November 22nd, 2016 , 01:36 pm
American archaeologists have discovered the palace of King Solomon in Gezer
The description of King Solomon’s palace was restored in the 19th century from the “Third Book of Kingdoms” (Chapter 7) by academician of painting V.D. Fartusov. The royal palace took thirteen years to build, and during all this time Solomon tried to make it as beautiful and luxurious as possible. This was done so that in its appearance and internal structure his palace would be in no way inferior to the royal palaces of other nations, and would even surpass them
King Solomon built his palace from Lebanese wood, and that palace was one hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high in three tiers. And in the construction of the royal house, precious stones were used, that is, different types of marble brought from other countries. The stones were carefully finished, “cut to size and sawed” (maybe even polished) and decorated with various ornaments, just as the outside of the First Temple of Jerusalem was decorated.
Archaeological excavations near the Jerusalem walls. Some archaeologists believe the ruins were the former palace of King Solomon
The outer walls of the palace were also built from expensive marble, and decorations from cypress, palm, red and other types of trees were inserted into the marble cladding. Such wooden decorations are called dshidtsy in the Bible. The interior walls of Solomon's palace were also lined with multi-colored wood, mostly dark red cedar, with various ornaments carved on it.
One of the parts of the buildings: 1 - gate to the house, 2 - royal chambers, 3 - small tower, 4 - straight wall
The columns in the middle of the palace were also made of cedar wood, and there were fifteen such columns in each tier. Each column was nine cubits high; on these columns were placed longitudinal beams, and on them transverse beams, whose ends rested on the outer stone walls. These beams served as the basis for floors, ceilings and partitions that separated the palace rooms from one another. In all three rows, the columns were placed in the shape of regular oblong quadrangles, while the space between them remained open, forming a special courtyard. In this form, residential buildings were built not only by kings, noble and rich people, but also by people of middle income and class.
The open courtyard in palaces usually replaced the state hall, which is why it was decorated very luxuriously. It had a beautiful floor, in the middle of which there was a pool with fish swimming in it. In addition, pedestals were installed in various places in the yard, on which flowers stood in luxurious vases. Richly decorated staircases connected the courtyard with all the floors of the building, no matter how many there were. This was the usual structure of any palace in the East. There is no doubt that all the features of oriental architecture were observed during the construction of the palace of King Solomon
In the royal palace, around the entire large courtyard (front hall) there were covered galleries of hewn stone and one row of cedar logs, like “the inner courtyard of the temple of the Lord and the vestibule of the temple.” The galleries between the columns and cornices, as well as along the barriers, were richly decorated with carved and gilded ornaments.
In addition, the galleries were decorated with vases of flowers placed on the balustrades between the columns. The floor of the galleries was covered with rich carpets, on which round down pillows with fringes were placed near the walls. The quadrangular entrance doors of the galleries that led to the living quarters were also luxuriously decorated. These doors were most likely folding doors, not rear-moving ones. When they were opened, the rich carpets and curtains that decorated the rooms were usually visible.
In addition to the covered galleries surrounding the courtyard, two porches were built on its sides on opposite sides of the lower floor. Through them they entered both the main hall of the palace and all its living quarters. These porches were very large, each room fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide. One of the porches looked out, in all likelihood, into a wonderful garden with cool ponds, and above this porch (as stated in the Bible) were the living rooms of King Solomon’s wife, the daughter of the Egyptian king Susakim.
In another porch stood Solomon's throne. Here he held court, and representatives of the Jewish people gathered here to receive the king. The throne of King Solomon was located on a special platform, to which six steps decorated with ornaments led. Each step was flanked by a sculptured image of a lion. When the king sat on the throne, bodyguards with golden shields were located behind the lions. The throne itself, located on the top step, was made of ivory and gilded.
The backrest for it was two oxen, to which a circle in the form of a shield was attached. Josephus wrote that on top of this shield there was also an image of an eagle. The elbows for the throne were also sculptures of lions, on which the king leaned his elbows when he sat on the throne. The king's living rooms were located above this porch. Since there were living rooms above both vestibules, columns were placed here to support the beams
Probably, it was here that 46 columns stood, cast from copper by Hiram, “the son of a widow, from the tribe of Naphtali.” The Bible says about 48 columns: two of them stood in the Jerusalem Temple, and the rest were located in the two side porches of the palace and in the porches next to them
The decoration of both vestibules was rich and luxurious. Their side walls adjacent to the living quarters were decorated with elaborate wood carvings. Golden lamps hung on beams fixed in the walls and columns. The floor in both vestibules was composed of multi-colored cedar wood tiles and covered with luxurious carpets. Like the galleries of the courtyard, the porches served to receive and treat guests who were not allowed into the living quarters, which served as bedrooms.
On the sides of the covered galleries in Solomon's palace there were other living quarters intended for other royal wives and royal servants. All living rooms, including the royal ones, were small and did not have any furniture except chests, carpets and pillows with feather beds. The wooden walls of such chambers were also decorated only with carpets and women's handicrafts.
The roof of Solomon's palace was flat and surrounded by a balustrade. To such a roof, which also served for feasts and promenades, one climbed a richly decorated staircase. The room located on the roof, in which prayers were usually performed and psalms sung, was called the upper room. The stairs to the upper room were arranged on the inside for the royal family, and on the outside for guests.
