TEMPLE i. Use of terms.—1. The word which is most frequently used in the Gospels for the temple is τὸ ἱερόν (בֵּית הַמִּקְרָּשׁ); it occurs nearly 50 times. Under this term is included, generally speaking, the whole of the temple area, i.e. the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of the Women, the Court of the Israelites, the Priests’ Court, and the Holy Place, together with the Holy of Holies. In this wide sense it is used in Matthew 12:6; Matthew 24:1-2, Mark 11:11; Mark 13:1; Mark 13:3; Mark 14:49, Luke 19:47; Luke 21:37-38; Luke 22:52; Luke 24:53; but in a number of passages it is used in a more restricted sense, viz.: in reference to the Court of the Gentiles, Matthew 21:12-16; Matthew 21:23, Mark 11:15-18; Mark 11:27, Luke 19:45; Luke 22:53, John 2:14-15; John 5:14; John 8:59; in reference to the Court of the Women, Mark 12:41, Luke 2:27; Luke 2:37; Luke 21:1; in reference to the Court of the Israelites, Matthew 26:55, Mark 12:33, Luke 2:46; Luke 18:10; Luke 20:1, John 7:14; John 7:28; John 11:56; John 18:20. The particular part of the temple referred to cannot always be ascertained with certainty, especially in the case of the Men’s Court (Court of the Israelites), but presumably the mention of ‘teaching in the temple’ would usually refer to Christ teaching the Jews (in view of such passages as ‘I am not sent save unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel,’ Matthew 15:24), in which case the women, according to Jewish custom, would not be present. In a few instances ἱερόν is used of some particular part of the temple, viz. of the actual sanctuary, Luke 21:5, John 8:20; in this passage the treasury is spoken of loosely, as being in the temple (ἱερόν), strictly speaking it was in the Sanctuary (ναὁς). The same applies to the mention of Solomon’s Porch in John 10:23. In reference to the wing or pinnacle of the temple (Matthew 4:5, Luke 4:9) πτερύγιον τοῦ ἱεροῦ is used; as to where this spot was precisely scholars differ. See Pinnacle. Once the phrase τὸ ἱερὸν τοῦ θεοῦ is used (Matthew 21:12), but the addition of τοῦ θεοῦ is not well attested. 2. The word ναός* ^[1] (הֵיכָל) denotes the Sanctuary, i.e. that part of the temple which was holy, and to which, therefore, none but the priests had access; it included the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies (see Luke 1:21-22). The ναός was built of white marble, overlaid in part with gold sheeting; this costliness is referred to in Matthew 23:16-17. Other references to the Sanctuary are: Matthew 23:18-19; Matthew 23:35, which speak of the altar; Matthew 27:5-6, the treasury (but see below); Luke 1:9, the altar of incense (here the phrase ὁ ναὸς τοῦ κυρίου occurs for the only time); Matthew 27:51, the heavy veil between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place (see also Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45). Finally, Christ speaks of His body as symbolizing the Sanctuary in John 2:19-21, cf. Matthew 26:61 (where the only occurrence of the phrase ὁ ναὸς τοῦ θεοῦ is found) Matthew 27:40, Mark 14:58; Mark 15:29. In John 2:20 ὁ ναός is inaccurately used in the words ‘Forty and six years was this temple in building’ (i.e. has this temple been in building up till now), for it was the whole temple area with all included in it that had so far been worked at for forty-six years; it was not finished until shortly before its final destruction by Titus in a.d. 70–71. 3. A few other expressions used for the temple may be briefly referred to: ὁ οἶκός μου,* ^[2] Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46, John 2:17; οἶκος προσευχῆς, Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46; ὁ οἶκος τοῦ πατρός μου, John 21:6. All these expressions are used in the larger sense of τὸἱερον. The ‘Holy Place’ is specifically referred to in Matthew 23:35 ‘between the sanctuary (ναός) and the altar, i.e. the space between the outer veil (see below) and the altar for burnt-offerings; in Matthew 24:15, ἐστὸς ἐν τὸπῳ ἁγίῳ, but in the parallel passage (Mark 13:14) the reading is ἑστηκότα ὅπου οὐ δεῖ.† ^[3] Lastly, the expression ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν, Matthew 23:38 (‘Your house is left unto you desolate’),‡ ^[4] apparently also refers to the temple, for it is in the temple that these words were spoken, and it is to the temple that the disciples point when admiring the beauty of the building, in reply to which Christ says: ‘There shall not be left here one stone upon another, which shall not be thrown down’; thus ‘your house’ evidently means the temple building in its external form, in contradistinction to the ‘house of God,’ the spiritual building not made with hands. ii. Herod’s temple.—There are several admirable descriptions of Herod’s temple published and easily available;§ ^[5] all are based on the main; sources, viz. Josephus Ant. xv. xi., BJ v. 5., c. ^[6] ap. 1. 22, and the Mishnic tractate Middoth.|| ^[7] It will, therefore, not be necessary to give a detailed account here, but a general outline to illustrate the Gospel references is necessary. Herod the Great ^[8] commenced rebuilding the temple¶ ^[9] in the year b.c. 20 (the eighteenth year of his reign), on the site of the second temple; but the available space was insufficient for the much larger building which he intended to erect. He therefore constructed immense vaulted chambers** ^[10] on the south side of the hill on which the earlier temple stood; by this means the area at his disposal was doubled. A general idea of the whole will be best gained by indicating its main divisions: 1. The Outer Court.—This large space (two stadia†† ^[11] in length, one in breadth, the perimeter being six stadia), which surrounded the temple proper, was enclosed by a battlemented wall. The main entrances to this enclosure were on the west, leading from the city; here there were four gates, the remains of one of which have been discovered.‡‡ ^[12] On the south side were the two ‘Huldah’ gates, remains of which have also been discovered. On the south-west corner there was a bridge which led from the city into the temple area; a huge arch which formed part of this bridge was discovered by Robinson, and is called after him. There was one gate on the east, which has been walled up; this was called the ‘Golden Gate,’ which tradition identifies with the ‘Beautiful Gate’ mentioned in Acts 3:2.* ^[13] On the north there was likewise one gate, called in Middoth the ‘Tadi Gate.’† ^[14] All these gates led directly into the great temple area, or outer court; around the whole area, within the walls, were ranged porticoes with double rows of pillars; but the finest was that on the south side; here there were four rows of Corinthian columns made of white marble. All these porticoes were covered with a roof of wood. The eastern portico was called Solomon’s Porch (John 10:23, cf. Acts 3:11; Acts 5:12); it belonged to an earlier building which tradition ascribed to Solomon. On the north-west two sets of steps led up to the Tower of Antonia; the Roman garrison stationed here kept constant watch during the feasts and other occasions of great gatherings, in case of tumult (cf. Acts 21:35; Acts 21:40). This temple area was called the ‘Court of the Gentiles’; it was not part of the temple proper, and therefore not sacred soil, consequently any one might enter it. It is to this outer court that reference is made in Matthew 21:12-18, Mark 11:15 ff., Luke 19:45; Luke 19:48, John 2:13-17; the money-changers‡ ^[15] and those who sold animals for the temple sacrifices had free access here. 2. The Court of the Israelites.—This inner court was raised fifteen cubits§ ^[11] above the outer one just referred to; it was surrounded by a terrace (hêl), ten cubits in breadth, which was approached from the outer court by ascending fourteen steps; these steps ran round the whole terrace, and at the bottom of them there was a low wall or breastwork (sôrçg) which was the limit to which non-Israelites might approach; along it were placed, at intervals, inscriptions warning Gentiles not to pass beyond, on pain of death; they were written in Latin and Greek; one of the latter has been discovered by Clermont-Ganneau.|| ^[8] On entering this inner court, ‘holy’ ground was reached, which accounted for the prohibition just referred to; only the seed of Abraham might enter here, hence its name. It was divided into two portions: (a) The Women’s Court.—This was the smaller division; it occupied the eastern part. The court received its name from the fact that it formed the limit to which women might advance towards the sanctuary, not because it was reserved for the use of women.¶ ^[18] It was on a lower level than the Men’s Court, which was entered through six of the nine gates belonging to the Women’s Court. Of these gates, three deserve special mention, viz. that presented by Alexander of Alexandria; it was one of the largest, and was covered with gold and silver; secondly, the Eastern gate, which was covered with Corinthian bronze; and, above all, the gate of Nicanor;* ^[19] Nicanor, the Alexandrian, who made the doors. Nicanor Aleksa.’). Prof. Clermont-Ganneau says that this inscription ‘can scarcely refer to any other than the family or descendants of Nicanor,’ and that the ‘doors’ must be understood as referring to ‘the famous door of the temple of Herod, known as the Gate of Nicanor, after the rich individual who had presented it to the Sanctuary’; see PEFSt, 1903, pp. 125–131.] this was called the ‘Great ^[8] Gate’; it was fifty cubits high and forty broad; fifteen steps, semicircular in form, led up to it from the Women’s Court. Whether the ‘Beautiful Gate’ mentioned in Acts 3:2 referred to this or to the Eastern gate of the Outer Court (see above) is quite uncertain. (b) But the Court of the Israelites proper was the western and larger court, called also the Men’s Court, and to this only men had access. It ran round the whole of the Sanctuary itself, in which was included the Priests’ Court (see below). In the Men’s Court were (according to Josephus) the treasury-chambers, where all the more valuable temple belongings were kept. The ‘treasury’ spoken of in Mark 12:41; Mark 12:43, Luke 21:1 was clearly entered by women; the discrepancy may, however, be explained by supposing that one of the trumpet-shaped receptacles into which offerings were cast, and which usually stood in the Men’s Court, was at certain times placed in the eastern portion of the court, so that every one, including the women, might have the opportunity of making the offerings; on such occasions the Women’s Court was, for the time being, a treasury. On the other hand, the treasury mentioned in John 8:20 would appear, from the context,† ^[20] to refer to that in the Men’s Court, the word being used here in the strict sense (see, too, Matthew 27:5-6). 3. The Court of the Priests.—Before entering the most sacred parts of the Sanctuary, the Priests’ Court had to be traversed. In this court there stood, in the centre, the great altar for burnt-sacrifices, and close to it the brazen laver for the priestly ablutions. On the right of these, on entering, was the place for slaughtering the animals brought for sacrifice. On either side of the court were the priests’ chambers; it is probable that one of these was the Lishkath parhedrin, ‘the Hall of the πρόεδροι’ (‘assessors’), in which the members of the Sanhedrin met in a quasi-private character before they met officially in the Lishkath ha-gazith,‡ ^[22] ‘the Hall of hewn stone.’ Where this latter was precisely, it is impossible to say, owing to the conflicting evidence of the authorities; the only thing that seems tolerably certain is that, while it was within the enclosure of the temple proper, it was not within the Priests’ Court; this is certain from the fact that none but priests might enter the court called after them; the only exception to this was that which permitted the entrance of those who brought offerings, for they had to lay their hands upon the sacrifice, in accordance with the prescribed ritual. 4. The Holy Place (hêkhâl).—This was separated from the Priests’ Court by a high porch (ʾûlâm, see above, i. 1), running north and south; it was a hundred cubits in height (the highest part of the whole temple) and breadth, but only eleven in depth. The Holy Place stood on a higher level than the surrounding court, from which twelve steps led up to it. Its furniture consisted of the altar of incense (see Luke 1:9), the table of the shewbread, and the seven-branched candlestick. 5. The Holy of Holles (dĕbîr).—No human foot might enter here, with the one exception of the high priest, who entered once a year, on the Day of Atonement, for the purpose of presenting sacrifice and incense before God. It was properly the place wherein the ark should have rested; but nothing is heard of the ark after the Captivity, and the Holy of Holies was, therefore, quite empty. The ‘foundation stone’ (אָבָן שְׁתִיָה) upon which, in the first temple, the ark had stood, was nearly in the centre of the Holy of Holies; in the second temple it was exposed to the extent of about six inches;* ^[23] there is no mention of this anywhere in reference to Herod’s temple, but, as this was built on the site of the earlier temple, it is difficult to believe that it was not there. There was no means whereby any light could enter the Holy of Holies; it was, therefore, always in total darkness, excepting when artificially lighted. It was separated from the Holy Place by means of two veils, with the space of a cubit between them; in Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45 (cf. Hebrews 6:19; Hebrews 9:3; Hebrews 10:20, though it is not Herod’s temple that is referred to in these passages) only one veil† ^[24] is spoken of; but as the two were so close together, they were probably regarded as two parts of one whole. iii. Christ and the temple.—1. The earliest mention of the temple in connexion with Christ is on the occasion of His being brought there for ‘presentation’ and ‘redemption’ thirty-one days after His birth, in accordance with Jewish law (Luke 2:22-39, cf. Exodus 13:1-16). This ceremony took place in the Court of the Women, as the presence of Mary and Anna shows; it was a simple one,‡ ^[25] consisting only of the formal presentation of the child to the priest, who offered up two ‘benedictions,’ or thanksgiving prayers, one on behalf of the child for the law of redemption, the other on behalf of the mother for the gift of the firstborn son. From Luke 2:41 it may be assumed that Christ was brought annually to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration in the temple; there was no need for Him to be left behind,§ ^[26] and the presence of children in the temple was evidently of common occurrence (Matthew 21:15); the visit, therefore, recorded In Luke 2:42 was not the first time that Christ was present at the yearly Passover feast in the temple.|| ^[27] One other reference, prior to the time of Christ’s public ministry, but on the threshold of it, is contained in the parable of His Temptation, whose second scene (in Lk. the third) is represented as having taken place on the pinnacle of the temple. 2. By far the most important part of Christ’s connexion with the temple is His teaching given within its precincts. On a number of occasions we read of the representatives of different classes coming to Him in the temple, often, no doubt, with the genuine object of profiting by His teaching, but frequently also for a more sinister purpose (e.g. Matthew 16:1; Matthew 22:15). The most elaborate account of such teaching is probably that contained in the long passage Matthew 21:23 to Matthew 23:39; the whole of this discourse, addressed, as opportunity offered, to a variety of hearers, would appear to have been spoken in the large outer court (ii. 1). The many sided character of Christ’s teaching in the

