:

It was paved

A. M. 2981. A. C. 1023; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4375. A. C. 1036. 2 SAM. xix-1 KINGS viii. in the city of David, or in the garden of Uzza, it makes | court of the Israelites was 100 cubits. no mention and therefore, since both his father and with marble of different colours, and had four gates, to grandfather were buried in this garden, there is reason every quarter one, and each rising with an ascent of seven to think, that Josiah was here buried likewise; espe- steps. To separate this court from the court of the cially considering, that in one of these subterraneous priests, there was a wall of 200 cubits square; and the rooms, as Le Bruyn tells us, which seemed to be more priests' court was 100 cubits, encompassed with cloisters lofty than the rest, there were three coffins curiously and apartments where the priests, that attended the seradorned with carved works, which he took to be the cof- vice of the temple, were used to live. This court had but fins of these three kings. three gates, to the east, to the north, and to the south, and were approached by an ascent of eight steps. These courts were all open, and without any covering, but in case of rain, or other bad weather, the people could retire under the cloisters, that were supported with rows of pillars, and went round every court. court, over against the gate of the priests' court, was In the Israelites' erected a throne for the king, which was a magnificent alcove, where he seated himself when he came to the temple. In the priests' court was the altar of burnt-offerings, a great deal larger than that of the tabernacle, having ten brazen lavers, whereas the tabernacle had but one, and a sea of brass, which the tabernacle had not, supported by twelve oxen.

But of all the buildings that ancient Jerusalem had to boast of, the temple which David designed, and Solomon perfected, was the most magnificent. We are not, however, to imagine, that this temple was built like one of our churches; for it did not consist of one single edifice, but a of several courts and buildings, which took up a great deal of ground. The place whereon it was erected, was on the top of Mount Moriah, and the building altogether made an exact square of 800 cubits, or 1460 feet long on each side, exactly fronting the east, west, north, and south.

On the west side of the altar of burnt-offerings, there was an ascent of twelve steps, to what we may properly call the temple; and this consisted of three parts, the porch, the sanctuary, and the holy of holies. The porch was about twelve cubits long, and twenty broad, at the entrance of which stood the two famous pillars, Jachin and Boaz, whose names import, that God alone was the support of the temple;' and its gate was fourteen cubits wide, the sanctuary or nave of the temple, was forty cu

To make this building more firm and secure, it was found necessary to begin the foundation at the bottom of the mount; so that the sides were 333 cubits, or about 608 feet high before they were raised to the level of the temple, and this afforded a most noble prospect towards the chief part of the city which lay westward. It is impossible to compute the labour of laying this foundation, because it is impossible to tell how much of the mountain must in some places be removed, and others filled up, to bring it to an exact square for so great a height but when we consider that there were 180,000 workmen, for seven years and a half constantly employed, we can-bits long, and twenty broad, wherein were the altar of not but admire what business could be found for so many hands to do; and yet, when we reflect on the vastness of this fabric, it would make one no less wonder, how in so short a time it could possibly be completed. "For the foundation," as Josephus tells us, was laid prodigiously deep, and the stones were not only of the largest size, but hard and firm enough to endure all weathers, and be proof against the worm. Besides this, they were so mortised into one another, and so wedged into the rock, that the strength and curiosity of the basis was not less admirable than the intended superstructure, and the one was every way answerable to the other."

incense, and the table of shewbread; but because the temple was larger and wanted more light than the tabernacle, instead of one, it had ten golden candlesticks. The holy of holies was a square of twenty cubits, wherein was placed the ark of the covenant, containing the two tables of stone, wherein God had engraven his ten commandments; but instead of two cherubim, as were in the tabernacle, in the temple there were four.