The projections of the walls at the edges of the roof served as a kind of seats, or boxes. In good weather, they were covered with carpets and pillows, and canopies made of carpets or fabrics were arranged on special stands. Tables with refreshments were placed under the awnings - wine, bread and other dishes, and, sitting around the tables on soft carpets, one could recline comfortably.
Eilat Mazar, successor to the dynasty of famous Israeli archaeologists Mazars, continues to spoil us with new discoveries. In 2005, she published an interim, and in 2008, a final report on the discovery of the palace of this one of the most famous biblical kings in the City of David. At one time, I published a translation of the interim report, the final one is on my desk, but there hasn’t been enough time to translate it yet.
Today a message appeared about her discovery of a fragment of the wall of Jerusalem from the 10th century. BC, watchtowers, which, quite possibly, may relate to the construction of King Solomon, the son of David. A team of archaeologists from the University of Jerusalem, led by Dr. Eilat Mazar, discovered a 70-meter-high fragment of a wall up to 6 meters high from the 10th century BC.
In this fragment, located south of the Temple Mount, there are various structures, including an internal gate leading to the royal citadel, an administrative building next to the gate, and a corner tower overlooking the Kidron Valley. This fragment was discovered as a result of excavations carried out recently by the Institute of Archeology of the Hebrew University in collaboration with the Antiquities Authority, the Parks Authority and the East Jerusalem Development Company.
"The features of the found wall suggest that it is identical to other First Temple period walls found in Jerusalem," Dr. Mazar said. "Ceramic dating places this wall at the second half of the 10th century BC." From an archaeologist's point of view, the wall can be attributed to the period of the United Kingdom and with a high degree of confidence can be attributed to the construction of King Solomon. For the first time we find a building in Jerusalem that is associated with this legendary king. This wall testifies to the serious capabilities of the authorities of that period, including those of an engineering nature. It was built on the eastern outskirts of the Ophel in the center of the Jerusalem highlands between the City of David and the Temple Mount. It is of great strategic importance.
A gate with a tower 6 meters high was found in the wall, typical of buildings from the First Temple period, such as in Megiddo, Be'er Sheva and Ashdod. The gate has a symmetrical structure of four small spaces (see photos of my previous post), two on each side of the central passage. Like other similar gates, there was a tower with an area of 18x24 meters, guarding the main entrance to the city. Most of the tower today is under the asphalt of the road. The first drawings of this structure were made by Charles Warren in 1867. Some of the love spell premises served as warehouses, others as retail outlets, and various activities took place on the love spell square, including meetings and a market, religious activities, and trials.
A large administrative building, well preserved, was discovered nearby. Ceramics also date the structure to the 10th century BC. Traces of fire were found in this place. Among the finds were jugs 1.15 m high, with traces of a fire, apparently standing in a storage room on the ground floor of the building. On one of the shards there was an inscription “to the minister about...”. These are the largest jars ever found in Jerusalem. An inscription found on one of them indicates that the storehouse belonged to one of the royal ministers, perhaps the minister responsible for the production of bread for the royal court...
Nearby were found the bones of sacrificed animals, seals on the handles of jugs, with the inscription "to the king", which shows that they belonged to the royal court. Dozens of names were also found on the seals, all Jewish - evidence of belonging to the Jewish government. These finds are similar to similar ones found in the dumps of the Temple Mount ( thrown out from there by the Arabs) by Dr. Gabriel Barkai. In another part of the wall, a corner tower 8 meters long and 6 meters high, built of processed stones up to 2.4 meters wide, was discovered. East of the administrative building, another fragment of a wall 35 meters long was discovered, preserved to a height of 5 m. This wall surrounds the Ophel on the northeast side.
The features of the wall, the finds made here and the dating correspond to the description in the Bible of the construction of King Solomon, who, with the help of Phoenician builders, erected the first Temple and his own palace, surrounded by a common wall, apparently connecting with the old wall of the City of David. Mazar cites as an argument the 3rd part of the I Book of Kings, where it is written: “he built his house and the house of the Most High and a wall around”
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The foundations of an ancient luxurious building have been discovered in the Israeli city of Gezer. The monumental structure dates back to the 10th century BC, an era associated with the reign of King Solomon, who unified the kingdom of Judah and brought it wealth and stability, reports Newhistorian.com. The team of American archaeologists also discovered pottery made by the Philistines who lived in this city even before it was defeated by King David. The ancient complex consisted of a large central courtyard, which was typical of other palace buildings found throughout the southern Mediterranean. Although there is no sufficient evidence of this building, the head of the excavations, Professor Steve Ortiz, believes that its size significantly exceeds the size of houses typical of the time.
“The unique feature of this structure is the masonry at the corners, made of large monolithic hewn stones of a rectangular shape,” Ortiz said. Mention of the city of Gezer, located in central Israel, dates back to the Chalcolithic era (4000 BC). The Canaanites who inhabited this city 3,400 years ago were connected by trade relations with Egypt, which became known thanks to the cylinder seals of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, discovered earlier during excavations in these places. Excavations proved that the city suffered greatly from the attack of the Egyptians, as mentioned in the inscriptions Pharaoh Thutmose III, made on the walls of the Karnak Temple in Egypt, as well as in nine Amarna clay tablets, with the help of which diplomatic correspondence was carried out between the rulers of the Eastern Mediterranean. Pharaoh Merneptah also boasted on his stele that he had "captured Gezer."