The articles under this heading in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) , Dict. of Christ and the Gospels , and Encyclopaedia Biblica make another description of the Temple and its services unnecessary. What is relevant here is an indication of the significance of the sanctuary and its ritualin apostolic Christianity. 1. Jewish Christians and the Temple.-St. Luke evidently attached much importance to the fact recorded at the end of his Gospel, that after the resurrection of Christ the apostles ‘were continually in the temple, blessing God’ (Luke 24:53). Their assurance of Jesus’ Messiahship, proved by His victory over death, made no breach in the continuity of their Jewish faith and practice. It rather revealed to their minds a new wealth of meaning in the old ritual, and so fired themselves as worshippers with a new enthusiasm. A. C. McGiffert (History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, Edinburgh, 1897, p. 64f.) thinks that ‘it may fairly be supposed that the effect of their Christian faith was to make all of the early disciples more devout and earnest Jews than they had ever been.’ ‘We have distinct evidence that Christian Jews like other Jews frequented the temple, the sanctuary of the nation, and thereby maintained their claim to be Jews in the true sense’ (F. J. A. Hort, Judaistic Christianity, London, 1894, p. 45). After the baptism of fire on the Day of Pentecost they are found ‘continuing stedfastly with one accord in the temple’ (Acts 2:46). Peter and John went up into the Temple at the hour of prayer (Acts 3:1), and in the fulfilment of their commission as witnesses for Christ (Acts 1:8) they found their best audiences in the Temple-courts. At the Beautiful Gate-either the Gate of Nicanor leading into the court of the Israelites or the Eastern Gate of the outer court-they moved the crowd by performing an act of healing in Christ’s name; and in Solomon’s Porch-the long colonnade in the east of the Temple area-Peter testified to the raising of the Prince of Life whom the rulers had in ignorance killed. It is significant that two apostles were arrested not by the religious, but by the secular authorities, i.e. the head of the Temple police (στρατηγὸς τοῦ ἱεροῦ) and the Sadducees (Acts 4:1); and, if their freedom of speech was somewhat curtailed, this was not because of their attitude to the Temple and its services, which was evidently quite correct, but simply because they were said to be exciting the multitude and disturbing the peace. The reproof administered to them was as mild as their confinement was brief; and the Christian Jews, finding that they could not be excluded from the Temple precincts, continued to make Solomon’s Porch their ordinary rendezvous (Acts 5:12). A second arrest of apostles followed, but the report has it that the angel who released them bade them go and speak in the Temple all the words of this life (Acts 5:17-20), and accordingly they are again found standing there and teaching the people (Acts 5:25). Until the appearance of Stephen created a new situation, the apostles were daily in the Temple, teaching and preaching Jesus as the Messiah. Against so strict and thoroughgoing Jews the guardians of the national religion, as embodied in the Temple and its cultus, had no ground of complaint, and the apostles on their side ‘could still cherish the hope that the nation at large might be brought to turn and bow the knee to its true Messiah’ (Hort, op. cit., p. 45 f.). For the present the bearing of their teaching upon the Temple itself was but dimly, if at all, perceived, and wholly unexpressed. 2. Stephen and the Temple.-It was the protomartyr that brought Christianity into open conflict with Judaism. His attitude to the Temple has been variously understood. He was accused of speaking ‘blasphemous words against Moses, and against the law’ (Acts 6:11), of ceasing not ‘to speak words against this holy place and the law’ (v. 13). C. von Weizsäcker (Apostolic Age, Eng. translation , i.2 ^[1] 64) holds that his speech does not by any means refute the grounds of complaint. On the contrary, it is at least in part equivalent to a substantial justification of the doctrine complained of, since it declares at its close that the worship of God in this temple ‘made with hands’ had never been in accordance with the will of God. F. Spitta (Die Apostelgeschichte, Halle, 1891, p. 105 f.) also thinks that the building of the Temple is represented by Stephen as an unauthorized and presumptuous act. Teaching of such a kind, however, would have brought Stephen into collision not only with the Hellenistic Jews, but with the whole body of Christians in Jerusalem. It seems much more likely that he made no theoretical attack upon the Mosaic Law, while his declaration that ‘the Most High dwelleth not in houses made with hands’ (Acts 7:48-50) was so far from being new that it merely echoed the words of Solomon at the dedication of the first Temple (1 Kings 8:27). It was not the worship but the spirit of the worshippers that aroused his scornful indignation. Warning them, in the manner of the old prophets, that no amount of attention to outward ordinances could ever secure the favour of God, he demanded a spiritual as opposed to a mechanical religion. If he was in the habit of repeating Christ’s prediction of the destruction of the Temple at the Parousia-and this was probably what gave colour to the charges made against him-he interpreted that threat not as an abrogation of the Mosaic Law, but as a judgment upon the nation for its sin. The third Temple might fall as the first had fallen, and yet the Torah itself remain intact. ‘To call Stephen a forerunner of Paul, and to think of him as anticipating in any way Paul’s treatment of the Jewish law and his assertion of a free Gentile Christianity, is to misunderstand him’ (McGiffert, op. cit., p. 89). For him, as for every other Jewish Christian in Jerusalem, the Law, without distinction of moral and ceremonial precepts, was ‘ordained of angels’; in his view the nation’s treatment of its prophets and its Messiah was the supreme proof that the Law had not been kept; and the burden of his preaching was a call to Jerusalem not to close her Temple and abolish her ritual, but to take the lead in a national repentance for a broken Law. 3. St. Paul and the Temple.-The recognition of the validity of a Christianity to which Jerusalem and the Temple were negligible quantities was the result of a protracted controversy in which St. Paul was the champion of freedom. For him the observance of the ancient ritual laws and traditions, which had so long been a matter of principle, becomes at last one of indifference. He is consequently accused of ‘teaching all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses’ (Acts 21:21). This he never did, and, to prove that the charge was groundless, he was advised, during his last visit to Jerusalem, to conciliate the great mass of Christian Jews by performing the vow of a Nazirite in the Temple. Weizsäcker thinks that in the whole narrative of this episode ‘practically nothing is historical’ (op. cit., ii. ^[2] 14; but McGiffert holds ‘that Paul may well have done just what he is reported to have done’ (op. cit., p. 343). Had he been advised by James to prove that he habitually observed the Law as a matter of conscience, he could never have consented. But he had long been in the habit of identifying himself in things non-essential now with Jews and now with Gentiles in order that he might ‘win some of them’ (1 Corinthians 9:20), and the last instance of conformity was merely the most striking. What impression the object-lesson actually made upon the law-abiding Christian Jews for whom it was specially intended is not recorded; but it clearly had other results which were not anticipated, for the Jews rose in arms against St. Paul as a profaner of the Temple, and the Romans arrested him as a disturber of the peace. 4. St. James and the Temple.-James the Just, the Lord’s brother, represented two ideas-the continuance of the Church in union with the Temple, and the hope of the conversion of Israel. He was the acknowledged leader of those Christians who were zealous for the Law (ξηλωταὶ τοῦ νόμου, Acts 21:20). If he conceded the principle of Gentile Christian freedom, he did it reluctantly. He was the staunch defender not only of the primacy but of the permanence of Judaic Christianity. After his martyrdom (Euseb. Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.) ii. 23) his spirit and ideal survived for a time, but the swift and dramatic evolution of events made the position of the Christian Church in the Jewish nation and under the Law more and more untenable. When the excitement of the conflict with Rome gradually became intense, and the inevitable crisis approached, the Christians found it necessary (about a.d. 67) to quit Jerusalem and migrate to the Hellenistic city of Pella, beyond the Jordan. Their hope of a Jewish national Church, centralized in the Temple and giving both law and gospel to mankind, had at least to be postponed. But in this instance postponement meant ultimate abandonment. In three years the Temple was destroyed, Jewish nationality shattered, and St. James’s theory of a hegemony of Judaic Christianity confuted by the remorseless logic of history. But a far higher ideal could then be realized. ‘The hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father’ (John 4:21). ‘And he showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.… And I saw no temple therein’ (Revelation 21:10; Revelation 21:22). Literature.-A. Hausrath, History of the NT Times, London, 1895, ii. 176 ff.; E. F. Scott, The Apologetic of the NT, do., 1907, p. 78 ff. James Strahan.

The: the Holy Temple in Jerusalem

A place of worship, especially the Temple of Solomon built in Jerusalem for national worship of Yahweh. Sacred or holy space is the meaning of our word temple , very like the two Greek words, hieron (temple area) and naos (sanctuary itself) which are translated “temple” in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the language is usually beth Yahweh or beth Elohim , “house of the Yahweh” or “house of God” because He is said to have dwelt there. The other Hebrew expression for temple is hekal , “palace, great house” deriving from the Sumerian word for “great house,” whether meant for God or the earthly king. So David, when he had built for himself a cedar palace, thought it only proper he should build one for Yahweh, too (2 Samuel 7:1-2 ). Nathan at first approved his plan, but the Lord Himself said He had been used to living in a tent since the Exodus from Egypt. He would allow David's son to build Him a house (Temple), but He would build for David a house (dynasty, 2 Samuel 7:3-16 ). This covenant promise became exceedingly significant to the messianic hope fulfilled in the coming of the ideal king of the line of David. See Tabernacle, Tent of Meeting. Chronicles makes it clear that David planned the Temple and accumulated great wealth and gifts for it, though Solomon was the one who actually built it. Solomon's Temple may not have actually been the first temple which housed the ark of the covenant, since there was a house of Yahweh, also called a temple, at Shiloh (1Samuel 1:7,1Samuel 1:9,1 Samuel 1:24 ; 1 Samuel 3:3 ) but in Luke 2:22-380 (NIV) it is called “tent of meeting,” whether the wilderness tabernacle or not. Jeremiah in his great Temple sermon warned all who came into the Lord's house in Jerusalem that if they trusted primarily in the Temple, instead of the Lord, He could destroy Solomon's Temple just as He had the previous one at Shiloh ( Jeremiah 7:1-15 ; Jeremiah 26:1-6 ). Israel knew other worship places with history far older than the Jerusalem Temple. Former patriarchal holy places near Shechem or Bethel (Genesis 12:6-8 ; Genesis 28:10-22 ; compare Deuteronomy 11:29-30 ; Deuteronomy 27:1-26 ; Joshua 8:30-35 ; Joshua 24:1-28 ; Judges 20:26-27 ), these are not called temples in Scripture though local inhabitants may have called them temples. It cannot be determined what kind of sanctuaries were at Ophrah, Gilgal, Nob, Mizpah, Ramah, or other “high places” where Yahweh was worshiped, but “the Temple” is the one at Jerusalem from Solomon's time. Solomon's Temple There were three historical Temples in succession, those of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod in the preexilic, postexilic, and New Testament periods. Herod's Temple was really a massive rebuilding of the Zerubbabel Temple, so both are called the “second Temple” by Judaism. All three were located on a prominent hill north of David's capital city, which he conquered from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5:6-7 ). David had acquired the Temple hill from Araunah the Jebusite at the advice of the prophet Gad to stay a pestilence from the Lord by building an altar and offering sacrifices on the threshing floor (2 Samuel 24:18-25 ). Chronicles identifies this hill with Mount Moriah, where Abraham had been willing to offer Isaac (2 Chronicles 3:1 ; Genesis 22:1-14 ). So the Temple mount today in Jerusalem is called Mount Moriah, and the threshing floor of Araunah is undoubtedly the large rock enshrined within the Dome of the Rock, center of the Muslim enclosure called Haram es-Sharif (the third holiest place in Islam, after Mecca and Medina). This enclosure is basically what is left of Herod's enlarged Temple platform, the masonry of which may best be seen in its Western Wall, the holiest place within Judaism since the Roman destruction of Herod's Temple. No stone is left that archaeologists can confidently say belonged to the Solomonic Temple. We do have the detailed literary account of its building preserved in Kings (1 Kings 5:1-9:10 ) and Chronicles (2 Chronicles 2-7 ). Ezekiel's vision of the new Jerusalem Temple after the Exile (Ezekiel 40-43 ) is idealistic and was perhaps never realized in Zerubbabel's rebuilding of the Temple, but many of its details would have reflected Solomon's Temple in which Ezekiel probably ministered as a priest before being deported to Babylon in 597 B.C. The treaty with Hiram, the king of Tyre, and the employment of the metalworker Hiram (or Huram-abi, a different person from the king) whom he provided show that considerable Phoenician influence, expertise, craftmanship, and artistic design went into the building of the Temple. The primary meaning of the Temple was the same as that of the ark it was constructed to enshrine: a symbol of God's presence in the midst of His people (Exodus 25:21-22 ). Because it was God's house, the worshipers could not enter the holy place, reserved only for priests and other worship leaders, much less the holiest place (holy of holies) to be entered by the high priest only once a year (Leviticus 16:1 ). The worshipers could gather for prayer and sacrifice in the Temple courtyard(s) where they could sing psalms as they saw their offerings presented to Yahweh on His great altar. The spirit of Israel's prayer and praise is to be found in the Psalms and in the worship experiences such as that of Isaiah when he surrendered to his prophetic call experience in the forecourt of the Temple (Isaiah 6:1-8 ). The account of Isaiah's experience makes it clear that the earthly Temple was viewed as a microcosm of the heavenly Temple where the King of the universe really dwelt. The quaking and smoke of the Lord's presence at Sinai were now manifested in Zion (Isaiah 6:4 ). Israel understood that it was only by God's grace that He consented to dwell with His people; and so Deuteronomy understood the central sanctuary as the place where Yahweh caused His name to dwell (Deuteronomy 12:5 ; compare 1 Kings 8:13 ), and priestly thinkers viewed it as filled with His glory (compares the tabernacle, Exodus 40:34 ). Obviously, no one can house God: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27 NRSV). Solomon's Temple was shaped as a “long house” of three successive rooms from east to west, a vestibule of only 15-feet depth, a nave (the holy place) of 60 feet and an inner sanctuary (the most holy place) of 30 feet (1 Kings 6:2-3 ; 1 Kings 16-17 ). It was approximately 30-feet wide and 45-feet high by its interior measurements for the “house” proper, not counting the porch, which was sort of an open entryway. This is similar to, though not precisely the same as, the shape of several Syrian and Canaanite temples excavated in the past few decades (at Hazor, Lachish, tell Tainat). There is even one Israelite “temple” at the southeast border of Judah in the iron age fortress of Arad which some have compared with Solomon's Temple. None was so symmetrical or ornately decorated, nor even as large as the Jerusalem Temple, even though Solomon's palace complex of which the Temple was only a part (1 Kings 7:1-12 ) was much larger and took longer to build (tell Tainat, in northern Syria, is the closest analogy). Around the outside of the house proper was constructed three stories of side chambers for Temple storehouses, above which were recessed windows in the walls of the holy place (1Kings 6:4-6,1 Kings 6:8-10 ). The inside of the house proper was paneled with cedar, floored with cypress, and inlaid with gold throughout. It was decorated with well-known Phoenician artistic ornamentation, floral designs with cherubim, flowers, and palm trees. The most holy place, a windowless cube of about 30 feet, housed the ark of the covenant and was dominated by two guardian cherubim 15-feet tall with outstretched wings spanning fifteen feet to touch in the middle and at each side wall (1 Kings 6:15-28 ). One of the interesting results of archaeological research is the recovery of the form of these ancient cherubim. They are Egyptian-type sphinxes (human-headed winged lions) such as are pictured as the arms of a throne chair of a Canaanite king on one of the Megiddo ivories. The ark, the mercy-seat lid of which had its own guardian cherubim (Exodus 25:18-20 ), was Yahweh's “footstool.” Beneath these awesome cherubim, God was invisibly enthroned. The double doors of the inner sanctuary and the nave were similarly carved and inlaid of finest wood and gold (1 Kings 6:31-35 ). The arrangement prescribed for the wall of the inner court, “three courses of hewn stone and one course of cedar beams” was followed in Solomonic buildings excavated at Megiddo (1 Kings 6:36 ; 1 Kings 7:12 ). This arrangement is also known from the tell Tainat temple. This exquisite sanctuary took seven years to build (about 960 B.C.; 1 Kings 6:37-38 ). The marvelous furnishings of the holy place and the courtyard require another chapter to describe (1 Kings 7:9-51 ). The most mysterious creations were two huge free-standing bronze pillars about thirty-five-feet tall, including their beautifully ornamented capitals of lily-work netting and rows of pomegranates (1 Kings 7:15-20 ). They were nearly six feet in diameter, hollow, with a thickness of bronze about three inches. The pillars were named Jachin (“He shall establish”) and Boaz (“In the strength of”), perhaps to signify the visible symbolism of the Temple as a testimony to the stability of the Davidic dynasty to which it was intimately related. The reader at this point expects an account of the bronze altar, included in Chronicles (2 Chronicles 4:1 ), but only presumed in Kings (1Kings 8:22,1Kings 8:54,1 Kings 8:64 ; 1 Kings 9:25 ). This altar is large, thirty-feet square and fifteen-feet tall, presumably with steps. The molten sea, which may have had some kind of cosmic symbolism, stood in the south-central quadrant of the inner courtyard opposite the bronze altar. It was round with a cup-shaped brim, fifteen feet in diameter, seven-and-a-half-feet tall, with a circumference of forty-five feet. It was cast of heavy bronze, ornately decorated, and resting on the back of twelve bronze oxen in four sets of three facing each point of the compass. Since it held about 10,000 gallons of water, it must have been for supplying water to the lavers by some sort of syphon mechanism. The third great engineering feat was the crafting of ten ornate, rolling stands for ten lavers, five on either side of the courtyard. These were six-feet square and four-and-a-half-feet tall, each containing some 200 gallons of water, quite heavy objects to be rolled about on chariot wheels. Chronicles says they were used to wash the utensils for sacrificial worship (2 Chronicles 4:6 ). At the Feast of Tabernacles, Solomon conducted an elaborate dedication festival for the Temple (1 Kings 8:1-9:9 ). The story begins with a procession of the ark containing the two tables of the decalogue, God's glory in the shining cloud of His presence filled the sanctuary (1 Kings 8:1-11 ). Then the king blessed the assembly, praised God for His covenant mercies in fulfilling Nathan's promise to David, and gave a long, fervent prayer on behalf of seven different situations in which the prayers of his people should arise to the heavenly throne of God from His earthly temple, closing with a benediction. Solomon provided myriads of sacrifices for the seven days of the great dedication festival. God had consecrated this house of prayer, but He required covenant obedience of Solomon and each of his successors, lest He have to destroy this magnificent sanctuary because of the apostasy of His people (1 Kings 9:1-9 ). The consistent emphasis of Solomon's prayer and God's answer is the awareness of sin and the necessity for wholehearted repentance to keep the Temple ceremonial a meaningful symbol of worship and devotion (2 Chronicles 7:13-14 ). The great prophets preached that, in their Temple worship, Israel was not able to avoid syncretism with pagan religious impulses or the hypocritical irrelevance of meaningless overemphasis upon ritual without righteous obedience to their sovereign Overlord (Isaiah 1:10-17 ; Micah 6:6-8 ; Jeremiah 7:1-26 ). The history of Solomon's Temple has many ups and downs through its almost four hundred years of existence. Its treasures of gold were often plundered by foreign invaders like Shishak of Egypt (1 Kings 14:25-26 ). At the division of the kingdoms, Jeroboam set up rival sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan which drew worshipers away from Jerusalem for two hundred years. King Asa plundered his own Temple treasuries to buy a military ally, Ben-Hadad of Syria against Baasha, king of North Israel (1 Kings 15:18-19 ), though he had previously repaired the Temple altar and carried out limited worship reforms (2 Chronicles 15:8-18 ). Temple repairs were carried out by Jehoash (Joash) of Judah after the murder of wicked Queen Athaliah, but even he had to strip the Temple treasuries to buy off Hazael, king of Syria (2 Kings 12:1 ). Jehoash (Joash), king of Israel, when foolishly challenged to battle by Amaziah, king of Judah, not only defeated him, but came to Jerusalem and plundered the Temple (1 Kings 14:12-14 ). King Ahaz plundered his own Temple for tribute to Assyria during the Syro-Ephraimitic war of 735 B.C., even stripping some of the bronze furnishings in the courtyard (2Kings 16:8-9,2 Kings 16:17 ). Good King Hezekiah raised a hugh tribute for Sennacherib, king of Assyria, in his 701 B.C. invasion, even stripping gold off the Temple doors (2 Kings 18:13-16 ). During the long and disastrous reign of King Manasseh many abominable idols and pagan cult objects were placed in the Temple which good King Josiah had to remove during his reform (2Kings 23:4-6,2 Kings 23:11-12 ). Both Hezekiah and Josiah were able to centralize worship in the Jerusalem Temple during their reforms and even recover some worshipers from the north for the Jerusalem sanctuary, but Josiah's successor, Jehoiakim, reversed all of Josiah's reforms and filled up the Temple with pagan abominations (Ezekiel 8:1 ). Despite the warnings of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the people refused to repent of their political and religious folly, and their Temple and holy city were first plundered by Nebuchadnezzer in 597 B.C., then burned by Nebuzaradan, his general, in 587/586 B.C. For both groups of Judah, those in Babylon, and those still in Jerusalem, the loss of the Temple and city were a grievous blow (Psalm 137:1 ; Lamentations 1-5 ). But Jeremiah and Ezekiel had prepared a remnant in their prophecies of hope beyond the catastrophe for a return and rebuilding. Zerubbabel's Temple The decree of Cyrus in 538 B.C. permitted the Jews to return from the Babylonian Exile with the Temple vessels which had been taken. It charged them to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem with Persian financial aid and free-will offerings from Jews who remained in Babylon (Ezra 1:1-4 ). Sheshbazzar, the governor, laid the foundation. The project was halted when the people of the land discouraged the builders (Ezra 1:8 ,Ezra 1:8,1:11 ; Ezra 4:1-5 ). Then in the second year of Darius, 520 B.C., the work was renewed by the new governor Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest at the urging of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1-2 ). When local Persian officials tried to stop the rebuilding, Darius found a record of Cyrus' decree which included the overall dimensions (Ezra 6:1-6 ).The size seems to have been approximately that of Solomon's Temple. Ezekiel's temple vision had considerable influence on the new Temple (Ezekiel 40-42 ), so that Zerubbabel's Temple perhaps was mounted on a platform and measured about 100 feet by 100 feet with the interior dimensions being virtually the same as those of Solomon's Temple. It was probably not as ornately decorated (Ezra 3:12-13 ; Haggai 2:3 ). The differences between the two sanctuaries have to do with furniture and courtyard arrangements or gates. As Jeremiah had foreseen, the ark of the covenant was never replaced (Jeremiah 3:16 ). Jospehus said the holy of holies was empty. It was now separated from the holy place by a veil instead of a door. There was only one seven-branched lampstand, as had been true of the tabernacle, probably the one pictured by Titus in his triumphal arch at Rome as having been carried off when Herod's Temple was plundered. The importance of the new Temple was that it became a symbol of the Lord's holiness and the religious center of life for the new community. It was completed in 515 B.C. and dedicated with great joy (Ezra 6:14-16 ). Priesthood had replaced kingship as the authority of the postexilic community. The Maccabean revolt changed this, and Judas Maccabeus rededicated the Temple in 167 B.C. after Antiochus had profaned it in December, 164 B.C. This joyous event is still remembered in the Jewish celebration of Hannukah. Judas' successors appointed themselves as high priests, and the Temple became more a political institution. Pompey captured the Temple in 63 B.C. but did not plunder it. See Intertestamental History. Herod's Temple Herod the Great came to power in 37 B.C. and determined that he would please his Jewish subjects and show off his style of kingship to the Romans by making the Jerusalem Temple bigger and better than it had ever been. His most notable contribution was the magnificent stonework of the Temple platform which was greatly enlarged. The descriptions in Josephus and the Mishnah have been fleshed out by recent archaeological discoveries. Herod surrounded the whole enclosure with magnificent porches, particularly the royal stoa along the southern wall. Through the Huldah gates, double and triple arches of which can still be seen, worshipers went up through enclosed passageways into the court of the Gentiles. Greek inscriptions separating this court from the court of the women and the holier inner courts of Israel (men) and the priests have been found. The steps south of the Temple, where Jesus may have taught on several occasions, have been excavated and reconstructed. An inscription: “To the place of trumpeting” was found below the southwest corner where there was a monumental staircase ascending into the Temple from the main street below. Perhaps this was the “Temple pinnacle” from which Satan tempted Jesus to throw Himself. The Jerusalem Temple is the focus of many New Testament events. The birth of John the Baptist was announced there (Luke 1:11-20 ). The offering by Joseph and Mary at the circumcision of baby Jesus was brought there. Simeon and Anna greeted Jesus there (1618416331_37 ). Jesus came there as a boy of twelve (Luke 2:42-51 ) and later taught there during His ministry (John 7:14 ). His cleansing of the Temple was instrumental in precipitating His death. He knew no earthly temple was necessary to the worship of God (John 4:21-24 ). He predicted the Temple's destruction by the Romans, and His warnings to His followers to flee when this happened actually saved many Christians' lives (Mark 13:2 ,Mark 13:2,13:14-23 ). Early Christians continued to worship there, and Paul was arrested there (Acts 3:1 ; Acts 21:27-33 ). After the Jewish revolt in 66 A.D., Vespasian and then his son Titus crushed all resistance. The Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. Stephen's preaching tended to liberate Christian thinking from the necessity of a temple (Acts 7:46-50 ), and Paul thought of the church and Christians as the new temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17 ; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ). For John, the ideal which the temple represented will ultimately be realized in a “new Jerusalem” (Revelation 21:2 ). See Ark of the Covenant ; Herods; Holy of Holies ; Moriah ; Shiloh ; Solomon ; Tabernacle, Tent of Meeting; Zerubbabel . M. Pierce Matheney

