II. The first temple was that of Solomon, for which materials were provided by David before his death. the temple was built, it originally comprehended the several mountains round about Jerusalem. Hence, God said to Abraham, "Take thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering, upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of,” Gen. xxii. 12. 1. It occupied one of the three eminences on which the city of Jerusalem was built, and which is well known to the Scripture reader as Mount Moriah. This name is differently explained by commentators. Its most literal meaning is "the 2. At the division of Judea among the twelve myrrh of Jehovah," or, "the bitterness of Je-tribes, it so happened that, small as the space on the hovah ;" but how to explain it of the mountains top of Moriah was, it became the property of two around Jerusalem is not so easy. Perhaps it tribes; for the greatest part of the temple courts referred to the productions for which the country was in the portion of Judah; and the altar, porch, around Jerusalem was famed, "the myrrh of Jeho- holy and most holy places, were in the portion of vah" meaning, in the Hebrew idiom, excellent Benjamin. In its original state the summit of myrrh. Be this as it may, the fact is certain, that Moriah was unequal, and its sides irregular; but the bitterness of Jehovah, God-man the mediator, it was a part of the ambition of the Jewish kings was afterwards experienced on these very moun- to have it levelled and extended;* insomuch that, tains; for the garden of Gethsemane, in which during the second temple, it formed a square he suffered such dreadful agony, was on one of of 500 cubits, or 304′ yards on each side, allowing, them; the places where he was mocked, scourged, as is commonly done, 21,888 inches to the cubit. and condemned, were on another; and Calvary, Almost the whole of this space was arched under where (while crucifying him) they offered him ground, to prevent the possibility of pollution from wine mingled with myrrh (Mark xv. 23), was on secret graves;t and it was surrounded by a wall a third. For though the term Moriah was after- of excellent stone 25 cubits, or 47 feet 7 inches wards confined to the particular hill on which high; without which lay a considerable extent of flat and gently-sloping ground, which was occupied by the buildings of the tower of Antonia, the than the former.' So that the words latter and former may gardens, and the public walks.‡ as well be construed with the glory as with this house. Accordingly, the Seventy have adopted this construction; and the context seems evidently to justify the propriety of their translation; for in the introductory part of this prophecy, the word first or former is manifestly applied to glory, and not to this house: "Who is left among you, that saw this house in her first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?" Hag. ii. 3. It is manifest, too, that in this passage, the term this house is not confined in its application to the house the Jews were then building, but is undeniably meant of Solomon's temple. Nor, indeed, is it generally necessary to render a house identically the same, according to the common acceptation of language, that it be built at one and the same time, and exactly of the same form and materials; it is sufficient, though it should have been rebuilt at different times successively, if it be erected still on the same site, and devoted to the same purpose. It is the house of God, the temple appropriated to divine worship at Jerusalem, which was intended by this house, whether built by Solomon, by the Jews under Zerubbabel, or by Herod. Were it otherwise, how could Solomon's temple be called this house, as it is in the passage just now cited? or how are we to understand the words (Ezek. v. 11-13) which the Jews are said to have spoken to the Persian officers, who demanded their authority for rebuilding the temple? "We are," say they, "the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded and set up. But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house. But Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God." Here it is plain that the words this house are alternately applied to the temple of Solomon and that built under Zerubbabel, and may certainly as well be extended to that of Herod.-Discourse preached before the University of Oxford, Nov. 9th, 1788, 4to., and reprinted in the Methodist Magazine, vol. v., third series, p. 515, &c. 3. The plan and the whole model of this structure was laid by the same divine architect as that of the tabernacle, viz., God himself; and it was built much in the same form as the tabernacle, The utensils only of much larger dimensions. 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 of the world 2992; and it was finished A. M. 3000, having occupied seven years and six months in the building. It was dedicated A. M. 3001, with peculiar solemnity, to the worship of Jehovah, who condescended to make it the place for the special manifestation of his glory, 2 Chron. V., vi., vii. 4. We have already said that 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 holy of holies, therefore, stood towards the west.|| * Lightfoot, Prospect of the Temple, chap. 1. + Ibid. Ibid., chap. ii. Brown's Jewish Antiq., vol. i., pp. 37--40. This, it will be perceived, was directly the reverse of the plan on which the heathen temples were built; these being so constructed that the worshippers should have their faces to the east. 