In addition, archaeologists discovered a fragment of a female figurine with the face of a bird, which depicted an Aegean goddess. Such figurines, found during excavations in Ashdod, Ekron and Ashkelon, were made by the Philistines. “Archaeologists until now believed that Gezer was mainly a Canaanite city, but in the period dating from 1200-600 BC. both Canaanites and Philistines lived in it,” the professor said. “Gezer was located at an important crossroads of trade routes and was a strategic border city.” The Bible says that an influential ruler of Egypt gave the city of Gezer as a dowry to Solomon’s wife, and Solomon restored the city: “Pharaoh king of Egypt came and took Gezer and burned it He killed the Canaanites who lived in the city with fire... And Solomon’s wife gave it as a gift to his daughter. Solomon restored Gezer (1 Kings 9:16).” Thanks to these excavations, it was discovered that the biblical passage was based on real events.
September 6, 2016
Solomon's greatest work was building Jerusalem Temple. The temple was begun in the fourth year of his reign. This was the four hundred and eightieth year (according to the Greek translation - four hundred and fortieth) year after the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. It was erected on Mount Moriah on the site of the altar built by King David after the end of the pestilence. At this place, David saw the Angel of the Lord striking the people.
The foundation required enormous work. Suffice it to say that Mount Moriah was raised artificially to more than seven hundred feet (about two hundred and thirty meters). Like the tabernacle, the Jews called the temple House (Bayt). The temple was not a meeting place for the believing people: it was exclusively the dwelling of the Lord, inaccessible to the uninitiated. An ordinary Israeli could not enter it. This symbolized the fact that the Kingdom of Heaven was closed to Israel until the atoning sacrifice of Christ.
The temple built by Solomon was not very large: sixty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, thirty cubits in height (in the metric system - 31.5 m, 10.5 m, 15.75 m). It was only twice the size of the tabernacle, but the splendor of its decoration far surpassed it. In front of the temple there was a vestibule: 10.5 m wide and 5 m deep.
The walls are made of stone, but the inside is lined with cedar, and the floor is covered with cypress boards. The Jerusalem Temple had three parts: porch, holy and holy of holies. A double cypress door led into the holy place. The holy place and the holy of holies were separated by a wall of cedar planks, in which there was a door made of olive wood. There was a veil here. The walls, doors and gates of the temple were decorated with carved images of Cherubs, palm trees, flowers, as well as precious stones and trimmed with gold. The floor was covered with gold sheets (see: 1 Kings 6, 21, 30). In its splendor the temple was to be a visible image of the glory of the invisible God.
In front of the temple there were two courtyards surrounded by walls. The inner courtyard was intended for the priests (see: 2 Chronicles 4, 9), the other courtyard was for the people. In the inner court stood a brass altar of burnt offering.
An essential accessory of the court was the Copper Sea and ten mobile stands with washbasins. On the right and left, the entrance was decorated with two copper pillars, eight cubits high, which in the 3rd book of Kings and 2 Chronicles are called Boaz and Jachin. Perhaps these were giant lamps topped with cups of oil.
In the holy place there was an altar on which incense was burned, ten golden seven-branched candlesticks and ten tables. On one of them there were twelve showbread. The High Priest could only enter the Holy of Holies once a year on the day of cleansing. This is where the Ark of the Covenant was located. The scale of the construction work can be judged by the fact that eighty thousand Canaanites were constantly busy cutting and trimming stones in the mountains, and seventy thousand people were busy delivering them.
The Old Testament temple was a prototype of the New Testament mysteries. When the prophets foretold the future glory of Christ's Church, they pointed to the vastness and splendor of Solomon's temple. For example, in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, the glory of the New Testament temple is depicted under the images of the temple of Jerusalem (see: Ezekiel, ch. 41-44). Jesus Christ Himself, predicting His death and resurrection, pointed to the Jerusalem temple as an image of the temple of His body (see: John 2:19). The Temple of Jerusalem in relation to Jesus Christ was a prototype of His incarnation. Just as the temple was built according to the drawings of its father-builder - King David - so the Son of God was incarnated in accordance with the will of God the Father. The splendor and wealth of the temple symbolically indicate treasures of wisdom and understanding in Jesus Christ(see: Col. 2, 3).
The consecration of the temple took place in the seventh month (afanim) of the Jewish calendar. As at the dedication of the tabernacle, a cloud appeared- visible image of the glory of the Lord. King Solomon turned to the Lord in prayer while facing the temple (this became a custom: wherever an Israeli was, he turned to face the temple when praying). During the dedication of the temple, Solomon prayed on a copper pulpit, three cubits high, placed in the middle of the courtyard, raising his hands to heaven and kneeling. The king's prayer was filled with high feelings and firm trust in God: Lord God of Israel! there is no God like You in the heavens above and on the earth below; You keep covenant and mercy towards Your servants, who walk before You with all their hearts.<...>May Your eyes be open to the prayer of Your servant and to the prayer of Your people Israel, so that you can hear them always when they call on You(3 Kings 8, 23, 52).
According to the Monk Ephraim the Syrian, the numerous sacrifices (twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred and twenty thousand small animals) that King Solomon made on the day of the consecration of the temple, point to the universal sacrifice of the Savior, with which He sanctified His Holy Church.
The wisdom of Solomon became known far beyond the borders of Israel. The Queen of Sheba visited him. Jesus Christ points to this event: The queen of the south will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, there is more Solomon here(Mt 12:42).