Jerusalem's many gates have varied in number and location with the changing size and orientation of its walls throughout its long history. Persons could enter through an important city gate on the west from Jaffa (Tel Aviv) Road, as they do today. On the east, entrance from the Kidron Valley was signed principally through the Sheep Gate (modern Stephen or Lion Gate) in New Testament times and by a recently found gate (Spring, 1986) south of the modern city walls in Old Testament times. This latter gate may date to the reign of Solomon, being similar to Solomonic gates found at Megiddo, Gezer, and Hazor. Entrance to the Temple itself was on its eastern side through the Beautiful gate (Acts 3:10 ), near the Golden Gate recently found beneath the city eastern wall. On the north, the principal gateway (Damascus Gate) opened onto the Damascus Road. Seven gates now allow entrance to the old city of Jerusalem. John McRay

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(See JERUSALEM; TABERNACLE.) David cherished the design of superseding the tent and curtains by a permanent building of stone (2 Samuel 7:1-2); God praised him for having the design "in his heart" (1 Kings 8:18); but as he had been so continually in wars (1 Kings 5:3; 1 Kings 5:5), and had "shed blood abundantly" (1 Chronicles 22:8-9; 1 Chronicles 28:2-3; 1 Chronicles 28:10), the realization was reserved for Solomon his son. (See SOLOMON.) The building of the temple marks an era in Israel's history, the nation's first permanent settlement in peace and rest, as also the name Solomon," man of peace, implied. The site was the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, whereon David by Jehovah's command erected an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings (2 Samuel 24:18-25; 1 Chronicles 21:18-30; 1 Chronicles 22:1); Jehovah's signifying by fire His acceptance of the sacrifice David regarded as the divine designation of the area for the temple. "This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar ... for Israel" (2 Chronicles 3:1). "Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah (Hebrew in the mount of the vision of Jehovah) where He appeared unto David in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite." Warren identifies the "dome of the rock" with Ornan's threshing floor and the temple altar. Solomon's temple was there in the Haram area, but his palace in the S.E. of it, 300 ft. from N. to S., and 600 from E. to W., and Solomon's porch ran along the E. side of the Haram area. The temple was on the boundary line between Judah and Benjamin, and so formed a connecting link between the northern and the southern tribes; almost in the center of the nation. The top of the hill having been leveled, walls of great stones (some 30 ft. long) were built on the sloping sides, and the interval between was occupied by vaults or filled up with earth. The lower, bevelled stones of the wall still remain; the relics of the eastern wall alone being Solomon's, the southern and western added later, but still belonging to the first temple; the area of the first temple was ultimately a square, 200 yards, a stadium on each side, but in Solomon's time a little less. Warren makes it a rectangle, 900 ft. from E. to W., and 600 from N. to S. "The Lord gave the pattern in writing by His hand upon David," and "by His Spirit," i.e. David wrote the directions under divine inspiration and gave them to Solomon (1 Chronicles 28:11-19). The temple retained the general proportions of the tabernacle doubled; the length 60 cubits (90 ft.), the breadth 20 cubits (30 ft.): 1 Kings 6:2; 2 Chronicles 3:3. The height 30 cubits, twice the whole height of the tabernacle (15 cubits) measuring from its roof, but the oracle 20 cubits (double the height of the tabernacle walls, 10 cubits), making perfect cube like that of the tabernacle, which was half, i.e. ten each way; the difference between the height of the oracle and that of the temple, namely, ten cubits, was occupied by the upper rooms mentioned in 2 Chronicles 3:9, overlaid with pure gold. The temple looked toward the E., having the most holy place in the extreme W. In front was a porch as broad as the temple, 20 cubits, and ten deep; whereas the tabernacle porch was only five cubits deep and ten cubits wide. Thus, the ground plan of the temple was 70 cubits, i.e. 105 ft., or, adding the porch, 80 cubits, by 40 cubits, whereas that of the tabernacle was 40 cubits by 20 cubits, i.e. just half. In 2 Chronicles 3:4 the 120 cubits for the height of the porch is out of all proportion to the height of the temple; either 20 cubits (with Syriac, Arabic and Septuagint) or 30 cubits ought to be read; the omission of mention of the height in 1 Kings 6:3 favors the idea that the porch was of the same height as the temple, i.e. 30 cubits . Two brazen pillars (Boaz "strength is in Him", and Jachin "He will establish"), 18 cubits high, with a chapiter of five cubits - 23 cubits in all - stood, not supporting the temple roof, but as monuments before the porch (1 Kings 7:15-22). The 35 cubits instead of 18 cubits, in 2 Chronicles 3:15, arose from a copyist's error (confounding yah = 18 with lah = 35 cubits). The circumference of the pillars was 12 cubits or 18 ft.; the significance of the two pillars was eternal stability and the strength of Jehovah in Israel as representing the kingdom of God on earth, of which the temple was the visible pledge, Jehovah dwelling there in the midst of His people. Solomon (1 Kings 6:5-6) built against the wall of the house stories, or an outwork consisting of three stories, round about, i.e. against the longer sides and the hinder wall, and not against the front also, where was the porch. Rebates (three for the three floors of the side stories and one for the roof) or projecting ledges were attached against the temple wall at the point where the lower beams of the different side stories were placed, so that the heads of the beams rested on the rebates and were not inserted in the actual temple wall. As the exterior of the temple wall contracted at each rebate, while the exterior wall of the side chamber was straight, the breadth of the chambers increased each story upward. The lowest was only five broad, the second six, and the third seven; in height they were each five cubits. Winding stairs led from chamber to chamber upward (1 Kings 6:8). The windows (1 Kings 6:4) were made "with closed beams" Hebrew, i.e. the lattice work of which could not be opened and closed at will, as in d welling houses (2 Kings 13:17). The Chaldee and rabbiical tradition that they were narrower without than within is probable; this would adapt them to admit light and air and let out smoke. They were on the temple side walls in the ten cubits' space whereby the temple walls, being 30 cubits high, out-topped the side stories, 20 cubits high. The tabernacle walls were ten cubits high, and the whole height 15 cubits, i.e. the roof rising five cubits above the internal walls, just half the temple proportions: 20 cubits, 30 cubits, 10 cubits respectively. The stone was made ready in the quarry before it was brought, so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool heard in the house while it was building (1 Kings 6:7). In the Bezetha vast cavern, accidentally discovered by tapping the ground with a stick outside the Damascus gate at Jerusalem, evidences still remain of the marvelous energy with which they executed the work; the galleries, the pillars supporting the roof, and the niches from which the huge blocks were taken, of the same form, size, and material as the stones S.E. of the Haram area. The stone, soft in its native state, becomes hard as marble when exposed to the air. The quarry is 600 ft. long and runs S.E. At the end are blocks half quarried, the marks of the chisel as fresh as on the day the mason ceased; but the temple was completed without them, still they remain attached to their native bed, a type of multitudes, impressed in part, bearing marks of the teacher's chisel, but never incorporated into the spiritual temple. The masons' Phoenician marks still remain on the stones in this quarry, and the unique beveling of the stones in the temple wall overhanging the ravine corresponds to that in the cave quarry. Compare 1 Peter 2:5; the election of the church, the spiritual temple, in God's eternal predestination, before the actual rearing of that temple (Ephesians 1:4-5; Romans 8:29-30), and the peace that reigns within and above, in contrast to the toil and noise outside in the world below wherein the materials of the spiritual temple are being prepared (John 16:33), are the truths symbolized by the mode of rearing Solomon's temple. On the eastern wall at the S.E. angle are the Phoenician red paint marks. These marks cut into or painted on the bottom rows of the wall at the S.E. corner of the Haram, at a depth of 90 ft. where the foundations rest on the rock itself, are pronounced by Deutseh to have been cut or painted when the stones were first laid in their present places, and to be Phoenician letters, numerals, and masons' quarry signs; some are well known Phoenician characters, others such as occur in the primitive substructions of the Sidon harbour. The interior was lined with cedar of Lebanon, and the floors and ceiling with cypress (berosh ; KJV "fir" not so well). There must have been pillars to support the roof, which was a clear space of 30 ft., probably four in the sanctuary and ten in the hall, at six cubits from the walls, leaving a center aisle of eight cubits (Fergusson in Smith's Bible Dictionary.). Cherubim, palms, and flowers (1 Kings 6:29) symbolized the pure and blessed life of which the temple, where God manifested His presence, was the pledge. The costly wood, least liable to corruption, and the precious stones set in particular places, suited best a building designed to be "the palace of the Lord God" (1 Chronicles 29:1). The furniture of the temple was the same mainly as that of the tabernacle. Two cherubim were placed over the ark, much larger than those in the tabernacle; they were ten cubits high, with wings five cubits long, the tips of which outstretched met over the ark, and in the other direction reached to the N. and S. sides of the house. Their faces turned toward the house (2 Chronicles 3:13), not as in the tabernacle (Exodus 25:20) toward the mercy-seat. Instead of the one seven-branched candlestick ten new ones were made of pure gold, five for the right or N. side and five for the left side of the temple. So there were ten tables of shewbread (2 Chronicles 4:8; 2 Chronicles 4:19). Still the candlestick and the shewbread table were each spoken of as one, and probably but one table at a time was served with shewbread. The ten (the world number) times seven (the divine number) of the golden candlestick = 70; and the ten times twelve (the church number) of the shewbread = 120, implying the union of the world and the Deity and of the world and the church respectively. (See NUMBER.) The snuffers, tongs, basins, etc., were of pure gold. The brazen altar of burnt offering was four times as large as that of the tabernacle; 20 cubits on each side and in height, instead of five cubits (2 Chronicles 4:1). Between this and the temple door was the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, 45 ft. round, holding 2,000 baths, i.e. 15,000 or 16,000 gallons of water (3,000 in 2 Chronicles 4:5 probably a copyist's error), supported by 12 oxen, three on each side (representing the 12 tribes). It was for the priests' washing, as the laver of the tabernacle. There were besides ten lavers, five on each side of the altar, for washing the entrails; these were in the inner (1 Kings 7:36) or higher (Jeremiah 36:10) or priests' court, raised above the further off one by three rows of hewed stone and one of cedar beams (1 Kings 6:36; 2 Chronicles 4:9). The great court or that of the people, outside this, was surrounded by walls, and accessible by brass or bronze doors (2 Chronicles 4:9). The gates noticed are the chief or E. one (Ezekiel 11:1), one on the N. near the altar (Ezekiel 8:5), the higher gate of the house of Jehovah, built by Jotham (2 Kings 15:35), the gate of the foundation (2 Chronicles 23:5), Solomon's ascent up to the house of Jehovah (1 Kings 10:5; 2 Chronicles 9:11; 2 Kings 16:18). Hiram, son of a Tyrian father and Hebrew mother, was the skilled artisan who manufactured the bronze articles in a district near Jordan between Succoth and Zarthan (1 Kings 7:13-14; 1 Kings 7:46; 2 Chronicles 4:16-17). Solomon dedicated the temple with prayer and thank offerings of 20,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep (1 Kings 8; 2 Chronicles 5 to 7). (See SOLOMON.) The ritual of the temple was a national, not a personal, worship. It was fixed to one temple and altar, before the Shekinah. It was not sanctioned anywhere else. The Levites throughout the land were to teach Israel the law of their God; the particular mode was left to patriarchal usage and the rules of religious feeling and reason (Deuteronomy 33:10; Deuteronomy 6:7). The stranger was not only permitted but encouraged to pray toward the temple at Jerusalem; and doubtless the thousands (153,600) of strangers, remnants of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites, whom Solomon employed in building the temple, were proselytes to Jehovah (2 Chronicles 2:17; 1 Chronicles 22:2). (On its history (see JERUSALEM.) Shishak of Egypt, Asa of Judah, Joash of Israel, and finally Nebuchadnezzar despoiled it in succession (1 Kings 14:26; 1 Kings 15:18; 2 Chronicles 25:23-24). After 416 years' duration the Babylonian king's captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, destroyed it by fire (2 Kings 25:8-9). Temple of Zerubabel. Erected by sanction of Cyrus, who in his decree alleged the command of the God of heaven (Ezra 1:12), on the stone site ("the place where they offered sacrifices") and to reproduce Solomon's temple "with three rows (i.e. three stories) of great stones, and a row of new timber" (a wooden story, a fourth, called a talar: Josephus 11:4, 6; 15:11, section 1): Ezra 6:3-12, comp. 1 Kings 6:36. The golden and silver vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar were restored; the altar was first set up by Jeshua and Zerubbabel, then the foundations were laid (Ezra 3) amidst weeping in remembrance of the glorious former temple and joy at the restoration. Then after the interruption of the work under Artaxerxes I or Pseudo Smerdis, the temple was completed in the sixth year of Darius (chapter 6).(See ARTAXERXES I; EZRA; HAGGA; JESHUA; JOSHUA; NEHEMIAH; DARIUS.) The height, 60 cubits (Ezra 6:3), was double that of Solomon's temple. Josephus confirms this height of 60 cubits, though he is misled by the copyist's error, 120, in 2 Chronicles 3:4. Zerubbabel's temple was 60 cubits broad (Ezra 6:3) as was Herod's temple subsequently, 20 cubits in excess of the breadth of Solomon's temple; i.e., the chambers all around were 20 in width instead of the ten of Solomon's temple; probably, instead of as heretofore each room of the priests' lodgings being a thoroughfare, a passage was introduced between the temple and the rooms. Thus the dimensions were 100 cubits long, 60 broad, and 60 high, not larger than a good sized parish church. Not merely (Haggai 2:3) was this temple inferior to Solomon's in splendour and costly metals, but especially it lacked five glories of the former temple: (1) the ark, for which a stone served to receive the sprinkling of blood by the high priest, on the day of atonement; (2) the sacred fire; (3) the Shekinab; (4) the spirit of prophecy; (5) the Urim and Thummim. Its altar was of stone, not brass (1 Maccabees 4:45), it had only one table of shewbread and one candlestick. Antiochus Epiphanes profaned this temple; afterward it was cleansed or dedicated, a new altar of fresh stones made, and the feast of dedication thenceforward kept yearly (John 10:22). But "the glory of this latter house was greater than of the former" (Haggai 2:9) because of the presence of Messiah, in whose face is given the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (2 Corinthians 4:6; Hebrews 1:2) as Himself said, "in this place is one (Greek 'a something greater,' the indefiniteness marking the infinite vastness whereby He is) greater than the temple" (Matthew 12:6), and who "sat daily teaching in it" (Matthew 26:55). The Millennial Temple at Jerusalem. (See Ezekiel 40-48.) The dimensions are those of Solomon's temple; an inner shrine 20 cubits square (Ezekiel 41:4); the nave 20 cubits by 40 cubits; the chambers round ten wide, including the thickness of the walls; the whole, with the porch, 40 cubits by 80 cubits; but the outer court 500 reeds on each of its sides (Ezekiel 42:16), i.e. a square of one mile and one seventh, considerably more than the area of the old Jerusalem, temple included. The spiritual lesson is, the church of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit, hereafter to be manifested on earth, shall be on a scale far surpassing its present dimensions; then first shall Jehovah be worshipped by the whole congregation of the earth, led by Israel the leader of the grand choir. The temple of Herod had an outer court which with porticoes, measuring 400 cubits every way, was a counterpart on a smaller scale to the outer court of Ezekiel's temple and had nothing corresponding in Solomon's temple or Zerubbabel's. No ark is in it, for Jehovah the ark's Antitype shall supersede it (Jeremiah 3:16-17; Malachi 3:1). The temple interior waits for His entrance to fill it with His glory (Ezekiel 43:1-12). No space shall be within its precincts which is not consecrated; whereas in the old temple there was a greater latitude as to the exterior precincts or suburbs (2 Kings 23:11). "A separation" shall exist "between the sanctuary and the profane place"; but no longer the partition wall between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:14; Ezekiel 42:20). The square symbolizes the kingdom that cannot be moved (Daniel 2:44; Hebrews 12:28; Revelation 21:16). The full significance of the language shall not be exhausted in the millennial temple wherein still secular things shall be distinguished from things consecrated, but shall be fully realized in the post-millennial city, wherein no part shall be separated from the rest as "temple," for all shall be holy (Revelation 21:10-12). The fact that the Shekinah glory was not in the second temple whereas it is to return to the future temple proves that Zerubbabel's temple cannot be the temple meant in Ezekiel (compare Ezekiel 43:2-4). Christ shall return in the same manner as He went up, and to the same place, Mount Olivet on the E. of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 11:23; Zechariah 14:4; Acts 1:9-12). The Jews then will welcome Him with blessings (Luke 13:35); His triumphal entry on the colt was the type (Luke 19:38). As the sacrificial serrate at the tabernacle at Gibeon and the ark service of sacred song for the 30 years of David's reign, before separate (2 Samuel 6:17; 2 Chronicles 1:3-4; called "the tabernacle of David" Amos 9:11-12; Acts 15:16; 1 Chronicles 13:3; 1 Chronicles 16:37; 1 Chronicles 16:39), were combined in Solomon's temple, so the priestly intercessory functions of our High priest in heaven and our service of prayer and praise carried on separately on earth, during our Judaeo universal dispensation, shall in the millennial temple at Jerusalem be combined in perfection, namely, Christ's priesthood manifested among men and our service of outward and inward liturgy. In the final new and heavenly Jerusalem on the regenerated earth, after the millennium, Christ shall give up the mediatorial and sacerdotal kingdom to the Father, because its purpose shall have been fully completed (1 Corinthians 15:24; 1 Corinthians 15:28); so there shall be no temple, "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb shall be the temple" (Revelation 21:22). Herod's temple (which was essentially the continuation of Zerubbabel's temple: compare Haggai 2:9). (See JERUSALEM.) Josephus gives the ground plan accurately; but the height he exaggerates. As the temple was prostrated by the Roman siege, there was no means of convicting him of error as to elevations. The nave was like Solomon's and still more Zerubbabel's; but surrounded by an inner enclosure, 180 cubits by 240 cubits, with porches and ten magnificent gateways; there was a high wall round the vast square with a colonnade of two rows of marble pillars, forming a flat roofed cloister, and on the S. side three rows, 25 ft. high. Beyond this was an outer enclosure, 400 cubits or one stadium each way, with porticoes exceeding in splendour all the temples of the ancient world, supporting a carved cedar roof; the pavement was mosaic. Herod sought to rival Solomon, reconcile the Jews to his dynasty as fulfilling Haggai 2:9 that the glory of the latter temple should be greater than that of the former, and so divert them from hopes of a temporal Messianic king (Josephus, Ant. 15:11 section 1,5; 20:9, section 7; B.J. 1:21, section 1): he employed 10,000 skilled workmen, and 1,000 priests acquainted with fine work in wood and stone; in one year and a half the temple was ready for the priests and Levites; in eight the courts were complete; but for the 46 years up to Jesus' ministry (John 2:20) various additions were being made, and only in the time of Agrippa II the works ceased. The temple occupied the highest of terraces rising above one another; it occupied all the area of Solomon's temple with the addition of that of Solomon's palace, and a new part added on by Herod at the S.W. corner by artificial works; Solomon's porch lay along the whole E. side. Gentiles had access to the outer court. The gates were: on the W. side, one to Zion, two to the suburbs, and one by steps through the valley into the other city. Two subterranean passages on the S. led to the vaults and, water reservoirs of the temple. On the N. one concealed passage led to the castle Antonia, the fortress commanding the temple. The only remains of Herod's temple in situ are the double gates on the S. side at 365 ft. distance from the S.W. angle. They consist of a massive double archway on the level of the ground, opening into a square vestibule 40 ft. each way. In the center of this is a pillar crowned with a Corinthian capital, the acanthus and the waterleaf alternating as in the Athenian temple of the winds, an arrangement never found later than Augustus' time. From the pillar spring four flat segmental arches. From the vestibule a double tunnel 200 ft. long leads to a flight of steps which rise to the surface in the court of the temple just at the gateway of the inner temple which led to the altar; it is the one of the four gateways on the S. side by which anyone arriving from Ophel would enter the inner enclosure. The gate of the inner temple to which this passage led was called "the water gate": Nehemiah 12:37 (Talmud, Mid. ii. 6). Westward there were four gateways to the outer enclosure of the temple (Josephus, Ant. 15:11, section 5). The most southern (the remains of which Robinson discovered) led over the bridge which joined the stoa basilica of the temple to the royal palace. The second was discovered by Barclay 270 ft. from the S.W. angle, 17 ft. below the level of the S. gate. The third was about 225 ft. from the N.W. angle of the temple area. The fourth led over the causeway still remaining, 600 ft. from the S.W. angle. Previously outward stairs (Nehemiah 12:37; 1 Kings 10:5) led up from the western valley to the temple. Under Herod the causeway and bridge communicated with the upper city, and the two lower entrances led to the lower city, "the city of David." The stoa basilica or royal porch overhanging the S. wall was the grandest feature of all (Josephus, Ant. 15: 11, section 5), consisting of the three rows of Corinthian columns mentioned above, closed by a fourth row built into the wall on the S. side, but open to the temple inside; the breadth of the center aisle 45 ft., the height 100; the side aisles 30 wide and 50 high; there were 40 pillars in each row, with two odd ones forming a screen at the end of the bridge leading to the palace. A marble screen three cubits high in front of the cloisters bore an inscription forbidding Gentiles to enter (compare Acts 21:28). Ganneau has found a stone near the temple site bearing a Greek inscription: "no stranger must enter within the balustrade round the temple and enclosure, whosoever is caught will be responsible for his own death." (So Josephus, B. J. 5:2, Ant. 15:11, section 5.) Within this screen or enclosure was the flight of steps up to the platform on which the temple stood. The court of the women was eastward (Josephus, B. J. 5:5, section 3), with the magnificently gilt and carved eastern gate leading into it from the outer court, the same as "the Beautiful gate" (Acts 3:2; Acts 3:11). "Solomon's porch" was within the outer eastern wall of the temple, and is attributed by Josephus (Ant. 15:11, section 3, 20:9, section 7; B.J. 5:5, section 1,3) to Solomon; the Beautiful gate being on the same side, the people flocking to see the cripple healed there naturally ran to "Solomon's porch." Within this gateway was the altar of burnt offering, 50 cubits square and 15 high, with an ascent to it by an inclined plane. On its south side an inclined plane led down to the water gate where was the great, cistern in the rock (Barclay, City of the Great King, 526); supplying the temple at the S.W. angle of the altar was the opening through which the victims' blood flowed W. and S. to the king's garden at Siloam. A parapet one cubit high surrounding the temple and altar separated the people from the officiating priests (Josephus, B.J. 5:5, section 6). The temple, 20 cubits by 60 cubits, occupied the western part of this whole enclosure. The holiest place was a square cube, 20 cubits each way; the holy place two such cubes; the temple 60 cubits across and 100 E. and W.; the facade by adding its wings was 100, the same as its length E. and W. (Josephus, B. J., 5:5, section 4.) Warren (Athenaeum, No. 2469, p. 265) prefers the Mishna's measurements to Josephus' (Ant. 15:11, section 3), and assumes that the

