Harold Stigers

Furnishings of the Temple of Solomon

by

The furnishings of the sanctuary proper and its surrounding courts all contributed to the grandeur of the worship of the Lord. The sanctuary proper, including the Holy of Holies, contained the ark of the covenant, the lampstands the altar of incense, and the table of shewbread. The great altar of sacrifice stood in the court, outside the sanctuary, together with the bronze sea.

The Sanctuary Furnishings

The ark, with its mercy seat, from the tabernacle, was placed at the back of the Holy of Holies, under the cherubim, which were made of olive wood (1 Kings 6:23–27) and were gold plated. These were ten cubits high, and their wings extended to ten cubits, half the width of the room. They functioned symbolically as guardians of the way to God, solemnizing the heart of the worshiper in this approach to God. Their faces were turned toward the dividing partition. They were composite figures well known to the people of that day, requiring no description of their form. They may have been similar to the four-faced cherubim of Ezekiel and were usually represented with hands and feet, therefore having a basic human body.

In the Holy Place, before the door to the Holy of Holies, was placed the altar of incense (1 Kings 6:20; 7:48; cf. Exod. 30:1–10), probably new and made of cedar, since it was overlaid with gold. Presumably, the table for the shewbread was also new, overlaid with gold, and placed on the right side of the room as in the tabernacle (cf. Exod. 40:22). In this room were the ten candlesticks (or lampstands, RSV), five on the right side and five on the left, all of gold, with their oil cups and ornamentation, to give light in the Holy Place (1 Kings 7:49).

Before the temple, on the platform surrounding the temple, stood the two brass pillars, Jachin and Boaz; Jachin means “sustainer,” stressing the positive side of God’s character, and Boaz means “smiter,” giving the negative aspect of the character of Yahweh as keeper of Israel.

It is questionable that these pillars were for incense burning since their height would make it difficult to reach their tops to replenish the incense. They were approximately four cubits in diameter and eighteen cubits high (1 Kings 7:15) for the shaft, with chapters (capitals, RSV) five cubits high on each. The chronicler (2 Chron. 3:15) gives the total height of both pillars as 35 cubits, apparently just the shaft length. The additional cubit of length most likely was a separate, cast base similar to some that have been found. The capitals are described as “in the shape of lilies” (1 Kings 7:19) and having a bowl-shaped member (1 Kings 7:42; cf. 7:20, belly); lily petals were below, four cubits broad (1 Kings 7:19), probably set downward as examples from this period show. Second Kings 25:17 states them to be three cubits high, but this refers to the chain network; it would appear that this measurement refers to the upper portion of the capital, leaving two cubits for the height of the lily decoration.

The bowls (1 Kings 7:41) had a network (checker work, 1 Kings 7:17) of chains supporting two rows of pomegranates. The chains were seven in number (1 Kings 7:17) and were divided, that is, four chains draped down from the center point at the top and three strands set around the bowl with the pomegranates attached to the bottom strand, fastened one below the other.

Furnishings in the Temple Courts

The prominent feature of the court was the molten sea (1 Kings 7:23), ten cubits in diameter, 30 cubits in circumference, and five cubits high—thus bowl-shaped, with sides about as thick as the hand, and containing two thousand “baths” (1 Kings 7:24–26; 2 Chron. 4:5 gives the number as three thousand “baths”). The figures are possible if one assumes (Ezek. 41:8) the use of the great cubit (royal cubit). On this basis the capacity would have been about ten thousand gallons, using the usual formula for spherical volume. In Chronicles, another method of computation seems to have been used, the volume of a cylinder, which in this case turns out to be three thousand baths. Thus the problem is one of the methods by which the writers viewed the shape of the sea, not an essential contradiction in the text. The sea was located in the altar court to the southeast (2 Chron. 4:10).

The rim was finished off with the petal (lily) work familiar from the pillar capitals. It also had knops (1 Kings 7:24), or knobs, under the brim in two rows of ten per cubit. The sea stood on a base composed of twelve oxen in sets of three, one set toward each of the compass points (1 Kings 7:25). These corresponded to the twelve tribes of Israel bearing the sanctifying witness of God.

The wheeled stands for movable lavers (1 Kings 7:27ff. RSV) were ten in number, formed of boxes four cubits square and three cubits high, the sides made up of divided panels and having ornamental work. The boxes were worked onto short columns (undersetters, 1 Kings 7:30 KJV), to which axles were attached for wheels one and one-half cubits in diameter. The wheels were like chariot wheels, six-spoked as archaeological remains show. As indicated in 1 Kings 7:34, the undersetters extended upward to form the corners of the boxes. The plates of 1 Kings 7:30 were parts of the sides of the box.

Into the stands at the top were fitted lavers containing the water for washing the sacrificial animals (2 Chron. 4:6), for the great laver (sea) was for the ablutions of the priests. These lavers held about forty baths or two hundred gallons of water. They could be moved about as the washings required. Normally they were distributed five on the north side and five on the south side of the court before the temple. In addition, there were ten tables (2 Chron. 4:8) for the flaying of the sacrifices brought by the people. These were placed in the same court as the lavers, probably five on each side.

The focal point in the court was the great brass altar (2 Chron. 4:1). It was twenty cubits square and ten cubits high. Its transportation from the Jordan required its sides to be of panel construction with corner pieces and a grate through which the ashes could fall; some method for removing these also was provided, either by the removal of the grating or through the side panels. Ezekiel’s description (Ezek. 43:13ff.) does not shed much light on the Solomonic altar because too many events occurred between.