The glory of Solomon became for him a great moral test that he could not withstand. Gradually, Solomon becomes the owner of colossal wealth. All of King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all of the vessels in the house built of Lebanese wood were also of gold. The saddest thing was that Solomon began to do what the Lord forbade through the prophet Moses, speaking about the future king: lest he should multiply wives for himself, lest his heart should be corrupted, and lest he should multiply for himself silver and gold excessively(Deuteronomy 17:17). Solomon had one thousand four hundred chariots. But what was most displeasing to God was something else. He had many wives and concubines who corrupted his heart. The Lord determines his punishment - division of the kingdom.
The wrath of God against Solomon was the stronger, the greater the previous mercies of the Lord towards him, expressed in the double appearance of God to him (see: 1 Kings 3, 5; 9, 2-3).
The division of the Israeli state into two kingdoms was a matter of Divine determination for the sins of the king. It happened after his death during the reign of his son, Rehoboam, but menacing signs appeared during Solomon’s lifetime. Did Solomon repent? Saint Philaret of Moscow writes: “Unfortunately, Solomon’s conversion is not as reliable as his errors. However, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius, and Jerome think that he preceded death with repentance... The book of Ecclesiastes, apparently, is a monument to this repentance” (“Outline of Church Biblical History”).
King Solomon's Temple
Although the First Temple of Jerusalem was built by King Solomon, preparations for its construction had begun in the previous reign. King David purchased a site for the temple, made extensive preparations for building materials, drew up a plan for the temple, and saved up funds.
Jerusalem at that time was much smaller than today; of its four hills, only one was inhabited - Mount Zion. After occupying the city, David surrounded it with a wall. The rather high Mount Moriah adjoined Zion on the eastern side. It was occupied by the field of one local resident, the Jebusite Orna. In the middle of the field, on the upper ridge of the mountain, a threshing floor was built. King David bought this mountain from Orna for 50 shekels of silver (according to other sources, for 600 shekels of gold). It is quite possible that the mountain was bought in parts: first, a small part of it for 50 shekels of silver, and then other areas adjacent to it - for only 600 shekels of gold.
After purchasing the site, David immediately dedicated it by building an altar. According to legend, this was the very place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.
The building materials prepared by King David for the temple are gold, silver (although it is not mentioned in the decoration of Solomon's Temple), copper, precious stones, iron, cedar beams, marble, stone. The Jerusalem Temple was the only one for the entire kingdom of Israel and therefore required all kinds of splendor.
David fulfilled the plan of the Temple in general and in particular, which he handed over to his heirs in a solemn will and with an insistent demand that it be fulfilled.
Despite the abundance of building material prepared by David, it was not enough even to begin work; there were especially few stones and timber. Therefore, King Solomon, starting the construction of the Temple, entered into an agreement with the Tyrian king Hiram, according to which he agreed to supply Solomon with cedar and cypress wood, hewn ready-made stones from the Lebanese mountains; the cutting down of timber and the processing of stones should be left to the people sent by Solomon, but for guidance, Phoenician craftsmen should also be placed over them, as they were more experienced in the matter; wooden beams should be delivered from Lebanon by sea on rafts to Jaffa, the pier closest to Jerusalem. For his part, Solomon had to supply wheat, wine, and oil to Tire. There is evidence that King Solomon concluded a similar agreement with the Egyptian king.
At the construction site of the Temple, no ax, no hammer, or other iron tool was heard: wood and stone finishing work was carried out in Lebanon, foundry work was performed in the Jordan Valley.
Before starting to build the Temple, it was necessary to find a place for it that would correspond to the plan. In its original form, the ridge of Mount Moriah was very steep; the body of the temple and the altar could barely fit on it. There was no room at all for the courtyards that were supposed to surround the Temple on all sides.
In addition, in its original direction, the ridge of Mt. He walked diagonally - not straight from north to south, but from northwest to southeast. And the Temple and its courts had to be clearly oriented (like the tabernacle) in the correct relationship to the four cardinal directions. Therefore, in preparation for the construction of the Temple, it was necessary: a) to expand the upper part of the mountain to the dimensions provided for by the plan of the Temple, b) to change or align the direction of the ridge so that the area prepared for the Temple was, perhaps, more accurately facing the four cardinal directions.
And King Solomon came up with a wise plan: to build along the eastern side of the mountain, starting from its base, among the Kidron Valley passing here, a large and solid stone wall in the direction that the wall of the Temple courtyard should have had (that is, straight from north to south), and fill the gap between the wall and the mountainside with earth.
In general, Solomon's Temple was built according to the plan given for the tabernacle of Moses, only on a larger scale and with such adaptations as were necessary in a rich, immovable sanctuary. The temple was divided into the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary and the vestibule, but it was larger and more magnificent than the tabernacle. Around the inner compartment of Solomon's Temple, a large area was built - sections for the people (or a large courtyard). The second courtyard, or courtyard of the priests, was twice the size of the tabernacle. Corresponding to the laver of the tabernacle, at the altar of the Temple there was a whole system of washing vessels: 10 artistically made lavers on stands and a large pool for water, in size called the sea. The vestibule of the temple was a corridor 20 cubits long (the width of the Temple body) and 10 cubits deep. In front of him stood two large copper columns.
The internal size of the Temple was partly double, partly triple the size of the tabernacle.
