A Reconstruction by Willy Logan
Solomon's
Temple
The Temple Dimensions
The Temple's Architecture
Sea of Brass
Brass Pillars
The Reconstruction Model
Conclusion
Notes and Sources
The Temple Dimensions
The Temple's Architecture
Sea of Brass
Brass Pillars
The Reconstruction Model
Conclusion
Notes and Sources
The first temple in Jerusalem was
built by Solomon son of David, third
king of the Jews,
commonly regarded as the wisest man who ever lived. The temple was
constructed on
the Temple Mount (or Mount Moriah) in Jerusalem, the hill which Jewish
tradition states Abraham climbed with the intent of sacrificing his
son Isaac. (It was only a test of Abraham: he was stopped before
carrying out the deed. The story is found in Genesis 22.) The temple
was the most expensive and extravagant building project undertaken by
the ancient
kingdom of Israel. The Temple was built in
seven years, and furnished inside out with the most immaculate
decorations. For 400 years, the Temple stood as a symbol of the
covenant between the people of Israel and their God.
Solomon's Temple was built almost 3,000 years ago, and today no remains are known to exist. The best description of the Temple comes from the first book of Kings, which I think was written no more than a few decades after the construction of the Temple. The description is vague at best, so reconstructions are necessarily speculative. I know of two other descriptions from antiquity: II Chronicles and Flavius Josephus' The Antiquities of the Jews. These are more recent sources, and I did not consult them. I also did not consult archaeological finds of pagan temples from that era and region; the design of Solomon's Temple and pagan temples may have influenced each other.
The dimensions in I Kings are given in cubits, or the distance from the tip of a man's finger to his elbow. I set this at the arbitrary value of 50 cm.
"The house which king Solomon built for Yahweh," the writer of I Kings begins, "its length was sixty cubits, and its breadth twenty cubits, and its height thirty cubits."1 I assume these are the combined inner dimensions of the two main rooms: the sancuary, and the most holy place (where the Ark of the Covenant was kept).
Continuing forth, we find that the portico (called "vestibule" or "porch" in various translations) was twenty cubits along the width of the "house" (as in, the two inner rooms), and "ten cubits was its breadth before the house."2 I take this to mean that the vestibule is ten cubits in length, and that it is ten cubits wider than the rest of the temple on either side. This seems also to have been a feature of Herod's Temple, built close to 1000 years later.
Furthermore, "Against the wall of the house" were built "chambers all around," enclosing both the outer and inner sanctuaries.3 There were three levels of chambers, the lowest five cubits wide, the middle six, and the highest seven.4 The lower rooms were smaller so as to accomodate the thicker masonry needed to support their weight and the weight of the floors above them. Each chamber was five cubits high.5
The outer sanctuary was forty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.6
Finally, the Most Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies, is a perfect cube: twenty cubits in each direction.7 It is not stated whether the Most Holy Place was on the same level as the Sanctuary, or ten cubits higher, so as to make the roof level. A law in Exodus gives a hint in this regard: Moses is commanded, "Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed to it."8 Does the Most Holy Place count as an altar? I think so. (Apparently, ancient Israelites did not make regular use of loincloths.)
The temple was built of three principal materials: stone (probably marble), cedar (from Lebanon), and cypress. The stone was prepared at the quarry, so that no noises of clanging hammers and chisels would be heard at the sacred Temple site.9 Cypress held up the roof; cedar covered the interior floor, walls, and ceiling.
A reasonable amount of detail is provided in I Kings about the Temple and its furnishings. Much of it was carved wood, overlaid with gold. Figures of cherubim (angels?), palm trees, and open flowers are mentioned.10 Inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant, which had been sculpted several centuries earlier, shortly after the Exodus from Egypt. Above the Ark of the Covenant were two gilded cherubim, each ten cubits wide, with their wings stretched over the Ark.11 The High Priest was the only person who entered the Holy of Holies, and he did so only once a year, on the Day of Atonement.
My model includes includes triangular crenelations, a feature borrowed from Babylonian architecture.
Casting in brass, an art that was lost in the Middle Ages, was used extensively during the construction of Solomon's Temple. The work was executed by a man from Tyre, named Huram.12 One piece of his work was the Sea of Brass, which stood in the courtyard in front of the temple. It was five cubits tall, ten cubits across, and 30 cubits in circumference.13 The last measurement has puzzled biblical scholars for ages. If the Sea of Brass were ten cubits in diameter, then should it not be about 31.4 cubits in circumference? This would hold if the Sea were circular. But, the writer of I Kings also informs us that the Sea of Brass was shaped "...like a lily blossom."14 Lilies all have six petals, and form a hexagonal shape. Were the Sea of Bronze hexagonal, then a maximum diameter of 10 cubits would yield a peripheral length of 30 cubits.
