THE REAL MEANING OF SOLOMON’S TEMPLE
- ADDING MORE MEANING TO BIBLICAL HISTORY -
#1. THE TEMPLE WAS THE CENTRAL-ORGANIZING IDEA OF ISRAEL
Morry Lee.
“I claim the positive historical statements of Christianity have the power … of receiving without intrinsic change, increasing complexity of meaning which [added] knowledge puts into them.” C.S.Lewis.[1]
Key ideas.
The temple of Jesus’ Jerusalem was the central organizing-idea of the ancient theocracy.
The Divine Being dwelt in the covenant temple representatively.
Jerusalem was the head of the whole Mosaic institution
The destruction of the covenant temple in AD 70 terminated the covenant and ended the civilization
Background to the Temple
In the national theocracy the Divine Will ruled ancient Israel. The God of Nature made a promise to Abraham, and later revealed His covenant and Law through Moses. The Abrahamic covenant with its Mosaic Law were installed in an ark and placed in a temporary-portable tabernacle in the wilderness wanderings. A stable and permanent temple was constructed by King Solomon in the tenth century before Christ. This was to become the most important and most controversial building in history. Its construction was estimated at eight-seven billion dollars,[2] but this is just a lot of money - its divine significance was beyond all human price.
Where Heaven touched Earth
The Jerusalem temple was the terrestrial spot where Heaven touched Earth. The God dwelt in that place in the Holy of Holies representatively in a cloud. (1 Kings 8-9; 2 Chronicles 6-7). This cloud was the same cloud that appeared to Moses and the children of Israel in the wilderness. It demonstrated to mortal men the actual presence of the immortal God. The moment the temple institution breathed covenantal-life is recorded in the book of Kings.
1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers' houses of the people of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. 9 There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 10 And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. 12 Then Solomon said, "The LORD has set the sun in the heavens, but has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. 13 I have built thee an exalted house, a place for thee to dwell in for ever." (1 Kings 8: 1; 9-13. RSV)
The glory cloud[3] was evidence and assurance of God’s presence and witness to the covenant between Creator and His creation; ‘But now thus says the Lord, your Creator O Jacob, and He who formed Israel.’ ‘..my sons and daughters …whom I have created for my glory.’ ‘Iam the Lord your holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.’ ‘Thus says the Lord, the holy One of Israel, and his Maker…’ [4]
More than just a Building
These two chapters[5] are essential reading to understanding the full meaning of the temple. It was much more than just a building. The temple was a Divine Institution that ruled over, legitimated and regulated every other institution in Israel. The temple had dual sacrificial and ritualistic functions of atonement and worship. To appease God these animal sacrifices were necessary as offerings to cleanse the human conscience. The covenantal promises were a double-edged; they promised the obedient blessing and the immoral cursing in the after-life. In terms of judgement this made Jerusalem both the gates of Paradise and the gates of Hades. (More on the real meaning on this topic later.)
How the Covenantal Temple organised Israel
The temple gave credence and divine authority to every daily aspect of the theocracy of Israel :- the Law was regulated there, judgement was pronounced there, politics was decided there, finance was organised from there, national tithes were collected and stored there, weights and measures were calibrated in the temple, gold and precious metals were smelted, secured, and guarded in the temple, the calendar, times and lunar festal seasons were determined in the temple, and the temple oversaw the ordination of the king and high priest. Some of its other functions were oversight of national demographics, the administration of hygiene and medicine, the determination of educational policy, monitoring of the transmission of scripture, language, and linguistic interpretation, the determination and enforcement of orthodoxy, the orchestration of a national defence policy. The temple staff policed obedience to every aspect of covenantal obligation in every corner of Israel, even to the washing the hands.[6] These were only some of the temple’s diverse functions in the nation. At the time of its destruction it had reigned from the tenth century BC to the first. [7] It is safe to say the covenantal institution of the temple was the legitimizing and central organizing-idea of the Mosaic polity in Israel for 1000 years.
Jerusalem the Head of the Body
Jerusalem was the head city and presided over neighbouring cities as the head does the body.[8] Jerusalem was the royal city of the king,[9] and the beloved bride[10] of the Divine groom, the King of the kingdom.[11] This made Jerusalem the queen in-potential awaiting the marriage day. Attendance by the national congregation was required three times a year. At that time the population of all other tributary cities flowed to Jerusalem like rivers to the sea. Indeed, this centralization of all national power and authority in a single institution was both its greatest strength, and finally its Achilles heel. If the head were cut off, the national body would whither and die. This is in fact what occurred in AD 70 when the Vth, 10th, 12th and 15th legions of Titus razed the holy city Jerusalem to its foundation.[12] The death of the temple was the cause of the disappearance of Mosaic civilization in-the-land. Why? Because covenant was located in the temple – both covenant and temple lived and died together. But there was a conditional ‘if’ to the blessing. The ‘if’ explained the direct consequences of disobedience in 1 Kings 9:6-9.
6 If you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them; and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a taunt among all peoples. 8 This house will become a heap of ruins; everyone passing by it will be astonished, and will hiss; and they will say, "Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this house?' 9 Then they will say, "Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, worshiping them and serving them; therefore the Lord has brought this disaster upon them.' (1 Kings 9:6-9 RSV)
Covenant and Temple-Institution Disappeared Together.