The Holy of Holies and the sanctuary were separated by a stone wall with an olive door. The walls of the Temple itself were lined with massive cut stone, lined with white marble on the outside, but, like the doors of the tabernacle, inside they were covered with wooden lining, and then lined with sheet gold. The doors, the ceiling, and the cypress floor of the Temple were covered with gold.
On the walls of the tabernacle were depicted the same cherubim as on the embroidered cloth that draped its interior walls. And on the walls of Solomon’s Temple cherubs were depicted, only an ornament in the form of plants was added. Externally, the Temple was striking in its grandeur, massiveness and strength, and inside - in wealth and splendor, unheard of even in the ancient world. The entire interior of the Temple was lined with wood - the walls and ceiling were cedar, and the floor was cypress, so that the stone inside the Temple was not visible. The wall boards were decorated with carvings of reliefs cut inward (rather than protruding forward); the deeply carved main subjects of the paintings never protruded above the plane of the wall.
The paintings again depicted figures of cherubs, but they were also supplemented by images of palm trees, coloquintes (a genus of wild cucumbers) and blossoming flowers. The choice of palm tree is explained not only by the fact that it was the most beautiful and useful tree - a symbol of beauty, greatness and moral perfection. According to the ancients, the birthplace of the palm tree was Palestine, from where it spread throughout the ancient East. The palm tree in the Jerusalem Temple was a symbol of the triumph of God in the Promised Land. There were no images of palm trees in the tabernacle, since it was a desert sanctuary, built only on the way to Palestine.
The wooden planks that covered the stone walls (bars in the windows, the ceiling, the floor, the steps leading to the Holy of Holies) were in turn covered with gold leaf.
Each nail with which the gold sheets were nailed was also gold. Along the gold there were also multi-colored precious stones for decoration. In its external forms, the Temple resembled a ship expanding towards the top, or Noah's Ark. The internal platforms, rising one above the other, extended outwards from the lower main part of the walls and by three projections. These projections required special supports, which were three rows of columns with a fourth row of cedar pilasters. Thus, along the three walls of the Temple (northern, southern and western) colonnades (or covered alleys) were formed under wide canopies protruding from the upper parts of the wall.
When the Temple was ready, King Solomon called all the elders and many people to consecrate it. With the sound of trumpets and the singing of spiritual songs, the Ark of the Covenant was brought in and placed in the Holy of Holies under the shadow of two new colossal cherubim, stretching out their wings so that the ends of the outer wings touched the wall, and the inner wings bent over the Ark. The glory of the Lord in the form of a cloud filled the Temple, so that the priests could not continue their worship. Then Solomon ascended to his royal seat, fell to his knees and began to pray to God that in this place He would accept the prayers of not only the Israelis, but also the pagans. At the end of this prayer, fire came down from heaven and burned the sacrifices prepared in the Temple.
The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, plundered it, burned it and destroyed Solomon's Temple to the ground. Then the Ark of the Covenant also perished. The entire Jewish people were taken into captivity (589 BC), only the poorest Jews were left on their land to cultivate the vineyards and fields. In destroyed Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah remained, who wept on the ruins of the city and continued to teach goodness to the remaining inhabitants.
The Jews were in Babylonian captivity for 70 years. The Persian king Cyrus, in the first year of his rule over Babylon, allowed the Jews to return to their fatherland. Such prolonged captivity led them to the realization that only Jerusalem and the entire kingdom of Judah could stand as the Temple of Jehovah. This conviction was so strong in them that they left Babylon only after securing royal permission to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
Forty-two thousand Jews went to their land. Those who remained in Babylon helped them with gold, silver and other property and, in addition, rich donations for the Temple. The king gave the Jews the sacred vessels that were taken by Nebuchadnezzar from the Temple of Solomon.
Returning to Jerusalem, the Jews first rebuilt the altar to the Lord God, and the next year laid the foundation of the Temple. Nineteen years later, the construction of the Temple was completed. The New Temple was not as rich and magnificent as Solomon's Temple, and the elders, who remembered the splendor of the former Temple, cried that the Second Temple was poorer and smaller than the previous one.
But during the reign of Herod (37–4 BC), who made a lot of efforts to expand and decorate it, the Temple reached a special prosperity and splendor. Josephus Flavius left the following description of the Temple: “The Temple shone so brightly, reflecting the rays of the sun, that no one could look at it. And from a distance it looked like a mountain peak sparkling with snow. The terraces of the Temple consisted of huge granite blocks up to 20 meters long. These stone blocks were carefully fitted to each other so that even an earthquake would not move them.
In some places they rose as a solid wall up to 150 m in height. The wall ended in a double colonnade that surrounded the Temple Court for non-Jews. Stairs rose from it to nine golden and silver gates. They led into courtyards for Jewish women and men. Above them was the Courtyard for the priests, and the 50-meter facade of the Temple itself rose even higher. All the buildings were decorated with white marble and gold, and even the spikes on the roof of the Temple, made specifically to prevent pigeons from landing on it, were golden.”
During the Jewish War, the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed for the second time in 70 AD, and the destruction of the Second Temple occurred on the “ninth Ab” according to the Jewish calendar, on the day of the destruction of the First Temple - more than 500 years later.
Today, only the preserved part of the western wall that surrounded the Temple Mount Moriah, on the top of which stood the Jerusalem Temple, reminds us of the majestic structure that was the center of the spiritual life of the Jewish people. This part of the wall, made of huge stone monoliths, is 156 meters long.
It is called the Western Wall (or Western Wall) and is the national shrine of the Jewish people.
