Solomon's Temple E-Book

Alan Balfour

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 584

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

A highly original architectural history of Solomon’s Temple and Islam’s Dome of the Rock that doubles as a social and cultural history of the region

• The most extensive study of the interrelated history of two monuments, Solomon’s Temple and The Dome of the Rock, drawing on an exhaustive review of all the visual and textual evidence
• Relayed as a gripping narrative, allowing readers to re-enter and experience the emotions and the visceral reality of the major events in its history
• Integrates illustration with the text to offer a highly detailed and accurate portrait of the major structures and figures involved in the history of the temple
• Opens up a fascinating line of questioning into the conventional interpretation of events, particularly Christ’s actions in the Temple
• Reproduces rarely seen detailed drawings of the subterranean passages beneath Temple Mount as part of the British survey in the 19th century

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Dedication

Title Page

Copyright

List of Figures and Plates

Figures

Plates

Prologue

Chapter 1: Solomon's Temple

The Ark of the Covenant

King David

The Temple of Solomon

Nebuchadnezzar II

Chapter 2: Herod

The Maccabeans

Pompey

Herod

Herod Demolishes the Second Temple

The Third Temple

The Royal Portico

Chapter 3: “Not…one stone upon another”

Moneychangers

Paul

The Temple Destroyed

Chapter 4: The Holy Sepulcher

Hadrian and Aelia Capitolina

Constantine

The Plague

The Fall of Rome

Hagia Sophia

Madaba

The Persian War

Chapter 5: Dome of the Rock

Muhammad and the Fall of Jerusalem

Umar in Jerusalem

The Dome of the Rock

The Rock

Chapter 6: Templum Domini

The Jews Return

The First Crusade

Crusader Jerusalem

Templum Domini

The Templars in the Palace of Solomon

Saladin

Chapter 7: Recreating the Temple

In the Imagination of Priests

The Temple in the Popular Imagination

Return to Mount Moriah

Chapter 8: Jerusalem

Views

Maps

British Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem

The Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF)

Jerusalem and World War I

Chapter 9: Al-Haram Al-Sharif

The Path to Conflict

Jerusalem under Transjordan

An Naksah, The Six Day War

Liberation of Temple Mount

Archeology and the Western Wall

The Burning of Al-Aqsa Mosque

Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount

The Rabbi's Tunnel

Continual Provocation

Rabbi's Tunnel Revisited

Camp David Summit

The Second Intifada

Epilogue

Acknowledgments, Sources, and Methods

Sources and Methods

Index

Supplementary Images

This edition first published 2012

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 9780470674956 (hardback)

List of Figures and Plates

Figures

Figure 1.1

Karnack, the Hall of Columns

Figure 1.2

Moses alongside the Ark leads the twelve Hebrew tribes out of Egypt

Figure 1.3

Constructing the wall of the Tabernacle: a bird's-eye view

Figure 1.4

Bird's-eye view of the interior of the Temple; from the Estienne Bible, 1540

Figure 1.5

Cherubims, Guardians of the Ark

Figure 1.6

Solomon's Temple; from the Estienne Bible, 1540

Figure 1.7

A plan of Jerusalem in the time of the First Temple

Figure 2.1

A plan of the Herodian Temple precinct

Figure 2.2

A plan of the Herodian Temple Sanctuary

Figure 2.3

The Herodian Temple precinct: perspective from the southwest

Figure 2.4

A plan of Jerusalem in the time of Herod

Figure 3.1

The Destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem

, Nicolas Poussin.

Figure 4.1

A plan of

Aelia Capitolina

Figure 4.2

Model of Constantine's Basilica

Figure 4.3

A plan of Christian Jerusalem

Figure 5.1

A plan of the Dome of the Rock

Figure 5.2

A section of the Dome of the Rock, showing mosaic decoration on the interior

Figure 5.3

Among the earliest photographs of the Dome on Temple Mount from the east

Figure 5.4

The interior of the Dome in the early twentieth century

Figure 5.5

The surface of the Rock beneath the Dome

Figure 5.6

A plan of Islamic Jerusalem

Figure 6.1

A plan of Crusader Jerusalem

Figure 7.1

Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple

, Rembrandt van Rijn

Figure 7.2

Ground Plan of the Temple precincts

Figure 7.3

Peter Laicstain's engraving illustrating the crucifixion

Figure 7.4

Activities Surrounding the Tabernacle and the Tents of the Twelve Tribes

, Benedictus Arias Montano

Figure 7.5

Montano's view of the Temple

Figure 7.6

Ierusalem, described as it stoode in greatest beautie

…

Figure 7.7

A True Image of Jerusalem

, Villalpando

Figure 7.8

Plan for the rebuilding of the Temple of Solomon as described in Ezekiel

, Villalpando

Figure 7.9

(a and b)

East Elevation of the Temple of Solomon and its Supporting Structure as described in Ezekiel