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, being surrounded by spacious courts, chambers, and other apartments, much more extensive than the temple itself, which was never designed to hold a concourse of people-it was for the service of the Lord, and the priests were the only people employed in it. 5. As we possess only verbal descriptions of the temple of Solomon, it is impossible to obtain a very accurate idea of its relative parts and their respective proportions. Hence we must not feel surprised that no two writers who have undertaken to describe it, agree in their descriptions. The following account, which has been compiled with great care, may be sufficient to give us a general notion of the building. (1) The temple itself was seventy cubits long; the porch being ten cubits (1 Kings vi. 3), the holy place forty cubits (ver. 17), and the most holy place twenty cubits,* 2 Chron. iii. 8. The width of the porch, holy and most holy places, was twenty cubits (2 Chron. iii. 3); and the height over the holy and most holy places was thirty cubits (1 Kings vi. 2). The height of the porch was much greater than this, being no less than one hundred and twenty cubits (2 Chron. iii. 4), or four times the height of the rest of the building. To the north and south sides, and the west end of the holy and most holy places, or all round the edifice, from the back of the porch on the one side, to the back of the porch on the other side, certain buildings were attached, called side chambers, and consisting of three stories, each five cubits high (1 Kings vi. 10), and joined to the wall of the temple without. But what may seem singular is, that the lowest of these stories was five cubits broad on the floor; the second, six cubits; and the third, seven cubits; and yet the outer wall of the whole was upright, ver. 6. The reason of this was, that the wall of the temple, against which they leaned, had always a scarcement of a cubit at the height of every five cubits, to prevent the joists of these side chambers from being fixed in it. 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, ver. 4. Josephus * We have designedly omitted to notice the furniture of the temple, it having been already described in the account of the tabernacle. differs very materially from this in his account of the temple; for which we know not how to account, but by supposing that he has confounded the Scripture account of Solomon's temple with that of the temple after the captivity and of Herod.‡ (2) In noticing the several courts of the temple, we naturally begin with the outer one, which was called, (a) The court of the Gentiles, and into which persons of all nations were permitted to enter. The most common approach to this was by the east gate, which was the principal gate of the temple. It was by far the largest of all the courts pertaining to the sacred building, and comprised a space of 188,991 superficial cubits, or 14 English acres, 1 rood, 29 poles, and 13 yards; of which above two-thirds lay to the south of the temple. It was separated from the court of the women by a wall of three cubits high, of lattice-work, so that persons walking here might see through as well as over it.|| This wall, however, was not on a level with the court of which we are speaking, but was cut out of the rock six cubits above it, the ascent to which was by twelve steps. On pillars placed at equal distances in this wall, were inscriptions in Greek and Latin, to warn strangers, and such as were unclean, not to proceed further, on pain of death. § It was from this court that our Saviour drove the persons who had established a cattle-market, for the purpose of supplying those with sacrifices who came from a distance, Matt. xxi. 12, 13. We must not overlook the beautiful pavement of variegated marble, and the piazzas, or covered walks, 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 x. 23, Acts iii. 11) was on the south side or front of the temple, and was so called because it was built by this prince, upon a high wall of 400 cubits from the valley of Kedron. ** (b) The court of the women, called in Scripture the new court (2 Chron. xx. 5), and the outer court (Ezek. xlvi. 21), was so designated by the Jews, not because none but women were permitted to enter it, but because it was their appointed place of worship, beyond which they might not Antiquities, b. viii., c. 3. See Brown's Antiq., vol. i., pp. 149-152. which the Levites stood and sung the "Psalms of degrees" (cxx.-cxxxiv.) at the feast of tabernacles. This gate is spoken of under several appellations in the Old Testament; but in the time of our Saviour it was known as the gate Nicanor. It was here that the leper stood, to have his atonement made, and his cleansing completed. It was here they tried the suspected wife, by making her drink of the bitter water; and it was here also that women appeared after childbirth for purification. The whole length of the court, from east to west, was 187 cubits, and the breadth, from north to south, 135 cubits. This was divided into two parts; one of which was the court of the Israelites, and the other, the court of the priests. The former was a kind of piazza surrounding the latter, under which the Israelites stood, while their sacrifices were burning in the court of the priests. It had thirteen gates, with chambers above them, each of which had its particular name and use. § The space comprised in the court of the priests was 165 cubits long and 119 cubits wide, and was raised two cubits and a half above the surrounding court, from which it was separated by the pillars which supported the piazza, and the railing which was placed between them, 2 Kings xi. 8, 10. 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, and which are enumerated in 2 Chron. iv. go; unless when they brought a sacrifice, in which | being, that as the rock on which the temple stood case they went forward to the court of Israel. always became higher on advancing westward, The gate which led into this court, from that of the several courts naturally became elevated in the Gentiles, was the beautiful gate of the temple, proportion. The ascent into the court was by a mentioned Acts iii. 2; so called because the folding-flight of fifteen steps, of a semicircular form, on doors, lintel, and side-posts were all overlaid with Corinthian brass.