were. Shoulders of outstretched hands closed in the corners above, and on them sat a coil set under the hollow of the basin, which rested on the hands. An eagle and a lion were fitted to them so closely that those who saw them would think they were of one piece; and between these were engravings of palm trees. This was how the ten stands were built. He also made ten large round bronze vessels, which were the basins themselves, each holding forty choes, about thirty-five gallons; for each was six feet high, and its rim was as much across. He placed these basins on the ten stands, which were called Mechonoth. He set five of the basins on the left side of the temple, the side toward the north wind, and as many on the right side, toward the south, but facing east; and he set the sea the same way. He filled the sea with water and appointed it for the priests to wash their hands and feet in when they entered the temple and were about to go up to the altar, and the basins for cleansing the entrails of the animals that were to be burnt offerings, and their feet as well. [o]

He also made a bronze altar for the burnt offerings, thirty feet long, the same in breadth, and fifteen feet high. He made all its vessels of bronze too, the pots and the shovels; and besides these Hiram made the cauldrons, the hooks and every other vessel, of bronze that was like gold in splendor and beauty. The king also dedicated a great number of tables, but one that was large and made of gold, on which they set the loaves of God; and he made ten thousand more resembling it but made in another manner, on which lay the bowls and the cups. Those of gold numbered twenty thousand, those of silver forty thousand. He also made ten thousand lampstands, following the command of Moses, one of which he dedicated for the temple, to burn every day according to the law; and one table with loaves on it on the north side of the temple, opposite the lampstand, for he set the lampstand on the south side, with the golden altar between them. All these vessels were kept in the part of the holy house that was sixty feet long, in front of the curtain of the most secret place, where the ark was to be set. [s]

The king also made pouring vessels, eighty thousand in number, a hundred thousand gold bowls, and twice as many of silver. Of gold dishes for offering kneaded fine flour at the altar there were eighty thousand, and twice as many of silver. Of large basins in which they mixed fine flour with oil, there were sixty thousand of gold and twice as many of silver. Of measures like those Moses called the hin and the assaron (a tenth), there were twenty thousand of gold and twice as many of silver. The gold censers in which they carried incense into the temple numbered twenty thousand; the other censers, in which they carried fire from the great altar to the little altar inside the temple, fifty thousand. The priestly garments belonging to the high priest, with the long robes, the ephods, the breastplate and the stones, numbered a thousand. But the crown on which Moses wrote the name of God was only one, and has remained to this very day. He also made ten thousand priestly garments of fine linen, with purple sashes, for every priest; two hundred thousand trumpets, according to the command of Moses; and two hundred thousand garments of fine linen for the singers, who were Levites. And he made musical instruments, those invented for singing hymns, called nablae and cinyrae, made of electrum, forty thousand. [v]

Solomon made all these things for the honor of God, with great variety and magnificence, sparing no cost and using every possible liberality in adorning the temple; and these things he dedicated to the treasuries of God. He also put a partition around the temple, which in our language we call Gison, but which the Greeks call Thrigcos, and raised it to a height of four and a half feet. It was to keep the multitude from coming into the sacred court, and to show that the place was free and open to the priests only. Outside this he built a court, raising great, broad colonnades around it in a square. It was entered by very high gates, each of which faced one of the winds, and they were closed by golden doors. Into this court all the people entered who were distinguished from the rest by being pure and observant of the laws. But the court outside these he made a wonderful one indeed, beyond all description in words; indeed, if I may say so, it is hardly believed even when seen. He filled up great valleys with earth, valleys whose immense depth meant that no one could look into them without pain when he bent down to see; and he raised the ground six hundred feet, making it level with the top of the mountain on which the temple was built. By this means the outer court, which was open to the air, was level with the temple itself. He surrounded this too with a building of a double row of colonnades, which stood high on pillars of native stone, while the roofs were of cedar, finished in carved panels; but all the doors of this court he made of silver. [aa]