, Villalpando

Figure 7.10

Perspective view of Temple of Solomon as described in Ezekiel

, Villalpando

Figure 7.11

Temple of Solomon

, Flemish, seventeenth century

Figure 7.12

Bernard Lamy's reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple

Figure 7.13

Bernard Lamy's perspective looking toward Temple Mount

Figure 7.14

Bernard Lamy's plan, elevations, and sections of the Temple

Figure 7.15

New Plan of Ancient Jerusalem

, Calmet

Figure 7.16

Solomon Having Built the Temple of Jerusalem Dedicates it to the Lord

, Calmet

Figure 7.17

The Temple Under Construction

, Luyken

Figure 7.18

The Romans Destroy the Temple

, Luyken

Figure 7.19

Newton's reconstruction of the Temple

Figure 7.20

Herz's Jerusalem

Figure 7.21

A Bird's Eye View of Jerusalem

, Eltzner

Figure 7.22

The Temple of Jerusalem

, de Vogüé

Figure 7.23

Reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon

, Schick

Figure 7.24

Perspective of the Second Temple

, Chipiez

Figure 8.1

View of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

, von Breydenback

Figure 8.2

The Temple of Solomon, Schedel

Figure 8.3

The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, Schedel

Figure 8.4

Ierusalem

, Merian

Figure 8.5

Plan de la ville de Ierusalem moderne

, Doubdan

Figure 8.6

Catherwood's panorama of Jerusalem

Figure 8.7

Robinson's Arch, when first identified around 1870

Figure 8.8

Robinson's Arch and the path beneath from the time of Herod, after the extensive archeological work in the 1960s

Figure 8.9

Plan of the Town and Environs of Jerusalem

. From the

Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem

Figure 8.10

The Dome of the Rock. From the

Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem

Figure 8.11

Warren's section. From

Underground Jerusalem

Figure 8.12

Warren's survey plan of the Haram

Plates

Plate 1

Herod's new temple, view from the southwest

Plate 2

Herod's temple showing the mass of the Royal Stoa

Plate 3

The path from the Mount of Olives

Plate 4

Hellenistic tombs from the second century BCE

Plate 5

The Southern Wall on which Herod's Stoa once sat

Plate 6

The great stair leading to the entry into the Royal Stoa

Plate 7

Inside the Royal Portico

Plate 8

The Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus

, David Roberts 1850, lithograph Louis Hague

Plate 9

Herod's Temple, Morning View from the Royal Stoa during Pesach.

Plate 10

The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem

, Francesco Hayez, 1867

Plate 11

The steps at the southwest corner, showing signs of the destruction by falling masonry

Plate 12

Burnt-out shells of three of the stores that sat beneath the stair leading to the Royal Stoa

Plate 13

On the platform of Temple looking west to al-Aqsa Mosque

Plate 14

Looking down from the Mount of Olives to the southern end of Temple Mount

Plate 15

The Madaba Mosaic: Jerusalem in the last decades of the sixth century

Plate 16

Dome of the Rock, sectional model

Plate 17

Crusader map of Jerusalem and Palestine

Plate 18

Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple

, Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco), 1570

Plate 19

Van Adrichem's map of Jerusalem

Plate 20

The Ascension of Muhammad

Plate 21

Jerusalem, Holy City

, Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, 1575

Plate 22

Ierusalem, Cornelius De Bruyn, 1698

Plate 23

Mosque of Omar showing the site of the Temple

, David Roberts, 1839

Plate 24

Inside the Dome of the Rock

, Carl Werner, 1863

Plate 25

The Herodian vestibule behind the now-blocked Huldah Gate, William “Crimea” Simpson, 1871

Plate 26

Foundation of the Southeast Corner of the Haram Wall … Jerusalem

, William “Crimea” Simpson, 1871

Plate 27

Passage to the Fountain of the Virgin, W Warren 1864

, William “Crimea” Simpson, 1871

Plate 28

The Steps of Abraham

, William “Crimea” Simpson, 1871

Plate 29

Wilson's Arch

, William “Crimea” Simpson, 1871

Plate 30

The Great Sea

, William “Crimea” Simpson, 1871

Plate 31

Approaching the Dome from the south

Plate 32

Haram al Sharif from the Mount of Olives

Prologue

This is a history of Solomon's Temple and the place where it once stood. In the present it has several names: in its most ancient form it was Mount Moriah — tradition holds that it was here on this hill that Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac; in Hebrew it is Har haBayit — Temple Mount; in Arabic it is al-Haram al-Sharif — the Noble Sanctuary. For much of this history it will be called Temple Mount.

The book is written to bring life to past realities. It assembles the surviving texts and images that have sustained the idea of this place over time. These are by necessity subjective impressions, but the place itself is defined by just two structures in its more than 4000-year history—the Jewish Temple of Solomon, long since destroyed, and Islam's Dome of the Rock. These are finite objects through which the imagination can reenter its past.

It is a troubled place, existing in such a confused web of fact and fiction that only by probing deeply into the multiple layers of acts and desires that have played out on its surface can the intersections between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam be appreciated.