* The court itself was 135 cubits square, having four gates, one on each side; and on three of its sides were piazzas, with galleries above them, whence could be seen what was passing in the great court.+ At the four corners of this court were four rooms, appropriated to different purposes, Ezek. xlvi. 21–24. In the first, the lepers purified themselves after they were healed; in the second, the wood for the sacrifices was laid up; the Nazarites prepared their oblations, and shaved their heads in the third; and in the fourth, the wine and oil for the sacrifices were kept. There were also two rooms more, where the Levites' musical instruments were laid up; and also thirteen treasure chests, two of which were for the half-shekel, which was paid yearly by every Israelite; and the rest for the money for the purchase of sacrifices and other oblations.+ It was in this court of the women, called the treasury, that our Saviour delivered his striking discourse to the Jews, related in John viii. 1-20. It was into this court, also, that the Pharisee and publican went to pray (Luke xviii. 10-13), and into which 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 iii. 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 delivered that sermon which converted five thousand. It was in the same court of the women that the Jews laid hold on Paul, when they judged him a violator of the temple, by taking Gentiles within the sacred fence, Acts xxi. 26, &c. In this court the high-priest, at the feast of expiation, read a portion of the law. Here also the king, on the sabbatical year, did the same at the feast of tabernacles.|| (c) The court of Israel was separated from the court of the women by a wall thirty-two cubits and a half high on that side, but on the other only twenty-five; the reason of the difference (d) 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 on three several occasions, viz., to lay their hands on the animals which they offered, or to kill them, or to wave some part of them. Their entrance, however, was not by the east gate, and through the place where the priests stood; but ordinarily by the north or south side of the court, according as the sacrifices were to be slain on the north or south sides of the altar. In general, it was a rule, that they never returned *Josephus, Ant., b. xv., c. 11; Wars, b. v., c. 5, 14. Lightfoot, Prospect of the Temple, chap. xviii. Ibid., chap. xix. Antiquities, b. xv., c. 11. Brown's Antiq, vol. i., sect. iv. For a description of these, see Lightfoot, Prospect of the Temple, chap. xxxiii., or Brown's Antiq., vol. i., s. v. Both the sea and the lavers were removed by Abaz, 2 Kings xvi. 17, 18. from this court by the same door that they entered, offered swine's flesh upon the altar, and completely Exod. xlvi. 9.* (3) 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, as also of the sanctuary and holy of holies, we have already spoken. We shall therefore only observe here, that 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, Jachin and Boaz, were placed, 2 Chron. iii. 17; Ezek. xl. 49. 5. The temple, thus described, retained its pristine splendour but 33 years, when it was plundered by Shishak, king of Egypt, 1 Kings xiv. 25, 26; 2 Chron. xii. 9. After this period, it underwent sundry profanations and pillages, and was at length utterly destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, A. M. 3416, B. C. 588, after having stood, according to Usher, 424 years, three months, and eight days. suspended the worship of Jehovah, 1 Mac. i. 62. Thus it continued for three years, when it was repaired and purified by Judas Maccabeus, who restored the divine worship, and dedicated it anew. IV. Herod, having slain all the Sanhedrin except two, in the first year of his reign, or thirtyseven years before Christ, 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. For, besides the common ravages of time, it had suffered considerably by the hands of enemies; since that part of Jerusalem was the strongest, and consequently the last resort of the inhabitants in times of extremity. After employing two years in preparing the materials for the work, in which a thousand wagons and ten thousand artificers were employed, besides a thousand priests to direct the works, the temple of Zerubbabel was pulled down, seventeen years before Christ, and forty-six years before the first passover of his ministry.|| Herod's temple was fit for divine service in nine years and a half; but a great number of labourers and artificers were still employed in carrying on the out-buildings, all the time of our Saviour's abode on earth, and even till the appointment of Gessius Florus as governor of Judea.§ III. After this sacred building had lain 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, returned to Jerusalem, Ezra i. 1–4, ii. 1, iii. 8-10. They had not proceeded far, however, before they were obliged to desist, on account of an order from Artaxerxes, king of Persia, which had been procured through the misrepresentations of the Samaritans and others, chap. iv. 1. During fifteen years the work stood still (ver. 24), but in the second year of Darius it was recommenced; and on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of Darius, it was finished and dedicated (Ezra vi. 15, 16), twenty-one years after it was begun, B. C. 515.