In ancient times, the Temple of Solomon was called one of the seven wonders of the world; it amazed eyewitnesses with its grandiose size and no less greatness. King Solomon erected it in the 10th century BC. e., during the heyday of the Israeli state, and the Temple became the main shrine of the Jews. While the Jews were walking in search of the Promised Land, while they were at war with neighboring nations, while they had no state, God dwelt “in the tent and the Tabernacle” and wandered with the chosen people. The Ark of the Covenant was a guarantee of this chosenness. But when the Jews settled in Palestine, the Temple became a symbol of the unity of Israel, a kingdom ruled by God.
King David made Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom and brought here the Ark of the Covenant, which was kept in a special Tabernacle. Jerusalem was located in the territory between the allotments of the tribe of Judah (from which David came) and the tribe of Benjamin (from which Saul, the first king of Israel, was). Thus, the city turned out to not belong to any of the tribes and at the same time became the center of the religious life of all twelve tribes of Israel.
David bought Mount Moriah from Orna the Jebusite and built an altar to Yahweh on the site of the threshing floor to stop the epidemic that had struck the people. Mount Moriah was a special place: according to the Bible, here Abraham wanted to sacrifice his son, Isaac. It was here that David decided to build the Temple. “I live in a palace made of cedar, and the Ark of God is in a tent,” the king complained. But through the prophet Nathan, God said that David would not be given the opportunity to build the Temple, for it was the sin of adultery and the blood shed in wars; his plan would be carried out by his heir, Solomon. However, David did a lot for the construction of the Temple: he prepared reserves of metals, vessels made of gold, silver and copper, obtained by him in wars and received as gifts. Hewn stones and Lebanese cedars were transported by sea from Phenicia. Before his death, David called together representatives of all the tribes and all the leaders and invited them to make donations for the construction. And Solomon was given the plan of the Temple, given to him in a revelation from God: “All these things are in writing from the Lord... just as He instructed me in all the works of building” (1 Chr. 28:19).
Solomon began construction of the Temple in the fourth year of his reign, in 480 after the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, that is, in 966 BC. e. He turned to King Hiram of Tire, and he sent the architect Hiram-Abiff, carpenters and other artisans.
The most expensive material of that time was used for the construction of the Temple - cedars and cypresses from Lebanon; stone (sandstone) was used, which was hewn by stonemasons of the Phoenician city of Gebal. The finished blocks were delivered to the construction site so that “neither hammer, nor adze, nor any other iron tool could be heard in the temple while it was being built” (1 Kings 6:7). Copper from Solomon's copper mines in Edom was used for temple columns and utensils. Silver and gold were also used. 30 thousand Israelis and 150 thousand Canaanites and Phoenicians worked on the construction, 3.3 thousand specially appointed overseers supervised the work.
The temple amazed with its grandeur, wealth and splendor, unheard of even in the ancient world. It was built according to the plan of the Tabernacle of Moses, only on a larger scale and with the adaptations that were necessary for temple worship. The temple consisted of three parts - the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary and the vestibule. It was surrounded by a large courtyard for the people. The tabernacle had a laver for ritual ablutions, and at the Temple altar there was a whole system of vessels: ten artistically made lavers on stands and a large pool for water, called the Copper Sea because of its size. The vestibule of the temple was a corridor twenty cubits long (the width of the Temple body) and ten cubits deep. In front of him stood two large copper columns. The internal size of the Temple was partly double, partly triple the size of the tabernacle.
The Holy of Holies and the Sanctuary were separated by a stone wall, in which there was a door made of olive wood. The walls of the Temple were lined with massive cut stone, lined with white marble on the outside, and wood and gold leaf on the inside. The doors and ceiling were covered with gold, the floor was made of cypress, so that the stone inside the Temple was not visible. The walls were decorated with images of cherubs and ornaments in the form of plants: palm trees, coloquinths (a genus of wild cucumbers) and flowers. In ancient times, the palm tree was considered the tree of paradise, a symbol of beauty, greatness and moral perfection. In the Temple of Jerusalem, the palm tree was a symbol of the triumph of God in the Promised Land.
Tetradrachm of Bar Kochba (132–135)
Construction of the Temple lasted seven years, from 957 to 950 BC. e.1.The work was completed in the eighth month of the eleventh year of the reign of Solomon. The consecration of the Temple took place on the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). The Ark of the Covenant, accompanied by priests, Levites and crowds of people, was solemnly transferred to the Holy of Holies. Solomon, entering the Temple, fell to his knees and began to pray: “The Lord said that He delights to dwell in darkness; I have built a temple for You to dwell in, a place for You to dwell forever” (1 Kings 8:12, 13). But at the same time, Solomon concludes: “Truly, shall God live on earth? Heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, much less this temple that I have built” (1 Kings 8:27). At the end of this prayer, fire came down from heaven and burned the sacrifices prepared in the Temple.
The celebration of the consecration of the Temple lasted fourteen days. All Israel celebrated this event, and there was not a person who did not participate in the celebration and would not sacrifice at least one ox or sheep.
The Bible describes the services of the Jerusalem Temple, which could not be compared with anything in grandeur, solemnity and grandeur. When all the people came together for the holidays and filled the Temple courtyard, the priests and Levites, dressed in special clothes, stood in front of the altar, choirs of singers sang, musicians played and blew the shofar, then the Glory of the Lord in the form of a cloud filled the Temple, so that the priests could not continue worship.