Solomon built his temple in Jerusalem 3000 years ago to house the Ark of the Covenant and be the only place of sacrifice for the Jewish people. A poem in the Midrash Tanhuma1 offers a graphic sense of the significance of Har haBayit to Judaism:

As the navel is set in the center of the human body,

so is the land of Israel the navel of the world…

and Jerusalem is the center of the land of Israel,

and the sanctuary in the center of Jerusalem,

and the holy place in the center of the sanctuary,

and the Ark in the center of the holy place,

and the Foundation Stone before the holy place,

because from it the world was founded.

For some, Even haShetiya, the Foundation Stone that held the Ark of the Covenant, is still present in Temple Mount.

It is on Temple Mount that Christ's actions that eventually lead to his crucifixion come to the attention of the priests. Matthew writes:

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple: and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were moved with indignation.2

In the Qur'an (al-Israel, Sura 17: 1) Muhammad wrote of his miraculous flight from Mecca to Jerusalem:

Glory be to Him Who made His servant to go on a night from the Sacred Mosque to the remote mosque of which We have blessed the precincts, so that We may show to him some of Our signs; surely He is the Hearing, the Seeing.3

The “Sacred Mosque” was in Mecca, the “Remote Mosque,” [usually rendered as “The Furthest Mosque”] in Arabic al-Masjid al-Aqsa, was on the Noble Sanctuary, al-Haram al-Sharif.

At present, three distinct populations live in the old city of Jerusalem—Arab, Jew, and Armenian Christian—and though they all walk the same streets and breathe the same air, they exist in quite separate worlds. The Muslim Arabs are the poorest and the most ancient presence. Many are dressed in the loose tunics and turbans that have remained unchanged for centuries. They are at home in the dense network of streets that attach to the west wall of al-Haram al-Sharif, literally the “Sacred and Noble.” Al-Haram still contains the “Furthest Mosque” but is dominated by the golden Dome of the Rock, completed in the year 69 of the Hijra, Anno Hegirae, or 691 in the Common Era. This, Islam's third-holiest place, after Mecca and Medina, is not a mosque but the first Muslim shrine, formed to symbolize the strength of the one God. It lies above a rock cave whose origins are profoundly mysterious.

Here the faithful remember the Isra, Muhammad's miraculous flight from Mecca to this very place on the back of his white steed al-Buraq—“Lightning.” They can touch the post where it was tethered; they look to the Dome and feel the presence of Muhammad as he was met by Jesus and Abraham. They have seen the Prophet's footprints in the rock beneath the Dome as he prepared to climb the golden ladder to heaven into the presence of God. During Ramadan, Muslims from across the world fill the great platform in front of al-Aqsa Mosque in prayer. As they pray they are reminded that it is written of this place that when the world comes to an end, the dead will return and judgment be pronounced on every person in accordance with his deeds.4

Christians arrive in the city to be close to Christ's Passion and to walk in his footsteps along the Via Dolorosa. Some gather on the terraces below the Mount of Olives, overlooking the vast platform dominated by the Dome, and their preachers compel imaginations into reliving the fateful day when Christ descended into the city. “Here,” they point “is where the path led across the Kidron Valley, here the gate where Christ entered the city.” If the Temple is mentioned at all, it is to imagine Christ driving out the moneychangers from somewhere at the west end of the platform, and to be reminded that he foretold the destruction of the Temple, saying to his disciples that “not one stone upon another,” would be left standing. As they look down across the monument of Islam some Christians see in the distant future a new temple and are comforted because it will mean their world has reached the “end of time.” This will be the prelude to the “second coming” of Christ. He will materialize in a flash of brilliant light just outside a gate, a gate they can see now blocked up near the center of the wall facing them.

For the Jews there are two Jerusalems: the secular city, and the orthodox city. Religion dominates life in the orthodox city. The residents live in enclaves and strictly observe Halakha, the laws of the faith. Every morning, men can be seen striding with great deliberation from their apartment buildings into the lanes of the old city to Kothel Hama'arabit, the Western Wall; sweeping all aside, self consumed and anxious beneath wide brimmed hats and black coats; their prayer shawls in plastic packets under their arms. All Jews are compelled to pray against the Western Wall and as they pray they are closest to God, for in the Midrash it is written that “the Divine Presence (Shechina) never departs from the Western Wall.”5 This is the most sanctified place in Judaism. Temple Mount is the only place where God dwelt on earth and for some the only place from which he will deliver the Messiah. The Western Wall is a remnant of the Temple complex restored by Herod in 19 BCE. In 70 CE the Romans demolished the Temple as they regained control of Judea and drove the Jews out. A desire to rebuild the Temple has lingered in imaginations ever since. Another figure compels the mind of some who are praying at the Wall. Sifting through the traces of ancient structures they strain to envisage a chamber in which the Ark of the Covenant has rested.

Looking down on Temple Mount from the hill to the east, it is still possible to remove the massive structure and visualize a small hill rising steeply out of the Kidron Valley. Add to this the groves of olives on the slopes, some simple lean-to farm buildings, and, near the top, a threshing field and a donkey endlessly circling, and see the approach of King David with his retinue: he would buy the land, all according to the Old Testament book of Samuel.