Suspended between the holy place and the most holy (Exodus 26:31-33); and rent immediately upon the crucifixion of the Saviour and the consummation of His great sacrifice. There were two veils or curtains in the tabernacle (of which the temple was the continuation), one before the tabernacle door (kalumma ), the second veil before the holy of holies (katapetasma ). Hebrews 9:3; Hebrews 9:7-8; Hebrews 9:11-12; "after (i.e. behind) the second veil, ... the holiest of all." Into this second tabernacle within the veil "the high priest alone went once every year, not without blood which he offered for himself and for the sins of the people; the Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing ... But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands ... by His own blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Therefore significantly "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" when Jesus yielded up the ghost (Matthew 27:50-51). "From the top," not from the bottom; for it is God who from above rends the veil of separation between us and Him, and opens heaven to man, as the hymn of Ambrose says, "when Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers"; therefore not only ministers but we all alike "have boldness (parresia , literally, freedom of speech, grounded on the consciousness that our sins are forgiven) to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh" (Hebrews 10:19-21); rather, "which (entering) He has newly consecrated (enekainisen , 'inaugurated'; it is a new thing, unheard of before) for us as a new (recently opened) and living way" (not the lifeless way of dead sacrificial victims under the law, but the living and lifegiving Saviour being the way). As the veil had to be passed through to enter the holiest, so the human suffering flesh (Hebrews 5:7) of Christ's manhood which veiled His Godhead had to be passed through by Him in entering the heavenly holiest for us. When He put off His rent flesh, the temple veil, its type, was simultaneously rent. Not His body, but His suffering flesh, was the veil; His body was the "temple" (naos , "the inner shrine," not the temple building in general, hieron ) which men destroyed and He reared up again in three days (John 2:19; John 2:21). No priestly caste therefore now mediates between the sinner and his Judge; the minister is no nearer God than the layman. Neither can serve God at a distance, nor by deputy, as the natural man would wish; each must come for himself, and by union with our one Royal High Priest who, as He never dies, has a priesthood which passeth not from, one to another (margin Hebrews 7:24). We become virtual "king priests unto (Him who is at once) God and His Father" (Revelation 1:6). C. C. Ganneau, tracing a curious similarity between some customs of ancient Elis in the Peloponnesus and those of the Hebrew, shows that in the Olympian sanctuary there was a great woolen veil of Assyrian workmanship, dyed with Phoenician purple, given by Antiochus; so Josephus (B. J. 5:5, section 4) describes a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue and fine linen and scarlet and purple, and of wonderful contexture, as hanging before the golden doors, which were 55 cubits high and 16 broad, and which led into the holy of holies. It symbolized the universe, the scarlet signifying fire, the flax-linen earth, the blue the air, the purple the sea. This veil given to Olympian Zeus at Elis may have been the very veil taken by Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) from the temple of Jehovah (1 Maccabees 1:22-24; Josephus, Ant. 12:5, section 4). The curtain or veil at the Olympian temple did not rise up but was dropped to the ground, according to Pausanias. So Josephus and the Book of Maccabees call the Jewish veil a drop curtain (katapetasma ). Again, as the spoils of conquered deities were consecrated to the victorious ones, Antiochus naturally hung up Jehovah's veil in the temple of Olympian Zeus; for this was the very god to whom he dedicated the temple at Jerusalem, after defiling and plundering it (2 Maccabees 6:2). Curiously illustrating the similarity above referred to, he notices that the Eleans alone of the Greeks cultivated the byssus or fine flax plant. They bred no mules (compare Leviticus 19:19). They had a river Jordan near Lepreos, a city implying the leprosy prevalent among its people. Ashes of victims were suffered to accumulate (bomoi ), and were held sacred (Leviticus 1:16; Leviticus 4:12; 1 Kings 13:3). The women of Elis were forbidden to penetrate the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus; so the Hebrew women could not pass the court of women. They used to mourn round the empty tomb of Achilles (compare Ezekiel 8:14). They used to weave a peplos for Hera (compare Ezekiel 16:16; 2 Kings 23:7). Their Zeus Apomuios answers to Baalzebub, "god of flies" (2 Kings 1:3; 2 Kings 1:16). (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, April 1878, p. 79).

The officer second in authority only to the high priest. Pashhur (“chief governor in the house of the Lord,” Jeremiah 20:1 ) and Seraiah (“ruler of the house of God,” Nehemiah 11:11 ) held this office in the Old Testament times. In Acts it appears that one of the main functions of this officer was to keep order in the Temple (Acts 4:1 ; Acts 5:24 ,Acts 5:24,5:26 ). The plural (Luke 22:4 ,Luke 22:4,22:52 ) may refer to officers under the command of the captain of the Temple.

