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Although we covered Solomon's Temple in broad strokes, a
few more details may help fill in the blanks of your imagination.
The ulam measured only 10 cubits or about 15 feet deep. There
is some question as to whether it was actually a room, or
something more akin to a divine front porch. Fronted on either
side by the two bronze pillars yachin and boaz which stood
roughly 35 feet high, the entrance facade was truly impressive.
The next room, the heikhal, measured 20 cubits wide and 40
deep (roughly 30 by 60 feet), rising to a height of 30 cubits.
It was the focal point of Temple ritual. On both the north
and south sides were 5 multi-spouted lamps with an incense
stand fronting the doorway to the devir or Holy of Holies.
The heikhal also included a special table overlaid in gold
where the twelve loaves of 'shewbread' were offered. Also
known as the 'bread of the Presence,' this offering included
12 unleavened loaves in two rows with frankincense in each
row. This offering would be changed every Sabbath, with the
priests eating the old loaves.
The devir formed a perfect cube, as noted in the main text,
measuring 20 cubits high, wide and deep.The winged cherubim
who enveloped the sacred Ark of the Covenant were not considered
deities per se by the priests but symbolic of divine protection
over the holiest objects on the planet from the Israelite
perspective: the Tablets of the Law. The concept of winged
lions with human heads a protective forces or demigods was
nothing new to Israel. One of the earliest examples (without
wings) was the Sphinx of the Giza Pyramid Fields, representing
the protective power of Chephren, the builder of the Second
Pyramid. An ivory relief from Megiddo depicts a king viewing
a victory procession where the king is seated on a throne
flanked on either side by a winged cherub with pharaonic human
head. This portrayal dates from the 14th Century BCE, fully
400 years before Solomon's Temple was built. Interestingly,
the cherub with Pharaoh's head remains the most popular cherub
motif right into the First Millenium BCE. Could it be that
the Ark of the Covenant was protected by winged figures with
heads that resembled Pharaoahs adorned with a nemes headdress.
As impossible as this may seem, considering the 'bad press'
Pharaoh gets every Passover, keep one thing in mind: Solomon,
who built the Temple, also concluded a peace treaty with Egypt,
and married one of Pharaoh's own daughters!
Wrapping around the heikhal and devir on three sides was
the yetsia, a functional, three-story storage area for Temple
equipment. It is just possible that one tiny item from this
area still survives. About ten years ago, a one-inch tall
ivory piece shaped in the form of a pomegranate gained international
attention when its discovery was announced to the world. Inscribed
on the side of the pomegranate was an inscription in archaic
Hebrew script typical of the later 8th Century BCE. Although
incomplete, its likely reconstruction is: "Holy to the
Priests, belonging to the T(emple of the Lor)d." The
word for "(Lor)d was the sacred four-letter name of God,
Y-H-W-H, but only the last letter was readable. This ivory
pomegranate could have been part of a priestly scepter or
perhaps one of many ivory pomegranates attached to the tassels
of priestly garments.
Is it actually the only surviving piece of equipment from
Solomon's Temple? Again, the answer is maybe. The reason for
the maybe is simple: it was illegally excavated and put on
the antiquities market. Its existence became public knowledge
when the Biblical Archaeology Review published an article
about it a decade ago. Professor Nahman Avigad of Hebrew University
and others blessed the inscription on the pomegranate as looking
genuine. In the end, an anonymous donor gave the Israel Museum
$550,000 to purchase the pomegranate from the anonymous owner.
It now resides in its own specially protected display case
in the Israel Museum. Since the pomegranate's provenance is
completely unknown, we can only guess its authenticity. Without
the critical information of the site and circumstances of
its discovery, this object may be the only object surviving
from Solomon's Temple, or a very good fake. While probably
genuine, a wealth of information could be added about this
object if we had the full, scientifically recorded context
of its discovery. Illegal excavation is an extremely common
practice in Israel and the rest of the Middle East. Many illegally
excavated objects find their way into the legal antiquities
market. Simply put, the illegal excavation of antiquities
is th e destruction of history.
Getting back to the Temple proper, there is one more essential
item to be described: the altar. The Biblical record is a
little confusing regarding the altar of Solomon's Temple.
The account in I Kings (8:64) says only that the bronze altar
he built was not big enough for all the offerings made at
the Temple's dedication. The II Chronicles version (6:1) notes
that the altar was 20 cubits wide and deep, and 10 cubits
high (15-16 feet), so it must have been approached by a stairway.
The altar had raised corners or horns, typical of sacrificial
altars found throughout the Near East.
For more on Solmon's Temple, the Second Temple, Herod II's
Temple, and subsequent attempts to build the Temple, here
are a few useful references.
Berman, Joshua, The Temple: Its Symbolism and Meaning, Then
and Now. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1995.
Parrot, Andre. The Temple of Jerusalem. New York: Philosophical
Library, 1955.
Reznick, Rabbi Leibel. The Holy Temple Revisited. Northvale,
NJ: Jason Aronson, 1990.
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