This formative act is shared equally in the books of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Travel back a further thousand years; it is the same hill rising above the trees in the valley, covered in thickets of dense brush; thorny and dry. Those for whom the Bible is literal truth can visualize the scene: they are watching from a distance an extremely old man slowly and carefully forming an altar from loose stones and on it setting out the makings of a fire from twigs and branches. Inexplicably, his young companion, his son, agrees to be tied hand and foot and voluntarily lies down on the pyre. It is written in Genesis that this is the place where God tested Abraham's faith by demanding as proof the sacrifice of a son. The imagination sees that moment when God thanked Abraham for his obedience and confirmed that he would be the father of nations, and Isaac and Jacob and all who descended from them would be his chosen people. It was the birth of a new religion.

Notes

1 The Midrash on the Torah are careful studies and interpretations of the books of the Old Testament. The Tanhuma, named after a fourth-century scholar, are commentaries on the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Jewish and Christian Bibles). This much used quote is from the Midrash attributed to Rabbi Tanchuma bar Abba (c. 370 CE), and this, the most widely used English translation, is by Rabbi Avrohom Davis.

2 Matthew 21: 14–15. All quotations from the Old and New Testaments are from the Authorized (King James) Bible (AV).

3 All quotations from the Qur'an are from the University of Michigan Library On Line eBook Initiative The Koran, translated by M. H. Shakir and published by Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, 1983 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/koran/(accessed March 4, 2012).

4 See Epilogue to this volume, especially notes 1 and 2.

5 Interpretation from Rabbi Eliezer: The Divine Presence never departed from the Temple, as it is written, “For now I have chosen and sanctified this house so that My name shall be there forever and My eyes and My heart will be there all the days” (II Chronicles 7: 16)… Even when [the Temple] is destroyed, it remains in its sanctity. … Even when it is destroyed, God does not leave it. And Rebbe Acha said: The Shechina (Divine Presence) will never depart from the Western Wall, as it is written, “Behold—He stands behind our wall” (Song of Songs 2: 9). Midrash Rabba, Lamentations 1: 31.

Chapter 1

Solomon's Temple

Told and retold myriad times, the poetic blend of faint truths and splendid myths that shape the creation of a people and a religion have, over time, acquired a greater reality in the imagination than they could ever have sustained in fact. What follows, without question, are the major elements of these tales out of which the Temple of Solomon was formed.

Before there was Jerusalem, before there was Judea, Mount Moriah, Temple Mount, was known to God. In the book of Genesis,1 God ordered the first Hebrew patriarch Abraham to “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation…” His father's house was in the city of Ur2 in Mesopotamia, a wealthy and civilized city well over a thousand years old when Abraham was summoned.3 After years of wandering and suffering, Abraham arrived in Canaan, the land chosen by God, and was told “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for unto thee will I give it. And Abram4 moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the terebinths of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD:”5 Hebron is a name and town that has survived into the present.6

Twenty-five years after arriving in Hebron, Abraham produced a son, Isaac; Abraham was 100 years old. Genesis records God's dreadful instruction to an aged father, “Take now…thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac,7 and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”8

As he prepared the sacrifice, the son called out “My father…Behold, the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham replied, “God will see for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” The lamb was Isaac. Then “Abraham built the altar…and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.” The son offered no resistance. “And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham…Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.” Only then did this demanding God provide a beast for sacrifice: “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.”9

Abraham's reward for such obedience was to become the father of a people. “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven” said God “and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”10

The book of Genesis was set down almost three millennia ago, formed in a time when there was no singular idea of God, yet here in these events is the emergence of one Supreme Being.11 The image of a father being forced to prove his faith by killing his son reveals the character of this singular God. Nothing could be more graphic in demonstrating the burden of this faith. And Mount Moriah, still in the midst of Jerusalem, would forever hold the memory of this presence closely watching Abraham and the prone figure of Isaac, bound upon a funeral pyre.

In Antiquities of the Jews, a work completed toward the end of the first century of the Common Era, Jewish-Roman historian Josephus Flavius (henceforth referred to as Josephus) retells in his own words much of the content of the books of the Old Testament. It occasionally offers surprising contrast to scripture. Josephus explains God's actions: “It was not out of a desire of human blood…nor was he willing that [Isaac] should be taken from…his father,” it was instead, to test Abraham's mind: would he be obedient to such a command? All was now resolved, God “was satisfied…he was delighted in having bestowed such blessings upon him; and his son should live to a very great age; and bequeath a large principality to his children, who should be good and legitimate.”12 Josephus (37–100 CE)was a rabbi and a general. He lived through the most catastrophic event in Jewish-Roman history and managed to play on both sides of the conflict, which makes his major written works The Antiquities of the Jews and The Wars of the Jews highly valuable commentary on all the events that follow.

The Ark of the Covenant

Modern scholarship dates the Hebrew persecution and flight from Egypt to around 3300 years ago, during the rule of Pharaoh Ramses II from 1304 to 1237 BCE.