While the temple certainly has a history and integrity of its own, it was created by extension of the tabernacle and is associated with such diverse topics as a mountain and a city, the cosmos and a person's body, and God's glory and name. The biblical authors from Moses through Ezekiel and Haggai to John of Patmos never describe a complete temple, but offer a vision of what the temple was to be: the locus of the presence of God. Offering a vision rather than a blueprint for the temple is in keeping with the inherent ambiguity of the concept "temple of the Lord, " for how can the transcendent deity be localized in a building? The vision is also in keeping with the function of temple as a symbol. The temple is indeterminate literally and figuratively. The Preexistence of the Temple . The foundation for temple is laid in the Pentateuch. Already in the patriarchs we find the promise of God's presence: "Do not be afraid, for I am with you, I will bless you" (Genesis 26:24 ). How and where will this presence be mediated? Although various locales were deemed sacred by virtue of God's presence (Genesis 32:30 ), patriarchal religion did not put much importance on sacred space or the cultic practices that typify Mosaic Yahwism. Nevertheless, in various forms of foreshadowing, we find the usual lines of continuity with later persons, events, institutions, and practices—Scripture's penchant for typology. Thus "Jerusalem, " where centralization of the cult eventually took place, figures prominently in two key texts that address "cultic" issues: in Genesis 22 with the "binding" (sacrifice) of Isaac ("Moriah" cf. 2 Chronicles 3:1 ) and in Genesis 14 with the tithe paid to Melchizedek. With Mosaic Yahwism a change in perspective and practice occurs. God appears to the newly created covenantal community, a community formed by the exodus and, now at Sinai (which parallels Jerusalem as a place par excellence for "visions" of God), given an identity, including instructions where Yahweh's presencewith the full implication of both blessing and dangerwould be manifest (Exodus 24-26 ; 33:12-17 ). How would God's presence in the covenant community and ceremony be evident? Inevitably certain symbols were necessary (despite the aniconic nature of Mosaic Yahwism Exodus 20:4 ). The symbols appeal to the senses, but not simply as "visual aids." The ark, cherubim, and the tent of the meeting become the institutional representations of the Lord's presence among his people. Here, in this place , Yahweh appears and makes his will known (Exodus 33:7-11 ). The tent of the meeting in the Pentateuch, and the priestly tabernacle, is not, however, a projection (or retrojection!) of the temple, but an independent dwelling reflecting the life of Israel prior to settlement and the centralization of worship. The tent is a "portable temple" of sorts, but not provisional nor simply a pattern; rather, the tent is a unique "dwelling." With the ritual performances in the tabernacle/ temple complex, and the personnel and attendant appurtenances, we come to a theologically significant point about temple practice: coming into the presence of a holy God. In each change of location, vestment, instrument, or ritual act, with their various gradations of importance, the "needs" of the people and the holiness of God come together: I am holy, it is holy, you are (to be) holy. The extensions and the symbolic associations began early in the canonical literature. As a commentary on the Torah, Deuteronomy expresses the presence of Yahweh in the cult devoid of some simplistic equation of Yahweh's presence constrained by the natural order of cause and effect by utilizing his alter ego, his "name, " as the manifestation of his transcendent reality. Even the ark itself is divested of its throne-like setting by its role as the "container" of the tablets of the law (Deuteronomy 10:1-5 ). Yahweh is not seated on a throne like some dowager duchess. The paradoxical and symbolic nature of the temple is thus seen as the author(s) construct the parameters of temple theology: the transcendent deity graciously appears before his holy people in the place of his choosing, a dwelling symbolically rich by virtue of its ability to generate varied metaphoric associations (fire, cloud, tent, ark, and most especially "name" in the Pentateuch). The Construction of the Temple . The construction of the temple began with David to serve as, at least on sociopolitical grounds, a "media event" of divine support and favor. David, however, was deterred from completing the task. No doubt sociopolitical forces played their usual role in this. The biblical authors were not oblivious to these explanations (1 Kings 5:13-18 ), but characteristically pass theological judgment (1 Chronicles 22:8-9 ), or, more important, God himself divulges his feelings on the matter: "Did I ever say Why have you not built me a house of cedar'?" (2 Samuel 7:7 ). God does not require an immutable dwelling, but the metaphoric associations are kept open, even those of monarchal justification (i.e., a "house" like the house in which the monarch resides). The "cedar house" is ultimately built. And in Solomon's great prayer of dedication the paradox of this dwelling is acknowledged once again by his classic statement: "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!" (1 Kings 8:27 ). The paradox is softened by "quoting" the Deuteronomic "name" formula: "My Name shall be ^[1]" (v. 29). (This terminology underscores the point that the correspondence between God's presence and his "dwelling"tabernacle or templeis more "textual" than physical.) But what does the Lord think of this structure? Solomon, like Bezalel before him with the building of the tabernacle, is described as having "wisdom." Unlike Bezalel, however, Solomon sends straightaway for supplies and instructions from Phoenician artisans. Moreover, a labor force is needed to complete the project, a force not unlike what the Israelites experienced in Egypt. Finally, Solomon is portrayed as the central figure in the planning and implementation of the project: "As for this temple that you are building " ( 1 Kings 6:12 ). No editorial judgment from the author is forthcoming from these contrasts, but the reader is left with the impression that Solomon's project is equivocal before God. The equivocal nature of the project is supported by the Lord's response to it in 1 Kings 9:3-5 . The Lord does hallow the place, but it is still Solomon's doing: "I have consecrated this temple which you have built" (v. 3). A clear stipulation is also attached: "if you walk before me " (v. 4; the sanctity of the place must be preserved, at the very least). Responses to the Temple . What responses do we find in Scripture to the building of the temple beyond those found in the immediate context of it being built? Rather than "going up" to the mountain of the house of the Lord to hear the word of the Lord, as in the eschatological visions of Isaiah and Micah (4:1-2), the Babylonians "descend" upon the temple to break down its wall and carry off the temple treasures. After centuries of covenant disloyalty, the Lord withdraws his presence from this place ( Ezekiel 10:18 ); in fact, he is driven from the temple because of the abominations of the people (Ezekiel 8:6 ). This destruction could be seen as one of the contingencies of history except for the interpretations put upon it; the theologian of Lamentations states the destruction of the temple in unequivocal terms: "The Lord determined to tear down the wall of the Daughter of Zion" (2:8). The destruction is purposed by God because the people failed to live before him . Reconstructing the Temple . High on the agenda of the postexilic community was the rebuilding of the temple. Indeed, it was not long before all their troubleswhich were manywere attributed to the disrepair, the virtual absence, of the dwelling of God (Haggai 1:3-9 ). The question must surely be asked: Why? Why, after a stern critique by the prophets, an outmaneuvering in the wisdom tradition, and its abandonment by God and destruction, would the people rebuild this structure? The most obvious and strongest answer is that the Lord commands its construction (Ezra 1:2 ). But a further answer lies in the theological sophistication of the biblical authors themselves and in the power of this symbol to go beyond mere structure. The means for rebuilding temple theology are present in the preexilic theology itself, the selfsame theology that so thoroughly critiqued an overly literal-minded approach to the presence of God. The temple was always symbolic, "textual" even before (and as much as) it was physical. To the extent that the metaphoric associations speak to the reality of our experience(s) before God, the symbol retains its power as a symbol . Although Jeremiah held little esteem for the ark/temple, he nevertheless prophesied that God's throne would be Jerusalem itself (3:17), and Torah would be written in their hearts (31:31-34). These extensions of the symbol are developed further in the New Testament (Revelation 21:22-27 : "I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple Nothing impure will ever enter it." ). The relativizing of the temple and moral earnestness that we see in Jeremiah were precisely the points of the Deuteronomic theology that influenced the short-lived reforms of Josiah. The most extensive view of the new temple comes from Ezekiel. The construction of the temple is once again more ideal than real. In Ezekiel's new temple a remarkable event takes place: water flows from the temple (in Jerusalem) with such abundance that it calls to mind the rivers of paradise (see also Psalm 46:4 ; Revelation 21:6 ). The Songs of Zion in the Psalter are particularly rich in their celebration of the temple. With all their "sensuality"the reader is instructed to "behold" the beauty of the temple; walk about it; clap and shout; smell; bow down; and other sense-oriented activitiesthe Songs show that one is not to ponder the temple simply as a theological abstraction. The one who enters the temple not only receives spiritual blessings but material ones as well (Psalm 36:7-9 ). While we do not find much by way of extensions of this symbol, its paradoxical and metaphoric nature are everywhere testified to in what takes place in the life of the communicant. The most powerful statement of this sort comes in Psalm 73 , where the psalmist cries out because his inherited beliefs are at odds with his personal experiences. Everything is "oppressive" (v. 16). "Till I entered the sanctuary of God " and what unfolds is a transformation of his character and his understanding of God. What happens in the sanctuary? It is, as it should be, unspecified. We are simply told at the end of the psalm that "as for me, it is good to be near God I will tell of all your deeds." In sum, by building the temple and by extending the metaphoric associations with temple, a continuity between the pre- and postexilic community was established (Ezra 1:7 ; Haggai 2:9 ). For all the critique of the temple, in the final analysis, Yahweh takes pleasure in this place and it is a source of delight for those who assemble there (Psalm 43:3-4 ; 65:4 ; 84:1 ). Jesus, Paul, and Judaism . In Judaism the temple was the religious, cultural, and national center; indeed, the temple was a microcosm of the universe. The power of the temple as a symbol is especially seen in its ability to continue long after the temple building itself was destroyed in a.d. 70. According to the Gospels, Jesus participated fully in the practices and ethos of the temple. Jesus' birth was announced in the temple (Luke 1:17 ; 2:27-32 ), where he was also circumcised and studied with the rabbis as a lad (Luke 2:46 ). Later, of course, Jesus taught in the temple himself (John 7:14 ). It is not without significance that while Jesus is teaching in the temple precincts, he says, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me" (John 7:37 ), and the next day offers forgiveness to the woman taken in adultery (John 8:1-11 ). Blessing and forgiveness, priestly functions, are pronounced by Jesus in the shadow of the temple. Jesus is not only a communicant and priest of sorts; he is also a prophet. Thus, when the temple practices are compromised, Jesus assails those who jeopardize the sanctity of the temple: "My house will be called a house of prayer But you have made it a den of robbers" (Mark 11:17 ). They were not living before God . Jesus, while teaching in its precincts, preserves the sanctity of the temple by his ethical admonitions. Even the forgiven woman is told to sin no more (John 8:11 ; see also John 4:23 ). In the cleansing of the temple we also find a development and extension of the metaphoric associations of temple. Jesus employs a wordplay equivocating on the term "body" to break the parochial thinking of his audience (John 2:19 ). John characteristically points out the error of their literal-mindedness: "But the temple he had spoken of was his body" (John 2:21 ). Thus, in Jesus' acts and words we see the temple once again as a place of holiness, of danger (words of judgment; Jesus's own death) as well as blessing, and further extensions of the symbol are generated. Paul also makes the correspondence between the temple and body: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?" (1 Corinthians 6:19 ; see also Romans 12:1-2 ). Of course, the believer can be called the temple of God only because Christ himself is the temple and the believer participates in Christ ( 1 Corinthians 3:9-17 ). The believer, like Paul himself, must be (cultically) pure in order to live in God's presence (2 Corinthians 2:17 ). If God can dwell in a holy place , by extension, he could dwell in a holy person! After the destruction of the temple in a.d. 70, temple theology loses none of its living and healing power since the temple was always "beyond" its physical presence. A theology of temple answers the problem of how God's presence is mediated. Specifically, temple theology recognizes the importance of "sacred space." Its analogue is sacred timeSabbath, festivals, and appointed times of prayer. Humankind is oriented in time and space, thus Sabbath and temple testify to "eternity" beyond the confines of our usual orientation. Sabbath and temple redeem time and space. Temple theology shows a high degree of theological sophisticationholding ambivalent attitudes/doctrines in tension, part of the mystery of faith, of paradox. Temple theology is most fruitful when it is functioning as a powerful symbol, with the ability to be fully grounded in (sacred) space and yet generate new metaphoric associationsa vision of life in the presence of the Lord. Even though the temple is both protological and eschatological, it is always grounded in the realities of our lives: it is a mere edifice, yet, Behold! Thy God. Anthony J. Petrotta See also Altar ; Israel ; Offerings and Sacrifices ; Priest, Priesthood ; Tabernacle Bibliography . B. Childs, Old Testament Theology in a Canonical Context ; R. E. Clements, God and Temple ; idem, Wisdom for a Changing World ; R. H. Gundry, Somain Biblical Theology ; M. Haran, Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel ; A. J. Heschel, Quest for God ; A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Book of Psalms ; M. E. Isaacs, An Approach to the Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews ; G. Josipovici, The Book of God ; K. Koch, The Prophets: The Assyrian Period ; C. Koester, The Dwelling of God ; H. J. Kraus, The Theology of the Psalms ; J. D. Levenson, Sinai and Zion ; J. G. McConville, Law and Theology in Deuteronomy ; W. McKane, ZAW 94 (1982): 251-66; D. H. Madvig, NIDNTT, 3; R. Mason, Preaching the Tradition ; C. Meyers, Ancient Israelite Religion ; R. W. L. Moberly, The Old Testament of the Old Testament ; J. Neusner, Wrong Ways and Right Ways in the Study of Formative Judaism ; W. Nowottny, The Language Poets Use ; D. A. Renwick, Paul, the Temple, and the Presence of God ; J. Z. Smith, To Take Place ; W. R. Smith, The Prophets of Israel and Their Place in History ; idem, The Religion of the Semites ; J. Soskice, Metaphor and Religious Language ; N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God .

The altar of holocaust was located in front of the Temple proper and the altar of incense stood in the Holy Place before the veil covering the door to the Holy of Holies. The ordinances regarding the former are contained in Exodus 20, and Deuteronomy 17. Solomon's altar was similar in form to that of the Tabernacle, but larger, measuring 20 cubits in length and width and 10 in height, and constructed of unhewn stone and earth covered with plates of brass, hence called "brazen altar." Destroyed with the Temple by Nabuchodonosor, 586 B.C., it was the first thing rebuilt by the returned exiles, 537. Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated this second altar, 168, and on that account it was completely removed by Judas Machabeus, 165, and a new one was erected which apparently remained until the destruction of Herod's Temple by the Romans 70 A.D. The altar of incense in Solomon's Temple was of the same dimensions as that of the Tabernacle and made of cedar wood overlaid with gold, hence called "golden altar." Its history repeats that of the altar of holocaust. Near this altar took place the annunciation to Zachary of the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1).

This word in Scripture, though generally made use of to express one and the same thing, namely, the house of God, hath various references in relation to the divine glory. There was no building in the church of God called the temple, until the one built by Solomon. Before those days the house appropriated for the worship of the Lord was called the tabernacle, or sanctuary. But when the Lord bad instructed his people by his servant Nathan the prophet, (see 2 Samuel 7:1-29) concerning the temple, we find Solomon, by the Lord's appointment, building this first temple on Mount Moriah. And independent of every other consideration, how blessedly did the very spot typify Christ, the true temple for the glory of JEHOVAH to be manifested in. This temple was begun somewhat about a thousand years before Christ, and took nine years in building. The desolation of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon at the captivity, brought on the desolation also of the temple, until it was totally destroyed in the eleventh year of Zedikiah, after it had stood amidst many ravages and injuries, from the plunder of the enemies of Israel, somewhat more than four hundred years. During the captivity of Babylon the temple remained in ruins; but in the first year of Cyrus at Babylon, the Jews were permitted to return to Jerusalem, and to rebuild the temple of the Lord. And amidst much persecution and many interruptions, the people accomplished the purpose, and the second temple was completed at a period of somewhat more than five hundred years before the coming of Christ. I refer the reader to the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, and to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, for the Scriptural account of this great event. This second temple continued until the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ in substance of our flesh, thereby confirming and fulfilling the prophecy of Haggai 2:9 "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts." And this was literally the case from the presence of Jesus, notwithstanding it had none of the five signs which Solomon's temple had, namely—1. The Urim and Thummim; 2. the ark of the covenant; 3. the fire upon the altar, which never went out; 4. the Shechinah, or manifestation of the Lord's presence: 5. the spirit of prophecy. When Jesus entered the temple, his presence became the sum and substance which all these signs did but faintly resemble and minister unto; and therefore confirmed JEHOVAH'S promise of the greater glory of the second, than of the first temple. But the great object, the temple itself in both, and indeed in all other instances represented, was the person of Christ in his human nature; "for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the GODHEAD bodily." (Colossians 2:9) Hence, therefore, as in the tabernacle in the wilderness, and in the temple at Jerusalem, the glory of the Lord was graciously manifested to the people to intimate the divine presence, so in the person of Christ Jesus, all that is visible it JEHOVAH did appear. See those sweet Scriptures in confirmation. (John 2:19-21; Ephesians 2:20-22) See Tabernacle.

We are told that here it was, on the pinnacle of the temple, the devil, in his temptations of Christ, set the Redeemer. (Matthew 4:5) An ordinary reader might from here be led to conclude, that if the pinnacle of the temple was like the present towers of our churches, it was hardly possible to have stood upon them. But he should be told that the pinnacles were on square roofs, like terrace walks, with galleries, so that they formed a platform to walk upon. One of the Jewish historians relates, that the roof of the temple had spikes of gold on it, to hinder the birds from resting there, that they might not defile it. The pinnacle of the temple, therefore, though high and elevated, yet formed a sufficient spot for walking upon. Probably here, like the galleries the church speaks of persons retired for conversation. See Gallery and Gallaries

(Acts 4:1; Acts 5:24; Acts 5:26, ὁ στρατηγὸς τοῦ ἱεροῦ) This is St. Luke’s name for the commander of the Levitical guard who kept order in the Temple precincts and guarded the house. He was not a civil officer, but a priest; and his duty, besides keeping the peace, was to make his rounds by night, visit all the gates, and see that the sentries were awake. The office appears in Nehemiah 11:11, Jeremiah 20:1, etc. In 2 Maccabees 3:4 he is called προστάτης τοῦ ἱεροῦ, and is said to be of the tribe of Benjamin. If the reading is correct, this would be an irregularity. In the time of Claudius Caesar, one Ananus, the commander of the Temple, was sent in bonds to Rome to answer for his actions in a Jewish-Samaritan tumult (Jos. Ant. xx. vi. 2). For the name cf. also Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) vi. v. 3. In the NT period, some of the high priests were blamed for nepotism, because, among other things, they made their sons ‘captains of the Temple.’ In Acts 4:1 the captain intervened on the ground that the peace of the Temple was likely to be broken by the preaching of the apostles, who were regarded as unauthorized speakers, and as such were under the ban of Jeremiah 29:26; ‘that there might be an overseer in the house of the Lord for every man who is insane and prophesies, and that thou mightest put him in the stocks and in the block.’ In Acts 5:24; Acts 5:26 the captain of the Temple re-arrested Peter and John, who had escaped from prison the previous night. But clearly he was uncertain of his position, and recognized that popular opinion was on the side of the apostles. It was the policy of the Sadducees to avoid disturbance, and to give no excuse for the intervention of the Roman power. Therefore the arrest was ejected courteously, ‘without violence, for they feared the people lest they should be stoned.’ W. M. Grant.