The basin sat on the back of twelve oxen. A group of three each pointed each of the four cardinal directions.15 All around, the Sea was richly ornamented with buds of flowers.16
Two massive brass pillars, also built by Huram, stood before the façade. The were 18 cubits tall and 12 cubits in circumference.17 Each pillar had a five-cubit capital of cast bronze, set "on the tops of the pillars."18 If the height of these capitals are added to the height of the pillars, then each pillar is 23 cubits tall.
Each capital was decorated with seven chains and 200 pomegranates.19 Like the Sea of Brass, the capitals were shaped like lilies, each with a "diameter" of 4 cubits.20 The left pillar was named Boaz; the right, Jachin.21
Symbolic pillars were apparently not an innovation in Solomon's Temple. God mentions pagan pillars to Moses on Mt. Sinai: "Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the midst of you: but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim; for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."22
I built the model over a span of about two weeks, in June 2003. The Temple and section of the Temple Mount are made of layered sections of styrene foam, covered with plaster. The crenelations were cut from sheet styrene and tediously glued on by hand. The brass pillars are featureless sections of aluminum rod; the Sea of Brass was sculpted from plaster. I painted the entire model with enamel and acrylic model paints. The gold and bronze paint colors were metal flake. Lastly, I gave the temple several coats of pearl gloss paint to give the impression of white marble.
The Temple's history was troubled at best. After 400 years and numerous desecrations, the Temple was destroyed by the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The treasures of gold and brass were broken apart and carried off to Babylon, along with thousands of slaves. The Ark of the Covenant was lost.
Following the exile in Babylon, the Temple was rebuilt twice, first by Zerubbabel, and again by the cruel and extravagant Herod the Great. This second rebuilding is the subject of the second part of this narrative.
Solomon's Temple was built almost 3,000 years ago, and today no remains are known to exist. The best description of the Temple comes from the first book of Kings, which I think was written no more than a few decades after the construction of the Temple. The description is vague at best, so reconstructions are necessarily speculative. I know of two other descriptions from antiquity: II Chronicles and Flavius Josephus' The Antiquities of the Jews. These are more recent sources, and I did not consult them. I also did not consult archaeological finds of pagan temples from that era and region; the design of Solomon's Temple and pagan temples may have influenced each other.
The dimensions in I Kings are given in cubits, or the distance from the tip of a man's finger to his elbow. I set this at the arbitrary value of 50 cm.
"The house which king Solomon built for Yahweh," the writer of I Kings begins, "its length was sixty cubits, and its breadth twenty cubits, and its height thirty cubits."1 I assume these are the combined inner dimensions of the two main rooms: the sancuary, and the most holy place (where the Ark of the Covenant was kept).
Continuing forth, we find that the portico (called "vestibule" or "porch" in various translations) was twenty cubits along the width of the "house" (as in, the two inner rooms), and "ten cubits was its breadth before the house."2 I take this to mean that the vestibule is ten cubits in length, and that it is ten cubits wider than the rest of the temple on either side. This seems also to have been a feature of Herod's Temple, built close to 1000 years later.
Furthermore, "Against the wall of the house" were built "chambers all around," enclosing both the outer and inner sanctuaries.3 There were three levels of chambers, the lowest five cubits wide, the middle six, and the highest seven.4 The lower rooms were smaller so as to accomodate the thicker masonry needed to support their weight and the weight of the floors above them. Each chamber was five cubits high.5
The outer sanctuary was forty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.6
Finally, the Most Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies, is a perfect cube: twenty cubits in each direction.7 It is not stated whether the Most Holy Place was on the same level as the Sanctuary, or ten cubits higher, so as to make the roof level. A law in Exodus gives a hint in this regard: Moses is commanded, "Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed to it."8 Does the Most Holy Place count as an altar? I think so. (Apparently, ancient Israelites did not make regular use of loincloths.)
 |
Three-view
of Solomon's Temple. |
 |
Looking down on the Temple Mount. |
 |
Side view. |
 |
Front view. |
 |
The three stories of "chambers all around" are visible. |
The temple was built of three principal materials: stone (probably marble), cedar (from Lebanon), and cypress. The stone was prepared at the quarry, so that no noises of clanging hammers and chisels would be heard at the sacred Temple site.9 Cypress held up the roof; cedar covered the interior floor, walls, and ceiling.