The origin of the word “Hebrew” is not known with certainty. One theory is that it was derived from the word eber, or ever, a Hebrew word meaning the “other side,” a reference perhaps to a people who were not Egyptian. Another theory is that it was the name given to the semi-nomadic Habiru, recorded in the hieroglyphs of Ramses II.13 From the way these are placed in the inscriptions, the designation Habiru is not thought to have had any ethnic or racial connotation, but rather describes a class of people providing casual labor where needed.14 Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament, clearly states that this was the role of the children of Israel, “the Egyptians…made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, wherein they made them serve with rigour.”15

The Egyptian economy was driven and shaped by the task of constructing monuments to ease the passage of the Pharaoh into the afterlife. It consumed vast numbers of conscripted laborers. Ramses II built cities and shrines, and expanded the temples and tombs of his predecessors along the Nile: on structures old and new, many still standing, he would cover the walls with texts that endlessly praised his victories and his divine nature.16 Texts can still be read recording that the cities of Pi Ramesse and Pi thom were built for Ramses II by the Hibaru. This is repeated in Exodus, “And they built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.”17 Whether the Habiru were a mongrel group of migrant workers from across the lands controlled by Egypt or a unified tribal group, their lives and their labor would have been in the service of this prodigious builder: their persecution would have been the abuse of that labor.18 That labor would also establish in their collective memory both the effective power of great building and the means for achieving it (Figure 1.1). It is within the intimate family of this god-king that the character of Moses was formed. The tale of the abandoned child being found in the bulrushes by a daughter of the Pharaoh Seti I has been so sweetened in the popular imagination that the significance of Moses' relation to the court of the Pharaoh has been diminished. Consider that the same Moses, guiding prophet and teacher, who led the Hebrew people out of the slavery of Egypt, grew up as a privileged ward of the royal court. It was Moses who, in his twenties, attacked and murdered a court official for killing a Hebrew laborer, and then fled into the desert. It was Moses who, time and again, confronted Ramses II with the demand that he, and the people with whom he had kinship, be allowed to leave Egypt. It was to Moses that the true God of the Hebrew, Yahweh, was revealed. Yahweh in translation suggests “He Who Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists”19 and it was Yahweh who had commanded him to lead this people out of Egypt. And after arguments, threats, and signs of divine intervention Ramses II finally allowed Moses to leave and lead the great Exodus (Figure 1.2). Though the Exodus exists more as myth than fact, it is within the narrative that the ritual performance is defined that will be enshrined in the Temple.

Figure 1.1 Karnack, the Hall of Columns, a temple complex greatly expanded by Ramses II. Francis Firth, 1856.

Figure 1.2 Moses alongside the Ark leads the twelve Hebrew tribes out of Egypt. Illustration from the biblical commentaries of Antoine Augustin Calmet (1672–1757).

Whether it was 600,000 people or 600 families, this vast and disorderly band is described as traveling eastwards out of Egypt and after three months coming to Mount Sinai,20 the granite peak in the midst of the desert in the south-central Sinai Peninsula, close to the border of present day Israel. And Moses was summoned:

Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying…Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all peoples: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.21

To the blare of a ram's horn Yahweh then appeared on the mountaintop out of fire and smoke and revealed to Moses the divine laws that would give moral order to the Hebrew. It would be the covenant between them and their God. As set down in Exodus, this covenant has both majesty and menace:

I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have none other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor the likeness of any form that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me;

This is certainly the God for whom Abraham would have killed his son:

and shewing mercy unto thousands, of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt do no murder.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.22

…the Ten Commandments. In Exodus this is followed with lists of many lesser, specific ordinances, moral precepts, and cultic regulations: “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he be married, then his wife shall go out with him.”23 On and on, in all exactly one hundred rules of social and religious behavior.

Far from being mysterious and theological, this most sacred of texts was, and still remains, a set of sensible, rational, and pragmatic laws for a civil society. Josephus noted that some “belong to our political state…concerning our common conversation and intercourse one with another.” Moses, in presenting the laws to the people emphasized their secular benefits, “I have…ordained you laws, by Divine suggestion, and a form of government, which are so good, that if you regularly observe them, you will be esteemed of all men the most happy.”.24

After the laws came a description of how this God would be worshiped:

Ye shall not make other gods with me; gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen…And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.25

Moses reported back to his people, then was once again summoned to the mountain; this time with his elders, and God appeared walking above their heads:

and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the very heaven for clearness…And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee the tables of stone, and the law and the commandment, which I have written, that thou mayest teach them.26

Thus the law and commandments—the Covenant—which had previously been spoken by God, was inscribed in stone.

God then gave precise instructions for constructing the casket—the Ark—in which these most precious stones would be held, “And they shall make an ark of acacia wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.” (45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high, quite small and entirely covered in gold.) “And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.”

And with the protection of two strange creatures God would come to earth above this casket, “And thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.” It would form the lid of the casket, and “I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim…of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”27 Josephus explained that Cherubim, “are flying creatures, but their form is not like to that of any of the creatures which men have seen, though Moses said he had seen such beings near the throne of God.”28 Moses would have seen their like in the tombs in the Valley of the Nile. In their most ancient form Cherubim were celestial beings and although their bodies were human, their heads, though sometimes human, could also be those of birds or dogs. These strange creatures recall the mysterious figures that spread their great wings over the coffins of the dead in the Egypt of Ramses II; they were the throne bearers of the deity.

