FIFTH AGE OF THE WORLD. FROM THE FOUNDATION OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE, A.M. 2992, TO THE END OF THE JEWISH CAPTIVITY UNDER CYRUS, A.M. 3468, COMPRISING THE SPACE OF 476 YEARS. A.M. 2992.] Temple of Solomon.-3 Kings, [A.C. 1012. THE opening years of the reign of Solomon were marked by the abundance of every temporal felicity. All the magnificence which the greatest princes have at any time displayed falls far short of what the Scripture relates of him. The peace that smiled over all the land was both the cause and the consequence of these blessings; for, in the words of the Scripture, everyone in all the land of Israel, from Dan to Bersabee, dwelt without fear under his own vine and his own fig-tree. Being thus blessed with peace, and free from every apprehension of war, Solomon at once resolved to execute the task with which he had been charged by his religious father, the building of a Temple in honour of the living God. He made a treaty with Hiram, king of Tyre, by which that monarch, in return for yearly supplies of wheat and oil, which were to be sent to him by Solomon, undertook to send to Jerusalem, for the erection of the Temple, skilled workmen of Sidon, and a supply of cedar wood from the forests of Libanon ;* Solomon also brought together the ablest artificers of his own subjects, to the number of thirty thousand: eighty thousand men were set apart to hew out stones, and to shape them for the masons, and seventy thousand more were constantly employed in carrying the materials as they were wanted: besides these, there were three thousand three hundred overseers, whose * As might naturally be expected, the erection of Solomon's Temple is not unnoticed by the ancient historians of Tyre. They place it in the 12th year of the reign of Hiram, for whose accession to the throne they assign the 156th year before the foundation of Carthage. The dates assigned for this latter event, range from B.C. 814, to B.C. 864. TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. 255 sole business it was to inspect each department, and to superintend the carrying out of the entire work. The site selected by David was Mount Moria.* Its rugged top was levelled; its precipitous sides were faced with perpendicular walls of masonry, built up from the bottom of the ravine; and on the site thus prepared with immense labour, the foundations of the sacred edifice were laid, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, the third after the death of his father, David. The entire structuret was surrounded by a solid wall, six cubits high, forming a quadrangular enclosure, 600 cubits square. Within this, on a higher level, a somewhat smaller enclosure, 500 cubits square, was surrounded by a wall thirty cubits in height. And within this again, on a still higher level, surrounded in like manner by a lofty wall, was a third and similar enclosure, 200 cubits square. Of the three spaces thus enclosed, the outermost―occupying the entire space of 50 cubits in width, between the first and second walls-was known as the Court of the Gentiles. This Court was altogether uncovered: it was entered from without by four gates, in the outermost wall, and facing respectively, north, south, east, and west. In like manner, the second enclosure was entered from the Court of the Gentiles, by four gates, one of which stood opposite to each of the gates in the outermost wall. Owing to the difference of level, each gate of the second enclosure was approached from the Court of the Gentiles by a flight of steps, seven in number. Immediately within the wall, all around, except where openings were left for the gates, a space *See Notes, pp. 40, 230. †The dimensions of this imposing structure are set forth, and its various parts minutely described in the 3rd Book of Kings, the 2nd Book of Paralipomenon, or Chronicles, and in the prophetical Book of Ezechiel. Much room, however, is left for conjecture as to the actual arrangement and plan of the whole, so that scarcely any two writers are agreed in their description of it. The description given in the text is taken from Calmet's Dictionnaire de la Bible (Art. Temple). In order fully to understand it, it will be necessary to refer to a plan of the Temple, constructed according to Calmet's arrangement. For those to whom the admirably executed plan given in the complete edition of his Dictionary may not be accessible, the plan in the Bible Atlas, which is a fairly accurate copy of it, on, however, a much smaller scale, will be found a useful, though necessarily an imperfect, substitute. of 50 cubits was occupied by chambers intended for various uses connected with the service of the Temple. The space100 cubits wide-between those chambers and the third, or inner wall, was known as the Court of the Israelites, or of the people. Like the Court of the Gentiles, it was open above. It was richly paved with marble, and surrounded by magnificent galleries supported on rows of pillars. The third enclosure being on a still higher level than the Court of the Israelites, was entered from it by gates, each of which was reached by a flight of eight steps. In this instance, however, the gates were only three in number, facing respectively, east, north, and south; for, within this third enclosure, and against its western wall, stood the central portion of the entire structure-the Temple itself. As in the second, so in the third enclosure also, immediately. within the wall, rows of chambers, set apart for the use of the priests and for other purposes connected