The destruction of the temple in 70AD signified the end of Mosaic civilization in-the-land. A restoration of Mosaic civilization in-the-land without the Divine legitimization of the holy temple became impossible, except in fancy or pretence. It is today, not humanly possible to reproduce the covenantal state of affairs that existed before Jesus of Nazareth and before AD 70.
“See these stones?” “Verily I say unto you not one stone
shall remain upon another that shall not be cast down.” Mtt 24:2
The Religion of Jesus a True Spiritual, and Universal Basis of Religion.
The old heaven and earth began to pass away with the arrival of the young Hebrew teacher Jesus of Nazareth, who made the astonishing claim to be ‘greater than the temple.’ (Matt 12:6)
Jesus’ presence on earth had three elements; an ethical element, a supernatural element, and a prophetic element. These three elements share a common historical basis[13] which cannot be explained by merely human hypotheses - they cannot be fully understood apart from the supernatural element. Historically the loss of Judaism’s temple was Christianity’s gain. The greatest human need is to be forgiven of guilt and freed from remorse. The national, physical, and bloody temple-cult of animal sacrifice was designed to cleanse the sinner. The destruction of the temple system left a great void, a physical and psychical vacuum for atonement. This void was filled by a higher consciousness, a personal, spiritual, and bloodless sacrifice to atone for human guilt, an opportunity for forgiveness - a second chance at life - and a personal relationship with the Divine testified by the fulfilment of Jesus’ temple prophecy. The old kingdom of the world had passed away, replaced by a new ‘kingdom of heaven.’ This new heaven and earth was a kingdom of conscience based on pure ethics, a supernatural life, death and resurrection, and the tangible historical proof of fulfilled prophecy.
These are the universal and transcendental merits of the religion of Jesus, and are a part of the real meaning of the temple.
NEXT PART - REAL MEANING 2.
The real Meaning and Scope of the temple’s covenantal significance.
-ooOOoo-
Works Consulted.
Barker, M. The Gate of Heaven; the history and symbolism of the temple
Barker, M. Temple Theology.
Bible NASB Lockman Foundation. Zondervan. Grand Rapids 1995
Bible RSV
Dodd, C.H. The Founder of Christianity. Collins. Fontana Books. Britain. 1971.
Edersheim, A. The Temple
Eusebius Ecclesiastical History. (Trans. Cruse, C.M.) George Bell & sons. London 1903
Gibbon The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Great Books Vol . (Ed M. Adler) University of Chicago. Chicago 1952
Josephus Antiquities of the Jews. Hendrikson.
Josephus Wars of the Jews
Lewsis, C.S. God in the Dock. (Ed. Hooper, W.) Eerdmans. Grand Rapids Michigan. 1970
Plutarch Lives. Great Books Vol . (Ed M. Adler) University of Chicago. Chicago 1952
Price, R Rose Guide to the Temple. Rose Publishing.
Suetonius The Twelve Caesars. (Tran Robert Graves) Penguin Classics. Great Britain 1957 reprint 1981.
Tacitus Histories. Great Books Vol . (Ed M. Adler) University of Chicago. Chicago 1952
[1] God in the Dock. P.45
[2] 87 billion
[3] Hebrew shekinah Edersheim
[4] Is 43:1;7;15; 45:11
[5] 1 Kings 8-9; 2 Chronicles 6-7. The next three articles will explain; The real meaning and scope of the temple’s covenantal significance; The real Nature of its blood sacrifices; The real cosmological significance of the temple
[6] Mark 7:1-23 Here the temple police travelled 140 kms from Jerusalem to Gennesaret to enforce the legal code to wash hands before eating, a dusty round trip of 280 kms for a small, legalistic humbug, a tradition.
[7] Date of inauguration given as 960 BC in most authorities
[8] [Judea] was parted into eleven portions, of which the royal city was the supreme, and presided over the neighbouring country as the head does over the body. Wars 3:5. Also Is 1:4-6 Alas sinful nation … the whole head is sick.. from the sole of the foot to the head nothing is sound in it.
[9] The royal city. Wars 3:5
[10] Jerusalem the bride of the king. Is 49:18; 61:10; 62:5; Jer 2:32; 7:34; 16:9; 25:10
[11] YHWH the Divine bridegroom of Jerusalem:- Ps 19:5; Is 61:10; 62:5. Of Jesus as bridegroom:- Mtt 9:15; Mk 2:19; Lk 5:34; Jn 3:29
[12] ‘The Romans set fire to extreme parts of the city and entirely demolished its walls.’ Wars 6:9:4 ‘Now Caesar gave orders to demolish the entire city and temple… and the rest of the wall was thoroughly laid even with the ground …dug up to its foundation.’ Wars 7:1
[13] MS evidence for the New Testament - 5,000 Greek manuscripts, 10,000 Latin and 9,000 others, totaling over 24,000 manuscript copies or portions. These date from 100 to 300 years after the originals. This far greatly exceeds comparable documents in quantity and quality; Caesar—10 copies; 1000 year gap; Tacitus—20 copies; 1000 year gap, Plato—7 copies; 1200 year gap.