Round about the temple, and against the walls thereof, as Josephus tells us, were built thirty cells, or little houses, which served in the way of so many buttresses, and were, at the same time, no small ornament to it; for The ground plot upon which the temple was built was there were stories of these cells, one above another, a square of 600 cubits every way. It was encompassed whereof the second was narrower than the first, and the with a wall of six cubits high, and the same in breadth, third than the second, so that their roofs and balustrades and contained several buildings for different uses, sur-being within each other, made three different terraces, as rounded with cloisters, supported by marble pillars. it were, upon which one might walk round the temple. Within this space was the court of the Gentiles, fifty cubits wide, and adorned, in like manner, with cloisters and pillars. To separate this court from the court of the Israelites, there was a wall of 500 cubits square. The

'Bedford's Scripture Chronology, b. 4. c. 5. a These several parts of the temple the Greeks are very careful to distinguish by different names. What was properly the temple, they called vaós; and the courts and other parts of the temple, rò isgóv. Thus when Zacharias is said to have gone into the temple to burn incense, (Luke i. 9.) which was done in the sanctum, the word is vas; but when it is said that Anna the prophetess departed not from the temple, (Luke ii. 37.) that is, lived in that part of the court of the Israelites which was appropriated to religious women, the Greek word is ¡tgóv. And this observation holds good all through the New Testament.-Lamy,

De Tabern. b. 5. c. 5.

The temple itself, strictly so called, had two stories, the up

per of which was raised quite above these little houses and their
roofs; for their roofs reached no higher than the top of the first
story. The second story, which had no building adjoining to its
side, made a large room over the sanctuary and the holy of holies,
of equal dimensions with them; and it is no improbable opinion
that this was the upper chamber, in which the Holy Ghost was
pleased to descend upon the apostles in a visible manner.
upper room was appropriated to the pious laity as a place for them
This
to come and pay their devotions in; and therefore it seems very
likely that the apostles were here with other devout persons,
while the temple was full of Jews of all nations, who were come
to celebrate the feast of the Pentecost, and that thereupon they
below, hearing the noise, which was occasioned, by the shaking
of the place, ran up to see the cause of it, and, to their great
surprise, found the apostles distinguished from the other Jews
about them, both by the cloven tongues which sat upon each of

A. M. 2981. A. C. 1023; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4375. A. C. 1036. 2 SAM. xix-1 KINGS viii. Within, these little houses were ceiled with cedar, their | temple at Jerusalem, for it may be justly questioned, walls were wainscoted with the same, and embellished notwithstanding the profusion of gold, silver, precious with carving and fretwork, overlaid with gold, which, stones, &c., employed in the temple of Solomon, whewith their dazzling splendour made every thing about ther it cost any thing like the money expended on the them look glorious. temple of Diana.

Upon the whole then, we may observe, that the glory of this temple did not consist in the bulk or largeness of it, for in itself it was but a small pile of building, no more than an hundred and fifty feet in length, and an hundred and five in breadth, taking the whole of it together from out to out, and is exceeded by many of our parish churches, but its chief grandeur and excellency lay in its out buildings and ornaments, in its workmanship, which was everywhere very curious, and its overlayings, which were vast and prodigious; for the overlaying of the holy of holies, only, which was a room but thirty feet square, and twenty high, amounted to six hundred talents of gold, which comes to four millions three hundred and twenty thousand pounds of our sterling money.

To conclude this chapter then, in the words of the Jewish historian, "The whole frame, in fine," says

he,

was raised upon stones, polished to the highest degree of perfection, and so artificially put together, that there was no joint to be discerned, no sign of any working tools being upon them, but the whole looked liker the work of providence and nature, than the product of art and human invention. And as for the inside, whatever carving, gilding, embroidery, rich silks, and fine linen could do, of these there was the greatest profusion. The very floor of the temple was overlaid with beaten gold, the doors were large, and proportioned to the height of the walls, twenty cubits broad, and still gold upon gold." In a word, it was gold all over, and a nothing was wanting, either within or without, that might contribute to the glory and magnificence of the work.

CHAP. IV.-On the Temple.

SUPPLEMENTAL BY THE EDITOR.