Moses is recorded as being with God on the mountain for forty days and forty nights: too long an absence. He returned to find many gathered in the act of worshiping a golden calf, presumably the Egyptian bull god Apis. Outraged he had 3000 slaughtered, and smashed the tablets containing the Covenant: the dreadful consequence of not obeying the commandments. Moses would not be the one to incur the wrath of such a “jealous God.”

Such harsh measures and the theatrical hoopla around the divine appearances seem to reflect immense struggle to control and impose laws and a moral code on a disparate, displaced people as the Exodus moved northwards out of Egypt. It would be the laws of the Covenant, rather than racial kinship that would over time form the distinct character of the Hebrew people.

Yahweh was patient, and soon came to Moses again:

And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon the tables the words that were on the first tables, which thou brakest. And be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me on the top of the mount…[Then the warning] Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been wrought in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD, for it is a terrible thing that I do with thee…for thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:29

After the laws of the Covenant were again inscribed in the stone and the Ark built to hold them, Josephus records God offering Moses a glimpse of the Promised Land:

When you have possessed yourselves of the land of Canaan, and have leisure to enjoy the good things of it, and when you have afterward determined to build cities, if you will do what is pleasing to God, you will have a secure state of happiness. Let there be then one city of the land of Canaan, and this situate in the most agreeable place for its goodness, and very eminent in itself, and let it be that which God shall choose for himself by prophetic revelation.

Then a temple was imagined—only one temple:

Let there also be one temple therein, and one altar, not reared of hewn stones, but of such as you gather together at random; which stones, when they are whited over with mortar, will have a handsome appearance, and be beautiful to the sight. Let the ascent to it be not by steps but by an acclivity of raised earth. And let there be neither an altar nor a temple in any other city; for God is but one, and the nation of the Hebrews is but one.30

This comes from Antiquities; as Moses' life was ending he offers final instructions on law and order. Titled “The Polity Settled by Moses” it does not appear in the Old Testament, though Josephus would have drawn it from some source familiar in his time. The instruction continues—until such a city was found and a temple built, the Ark of the Covenant must have a home, albeit a tent. As with his instructions for the making of the casket to hold the Covenant, God was equally specific, not only as to the form this tent should take, but in selecting those who would build it:

Now when these things were brought together with great diligence he set architects over the works, and this by the command of God; they were significant enough to be named and remembered…Now their names are set down in writing in the sacred books; and they were these: Besaleel, the son of Uri, of the tribe of Judah, Aholiab, son of Ahisamach the tribe of Dan…and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee.31

Then follows a list of the equipment with which to furnish this tent or tabernacle of the congregation:

and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy-seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the Tent; and the table and its vessels, and the pure candlestick with all its vessels, and the altar of incense; and the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, and the laver and its base; and the finely wrought garments, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office; and the anointing oil, and the incense of sweet spices for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded thee shall they do.32

And all joined together to provide the precious materials from which it would be built:

HEREUPON the Israelites rejoiced at what they had seen and heard…they brought silver, and gold, and brass, and of the best sorts of wood, and such as would not at all decay by putrefaction; camels' hair also, and sheep-skins, some of them dyed of a blue color, and some of a scarlet; some brought the flower for the purple color, and others for white, with wool dyed by the flowers aforementioned; and fine linen and precious stones, which those that use costly ornaments set in ouches [clasps] of gold; they brought also a great quantity of spices; for of these materials did Moses build the tabernacle.33

Such sumptuous description compels the imagination. The Ark was placed in a tent, the “Tabernacle,” which sat within a court 150 feet long by 75 feet wide (see Figure 1.3). This was formed by an extensive fabric wall, “a curtain of fine soft linen went round all the pillars, and hung down in a flowing and loose manner from their (capitals), and enclosed the whole space, and seemed not at all unlike to a wall about it.” This covered three sides of the court. On the fourth the eastern face, was a gate 30 feet wide, screened by a curtain “composed of purple, and scarlet, and blue…and embroidered with many and divers sorts of figures, excepting the figures of animals.” No animals and no human forms, it was so commanded, “Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor the likeness of any form that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them.”34 This God, unlike others, would assume no earthly form.

Figure 1.3 Constructing the wall of the Tabernacle: a bird's-eye view. Physica Sacra: De constructie van de wanden van de tabernakel. J. C. Scheuchzer, 1731–1735.

The Tabernacle containing the Ark sat at the western end of the court. It was 15 feet wide by 45 feet long, its sides formed from dense rows of twenty columns, which “had rings of gold affixed to their fronts outward…through which were inserted bars gilded over with gold.” They formed a wall of gold such “that the tabernacle might not be shaken, either by the winds, or by any other means, but that it might preserve itself quiet and immovable continually…” It would always face east “so that, when the sun arose, it might send its first rays upon it.” Inside it “Moses parted its length into three partitions.”