Other implements are listed (1 Kings 7:38ff.; 2 Chron. 4:6, 19ff.).There were basins for water and basins to catch the blood of sacrifices, tongs, picks, snuffers, spoons of one sort or another with which to ladle and handle the meat offerings, as well as flat implements such as cake turners for cooking the cake offerings. Likewise, the incense containers for the priests are listed.

The Courts Surrounding the Temple

Little is said in Kings or Chronicles concerning the courts surrounding the temple building. First Kings 6:36 lists an inner court, which, due to the slope of the site, was the upper court (Jer. 36:10 RSV). The latter was formed by an enclosing wall of three courses of cut stone and a row of cedar beams to tie it together (cf. 2 Chron. 4:9, the court of the priests). With the temple on a base of six cubits, the whole presented a terraced scene exposing the temple building for an easy view of its imposing character. The great court, or outer court (1 Kings 7:9, 12), enclosed both the temple and the palace works of Solomon.

The outer court was accessed through gates; though they are not specifically listed, the door leaves for them are enumerated (2 Chron. 4:9). From the outer court, the inner court was also accessed by gates to which the layperson had access (Jer. 36:10). Ezekiel 44:1 mentions the east gate, and because of the departure and return of the glory of God from this gate, it was the principal gate to the outer court of the temple, probably the gate of 2 Chronicles 4:9. Between the temple court (inner) and Solomon’s palace, there was access from the palace court to the inner court through a gate, presumably in the south wall of the inner court, the gate of the guard (2 Kings 11:19). A north gate also existed, known as Sur (2 Kings 11:6).

Purpose of the Temple of Solomon

by

The temple as the focal point of Israelite worship served as a protection against idolatry. It stood for the covenant between the Lord and Israel and was the place where God might be approached in celebration and propitiation.

The outstanding feature of the Solomonic temple is that there was no idol in it, only the mercy seat over the ark and the cherubim overshadowing the mercy seat, declaring to the world that idols are unnecessary to define the presence of God or his sanctity. Because the lightless room could only be reached through a specific ritual, at a specified annual time, for the purpose of making reconciliation for the people, the “house of Yahweh” in Jerusalem was not considered a cosmic house of God but emphasized the way of salvation to the penitent and assured to them the grace of God for their joy and blessing (1 Kings 8:27–30). God was not localized or in any sense conveyed by an image, either Egyptian, Babylonian, or Canaanite, nor bound to any other form such as the ark. The temple, therefore, was not necessary because of God’s nature; he had no need of it (Acts 7:48–49). It was an accommodation to the limitations and needs of his people (1 Kings 8:27–30).

That contemporary peoples had temples is not sufficient grounds to justify the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem. Though David saw this lack as a problem (2 Sam. 7:2), it was not the reason for which David sought to build God’s house. A sufficient cause, among others, is that found in Deuteronomy 12, where the temple was to be a protective memorial for believing Israel, designed to turn their hearts away from the idols of their Palestinian contemporaries and provide them with an incentive (thus protective) not to practice the iniquities of the Canaanites, and with a memorial to the person of their God, who had delivered them from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the land of Canaan.

In addition to the practical good of centralized worship, a central cultic house was important to the covenant structure of Yahweh with Israel. The loyalty of Israel to Yahweh her God was expressed in the sacrifices and offerings that were presented at the temple. The high places of the various tribes divided the people and were disruptive of their loyalty to God; they diverted from him his rightful due as their Creator and Lord, and for this reason, the high places were roundly condemned. The temple thus became an affirmation by Israel of the covenant. The temple was needed to express clearly Israel’s attachment to the covenant. That David was not allowed to build the temple does not mean that Yahweh would not dwell in one, but rather that the time was not propitious (cf. 2 Sam. 7:5–7, 11; Deut. 12:11).

For Israel, the temple was to be the place where, particularly in three annual festivals, they were to rejoice before their God and remember his great blessings to them (Deut. 12:12). David was the recipient of centuries of this outlook and came to realize the need for this central sanctuary for unity among the people. Thus Israel’s temple in Jerusalem was from the first to differ from those of their contemporaries. Only the place God would choose was to be the center of their worship, where his judgments were to be sought, and where they were to remember particularly their deliverances (Deut. 26:1–3).

The selection of the place of dwelling for the name of Yahweh occurred during the peculiar happenings of David’s numbering the people (2 Sam. 24:1; 1 Chron. 21). On the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, David was commanded to set up an altar of propitiation to God to stay the plague. This was declared to be the house, that is, the temple, of God and the place of the (sole) altar of the people Israel (1 Chron. 22:1). It became the place of obedience and propitiation for Israel.

This sanctuary symbolized the hearing ear of God (1 Kings 8:27–29), the resort of the stranger (1 Kings 8:41–43), and the house of prayer for all people (Isa. 56:7), to the end that all nations of the earth should fear God (1 Kings 8:43). In the New Testament, it symbolized the body of Christ (John 2:18–21) as the obedient servant of God for propitiating God’s wrath on the sinner. Further, the temple as God’s dwelling place symbolizes the Christian as the dwelling place of God (1 Cor. 3:16).

In the early days of the church, Stephen, slain for his faith, was evidently going to declare that the people were putting the temple above God, forgetting that he did not really need a temple building in the sense of rooms of stone and wood (Acts 7:44–50; cf. Acts 17:24–25) but that he desired the believing heart of flesh (Ezek. 36:26–27) on which he could impress his law, that is, his nature, which would result in obedience and holiness of life. Thus the temple is mediatorial in all ages, justifying Stephen’s position.