3

Pliny informs us, that in order to build one of the pyramids in Egypt, no less than three hundred and sixty thousand men were employed for the space of twenty years. But neither was the temple any such work as this. We may also observe that the temple was never intended to hold a vast concourse of people; it was only for the service of the Lord, and the priests were those alone who were employed in it. The courts, chambers, and other apartments, were far more extensive than the temple itself; it was never designed to be a place to worship at. There God was known to have a peculiar residence, and before him the tribes came, and the priests were a sort of mediators between him and the people. In short, the temple was to the Jews in the promised land what the tabernacle was to the Hebrews in the wilderness; the place where God's honour dwelt, and whither the people flocked to pay their adoration.

"Solomon laid the foundation of the temple, A. M. 2992, B. C. 1008, before the vulgar era 1012; and it was finished A. M. 3000, and dedicated in 3001, B. C. 999, before the vulgar era 1003; Kings viii. 2 Chron. v. vii. viii. The place that was pitched on for erecting this magnificent structure was on the side of Mount Ziou called Moriah. Its entrance or frontispiece stood towards the east, and the most holy or most retired part was towards the west. The author of the first book of Kings, and of the second of Chronicles, has chiefly made it his business to describe the temple properly so called, that is the sanctuary, the sanctum, and the apartments belonging to them, as also the vessels, the implements, and the ornaments of the temple, without giving any description scarcely of the courts and open areas, which however made a principal part of the grandeur of this august edifice.

"But Ezekiel has supplied this defect by the exact plan he has delineated of these necessary parts. Indeed it must be owned that the temple as described by Ezekiel was never restored after the captivity of Ba

DIANA's temple at Ephesus was one of the seven won-bylon, according to the model and the mensuration that ders of the world. It is said that almost all Asia was employed in the building of it for about two hundred years; but it was certainly more extensive than the

this prophet has given of it. But as the measure he sets down for the sanctum and the sanctuary are, within a small matter, the same as those of the temple of Solomon; and as this prophet, who was himself a priest, had

'Prideaux's Con. part 1. b. 3. Jewish Antiq. b. 8. c. 2. them, and by the several different languages that they spake.seen the first temple; it is to be supposed that the de

Lamy's Introduction, b. I. c. 4.

us,

a It is not to be doubted, but that Solomon made all the utensils and ornaments of the temple proportionable, both in number and richness, to that of the edifice; and yet Josephus seems to have carried his account beyond all credibility, when he tells that there were 10,000 tables besides those of the shewbread 10,000 candlesticks besides those in the holy place; 80,000 cups for drink-offerings; 100,000 basins of gold, and double that

number of silver: when he tells us that Solomon caused to be

made 1000 ornaments for the sole use of the high priest, 10,000 linen robes and girdles for that of the common priests, and 200,000 more for the Levites and musicians: when he tells of 200,000 trumpets made according to Solomon's direction, with 200,000 more, made in the fashion that Moses had appointed, and 400,000 musical instruments of a mixed metal, between gold and silver, called by the ancients electrum-concerning all which we can only say, that the text is either silent or contradicts this prodigious account.-Universal History, b. 1. c. 7.

scription he gives us of the temple of Jerusalem is the same as that of the temple of Solomon.

"The ground-plot upon which the temple was built was a square of six hundred cubits, or twenty-five thousand royal feet; (Ezek. xlv.) This space was encompassed with a wall of the height of six cubits, and of the same breadth. Beyond this wall was the court of the Gentiles, being fifty cubits wide. After this was seen a great wall, which encompassed the whole court of the children of Israel. This wall was a square of five hundred cubits.

Hist. Nat. b. xxxvi. c. 12.

logy. According to Dr Hales, the temple was begun A. M. ¿ These dates are according to the commonly received chrono4384, or B. C. 1027, and finished B, C. 1020,

