1 Kings 6:1-38

The Construction of the Temple

In shape the Temple was a rectangular hall 60 x 20 x 30 cubits (a cubit being about 18 inches). On its E. face it had a porch (forming an entrance) which extended across the whole front and added 10 cubits to the length of the building (1 Kings 6:3). The height of this is given in 2 Chronicles 3:4 as 120 cubits; but such a measurement is out of all proportion to the others, and is probably an error (one of the MSS of the LXX substitutes 20 cubits). On three sides of the house were built a number of chambers (Josephus says 30) in three storeys (1 Kings 6:5; 1 Kings 6:10), intended for the accommodation of the priests and for storing things required for the Temple services: cp. 2 Kings 11:2; Nehemiah 13:4 (of the Second Temple). The beams that supported the cielings of these storeys rested on ledges in the outer face of the Temple wall formed by successive reductions of its thickness (1 Kings 6:6). Above the topmost row of chambers the Temple wall was pierced with windows of narrow lights (RV 'windows of fixed lattice work,' i.e. which could not be opened like most lattices), resembling the clerestory of a modern cathedral. In the interior, the building was divided by a partition (see 1 Kings 6:16) into two apartments, the larger (to the E.) being called the Holy Place, and the smaller (to the W.) being styled the Oracle or Most Holy Place, which bore to one another the same relation as the nave and chancel of our own churches.

Solomon's Temple resembled in general plan the Tabernacle as described in Exodus 25-27, its length and breadth being exactly double. In idea, it was, like the Tabernacle, the dwelling-place of the God of Israel (see 1 Kings 8:18, and cp. Exodus 25:8), wherein He received, and held communion with, His worshippers (2 Kings 19:14., cp. Exodus 33:7). But it differed from most other sanctuaries of antiquity in containing no image; so that though the conception of divine worship had not yet become independent of locality or material oblations (see John 4:21), the conception of the Deity Himself was purely spiritual.

In the Holy of Holies (the Presence chamber of the Divine King) there was nothing except the ark (containing the Decalogue), the cover of which was regarded as the throne of the Lord, who was thought of as seated between the cherubim that overshadowed it (2 Kings 19:15). In the Holy Place there were situated the Altar of Incense and the Table of Shewbread. In the court before the House stood the Altar of Burnt Offerings and the several vessels used by the priests in their ablutions (1 Kings 7:23.).