A reasonable amount of detail is provided in I Kings about the Temple and its furnishings. Much of it was carved wood, overlaid with gold. Figures of cherubim (angels?), palm trees, and open flowers are mentioned.10 Inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant, which had been sculpted several centuries earlier, shortly after the Exodus from Egypt. Above the Ark of the Covenant were two gilded cherubim, each ten cubits wide, with their wings stretched over the Ark.11 The High Priest was the only person who entered the Holy of Holies, and he did so only once a year, on the Day of Atonement.
My model includes includes triangular crenelations, a feature borrowed from Babylonian architecture.
 |
The crenelations on the ascending levels of the Temple. |
Casting in brass, an art that was lost in the Middle Ages, was used extensively during the construction of Solomon's Temple. The work was executed by a man from Tyre, named Huram.12 One piece of his work was the Sea of Brass, which stood in the courtyard in front of the temple. It was five cubits tall, ten cubits across, and 30 cubits in circumference.13 The last measurement has puzzled biblical scholars for ages. If the Sea of Brass were ten cubits in diameter, then should it not be about 31.4 cubits in circumference? This would hold if the Sea were circular. But, the writer of I Kings also informs us that the Sea of Brass was shaped "...like a lily blossom."14 Lilies all have six petals, and form a hexagonal shape. Were the Sea of Bronze hexagonal, then a maximum diameter of 10 cubits would yield a peripheral length of 30 cubits.
The basin sat on the back of twelve oxen. A group of three each pointed each of the four cardinal directions.15 All around, the Sea was richly ornamented with buds of flowers.16
 |
The Sea of Brass from the reconstruction model. |
Two massive brass pillars, also built by Huram, stood before the façade. The were 18 cubits tall and 12 cubits in circumference.17 Each pillar had a five-cubit capital of cast bronze, set "on the tops of the pillars."18 If the height of these capitals are added to the height of the pillars, then each pillar is 23 cubits tall.
Each capital was decorated with seven chains and 200 pomegranates.19 Like the Sea of Brass, the capitals were shaped like lilies, each with a "diameter" of 4 cubits.20 The left pillar was named Boaz; the right, Jachin.21
Symbolic pillars were apparently not an innovation in Solomon's Temple. God mentions pagan pillars to Moses on Mt. Sinai: "Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the midst of you: but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim; for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."22
 |
The free-standing pillars in front of the Temple. |
I built the model over a span of about two weeks, in June 2003. The Temple and section of the Temple Mount are made of layered sections of styrene foam, covered with plaster. The crenelations were cut from sheet styrene and tediously glued on by hand. The brass pillars are featureless sections of aluminum rod; the Sea of Brass was sculpted from plaster. I painted the entire model with enamel and acrylic model paints. The gold and bronze paint colors were metal flake. Lastly, I gave the temple several coats of pearl gloss paint to give the impression of white marble.
 |
The back of the Temple. |
 |
An aerial view of the Temple. |
 |
The façade. |
The Temple's history was troubled at best. After 400 years and numerous desecrations, the Temple was destroyed by the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The treasures of gold and brass were broken apart and carried off to Babylon, along with thousands of slaves. The Ark of the Covenant was lost.
Following the exile in Babylon, the Temple was rebuilt twice, first by Zerubbabel, and again by the cruel and extravagant Herod the Great. This second rebuilding is the subject of the second part of this narrative.
Notes
Sources
In print:1
I Kings 6:2
2 v.3
3 v.5
4 v.6
5 v.10
6 v.17
7 v.20
8 Exodus 20:26
9 I Kings 6:7
10 v.29
11 v.23-28
12 I Kings 7:13-14
13 v.23
14 v.26
15 v.25
16 v.24,26
17 v.15
18 v.16
19 v.17,20
20 v.19
21 v.21
22 Exodus 34:12-14
2 v.3
3 v.5
4 v.6
5 v.10
6 v.17
7 v.20
8 Exodus 20:26
9 I Kings 6:7
10 v.29
11 v.23-28
12 I Kings 7:13-14
13 v.23
14 v.26
15 v.25
16 v.24,26
17 v.15
18 v.16
19 v.17,20
20 v.19
21 v.21
22 Exodus 34:12-14
Sources
- The Seveth-day Adventist Bible Commentary. Review and Herald Publishing, Washington, DC, 1979.
- Dann McCreary, "Solomon's Sea of Brass."
- World English Bible, from Wikisource.
willy@wilhelm-aerospace.org
I Kings 6:12, 13