The magnificent and grandiose Temple of Solomon stood for only three and a half centuries. In 589 BC. e. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, plundered it, burned it and destroyed the Temple to the ground. The Ark of the Covenant was lost, and nothing has been known about it since. The Jewish people were taken into captivity. The Babylonian captivity lasted 70 years. The Persian king Cyrus, in the first year of his reign, allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. And they began to restore the shrine. Those who remained in Babylon collected gold, silver and other property and sent it home with the repatriates. And then they continued to give rich donations to the Temple. King Cyrus returned to the Jews the sacred vessels that had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar from the Temple of Solomon.
Returning to Jerusalem, the Jews first rebuilt the altar to God, and the next year laid the foundation of the Temple. Nineteen years later the construction was completed. The Second Temple was supposed to repeat the forms of the First. But it was no longer as rich and magnificent as the Temple of Solomon, and the elders, who remembered the splendor of the former Temple, cried that the Second Temple was poorer and smaller than the previous one.
Herod (73–74 BC) made a lot of efforts to expand and decorate the Temple; under him, the Jerusalem Temple became especially magnificent. Josephus wrote about the Temple with delight: “The Temple shone so brightly, reflecting the rays of the sun, that no one could look at it. And from a distance it looked like a mountain peak sparkling with snow.”
And before, the Jews felt God's presence when the Lord walked ahead of the people in the desert in a pillar of fire, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and His face shone like the sun. But the Temple became for the chosen people a special place of the presence of God. Every pious Jew had to come to Jerusalem at least once a year to worship God. From all over Israel and Judea, and from all over the world, from everywhere where Jews lived in dispersion, people gathered in the Temple on major holidays. We read about this in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where it is said that on the feast of Pentecost “the Parthians, and the Medes, and the Elamites, and the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya, came to Jerusalem, those adjacent to Cyrene, and those who came from Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians...” (Acts 2:9-11). All these people came to appear before the face of God in the atmosphere of a solemn service in the Temple.
Of course, unlike the pagans, the Jews did not believe that God lived in man-made temples, but they believed that a meeting between God and man took place at this place. The pagans also knew this; it was no coincidence that Pompey, sent to command the Roman cohorts that pacified Jerusalem during the Jewish War, so wanted to penetrate the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple in order to understand who or what the Jews were bowing to. And great was his surprise when, entering the Temple and pulling back the curtain, he saw that there was nothing in the Holy of Holies. No image, no statue, nothing! The God of Israel cannot be enclosed in any statue, it cannot be depicted. Jews once believed that the Shekinah dwelled between the wings of the Cherubim above the Ark of the Covenant. Now the Temple has become a meeting place between God and man.
Foundation stone on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
In 70 AD e. The Jerusalem Temple was razed to the ground by Roman troops. The destruction of the Second Temple occurred on the “ninth Ab” according to the Jewish calendar, on the day of the destruction of the First Temple - more than five hundred years later. Today, only the preserved part of the western wall that surrounded Mount Moriah, on the top of which stood the Jerusalem Temple, reminds us of the great shrine. It is called the Western Wall and is the national shrine of the Jewish people. But not only Jews come here to pray. And if you stand facing the wall and close your eyes, you can even hear the shofar blowing and thousands of singers and musicians praising the God of Israel, and see how the glory of the Lord descends from heaven on those praying.
As you know, Christ and the apostles visited the Jerusalem Temple. When the temple was destroyed and Christians were scattered across the entire face of the earth, they were unable to build temples for almost three hundred years. They performed divine services in their homes or in the catacombs, at the graves of martyrs, because Rome cruelly persecuted them. In 313, Emperor Constantine, by the Edict of Milan, granted freedom of religion to all inhabitants of the Roman Empire, and Christians were able to build churches. From the 4th century to this day, Christian churches of various forms and styles have been built all over the world, but all of them, in one way or another, go back to the Temple of Jerusalem. Usually they also have a three-part division - a vestibule, a naos and an altar. They repeat the idea of the Ark of the Covenant, only now the place of God's presence is the Eucharist. The idea of a Christian temple goes back even deeper - to Noah’s Ark, on which God saved the family of the righteous patriarch during the Flood. Over time, the styles of temple buildings changed, each nation erected temples in accordance with their ideas of beauty and grandeur, in the spirit of simplicity and asceticism or luxury and wealth. But at all times, architecture, painting, sculpture, music, the word in the temple always serve one thing - the meeting of man and God.
The temple was often perceived as an image of the universe in its transformed state. But theologians often compare the universe to a temple, and in the Bible the Lord Himself is called the Architect and Artist, who created the world according to the laws of beauty and harmony. At the same time, the Apostle Paul calls man a temple (see: 1 Cor 6:19). Thus, creation can be compared to a nesting doll: God creates the universe as a temple, man inside it builds a temple and enters it, being a temple of the spirit. But one day all these three temples will unite, and there will be “God all in all.” At the end of time, when heaven and earth pass away, the need for a temple will no longer exist, as John the Theologian says in his vision of the Heavenly City: “But I did not see a temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty is his temple and the Lamb” (Rev 21:22). But while the Church is on its way to Heavenly Jerusalem, the temple, like a ship, carries us to the shores of the Heavenly Fatherland.
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The main sources from which one can get an idea of the appearance and internal structure are I Kings. (1 Kings) (chap. 6 - 7) and II Chron. (2 Chron.) (Ch. 2 - 4).