Psalm 27:4 (a) The presence of GOD is thus described and David wanted to live in that divine presence constantly, as though it were indeed the house of GOD. Psalm 29:9 (b) Probably David was referring both to the actual house of GOD at Jerusalem and also to the mystical Temple of GOD which is His people. Every child of GOD like every piece of the temple in some way represents the majesty, the glory, the beauty, and the usefulness into which we have been called by His grace. It is interesting to note the typology of the temple, for there is a splendid comparison between parts of the temple, and the individuals in the church of GOD. John 2:19 (a) The Lord is referring to His own body in which GOD dwelt. (See also Matthew 26:61 and Mark 15:29). 1 Corinthians 3:16 (a) The church is called GOD's temple. It is a collection and an assembly of GOD's people. Therefore, it is the habitation of GOD through the Spirit. In this way it resembling the temple of the Old Testament. (See Ephesians 2:21). 1 Corinthians 6:19 (a) In the previous reference the whole church is compared to the temple, but in this passage the individual believer is compared to the temple. The Holy Spirit dwells in the church as a collection of GOD's people, and also in the individual because he is a child of GOD.

One thing that materially distinguishes the temple from the tabernacle is that God said of it, "Mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually:" it referred to the kingdom and a settled order of things; whereas the tabernacle was typical of God's ways, and gave the idea of movement. And though the actual building was destroyed and rebuilt, and is now swept away, and will again be rebuilt, yet it is treated always as one house. Haggai 2:9 may be translated, as in the LXX, etc., "The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." When the Lord was on earth, though rejected by the rulers of Israel, He called the temple 'My house,' and 'My Father's house;' but later on He said to the Jews 'your house.' The 'latter glory' refers to the future, when God will be owned by His ancient people, 'and His glory be displayed. Another thing that distinguished the temple was its being surrounded with chambers, so that the priests that were serving God could dwell around Him. Christ refers possibly to this in saying "In my Father's house are many mansions." The tabernacle had no flooring, the priests trod the earth; but in the temple they were separated from the earth by a flooring. In the interior of the temple built by Solomon nothing but gold appeared: this is typical of divine righteousness, characterising the throne and presence of God, as will be manifested in the millennium. The ark was placed in the temple, and had found there its abiding resting place: it was the token of God's presence. The candlesticks, tables of showbread, golden altar, brazen altar, and laver (with ten smaller ones in addition, see LAVER), were similar to those in the tabernacle. God owned the house by filling it with His glory. In the court of the temple were two pillars which received the names of JACHIN, "He will establish;" and BOAZ, "in him is strength," which perfectly agrees with the fact that it was God's house that was being built. 1 Kings 7:21 ; Revelation 3:12 . Another thing remarkable in the rearing of the temple was that it was built of stones made ready before being brought, so that there should be no noise of hammer, or axe, or iron tool, while it was in progress. 1 Kings 6:7 . Thus the church is being formed of living stones who have come to the Living Stone (the chief corner stone, Christ Himself), and the whole building fitly framed together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. Ephesians 2:20-22 ; 1 Peter 2:5 . Of the actual erections there were 1. THE TEMPLE BY SOLOMON. It was formed after the pattern of the tabernacle, being a rectangle of sixty cubits by twenty, and its height thirty cubits: the holy of holies was a cube of twenty cubits; the holy (place) was forty cubits by twenty, with a porch in front of ten cubits by twenty. The chambers and upper chambers and pillars and porches were additional as described. 1 Kings 6 . 2. THE TEMPLE BY ZERUBBABEL. Few particulars of this are given. Cyrus ordered the foundations to be strongly laid, and its height was to be sixty cubits, and its breadth sixty cubits. Ezra 6:3 . Probably it was the same size as the temple by Solomon: the breadth here of sixty cubits being its 'length,' and its width not mentioned; or, if the sixty cubits be the width, it may have included the chambers. It is not probable that it was larger than the first temple. The aged men, who had seen the first house, wept when they saw the foundations of this house laid. This temple continued until the days of Herod. 3. THE TEMPLE BY HEROD. The Jews said it was forty-six years in building. John 2:20 . Josephus gives almost the only account we have of it. It was apparently built over the old one, so as not to hinder the temple service: the priests themselves built the holy places. It was all on a magnificent scale. In the Gospels we read that the disciples exclaimed, "What stones! and what buildings!" and pointed out how it was "adorned with goodly stones and gifts." Herod was not God's man to build Him a house, nor were the leaders of the Jews fit men to carry on His worship. To the disciples the Lord declared that one stone should not be left upon another. Mark 13:1,2 ; Luke 21:5,6 . Though Josephus gives many details as to this temple, they are not distinct enough to enable a plan to be made of it. In the N.T. the word ναός refers to the house itself, and ἱερόν to the buildings and courts in general. Apparently the Lord never entered the house itself. Doubtless this temple stood upon some part of mount Moriah, at the south-east corner of Jerusalem (q.v. ), but on what part of the enclosure is not known. 4. A FUTURE TEMPLE. Scripture speaks in many places of the return of the Jews to their own land, but in unbelief as to the Lord Jesus being their Messiah. They will apparently build a temple, but this must not be confounded with the one described by Ezekiel, though the Jews may attempt to build it as there described. God cannot bless them until His anointed One is owned, and therefore this temple will be destroyed. Psalm 74 ; Isaiah 66:1-6 . 5. EZEKIEL'S TEMPLE. This is fully described in Ezekiel 40 — Ezekiel 44 ; it will be built when the land is once again divided amongst the twelve tribes, and all brought into blessing. In the centre of the land there will be a 'holy oblation' of 25,000 cubits square, which will contain both the city and the temple. That cubits and not reeds are intended, see Ezekiel 45:2,3 . Other passages speak of the temple, Zion, and Jerusalem as associated together, as Psalm 68:29 ; Psalm 122 ; Isaiah 2:2,3 ; Micah 3:12 — Micah 4:2 . All these, though not exactly on the same spot, will fall within the 'holy oblation,' though the part on which the city will stand is also called 'profane,' or 'common.' Probably the city will be built on its old site, and the temple may be somewhat farther north. Then the latter glory of God's house will exceed all that has yet been, for the Lord Jesus will be the glory of the house. Christ refers to His body as a temple in John 2:19 , and Christians are now God's temple, in which the Spirit of God dwells. The body of each Christian is also spoken of as a temple of the Holy Ghost. 1 Corinthians 6:19 . In Revelation 11:19 the temple of God is opened in heaven, in connection with which are the judgements that come forth to smite the earth: Revelation 14:15,17 ; Revelation 15:5-8 ; Revelation 16:1,17 .

(1): (n.) A contrivence used in a loom for keeping the web stretched transversely. (2): (n.) A place or edifice dedicated to the worship of some deity; as, the temple of Jupiter at Athens, or of Juggernaut in India. (3): (n.) The space, on either side of the head, back of the eye and forehead, above the zygomatic arch and in front of the ear. (4): (n.) The edifice erected at Jerusalem for the worship of Jehovah. (5): (n.) One of the side bars of a pair of spectacles, jointed to the bows, and passing one on either side of the head to hold the spectacles in place. (6): (n.) A building dedicated to the administration of ordinances. (7): (n.) A local organization of Odd Fellows. (8): (n.) Hence, among Christians, an edifice erected as a place of public worship; a church. (9): (n.) Fig.: Any place in which the divine presence specially resides. (10): (v. t.) To build a temple for; to appropriate a temple to; as, to temple a god.

Hêykâl (הֵיכָל, Strong's #1964), “palace; temple.” This word is indirectly derived from the Sumerian egal, “large house, palace,” and more directly from the Akkadian ekallu, “large house.” The influence of the Akkadian ekallu spread to the Northwest Semitic languages. In post-biblical Hebrew the meaning became limited to “temple.” The Hekhal Chlomo (“Temple of Solomon”) in modern Jerusalem signifies the building of Israel’s chief rabbinate, in absence of the temple. The word occurs 78 times from First Samuel to Malachi, most frequently in Ezekiel. The first usage pertains to the tabernacle at Shiloh (1 Sam. 1:9). The word “palace” in English versions may have one of three Hebrew words behind it: hêykâl, bayit, or ‘armon. The Sumero-Akkadian meaning “palace” for hêykâl is still to be found in biblical Hebrew. The hekal with its 15 usages as “palace” refers to the palaces of Ahab (1 Kings 21:1), of the king of Babylon (2 Kings 20:18), and of Nineveh (Nah. 2:6). The “palace” was luxuriously decorated and the residents enjoyed the fulfillment of their pleasures; cf.: “And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged” (Isa. 13:22). The psalmist compared beautiful girls to fine pillars in an ornate “palace”: “… That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace” (Ps. 144:12). Amos prophesied that the “songs of the palace” (KJV, “temple”) were to turn to wailing at the destruction of the northern kingdom (Amos 8:3, NASB). Hêykâl with the meaning “temple” is generally clarified in the context by two markers that follow. The first marker is the addition “of the Lord”: “And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel” (Ezra 3:10). The second marker is a form of the word qodesh, “holy”: “O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps” (Ps. 79:1). Sometimes the definite article suffices to identify the “temple in Jerusalem”: “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple” (Isa. 6:1), especially in a section dealing with the “temple” (Ezek. 41). The Old Testament also speaks about the heavenly hêykâl, the hêykâl of God. It is difficult to decide on a translation, whether “palace” or “temple.” Most versions opt in favor of the “temple” idea: “Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple” (Mic. 1:2; cf. Ps. 5:7; 11:4; Hab. 2:20). “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears” (2 Sam. 22:7). However, since Scripture portrays the presence of the royal judgment throne in heaven, it is not altogether impossible that the original authors had a royal “palace” in mind. The imagery of the throne, the “palace,” and judgment seems to lie behind Ps. 11:4-5. “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.” The Septuagint has the words naos (“temple”) and oikos (“house; palace; dwelling; household”).

Temple. A place or building dedicated to religious worship. "God... dwelleth not in temples made with hands." Psalms 128:1-69. The word temple occurs in the A. V. about 200 times, generally referring to the one at Jerusalem. But the temple at Babylon is alluded to, 2 Chronicles 36:7; Ezra 5:14; the temple of Diana at Ephesus, Psalms 127:1-5; the temple of God, 2 Corinthians 6:16, meaning the saints, and the temple in the Holy City—the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21:22. The word specially designated the sanctuary of Jehovah at Jerusalem. There were three successive temples there; 1. Solomon's; 2. Zerubbabel's, known as the Second temple; 3. Herod's temple. 1. Solomon's Temple, was built on Mount Moriah, in the eastern part of Jerusalem, by Solomon, the king, as conceived and planned by his father David. 1 Chronicles 17:1. David gathered the materials and funds to build it—"an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight." 1 Chronicles 22:14. The silver and gold would be equal to from $2,000,000 to $4,000,000. Besides gold and silver, David collected immense quantities of "brass" (bronze or copper), iron, stone, timber, etc., and he secured skilful mechanics and artificers for every branch of the work. 1 Chronicles 22:1-19; 1 Chronicles 29:4; Acts 21:31-32. He also furnished the design, plan, and location of the building; in all which he was divinely instructed. 1 Chronicles 21:1-30; 1 Chronicles 22:1-19; 1 Chronicles 28:11-19. There were 183,600 Jews and strangers employed on it—of Jews 30,000, by rotation 10,000 a month; of Canaanites, 153,600, of whom 70,000 were "bearers of burdens," 80,000 hewers of wood and stone, and 3600 overseers. The parts were all prepared at a distance from the site of the building, and when they were brought together the whole structure was erected without the sound of hammer, axe, or any tool of iron. 1 Kings 6:7. It required seven and one-half years to complete it in all its splendor, the glory of Jerusalem, and the most magnificent edifice in the world, b.c. 1005. Like the tabernacle, it had its front toward the east. All the arrangements of the temple were identical with those of the tabernacle, and the dimensions of every part exactly double those of the previous structure. It was 70 cubits long and 20 wide, and had in front a porch more than 200 feet high. All around the main structure there were attached to the north and south sides and at the west end certain buildings called side chambers, Psalms 125:1-5 three stories in height, which were much more extensive than the temple itself. The material was white stone: the woodwork of cedar, overlaid with fine gold; the floor of cedar, with planks of fir. 1 Kings 6:15. The holy of holies was a small square chamber, absolutely dark except by the light received through the entrance. In it were two huge golden figures, standing upright on their feet, on each side of the ark, which rested upon a protuberance of rough rock. Above the ark the wings of these cherubim met. The walls of the chambers which ran round the rest of the building were not allowed to lean against the outer walls of this sanctuary. The quarries of Solomon have been discovered under the present city of Jerusalem, near the Damascus gate. They are very extensive. The temple of Solomon stood 424 years; at times was allowed to fall into decay; was plundered by Shishak, king of Egypt, during the reign of Rehoboam. 1 Kings 14:25-26. After this it was frequently profaned and pillaged; was repaired by Joash, 2 Kings 12:5-14, and by Josiah, 2 Chronicles 29:3-9. Its destruction was prophesied by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 7:2; Jeremiah 7:14, and it was at last broken down and destroyed by the king of Babylon, and the nation itself carried Into captivity. 2 Kings 25:8-9; 2 Kings 25:13-17; 2 Chronicles 36:18-19, b.c. 586. 2. The Temple of Zerubbabel.— In b.c. 536 Cyrus the Persian king of Babylon gave permission to the Jews to return. Zerubbabel, as Jewish governor, and Joshua, the high priest, superintended the people in rebuilding the temple. Cyrus permitted and encouraged them to do this work. Ezra 3:8. Owing to the opposition of their enemies, it was not, however, completed for 20 years, b.c. 515. The story of this long struggle and trouble is told in the book of Ezra. This second temple, though inferior in many respects to the first—having no ark, no mercy-seat, no visible revelation of the divine glory, no sacred fire, no Urim and Thummim, and no spirit of prophecy, Ezra 3:12-13—still was in breadth and height, in almost every dimension, one-third larger than Solomon's. 3. Temple of Herod.— The temple of Zerubbabel after nearly 500 years had suffered much from wars, age, and decay, when Herod the Great, to secure the favor of the Jews, undertook to rebuild it. He began the work 20 years before the birth of Christ and completed the main building in one year and a half, and the adjoining buildings in eight years. But the work was not entirely ended till a.d. 64, under Herod Agrippa II. So the statement in John 2:20 is correct. The building stood upon Mount Moriah, in an area which was 500 cubits square. Along the ramparts of the temple hill ran double cloisters or arcades, and there the money changers sat Matthew 21:12. There were several courts about the temple which were upon different levels. The outer court, or court of the Gentiles, came first; then the court of the women, the court of Israel, the court of the priests, and then the temple itself. Between the first two came the "soreg" ("interwoven"), or "middle wall of partition." Ephesians 2:14. It had 13 openings; upon it, at intervals, were stones with Greek inscriptions, threatening death to the Gentile who entered. A stone thus inscribed was discovered lately by an explorer in Palestine. The charge that Paul had brought such a Greek into the enclosure aroused the Jerusalem mob. Acts 21:28. The court of Israel, 10 cubits by 135, was 15 steps higher up, and upon them the 15 Songs of Degrees—Psalms 120:1-7; Psalms 121:1-8; Psalms 122:1-9; Psalms 123:1-4; Psalms 124:1-8; 1 Kings 6:10,; Psalms 126:1-6; Acts 19:27; 1618416331_70; Psalms 129:1-8; Psalms 130:1-8; Psalms 131:1-3; Psalms 132:1-18; Psalms 133:1-3; Psalms 134:1-3, inclusive—were sung. The musical instruments were kept there. It was merely a platform, and had no cloisters or columns. Only men especially purified could enter it. The court of the priests, or sanctuary, 135 by 176 cubits, was 2½ cubits higher than the court of Israel, the wall being 1 cubit high, with 3 steps above it On the wall there was a platform from which the priests blessed the people. The entrance of the temple was 20 cubits wide and 40 high. Over it hung the golden vine, supported, probably, by nails. The temple was of two stories; in the lower there were 38 chambers in three tiers; in the upper, none. The holy house was entered from the porch by a gate 20 cubits high and 10 broad, with double doors, opening out and in; before it hung a veil of equal width with the doors. Before the entrance to the holy of holies hung two veils or two curtains, 1 cubit apart, and, inasmuch as the opening of the outer curtain was upon the north, while the inner was on the south, no glimpse of the holy of holies could be obtained by any one but the high priest. The purification of Mary, Luke 2:22, must have been near the gate Nicanor. The Child Jesus was found amid the doctors of the law in the temple courts. Luke 2:46. The Beautiful Gate, Acts 3:2, was one of the finest entrances to the temple. The castle of Antonia, from which, by a secret passageway, the Roman soldiery could be led down into the temple area to preserve order—as notably to rescue Paul, 1 Chronicles 29:7—was situated upon the northwestern corner of the outer cloister, and had four towers with a large interior space. Jesus foretold the destruction of the third temple: "There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:2; Luke 21:6. This prophecy was made about 30 a.d., and was fulfilled about 40 years afterward, by the Roman soldiers, who set the temple on fire and destroyed it in 70 a.d., although the Roman commander had given strict orders to have it preserved. About three centuries later, the emperor Julian attempted to rebuild it, but was prevented, for the terrific explosions that took place, as the workmen dug down for the foundations, caused them to throw away their implements, and the work was abandoned. See Milman's Hist. Christianity, iii. 27. Up to quite recent times the Haram—as the enclosure containing the site of the temple is called, and where the mosques of Omar and el-Aksar now stand—was closed to all non-Mohammedans; but the pressure brought to bear after the Crimean war, 1856, was too great, and now travellers find little difficulty in gaining admittance. The temple was a type of the Christian, for every Christian is a temple of the Holy Ghost. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Peter 2:5. The temple seen by Ezekiel in vision is very fully described, and is supposed by some to be a figure of the actual temple. See Ezekiel 40:1-49; Ezekiel 41:1-26; Ezekiel 42:1-20; Ezekiel 43:1-27; Ezekiel 44:1-31; Ezekiel 45:1-25; Ezekiel 46:1-24; Ezekiel 47:1-23.