Now the whole temple was called The Holy Place: but that part which was within…and to which none were admitted, was called The Holy of Holies. This veil was very ornamental, and embroidered with all sorts of flowers which the earth produces; and there were interwoven into it all sorts of variety that might be an ornament, excepting [once again] the forms of animals.35

And in front of the Holy of Holies was a table,36 “Upon this table…were laid twelve unleavened loaves of bread” and nearby a candlestick of cast gold:

It was made with its knops, and lilies, and pomegranates, and bowls…by which means the shaft elevated itself on high from a single base, and spread itself into as many branches as there are planets, including the sun among them. It terminated in seven heads, in one row, all standing parallel to one another; and these branches carried seven lamps, one by one, in imitation of the number of the planets.37

An embroidered richly colored curtain covered the entrance, over which was a veil of linen of the same size that could be opened and closed. When open it gave a “view of the sanctuary, especially on solemn days…on other days, and especially when the weather was inclined to snow, it might be expanded, and afford a covering to the veil of divers colors.” Imagine this fragile assembly appearing through a sandstorm. The inner surface of the tent was fabric, the outer of animal skins, which “afforded covering and protection to those that were woven both in hot weather and when it rained. And great was the surprise of those who viewed these…at a distance, for they seemed not at all to differ from the color of the sky.” The skins must have been bleached white, dissolving into the sky in the intense light of the sun. Moses had set the stage not only to the rites and rituals demanded by this singular God, but the idea and form of the temple that would be built on Mount Moriah.

This long, low wall of fine cloth protecting the sacred tent against the rough desert landscape was always placed some distance from the encampment as the tribes moved toward Canaan. It would have become a compelling symbol of order and confidence on this restless journey. It was a rational structure; yet abstract (Figure 1.3). The wall of the veils that formed the long enclosure would have seemed to float above the landscape. With the decision to strike camp there would have been elaborate ritual; the removal and wrapping of all the instruments of sacrifice, the screening and protection of the divine chest and its winged guardians poised on the lid protecting the mercy-seat. Was it allowed to be seen or was it hidden even from the priests entrusted with carrying it? Taking down and folding the skins and fabrics; removing the hundred or more posts and placing them on wagons, would all have been performed with great solemnity. One can assume that the procession of the wagons carrying the precious cargo was surrounded by priests, and, in the vanguard, heavily armed soldiers ready to defend to the last.

Moses did not live long enough to take his people into Canaan. After his death the task of leading the exodus fell to Joshua38 and the journey continued. Joshua was named in Numbers as one of the twelve spies Moses sent out to survey the land ahead; he knew the way. And, as they marched, the Ark would have been more closely guarded, for it had become known to carry not only divine laws, but also destructive power; it had become a weapon of war. It was Joshua who captured Canaan and distributed its lands to the twelve tribes, and Joshua who set his army against Jericho. And it was the Ark—not the trumpets—that brought down the walls of Jericho:

so they went round the city again, the ark going before them, and the priests encouraging the people to be zealous in the work; and when they had gone round it seven times, and had stood still a little, the wall fell down, while no instruments of war, nor any other force, was applied to it by the Hebrews.39

These were restless times as the twelve tribes became insinuated into the land and culture of Canaan. Joshua chose as his base “the city of Shiloh…because of the beauty” of its situation and there gave the tents and veils of the Tabernacle a permanent setting until such times as “their affairs would permit them to build a temple.” Soon the power of the Ark was to be tested again. When a Hebrew town was attacked by the Philistines, the people called on the high priest in Shiloh to bring the Ark to their defense,

but when the battle was joined…they found that they had put their trust in the Ark in vain, for they were presently beaten as soon as they came to a close fight with their enemies, and lost about thirty thousand men, among whom were the sons of the high priest; but the Ark was carried away by the enemies.40

The Ark however, brought misery and disaster to its captors, the people of Askelon, who:

sent it away from themselves to others: nor did it stay among those others neither; for since they were pursued by the same disasters, they still sent it to the neighboring cities; so that the Ark went round, after this manner, to the five cities of the Philistines, as though it exacted these disasters as a tribute to be paid it for its coming among them.41

Eventually it was returned to Shiloh and there it would rest for two centuries.

King David

In his years in power—c. 1000–c. 960 BCE—King David succeeded in uniting the tribes of Judea into a single nation. He captured the Canaanite city of Jerusalem42 and made it his capital. He rededicated the sacred altar43 of the Canaanites on Mount Zion44 to Yahweh, and immediately arranged to bring the Ark and its Tabernacle from Shiloh. The presence of the Ark would confirm the divine authority of his rule.

Bringing the Ark to Jerusalem proved to be fraught with danger. Josephus wrote of a great procession beginning well enough, “Before [the Ark] went the king and the whole multitude of the people with him singing hymns to God.” The book of Samuel added an orchestra “And David and all the house of Israel played before the LORD with all manner of instruments made of fir wood, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with castanets, and with cymbals.”45 Then disaster, someone touched the Ark's golden surface and was instantly destroyed—by God. All were afraid, and the Ark was left outside Jerusalem for three months. Finally, confidence regained, King David once again led the Ark in procession the last few miles into the city.

