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Temples Side by Side: the guided tour as text
The 3D lab's guided tour as a story you can read, stop by stop, with the scripture behind each one. It works on any device, without 3D.
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One scale
Stop 1 of 8
One scale
Five sanctuaries in a row, all facing east, drawn at the same scale. The figures by each door are people.
One by one
Stop 2 of 8
The Tabernacle
The Tabernacle: a tent 30 cubits long in a court of 100 by 50. Every Temple after it kept this plan.
15 And thou shalt make boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood standing up. 16 Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board. 17 Two tenons shall there be in one board, set in order one against another: thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle. 18 And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward. …
Read Exodus 26:31–33; Exodus 27:9–18; Exodus 40:17
Stop 3 of 8
Solomon's Temple
Solomon's house: 60 by 20 by 30, twice the Tabernacle. How high was its porch? Chronicles says 120 cubits; some copies say 20. Try each reading.
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. 3 And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.
Read 1 Kings 6:16–20; 2 Chronicles 3:3–4; 1 Kings 7:15–16
Stop 4 of 8
The Second Temple (Zerubbabel's)
The Second Temple: the least is known of it. The dashed box is Cyrus's 60 by 60; the solid house is one guess, on Solomon's plan. Its most holy place stood empty: the ark was gone.
10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:
Read Ezra 6:3–4; Ezra 6:15; Haggai 2:3; Zechariah 4:10
Stop 5 of 8
Herod's Temple
Herod's Temple: 100 cubits high, three times Solomon's house. Yet the rooms inside are the same size as Solomon's. Its most holy place was empty, and its veil may have been two curtains.
Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
Read Matthew 24:1–2; Matthew 27:51
Stop 6 of 8
Ezekiel's visionary temple
Ezekiel's temple was a vision, never built: a dashed plan, not a building. Its rooms match Solomon's; its outer square is 500 cubits, or 500 reeds in the Hebrew.
1 In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither. 2 In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south. 3 And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate. 4 And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel. …
Read Ezekiel 41:2–4; Ezekiel 41:13–14; Ezekiel 42:16–20; Ezekiel 43:10–11
Together
Stop 7 of 8
Together
Now on one spot, round the same most holy place. Solomon's house is solid; the outlines are the others. The holy places hardly change: the buildings round them do.
Stop 8 of 8
Together
Walk in through the Tabernacle's gate. In its holy place, each Temple rises round you in turn, a step further in each time.
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