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Solomon's Temple

Walk between Jachin and Boaz into the house Solomon built on Mount Moriah, and set the Tabernacle beside it at the same scale to see how one grew from the other.

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Solomon's Temple and its courts
Solomon's Temple and its courts
The bronze altar before the house
The bronze altar before the house
Along the side of the house
Along the side of the house

Key facts

  • Solomon began building in the fourth year of his reign and finished in seven years (1 Kings 6:1, 38).
  • The house was 60 cubits long, 20 wide and 30 high: about 27 × 9 × 13.5 m with a common cubit.
  • The most holy place was a cube of 20 cubits, twice the Tabernacle's, with two olive-wood cherubim overlaid with gold, their wings reaching wall to wall.
  • Two bronze pillars, Jachin and Boaz, stood before the porch, 18 cubits high, cast by Hiram of Tyre (1 Kings 7:15–22).
  • The laver became the bronze Sea, 10 cubits across, standing on twelve bronze oxen.
  • The pattern stayed the same as the Tabernacle's (court, holy place, most holy place), but built of stone and cedar and fixed in one place, with ten lampstands and ten tables instead of one.

Key verses

1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. 2 And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.
1 Kings 6:1–2 · King James Version
And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
1 Kings 7:23 · King James Version
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
1 Kings 8:27 · King James Version

Talk about it

  1. Solomon built a magnificent house, yet prayed that heaven itself cannot contain God (1 Kings 8:27). Why build it at all?
  2. Compare the Tabernacle and the Temple side by side. What stayed the same, and what changed when Israel settled in the land?
  3. Jesus spoke of his body as a temple (John 2:19–21). How does seeing the Temple help you understand what he meant?

How sure can we be?

The Bible says
  • The measurements of the house, the most holy place, the pillars and the bronze Sea are given in 1 Kings 6–7 and 2 Chronicles 3–4.
  • The site was Mount Moriah, on the threshing floor of Ornan (2 Chronicles 3:1).
Our reconstruction
  • The capitals of Jachin and Boaz, the roof and the outside walls are drawn from the text's hints; their exact look is a reconstruction.
  • Parallels with Iron Age temples at Ain Dara and Tell Tayinat support the plan of porch, hall and inner shrine, but not the details.
Still debated
  • The bronze Sea held 2,000 baths in 1 Kings 7:26 and 3,000 in 2 Chronicles 4:5; why they differ is not known.
  • The length of the cubit (common or royal) changes every size in metres.
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