There is not a single external, non-Jewish source known to describe Solomon's Temple. Many researchers proceed from the assumption that, since the architects of Solomon’s Temple were, many elements of other temples of the Ancient East should be present in its architecture.
So far, no direct archaeological evidence has been found from the Temple of Solomon, since direct archaeological excavations have never been carried out. While sifting through the earth from the Temple Mount, some indirect evidence was found, including a stone with the name of a priest from the priestly family mentioned in the book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:1), as well as an arrowhead, the likes of which were used in the armies of Nebuchadnezzar .
unknown, Public DomainThe temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem was fundamentally different from everything that preceded it in Jewish history. For the first time, the Temple was erected as a permanent and solid stone building in a very specific and special place.
The sacred area of the Temple had two main parts: the courtyard ( Azara) and the Temple building ( Heyhal).
Temple Court
The courtyard occupied a large area and was divided into two parts: an outer courtyard and an inner one.
- When entering the territory of the Temple Mount, they first found themselves in the “outer courtyard,” which was also called the “great courtyard” ( Ezra Gdola) or “new”, that is, expanded. This courtyard was intended for the people - public meetings and prayers took place here. Especially many people gathered here on holidays: on Saturday, the days of the new moon ( Rosh Chodesh) and on the holidays of Pilgrimage (, and).
In addition to the main entrance from the east, there were also entrances to the “outer courtyard” from the north and south (from the side of the palace). On these three sides it was adjoined by buildings for priests and storerooms.
unknown, Public Domain - Through the inner "southern" gate, covered with copper, they rose into the "inner court", which was also called the "upper" because it was higher than the outer court, or the "court of the priests" because it was intended for the priests and was directly adjacent to the Temple building. It was built of three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams, and was surrounded by a low fence three cubits high, so that through it the people could see the sacred rites.
In this courtyard, in front of the entrance to the Narthex, there stood a large copper Altar of Burnt Offerings, on which animal sacrifices were made. It was a square three-tier structure 20 cubits long, 20 wide and 10 high.
- The first step (10x10 m), immersed in the ground and surrounded by a ditch, was 1 m high;
- second stage (8×8 m) - 2 m high;
- the third (6x6 m) - 2 m high - was called Harel, there were four “horns” at its corners.
Temple Building
The Temple building was made of stone and was located in the center of the courtyard.
Reddit , CC BY-SA 3.0 Its length was 60 cubits (from east to west), width - 20 cubits (from north to south) and height - 30 cubits (respectively 30 × 10 × 15 m). The temple was thus twice as long and wide as Moses, and three times as tall.
Reddit , CC BY-SA 3.0 However, the given figures indicate only the internal dimensions of the Temple building; the thickness of its walls is not indicated, but in the description of the Temple of Ezekiel it is 6 cubits. The roof of the Temple was flat and made of cedar logs and planks. It did not rest on columns in the center of the hall, as was customary in temple construction of this period. The inner walls of the Temple were lined with cedar and covered with gold, as were its floor and the towers above and above the Narthex. Their decoration consisted of convex images of cherubs, palm trees and blooming flowers, enclosed in square lattice cells.
In plan, the Temple building was oblong in shape and consisted of three adjacent rooms of the same width - the Narthex ( Ulam), Zala ( Heyhal or Kodesh) and Holy of Holies ( Dvir or Kodesh HaKodashim).
- (Ulam), which formed the eastern part of the Temple, separated the sacred from the profane. It was 20 cubits wide (from north to south) and 10 cubits long (from east to west). Its height is indicated in the Chronicles at 120 cubits, but it is possible that the word mea(one hundred) is superfluous in the text. The porch was thus the same height as the Holy of Holies and 10 cubits lower Heyhal A. These 10 cubits were probably occupied by a tower. At the same time, according to many Jewish commentators (including RaDaK), the height of the Porch was really 120 cubits, while the height Heyhal and the Holy of Holies was only 30 cubits.
- Sanctuary Heyhal, where worship was held, was the largest room of the Temple and was not inferior in size to the large temples of the Middle East. It was 30 cubits long, 20 wide and 30 high (approximately 15x10x15 m).
- In depth Heyhal and there was the Holy of Holies ( Dvir), separated from it by a stone wall covered with cedar, in which there was a cypress door with olive wood jambs, closed with an expensive curtain ( parochet).
Adjoining the Temple building on three sides (except for the front, eastern) was a three-tiered stone structure, yatsia(יציע), with many rooms, intact(צלעות). As it appears, yatsia was a covered gallery. Each floor was divided into approximately 30 rooms, which were used as storage and for other auxiliary purposes. The entrance to the rooms was on the south side, from where a twisted staircase led to all three tiers. Each room had one window with bars.
The foundation on which the base of the Temple stood appears to have been quite high, so that its first floor was at the level of the second floor of the gallery. The length of the rooms on the lower floor was 5 cubits, the middle - 6 cubits, and the third, upper - 7 cubits, which was a consequence of the reduction in the thickness of the walls. At the very bottom, the outer wall of the Temple building apparently was 6 cubits, on the second floor this thickness decreased to 5 cubits, and on the third floor it already reached three cubits. The narrowing of the wall at the top left more space for the gallery, for which the outer wall of the Temple served as the inner wall. The floors of the gallery, thus, did not narrow upward, like a pyramid, but, on the contrary, expanded.
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