He transferred the ark to his own house; the priests carrying it, while seven companies of singers…went before it, and while he himself played upon the harp, and joined in the music, insomuch, that when his wife Michal, the daughter of Saul, who was our first king, saw him so doing, she laughed at him.”

This, from Josephus, suggests that Michal found the king's performance ridiculous. The book of Samuel gives a distinctly different impression:

So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And it was so, as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out at the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it in its place, in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it: and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.46

Michal “despised him in her heart,” for leaping and dancing before the Lord. It must have been an extravagant show.

King David housed the Ark on Mount Zion in his version of the tent enclosure so carefully described in Exodus. The Ark within became the locus of all worship of the peoples of Judea, drawing pilgrims to Jerusalem on high days and holy days, at which time it would be carried in splendid procession through the city. The divine laws it contained confirmed that they were the chosen people of the one true God, Yahweh.

The book of Samuel reports that God told David he was tired of living in a tent and wanted a proper house:

Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? for I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. [there is wit in this God.]…And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. And David went up according to the saying of Gad, as the LORD commanded. And Araunah looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshing-floor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD…47

Araunah offered to give David the land and the ploughs and the oxen, the king replied:

but I will verily buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.48

Though the desire was to build a Temple, the immediate reason for buying the land was to build an altar to receive sacrifice that would end a plague in the land. The threshing floor sat on the top of Mount Moriah just north of the city of David in Jerusalem. Josephus was in no doubt that this was the very place “that Abraham came and offered his son Isaac for a burnt-offering…and he resolved to call that entire place ‘The Altar of all the People,’ and to build a temple to God there.” Building the Temple over the place where Abraham had offered to sacrifice Isaac, would marry Mount Moriah forever to the creation of the people of Israel. (However, there is no evidence even within the earliest forms of the Hebrew Bible of any connection between “Mount Moriah” and the “land of Moriah.”49)

David bought the land on which the Temple would rise, but God would not allow him to build. In Chronicles David spoke:

it was in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool of our God; and I had made ready for the building. But God said unto me, Thou shalt not build an house for my name, because thou art a man of war, and hast shed blood…Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts: for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.50

His sin was to have shed the blood of his most trusted servant Uriah in his lust for Bathsheba. He was, however, allowed to set out the plans for the temple, order the materials, and hire the labor:

he appointed fourscore thousand to be hewers of stone, and the rest of the multitude to carry the stones…. He also prepared a great quantity of iron and brass for the work, with many (and those exceeding large) cedar trees…. And he told his friends that these things were now prepared, that he might leave materials ready for the building of the temple to his son, who was to reign after him, and that he might not have them to seek then, when he was very young, and by reason of his age unskillful in such matters 51

Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch of the temple, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper rooms thereof, and of the inner chambers thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat: and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, for the courts of the house of the LORD, and for all the chambers round about, for the treasuries of the house of God, and for the treasuries of the dedicated things.52

The second book of Chronicles states that Solomon began to build the Temple at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah “…in the place that David had appointed, in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.”53

The Temple of Solomon

Solomon was no less a warrior than his father David, and built an empire before building the Temple: an empire that produced wealth and led to a vast building program to fortify its borders and cities.54 He began by restoring the walls of Jerusalem, behind which he built his palace, “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 Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.”55 It would be the house of a powerful God and a symbol of a powerful king.

The Old Testament book of Kings offers a clear but rather basic description: the Temple, entered though a colonnade that ran its full width was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Josephus knew the biblical descriptions yet offered a grandly different description. He began by emphasizing the strength of the building: it had “to be so strong, in order to sustain with ease those vast superstructures and precious ornaments, whose own weight was to be not less than the weight of those other high and heavy buildings which the king designed to be very ornamental and magnificent.” He gave its height and length both as 60 cubits—90 feet—then added that “There was another building erected over it, equal to it in its measures; so that the entire altitude of the temple was a hundred and twenty cubits.”56 Between Josephus' estimate of 180 feet and the more reasonable 45 feet in Kings it would seem wise to prefer the biblical evidence (Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.4 Bird's-eye view of the interior of Solomon's Temple. Franciscus Vatablus. From the Latin Estienne Bible, Paris 1540.

All was built in the white stone that marks Jerusalem into the present, and the perfection of the walls was such, Josephus wrote, “that there appeared to the spectators no sign of any hammer, or other instrument of architecture; but as if, without any use of them, the entire materials had naturally united themselves together.”

Into the Temple and into the Holy of Holies. In Kings “Solomon… prepared an oracle in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD. And within the oracle was a space of twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof [a 30-feet cube]; and he overlaid it with pure gold.” And surrounding the Ark “he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high (15 feet),” two giant golden figures standing guard on either side of the Ark, each stretching their wings to the full extent, meeting in the middle and touching the walls on either side—consuming the space: “And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, within and without.”57

Into the same space with Josephus:

the most secret chamber; two cherubims of solid gold…Solomon set them up not far from each other, that with one wing they might touch the southern wall of the secret place, and with another the northern: their other wings, which joined to each other, were a covering to the ark.58