+ 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 iii. 12, 13), and the diminutive manner in which they spoke of it, when compared with the first one (Hag. ii. 3), were not occasioned by its inferiority in size, but in glory. It wanted the five principal things of the former, viz., the ark and mercy-seat -the Divine Presence, or visible glory of the shechinah—the holy fire on the altar-the Urim and Thummim—and the spirit of prophecy. In 3. Of the several parts and courts of this temple the year A. M. 3837, this temple was plun- it is unnecessary that we should here speak. They dered and profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, who have been already described, with some little ordered the discontinuance of the daily sacrifice, *Lightfoot, Prospect of the Temple, chap. xxiii. Brown's Antiquities, vol. i., sect. vi. Lightfoot, Chronicle, in loco. 2. 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 70 cubits long, 60 broad, and 60 high; this was 100 cubits long, 70 broad, and 100 high. The porch was raised to the height of 100 cubits, and was extended 15 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; for it was built of white marble, exquisitely wrought, and with stones of large dimensions, some of them 25 cubits long, 8 cubits high, and 12 cubits thick. To these there is no doubt a reference in Mark xii. 1; Luke xxi. 5: “And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner (Luke, goodly) of stones, and what buildings are here!" Josephus, Antiq., b. xv., chap. i., xi.; Prideaux, A.A.C. 37. variation, in our account of the temple of Solo- | instructions, happened to say, "Destroy this tem 66 mon. We may add, however, that the vast sums ple, and in three days I will raise it up again" which Herod laid out in adorning this structure (John ii. 19); it was construed into a contempgave it the most magnificent and imposing form. tuous disrespect, designedly thrown out against the "Its appearance," says Josephus, "had every thing temple; his words instantly descended into the that could strike the mind, and astonish the sight. heart of a Jew, and kept rankling there for seveFor it was on every side covered with solid plates ral years; for upon his trial, this declaration, of gold, so that when the sun rose upon it, it which it was impossible for a Jew ever to forget reflected such a strong and dazzling effulgence, or to forgive, was alleged against him, as big with that the eye of the beholder was obliged to turn the most atrocious guilt and impiety, Matt. xxvi. away from it, being no more able to sustain its 61. Nor was the rancour and virulence which radiance than the splendour of the sun." To this expression had occasioned, at all softened by strangers who approached the capital, it appeared all the affecting circumstances of that excruciating at a distance like a huge mountain covered with and wretched death they saw him die; even as snow; for where it was not decorated with plates he hung upon the cross, with infinite triumph, of gold, it was extremely white and glistening.* scorn, and exultation, they upbraided him with it, The historian, indeed, says that the temple of contemptuously shaking their heads, and saying, Herod was the most astonishing structure he had O thou, who couldst demolish our TEMPLE, and ever seen or heard of, as well on account of its rear it up again, in all its splendour, in the space architecture as its magnitude, and likewise the of three days, do now save thyself, and descend richness and magnificence of its various parts, and from the cross!" Matt. xxvii. 40. Their superthe fame and reputation of its sacred appurte- stitious veneration for the temple further appears nances. And Tacitus calls it immenso opulentio from the account of Stephen. When his advertemplum a temple of immense opulence. Its saries were baffled and confounded by that suexternal glory, indeed, consisted not only in the perior wisdom and those distinguished gifts he opulence and magnificence of the building, but possessed, they were so exasperated at the victory also in the rich gifts with which it was adorned,† he had gained over them, that they went and and which excited the admiration of those who suborned persons to swear that they had heard beheld them, Luke xxi. 5. him speak blasphemy against Moses and against God. These inflaming the populace, the magistrates, and the Jewish clergy, he was seized, dragged away, and brought before the Sanhedrin. Here the false witnesses, whom they had procured, stood up, and said, "This person before you is continually uttering the most reproachful expressions against this SACRED PLACE" (Acts vi. 13), meaning the temple. This was blasphemy not to be pardoned. A judicature composed of high-priests and scribes would never forgive such impiety. We witness the same thing in the 4. This splendid building, however, which was once the admiration and envy of the world, has for ever 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 xiii. 2), it was completely demolished by the Roman soldiers, under Titus, A. D. 70, on the same month, and on the same day of the month, on which Solomon's temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.+ taken Trophimus, an Ephesian, with him into the temple, and for which insult they had determined to imbrue their hands in his blood, Acts xxi. 28, &c. V. Of the high veneration which the Jews cherished for their temple, Dr. Harwood has col-case of Paul, when they imagined that he had lected some interesting particulars from Philo, Josephus, and the writings of Luke. Their reverence for the sacred edifice was such, that, rather than witness its defilement, they would cheerfully submit to death. They could not bear the least 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 * Wars, b. v., chap. v. VI. We have only to add, that from several passages of Scripture it appears that the Jews had a body of soldiers who guarded the temple, to prevent any disturbance during the ministration of such an immense number of priests and Levites. To this body of men, whose office it was to guard the temple, Pilate probably referred, when he said to the chief-priests and Pharisees who waited on him to desire he would make the sepulchre § Harwood's Introduction, vol. ii., pp. 163-179 |