with Divine Worship, were built around. The portion of this inner enclosure unoccupied by those chambers, or by the buildings immediately connected with the Temple itself, formed an open court, which was known as the Court of the Priests. Like the court of the Israelites, this also was surrounded by galleries supported on pillars. * Its In its general arrangements, the Temple closely resembled the Tabernacle constructed by Moses in the wilderness. dimensions, however, were larger, being in almost every instance double of those of the corresponding portions of the Tabernacle. The Holy of Holies, which, as in the Tabernacle, stood at the western end, was a perfect cube, measuring 20 cubits every way. The Sanctuary, or Holy Place, was 40 cubits in length, 20 in breadth, and 30 in height. In front of it, instead of a mere veil, there was a Vestibule, or Porch, of the same width as the rest of the building, and extending 10 cubits in front of the door of the Sanctuary. Either within this Porch, or, as some think, in front of it, rose two brazen pillars, the one called Jachin, the other Booz.t Around the Temple itself, on the north, south, and west † In Hebrew these names signify Durability and Strength. FURNITURE OF THE TEMPLE. 257 were built a number of chambers for the use of the priests, and for various other purposes connected with the service of the Temple. None were built at the eastern end, by which the Temple was entered. The chambers were arranged in three tiers or stories, of thirty-three chambers each, thus comprising ninety-nine in all. Each chamber was five cubits in height: their width was different; the lowest being five cubits, those of the second story, six cubits, and those of the third or highest, seven cubits wide. The entire structure was completed in the eleventh year of Solomon's reign, who, thus, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, had the happiness of being the first who erected a Temple to the true God; a Temple so rich and upon so grand a scale, that the world at that time had seen nothing comparable to it. Happy indeed had Solomon been, as St. Ambrose remarks, if he had been careful, at the same time, to ground himself in the virtue of humility; but after having built a temple of stone and timber in his youth, he, in an advanced age, shamefully profaned the living temple of his own body. By an example the most deplorable, he is a warning to those Christians who content themselves with practising some of the attractive works of virtue, as if nothing more were wanting to make them really good the groundwork of true virtue, in which consists the happiness of man in this life, is to be humble. Solomon, in the midst of worldly greatness, fell under the displeasure of his Creator, and by the shameful excesses of unbridled lust, tarnished the glory of his former deeds. A. M. 3000.] Furniture of the Temple. [A.C. 1004. The walls, both of the Holy of Holies, and of the Sanctuary, were wainscoted with cedar wood, overlaid with gold, and richly decorated with various figures. In the Holy of Holies were placed two colossal figures of Cherubim, ten cubits high, made of olive wood, and overlaid with gold. They stood upright, facing each other, their wings expanded, so that one wing of each touched the wall of the Temple, and the other two wings joined one another over the Ark, each wing being five cubits long. A partition wall, the doorway in which was covered by a veil of brilliant colours, richly decorated, separated the Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies. In the Sanctuary stood the Altar of Incense, which was made of cedar, covered with gold, also ten golden candlesticks, five on each side, with their lamps to give light before the Holy of Holies. There were, moreover, ten tables, covered with gold, for the loaves of show-bread, censers also, and vessels for the perfumes, bowls and mortars of pure gold, and vast quantities of other sacred furniture for the Divine service. In the Court before the Temple, was the brazen Altar of Holocausts, ten cubits high, twenty long, and as many broad. Ten large Lavers of brass, curiously graven and ornamented with festoons and with figures of different animals, stood five and five on each side, for the convenience of washing all such things as were to be offered in holocaust. On the right side, over against the east towards the south, was placed the great Laver, or "Sea," so called on account of its prodigious size: it was made of molten brass, measuring ten cubits in diameter, five in height, and thirty in circumference; it was supported on twelve brazen oxen, of which three looked to the east, three to the west, three to the north, and three to the south. This immense Laver, which was capable of holding 2,000 bates,* was for the purification of the priests before the daily performance of their sacerdotal functions. A vessel of this sort, but of much smaller size, had been made by Moses, of copper, and placed between the Altar and the Tabernacle, that the priests might there wash their hands and feet as often as they went in and out of the Sanctuary. Hence it is supposed that whenever the sacrifice of incense was offered, the priests approached barefoot to the Altar of Perfumes, and were therefore bound by a special law to purify themselves in the sacred laver, under pain of death. From this external purity, which was required as a necessary preparation for those ancient sacrifices that were no more than figures of that which was to come, it is easy to * See Table of Weights and Measures. |