the house of God; properly the temple of Solomon. David first conceived the design of building a house somewhat worthy of the divine majesty, and opened his mind to the Prophet Nathan, 2 Samuel 7; 1 Chronicles 17; 1 Chronicles 22:8 , &c. God accepted of his good intentions, but refused him the honour. Solomon laid the foundation of the temple, A.M. 2992, completed it in 3000, and dedicated it in 3001, 1 Kings 8:2 ; 2 Chronicles 5; 2 Chronicles 6:7 . According to the opinion of some writers, there were three temples, namely, the first, erected by Solomon; the second, by Zerubbabel, and Joshua the high priest; and the third, by Herod, a few years before the birth of Christ. But this opinion is, very properly, rejected by the Jews; who do not allow the third to be a new temple, but only the second temple repaired and beautified: and this opinion corresponds with the prophecy of Haggai 2:9 , "that the glory of this latter house," the temple built by Zerubbabel, "should be greater than that of the former;" which prediction was tittered with reference to the Messiah's honouring it with his presence and ministry. The first temple is that which usually bears the name of Solomon; the materials for which were provided by David before his death, though the edifice was raised by his son. It stood on Mount Moriah, an eminence of the mountainous ridge in the Scriptures termed Mount Zion, Psalms 132:13-14 , which had been purchased by Araunah, or Ornan, the Jebusite, 2 Samuel 24:23-24 ; 1 Chronicles 21:25 . The plan, and the whole model of this superb structure, were formed after that of the tabernacle, but of much larger dimensions. It was surrounded, except at the front or east end, by three stories of chambers, each five cubits square, which reached to half the height of the temple; and the front was ornamented with a magnificent portico, which rose to the height of one hundred and twenty cubits: so that the form of the whole edifice was not unlike that of some ancient churches, which have a lofty tower in the front, and a low aisle running along each side of the building. The utensils for the sacred service were the same; excepting that several of them, as the altar, candlestick, &c, were larger, in proportion to the more spacious edifice to which they belonged. Seven years and six months were occupied in the erection of the superb and magnificent temple of Solomon, by whom it was dedicated, A.M. 3001, B.C. 999, with peculiar solemnity, to the worship of the Most High; who on this occasion vouchsafed to honour it with the Shechinah, or visible manifestation of his presence. Various attempts have been made to describe the proportions and several parts of this structure; but as scarcely any two writers agree on this subject, a minute description of it is designedly omitted. It retained its pristine splendour only thirty-three or thirty-four years, when Shishak, king of Egypt, took Jerusalem, and carried away the treasures of the temple; and after undergoing subsequent profanations and pillages, this stupendous building was finally plundered and burnt by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, A.M. 3416, or B.C. 584, 2 Kings 25:13-15 ; 2 Chronicles 36:17-20 . After the captivity, the temple emerged from its ruins, being rebuilt by Zerubbabel, but with vastly inferior and diminished glory; as appears from the tears of the aged men who had beheld the former structure in all its grandeur, Ezra 3:12 . The second temple was profaned by order of Antiochus Epiphanes, A.M. 3837, B.C. 163, who caused the daily sacrifices to be discontinued, and erected the image of Jupiter Olympus on the altar of burnt-offering. In this condition it continued three years, l Mac. 4. 42, when Judas Maccabaeus purified and repaired it, and restored the sacrifices and true worship of Jehovah. Some years before the birth of our Saviour, the repairing and beautifying of this second temple, which had become decayed in the lapse of five centuries, was undertaken by Herod the Great, who for nine years employed eighty thousand workmen upon it, and spared no expense to render it equal, if not superior, in magnitude, splendour, and beauty, to any thing among mankind. Josephus calls it a work the most admirable of any that had ever been seen or heard of, both for its curious structure and its magnitude, and also for the vast wealth expended upon it, as well as for the universal reputation of its sanctity. But though Herod accomplished his original design in the time above specified, yet the Jews continued to ornament and enlarge it, expending the sacred treasure in annexing additional buildings to it; so that they might with great propriety assert, that their temple had been forty and six years in building, John 2:20 . Before we proceed to describe this venerable edifice, it may be proper to remark, that by the temple is to be understood not only the fabric or house itself, which by way of eminence is called the temple, namely, the holy of holies, the sanctuary, and the several courts both of the priests and Israelites, but also all the numerous chambers and rooms which this prodigious edifice comprehended; and each of which had its respective degree of holiness, increasing in proportion to its contiguity to the holy of holies. This remark it will be necessary to bear in mind, lest the reader of Scripture should be led to suppose, that whatever is there said to be transacted in the temple was actually done in the interior of that sacred edifice. To this infinite number of apartments, into which the temple was disposed, our Lord refers, John 14:2 ; and by a very striking and magnificent simile, borrowed from them, he represents those numerous seats and mansions of heavenly bliss which his Father's house contained, and which were prepared for the everlasting abode of the righteous. The imagery is singularly beautiful and happy, when considered as an allusion to the temple, which our Lord not unfrequently called his Father's house. The second temple, originally built by Zerubbabel after the captivity, and repaired by Herod, differed in several respects from that erected by Solomon, although they agreed in others. The temple erected by Solomon was more splendid and magnificent than the second temple, which was deficient in five remarkable things that constituted the chief glory of the first: these were, the ark and the mercy seat: the shechinah, or manifestation of the divine presence, in the holy of holies; the sacred fire on the altar, which had been first kindled from heaven; the urim and thummim; and the spirit of prophecy. But the second temple surpassed the first in glory; being honoured by the frequent presence of our divine Saviour, agreeably to the prediction of Haggai 2:9 . Both, however, were erected upon the same site, a very hard rock, encompassed by a very frightful precipice; and the foundation was laid with incredible expense and labour. The superstructure was not inferior to this great work: the height of the temple wall, especially on the south side, was stupendous. In the lowest places it was three hundred cubits, or four hundred and fifty feet, and in some places even greater. This most magnificent pile was constructed with hard white stones of prodigious magnitude. The temple itself, strictly so called, which comprised the portico, the sanctuary, and the holy of holies formed only a small part of the sacred edifice on Mount Moriah, being surrounded by spacious courts, making a square of half a mile in circumference. It was entered through nine gates, which were on every side thickly coated with gold and silver; but there was one gate without the holy house, which was of Corinthian brass, the most precious metal in ancient times, and which far surpassed the others in beauty. For while these were of equal magnitude, the gate composed of Corinthian brass was much larger; its height being fifty cubits, and its doors forty cubits, and its ornaments both of gold and silver being far more costly and massive. This is supposed to have been the "gate called Beautiful" in Acts 3:2 , where Peter and John, in the name of Christ, healed a man who had been lame from his birth. The first or outer court, which encompassed the holy house and the other courts, was named the court of the Gentiles; because the latter were allowed to enter into it, but were prohibited from advancing farther. It was surrounded by a range of porticoes, or cloisters, above which were galleries, or apartments, supported by pillars of white marble, each consisting of a single piece, and twenty-five cubits in height. One of these was called Solomon's porch, or piazza, because it stood on a vast terrace, which he had originally raised from a valley beneath, four hundred cubits high, in order to enlarge the area on the top of the mountain, and make it equal to the plan of his intended building; and as this terrace was the only work of Solomon that remained in the second temple, the piazza which stood upon it retained the name of that prince. Here it was that our Lord was walking at the feast of dedication, John 10:23 ; and that the lame man, when healed by Peter and John, glorified God before all the people, Acts 3:11 . This superb portico is termed the royal portico by Josephus, who represents it as the noblest work beneath the sun, being elevated to such a prodigious height, that no one could look down from its flat roof to the valley below, without being seized with dizziness; the sight not reaching to such an immeasurable depth. The south-east corner of the roof of this portico, where the height was the greatest, is supposed to have been the πτερυγιον , pinnacle, or extreme angle, whence Satan tempted our Saviour to precipitate himself, Matthew 4:5 ; Luke 4:9 . This also was the spot where it was predicted that the abomination of desolation, or the Roman ensigns, should stand, Daniel 9:27 ; Matthew 24:15 . Solomon's portico was situated in the eastern front of the temple, opposite to the mount of Olives, where our Saviour is said to have sat when his disciples came to show him the grandeur of its various buildings, of which, grand as they were, he said, the time was approaching when one stone should not be left upon another, Matthew 24:1-3 . This outer court being assigned to the Gentile proselytes, the Jews, who did not worship in it themselves, conceived that it might lawfully be put to profane uses: for here we find that the buyers and sellers of animals for sacrifices, and also the money-changers, had stationed themselves; until Jesus Christ, awing them into submission by the grandeur and dignity of his person and behaviour, expelled them; telling them that it was the house of prayer for all nations, and was not to be profaned, Matthew 21:12-13 ; Mark 11:15-17 . Within the court of the Gentiles stood the court of the Israelites, divided into two parts, or courts; the outer one being appropriated to the women, and the inner one to the men. The court of the women was separated from that of the Gentiles by a low stone wall, or partition, of elegant construction, on which stood pillars at equal distances, with inscriptions in Greek and Latin, importing that no alien should enter into the holy place. To this wall St. Paul most evidently alludes in Ephesians 2:13-14 : "But now in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ: for he is our peace, who hath made both one, (united both Jews and Gentiles into one church,) and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;" having abolished the law of ordinances, by which, as by the wall of separation, both Jews and Gentiles were not only kept asunder, but also at variance. In this court was the treasury, over against which Christ sat, and beheld how the people threw their voluntary offerings into it, for furnishing the victims and other things necessary for the sacrifices, Mark 12:41 ; John 8:20 . From the court of the women, which was on higher ground than that of the Gentiles, there was an ascent of fifteen steps into the inner or men's court: and so called because it was appropriated to the worship of the male Israelites. In these two courts, collectively termed the court of the Israelites, were the people praying, each apart by himself, for the pardon of his sins, while Zacharias was offering incense within the sanctuary, Luke 1:10 . Within the court of the Israelites was that of the priests, which was separated from it by a low wall, one cubit in height. This enclosure surrounded the altar of burnt- offerings, and to it the people brought their oblations and sacrifices; but the priests alone were permitted to enter it. From this court twelve steps ascended to the temple, strictly so called; which was divided into three parts, the portico, the outer sanctuary, and the holy place. In the portico was suspended the splendid votive offerings made by the piety of various individuals. Among other treasures, there was a golden table given by Pompey, and several golden vines of exquisite workmanship, as well as of immense size; for Josephus relates, that there were clusters as tall as a man. And he adds, that all around were fixed up and displayed the spoils and trophies taken by Herod from the barbarians and Arabians. These votive offerings, it should seem, were visible at a distance; for when Jesus Christ was sitting on the mount of Olives, and his disciples called his attention to the temple, they pointed out to him the gifts with which it was adorned, Luke 21:5 . This porch had a very large portal or gate, which, instead of folding doors, was furnished with a costly Babylonian veil, of many colours, that mystically denoted the universe. From this the sanctuary, or holy place, was separated from the holy of holies by a double veil, which is supposed to have been the veil that was rent in twain at our Saviour's crucifixion; thus emblematically pointing out that the separation between Jews and Gentiles was abolished; and that the privilege of the high priest was communicated to all mankind, who might henceforth have access to the throne of grace through the one great Mediator, Jesus Christ, Hebrews 10:19-22 . The holy of holies was twenty cubits square: into it no person was admitted but the high priest, who entered it once a year on the great day of atonement, Exodus 30:10 ; Leviticus 16:2 ; Leviticus 16:15 ; Leviticus 16:34 ; Hebrews 9:2-7 . Magnificent as the rest of the sacred edifice was, it was infinitely surpassed in splendour by the inner temple, or sanctuary. Its appearance, according to Josephus, had every thing that could strike the mind, or astonish the sight: for it was covered on every side with plates of gold; so that when the sun rose upon it, it reflected so strong and dazzling an effulgence, that the eye of the spectator was obliged to turn away, being no more able to sustain its radiance than the splendour of the sun. To strangers who were approaching: it appeared at a distance like a mountain covered with snow; for where it was not decorated with plates of gold, it was extremely white and glistening. On the top it had sharp-pointed spikes of gold, to prevent any bird from resting upon it and polluting it. There were, continues the Jewish historian, in that building, several stones which were forty-five cubits in length, five in height, and six in breadth. "When all these things are considered," says Harwood, "how natural is the exclamation of the disciples, when viewing this immense building at a distance: ‘Master, see what manner of stones' (ποταποι λιθοι , ‘what very large ones') ‘and what buildings are here!' Mark 13:1 : and how wonderful is the declaration of our Lord upon this, how unlikely to be accomplished before the race of men who were then living should cease to exist! ‘Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.' Improbable as this prediction must have appeared to the disciples at that time, in the short space of about thirty years after it was exactly accomplished; and this most magnificent temple, which the Jews had literally turned into a den of thieves, through the righteous judgment of God upon that wicked and abandoned nation, was utterly destroyed by the Romans A.D. 70, or 73 of the vulgar era, on the same month, and on the same day of the month, when Solomon's temple had been razed to the ground by the Babylonians!" Both the first and second temples were contemplated by the Jews with the highest reverence. Of their affectionate regard for the first temple, and for Jerusalem, within whose walls it was built, we have several instances in those Psalms which were composed during the Babylonish captivity; and of their profound veneration for the second temple we have repeated examples in the New Testament. They could not bear any disrespectful or dishonourable thing to be said of it. The least injurious slight of it, real or apprehended, instantly awakened all the choler of a Jew, and was an affront never to be forgiven. Our Saviour, in the course of his public instructions, having said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again," John 2:19 , it was construed into a contemptuous disrespect, designedly thrown out against the temple; his words instantly descended into the heart of the Jews, and kept rankling there for some years; for, upon his trial, this declaration, which it was impossible for a Jew ever to forget or to forgive, was immediately alleged against him, as big with the most atrocious guilt and impiety; they told the court they had heard him publicly assert, "I am able to destroy this temple," Matthew 26:61 . The rancour and virulence they had conceived against him for this speech, was not softened by all the affecting circumstances of that wretched death they saw him die; even as he hung upon the cross, with triumph, scorn, and exultation, they upbraided him with it, contemptuously shaking their heads, and saying, "Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself! If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross!" Matthew 27:40 . It only remains to add, that it appears, from several passages of Scripture, that the Jews had a body of soldiers who guarded the temple, to prevent any disturbances during the ministration of such an immense number of priests and Levites. To this guard Pilate referred, when he said to the chief priests and Pharisees who waited upon him to desire he would make the sepulchre secure, "Ye have a watch, go your way, and make it as secure as ye can," Matthew 27:65 . Over these guards one person had the supreme command, who in several places is called the captain of the temple, or officer of the temple guard. "And as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them," Acts 4:1 ; Acts 5:25-26 ; John 18:12 . Josephus mentions such an officer.

The Levites discharged the office of porters of the temple both day and night, and had the care both of the treasure and offerings. The office of porter was in some sort military; properly speaking, they were the soldiers of the Lord, and the guards of his house, to whose charge the several gates of the courts of the sanctuary were appointed by lot, 1 Chronicles 26:1 ; 1 Chronicles 26:13 ; 1 Chronicles 26:19 . "They waited at every gate; and were not permitted to depart from their service," 2 Chronicles 35:15 ; and they attended by turns in their courses, as the other Levites did, 2 Chronicles 8:14 . Their proper business was to open and shut the gates, and to attend at them by day, as a sort of peace officers, in order to prevent any tumult among the people; to keep strangers and the excommunicated and unclean persons, from entering into the holy court; and, in short, to prevent whatever might be prejudicial to the safety, peace, and purity of the holy place and service. They also kept guard by night about the temple and its courts; and they are said to have been twenty-four, including three priests, who stood sentry at so many different places. There was a superior officer over the whole guard, called by Maimonides, "the man of the mountain of the house;" he walked the round as often as he pleased; when he passed a sentinel that was standing, he said, "Peace be unto you;" but if he found one asleep, he struck him, and he had liberty to set fire to his garment. This custom may, perhaps, be alluded to in the following passage: "Behold, I come as a thief," that is, unawares; "blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments," Revelation 16:15 . Psalms 134, seems to be addressed to these watchmen of the temple, "who by night stand in the house of the Lord;" in which they are exhorted to employ their waking hours in acts of praise and devotion.

: (Strong's # — — — ) Acts 19:35 , RV, and AV marg., "temple keeper" (AV, "worshiper"), is used in profane Greek of "one who has charge of a temple." Coin inscriptions show that it was an honorary title given to certain cities, especially in Asia Minor, where the cult of some god or of a deified human potentate had been established, here to Ephesus in respect of the goddess Artemis. Apparently the imperial cult also existed at Ephesus. Josephus applies the word to Jews as worshipers, but this is not the meaning in Acts 19 .

1: ἱερόν (Strong's #2411 — Noun Neuter — hieron — hee-er-on' ) the neuter of the adjective hieros, "sacred," is used as a noun denoting "a sacred place, a temple," that of Artemis (Diana), Acts 19:27 ; that in Jerusalem, Mark 11:11 , signifying the entire building with its precincts, or some part thereof, as distinct from the naos, "the inner sanctuary" (see No. 2); apart from the Gospels and Acts, it is mentioned only in 1 Corinthians 9:13 . Christ taught in one of the courts, to which all the people had access. Hieron is never used figuratively. The Temple mentioned in the Gospels and Acts was begun by Herod in 20 B.C., and destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. 2: ναός (Strong's #3485 — Noun Masculine — naos — nah-os' ) "a shrine or sanctuary," was used (a) among the heathen, to denote the shrine containing the idol, Acts 17:24 ; 19:24 (in the latter, miniatures); (b) among the Jews, the sanctuary in the "Temple," into which only the priests could lawfully enter, e.g., Luke 1:9,21,22 ; Christ, as being of the tribe of Judah, and thus not being a priest while upon the earth (Hebrews 7:13,14 ; 8:4 ), did not enter the naos; for 2 Thessalonians 2:4 see Note (below); (c) by Christ metaphorically, of His own physical body, John 2:19,21 ; (d) in apostolic teaching, metaphorically, (1) of the Church, the mystical Body of Christ, Ephesians 2:21 ; (2) of a local church, 1 Corinthians 3:16,17 ; 2 Corinthians 6:16 ; (3) of the present body of the individual believer, 1 Corinthians 6:19 ; (4) of the "Temple" seen in visions in the Apocalypse, Revelation 3:12 ; 7:15 ; 11:19 ; 14:15,17 ; 15:5,6,8 ; 16:1,17 ; (5) of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, as the "Temple" of the new and heavenly Jerusalem, Revelation 21:22 . See SANCTUARY and HOLY, B (b), par. 4. Notes: (1) The "temple" mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 (naos), as the seat of the Man of Sin, has been regarded in different ways. The weight of Scripture evidence is in favor of the view that it refers to a literal "temple" in Jerusalem, to be reconstructed in the future (cp. Daniel 11:31 ; 12:11 , with Matthew 24:15 ). For a fuller examination of the passage, see Notes on Thessalonians, by Hogg and Vine, pp. 250-252. (2) For oikos, rendered "temple," Luke 11:51 , AV, see HOUSE , No. 1.

A building hallowed by the special presence of God, and consecrated to his worship. The distinctive idea of a temple, contrasted with all other buildings, is that it is the dwelling-place of a deity; and every heathen temple had its idol, but the true and living God dwelt "between the cherubim" in the Holy of Holies at Jerusalem. Hence, figuratively applied, a temple denotes the church of Christ, 2 Thessalonians 2:4 Revelation 3:12 ; heaven, Psalm 11:4 Revelation 7:15 ; and the soul of the believer, in which the Holy Spirit dwells, 1 Corinthians 3:16,17 6:19 2 Corinthians 6:16 . After the Lord had instructed David that Jerusalem was the place he had chosen in which to fix his dwelling, that pious prince began to realize his design of preparing a temple for the Lord that might be something appropriate to His divine majesty. But the honor was reserved for Solomon his son and successor, who was to be a peaceful prince, and like David, who had shed much blood in war. David, however, applied himself to collect great quantities of gold, silver, brass, iron, and other materials for this undertaking, 2 Samuel 1:1-25 7:1-29 1 Chronicles 22:1-19 . The place chosen for erecting this magnificent structure was Mount Moriah, Genesis 2:2,14 2 Chronicles 3:1 , the summit of which originally was unequal, and its sides irregular; but it was a favorite object of the Jews to level and extend it. The plan and the whole model of this structure was laid by the same divine architect as that of the tabernacle, namely, God himself; and it was built much in the same form as the tabernacle, but was of much larger dimensions. The utensils for the sacred service were also the same as those used in the tabernacle, only several of them were larger, in proportion to the more spacious edifice to which they belonged. The foundations of this magnificent edifice were laid by Solomon, in the year B. C. 1011, about four hundred and eighty years after the exodus and the building of the tabernacle; and it was finished B. C. 1004, having occupied seven years and six months in the building. It was dedicated with peculiar solemnity to the worship of Jehovah, who condescended to make it the place for the special manifestation of his glory, 2 Chronicles 5:1-7:22 . The front or entrance to the temple was on the eastern side, and consequently facing the Mount of Olives, which commanded a noble prospect of the building. The temple itself, strictly so called, which comprised the Porch, the Sanctuary, and the Holy of Holies, formed only a small part of the sacred precincts, being surrounded by spacious courts, chambers, and other apartments, which were much more extensive than the temple itself. It should be observed that the word temple does not always denote the central edifice itself, but in many passages some of the outer courts are intended. From the descriptions which are handed down to us of the temple of Solomon, it is utterly impossible to obtain so accurate an idea of its relative parts and their respective proportions, as to furnish such an account as may be deemed satisfactory to the reader. Hence we find no two writers agreeing in their descriptions. The following account may give a general idea of the building. The Temple itself was seventy cubits long; the Porch being ten cubits, 1 Kings 6:3 , the Holy place forty cubits, 1 Kings 6:17 , and the Most Holy place, twenty cubits, 2 Chronicles 3:8 . The width of the Porch, Holy, and Most Holy places was thirty cubits, 1 Kings 6:2 ; but the height of the porch was much greater, being no less than one hundred and twenty cubits, 2 Chronicles 3:4 , or four times the height of the rest of the building. The Most Holy place was separated from the Sanctuary by an impervious veil, Luke 23:45 , and was perhaps wholly dark, 1 Kings 8:12 , but for the glory of the Lord which filled it. To the north and south sides, and the west end of the Holy and Most Holy places, or all around the edifice, from the back of the porch on one side, to the back of the porch on the other side, certain buildings were attached. These were called side chambers, and consisted of three stories, each five cubits high, 1 Kings 6:10 , and joined to the wall of the temple without. Thus the three stories of side chambers, when taken together, were fifteen cubits high, and consequently reached exactly to half the height of the side walls and end of the temple; so that there was abundance of space above these for the windows which gave light to the temple, 1 Kings 6:4 . Solomon's temple appears to have been surrounded by two main courts: the inner court, that "of the Priests," 1 Kings 6:36 2 Chronicles 4:9 ; and the outer court, that "of Israel;" these were separated by a "middle wall of partition," with lodges for priests and Levites, for wood, oil, etc., 1 Chronicles 28:12 . The ensuing description is applicable to the temple courts in the time of our Lord. The "court of the Gentiles" was so called because it might be entered by persons of all nations. The chief entrance to it was by the east or Shushan gate, which was the principal gate of the temple. It was the exterior court, and by far the largest of all the courts belonging to the temple, and is said to have covered a space of more than fourteen acres. It entirely surrounded the other courts and the temple itself; and in going up to the temple from its east or outer gate, one would cross first this court, then the court of the Women, then that of Israel, and lastly that of the Priests. This outmost court was separated from the court of the women by a wall three cubits high of lattice work, and having inscriptions on its pillars forbidding Gentiles and unclean persons to pass beyond it, on pain of death, Acts 21:28 Ephesians 2:13,14 . From this court of the Gentiles our Savior drove the persons who had established a cattle-market in it, for the purpose of supplying those with sacrifices who came from a distance, Matthew 21:12-13 . We must not overlook the beautiful pavement of variegated marble, and the "porches" or covered walks, with columns supported magnificent galleries, with which this court was surrounded. Those on the east, west, and north sides were of the same dimensions; but that on the south was much larger. The porch called Solomon's John 10:23 Acts 3:11 , was on the east side or front of this court, and was so called because it was built by this prince, upon a high wall rising from the alley of Kidron. The "court of the Women," called in Scripture the "new court," 2 Chronicles 20:5 , and the "outer court," Ezekiel 46:21 , separated the court of the Gentiles from the court of Israel, extending along the east side only of the latter. It was called the court of the women because it was their appointed place of worship, beyond which they might not go, unless when they brought a sacrifice, in which case they went forward to the court of Israel. The gate which led into this court from that of the Gentiles, was "the Beautiful gate" of the temple, mentioned in Acts 3:2,10 ; so called, because the folding doors, lintel, and side-posts were all overlaid with Corinthian brass. The worshipper ascended to its level by a broad flight of steps. It was in this court of the women, called the "treasury," that our Savior delivered his striking discourse to the Jews, related in John 8:1-20 . It was into this court also that the Pharisee and the publican went to pray, Luke 18:10-13 , and hither the lame man followed Peter and John, after he was cured- the court of the women being the ordinary place of worship for those who brought no sacrifice, Acts 3:8 . From thence, after prayers, he went back with them, through the "Beautiful gate" of the temple, where he had been lying, and through the sacred fence, into the court of the Gentiles, where, under the eastern piazza, or Solomon's porch, Peter preached Christ crucified. It was in the same court of the women that the Jews laid hold of Paul, when they judged him a violator of the temple by taking Gentiles within the sacred fence, Acts 21:26-29 . The "court of Israel" was separated from the court of the women by a wall thirty-two and a half cubits high on the outside, but on the inside only twenty-five. The reason of which difference was, that as the rock on which the temple stood became higher on advancing westward, the several courts naturally became elevated in proportion. The ascent into this court from the east was by a flight of fifteen steps, of a semicircular form, and the magnificent gate Nicanor. On these steps the Levites stood in singing the "songs of degrees." The whole length of the court from east to west was one hundred and eighty-seven cubits, and the breadth from north to south, one hundred and thirty-five cubits. In this court, and the piazza which surrounded it, the Israelites stood in solemn and reverent silence while their sacrifices were burning in the inner court, and while the services of the sanctuary were performed, Luke 1:8-11,21,22 . Within this court, and surrounded by it, was the "court of the Priests;" one hundred and sixty-five cubits long and one hundred and nineteen cubits wide, and raised two and a half cubits above the surrounding court, from which it was separated by pillars and a railing. Within this court stood the brazen altar on which the sacrifices were consumed, the molten sea in which the priests washed, and the ten brazen lavers for washing the sacrifices; also the various utensils and instruments for sacrificing, which are enumerated in 2 Chronicles 4:1-22 . It is necessary to observe here, that although the court of the Priests was not accessible to all Israelites, as that of Israel was to all the priests, yet they might enter it for three several purposes: to lay their hands on the animals which they offered, or to kill them, or to wave some part of them. From the court of the Priests, the ascent to the temple was by a flight of twelve steps, each half a cubit in height, which led into the sacred porch. Of the dimensions of this in Solomon's temple, as also of the Sanctuary and Holy of Holies, we have already spoken. It was within the door of the porch, and in the sight of those who stood in the courts immediately before it, that the two pillars, Jachiin and Boaz, were placed, 2 Chronicles 3:17 Ezekiel 40:49 . The temple of Solomon retained its pristine splendor but thirtythree years, when it was plundered by Shishak king of Egypt, 1 Kings 14:25,26 2 Chronicles 12:9 . After this period it underwent sundry profanities and pillages from Hazael, Tiglath-pileser, Sennacherib, etc., 2 Kings 12:1-21 16:1-20 18:1-37 ; and was at length utterly destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, B. C. 588, after having stood according to Usher, four hundred and twenty-four years, three months, and eight days. After lying in ruins for fifty-two years, the foundations of the second temple were laid by Zerubbabel, and the Jews who had availed themselves of the privilege granted by Cyrus and returned to Jerusalem, Ezra 1:1-4 2:1 3:8-10 . After various hindrances, it was finished and dedicated twenty-one years after it was begun, B. C. 515, Ezra 6:15-16 . The dimensions of this temple in breadth and height were double those of Solomon's. The weeping of the people at the laying of the foundation, therefore, Ezra 3:12-13 , and the disparaging manner in which they spoke of it, when compared with he first one, Haggai 2:3 , were occasioned by its inferiority not in size, but in glory. It wanted the five principal things which could invest it with this: namely, the ark and mercy seat, the divine presence or visible glory, the holy fire on the altar, the urim and thummin, and the Spirit of prophecy. In the year B. C. 163, this temple was plundered and profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, who ordered the discontinuance of the daily sacrifice, offered swine's flesh upon the altar, and completely suspended the worship of Jehovah. Thus it continued for three years, when it was repaired and purified by Judas Maccabaeus, who restored the divine worship, and dedicated it anew. Herod, having slain all the Sanhedrim, except two, in the first year of his reign, B. C. 37, resolved to atone for it by rebuilding and beautifying the temple. This he was the more inclined to do, both from the peace which he enjoyed, and the decayed state of the edifice. After employing two years in preparing the materials for the work, the temple of Zerubbabel was pulled down, B. C. 17, and fortysix years before the first Passover of Christ's ministry. Although this temple was fit for divine service in nine years and a half, yet a great number of laborers and artificers were still employed in carrying on the outbuildings all the time of our Savior's abode on earth. His presence fulfilled the predictions in Haggai 2:9 Malachi 3:1 . The temple of Herod was considerably larger than that of Zerubbabel, as that of Zerubbabel was larger than Solomon's. For whereas the second temple was seventy cubits long, sixty broad, and sixty high, this was one hundred cubits long, seventy broad, and one hundred high. The porch was raised to the height of one hundred cubits, and was extended fifteen cubits beyond each side of the rest of the building. All the Jewish writers praise this temple exceedingly for its beauty and the costliness of its workmanship. It was built of white marble, exquisitely wrought, and with stones of large dimensions, some of them twenty-five cubits long, eight cubits high, and twelve cubits thick. To these there is no doubt a reference in Mark 13:1 Luke 21:5 : "And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones, and what buildings are here!" Luke says, "goodly stones." See a description of the ornaments of one of its gates under VINE . This splendid building, which rose like a mount of gold and of snow, and was once the admiration and envy of the world, has forever passed away. According to our blessed Lord's prediction, that "there should not be left one stone upon another that should not be thrown down," Mark 13:2 , the whole structure above ground was completely demolished by the Roman soldiers, under Titus, A. D. 70. The temple area is now occupied by two Turkish mosques, into which, until recently, neither Jew nor Christian was permitted to enter. Beneath the vast area of El-Haram still exist immense arched ways and vaults of unknown date; also a large and deep well, and other indications that the temple always possessed a copious and perennial supply of water, derived perhaps in part from Gihon by Hezekiah's aqueduct, and in part from Solomon's pools, and flowing off through the fountain of the Virgin and the pool of Siloam. In the outer walls of the present area are seen at several places stones of vast size, evidently belonging to the ancient walls. Near the southwest corner certain huge stones mark the beginning of an arch, a part of the stately bridge which anciently connected the temple are with Mount Zion; and a little north of this spot is the celebrated wailing-place of the Jews. See WALL. In the time of the kings, a regular guard of Levites was always on duty at the temple, 1 Chronicles 26:1-32 2 Chronicles 23:19 . During the supremacy of the Romans there was a Roman garrison in the strong tower of Antonia, which, with its various courts and fortifications, adjoined the temple area on the north, and was connected with it by passages both above and under ground, John 18:12 Acts 4:1 5:26 21:31-40 . The utmost veneration and love were always cherished towards the temple by pious Jews, Psalm 84:1-12 . All the people also, from various motives, gloried in it, many with a bigoted and idolatrous regard. Hence the charge of blaspheming the temple, which was found the most effectual means of enraging the populace against Christ and his followers, Matthew 26:61 27:40 John 2:19,20 Acts 6:13 21:27-30 .

TEM'PLE, n. L. templum. 1. A public edifice erected in honor of some deity. Among pagans, a building erected to some pretended deity, and in which the people assembled to worship. Originally, temples were open places, as the Stonehenge in England. In Rome, some of the temples were open, and called sacella others were roofed, and called oedes. The most celebrated of the ancient pagan temples were that of Belus in Babylon, that of Vulcan at Memphis, that of Jupiter at Thebes, that of Diana at Ephesus, that of Apollo in Miletus,that of Jupiter Olympius in Athens, and that of Apollo at Delphi. The most celebrated and magnificent temple erected to the true God, was that built by Solomon in Jerusalem. In Scripture, the tabernacle is sometimes called by this name. 1 Samuel 1-3 . 2. A church an edifice erected among christians as a place of public worship. Can he whose life is a perpetual insult to the authority of God, enter with any pleasure a temple consecrated to devotion and sanctified by prayer? 3. A place in which the divine presence specially resides the church as a collective body. Ephesians 2 4. In England,the Temples are two inns of court, thus called because anciently the dwellings of the knights Templars. They are called the Inner and the Middle Temple. TEM'PLE, n. L. tempus, tempora. The primary sense of the root of this word is to fall. See Time. 1. Literally, the fall of the head the part where the head slopes from the top. 2. In anatomy, the anterior and lateral part of the head, where the skull is covered by the temporal muscles. TEM'PLE, To build a temple for to appropriate a temple to. Little used.

1: εἰδωλεῖον (Strong's #1493 — Noun Neuter — eidolion — i-do-li'-on ) an "idol's temple," is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 8:10 ; feasting in the temple usually followed the sacrifice.