A. M. 2981. A. C. 1023; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4375. A. C. 1036. 2 SAM. xix -1 KINGS viii.

The court of Israel was an hundred cubits square, and was encompassed all round with magnificent galleries supported by two or three rows of pillars. It had four gates of entrance, one to the east, another to the west, a third to the north, and the fourth to the south. They were all of the same form and largeness, and each had an ascent of seven steps. The court was paved with marble of divers colours, and had no covering; but the people, in case of need, could retire under the galleries that were all round about. These apartments were to lodge the priests in, and to lay up such things as were necessary for the use of the temple. There were but three ways to come in, to the east, to the north, and to the south, and they went to it by an ascent of eight steps. Before, and over against the gate of the court of the priests, in the court of Israel, was erected a throne for the king, being a magnificent alcove, where the king seated himself when he came into the temple. Within the court of the priests, and over against the same eastern gate, was the altar of burnt-offerings, of twelve cubits square, according to Ezek. xliii. 16, or of ten cubits high and twenty broad, according to 2 Chron. iv. 1. They went up to it by stairs on the eastern side. Beyond this, and to the west of the altar of burntofferings, was the temple properly so called, that is to say, the sanctuary, the sanctum, and the porch of entrance. The porch was twenty cubits wide, and six cubits deep. Its gate was fourteen cubits wide. The sanctum was forty cubits wide, and twenty deep. There stood the golden candlestick, the table of shewbread, and the golden altar, upon which the incense was offered. The sanctuary was a square of twenty cubits. There was nothing in the sanctuary but the ark of the covenant, which included the tables of the law. The high priest entered here but once a year, and none but himself was allowed to enter. Solomon had embellished the inside of this holy place with palm trees in relief, and cherubim of wood covered with plates of gold, and in general the whole sanctuary was adorned, and as it were, overlaid with plates of gold.

with this, he profaned this holy place by setting up there an altar like one he had seen at Damascus, and taking away the brazen altar that Solomon had made; 2 Kings xvi. 10, 11, 12, &c. He also took away the brazen sea from off the brazen oxen that supported it, and the brazen basins from their pedestals, and the king's throne or oratory, which was of brass. These he took away to prevent their being carried away by the king of Assyria. Nor did he stop here, but carried his wickedness so far as to sacrifice to strange gods, and to crect profane altars in all the corners of the streets of Jerusalem; 2 Chron. xxviii. 24, 25. He pillaged the temple of the Lord, broke the sacred vessels, and, lastly, shut up the house of God. This happened A. M. 3264, B. C. 736, before the vulgar era 740, to his death, which happened in 3278, B. C. 722, before the vulgar era 726. Hezekiah, the son and successor of Ahaz, opened again and repaired the gates of the temple which his father had shut up and robbed of their ornaments; 2 Chron. xxix. 3, 4, &c. A. M. 3278, B. C. 722, before the vulgar era 726. He restored the worship of the Lord and the sacrifices, and made new sacred vessels in the place of those that Ahaz had destroyed. But in the fourteenth year of his reign, (2 Kings xviii. 15, 16,) A. M. 3291, B. C. 709, before the vulgar era 713, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, coming with an army into the land of Judah, Hezekiah was forced to take all the riches of the temple, and even the plates of gold that he himself had put upon the gates of the temple, and give them to the king of Assyria. But when Sennacherib was gone back into his own country, there is no doubt that Hezekiah restored all these things to their first condition.

"Manasseh, son and successor of Hezekiah, profaned the temple of the Lord, by setting up altars to all the host of heaven, even in the courts of the house of the Lord; 2 Kings xxi. 4, 5, 6, 7; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 5, 6, 7; A. M. 3306, and the following years. He set up idols there, and worshipped them. God delivered him into the hands of the king of Babylon, who loaded him with chains, and carried him away beyond the Euphrates; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, 12, &c. ; A. M. 3328, B. C. 672, before the vulgar era, 676. There he acknowledged and repented of his sins; and being sent back to his own dominions, he redressed the profanations he had made of the temple of the Lord, by taking away the idols, destroying the profane altars, and restoring the altar of burnt-offering, upon which he offered his sacrifices.

"Josiah, king of Judah, laboured with all his might in repairing the edifices of the temple, 2 Kings xxii. 4, 5, 6, &c., 2 Chron. xxxiv. 8-10; A. M. 3380, B. C. 620, before the vulgar era 624, which had been either neglected or demolished by the kings of Judah, his predecessors. He also commanded the priests and Levites to replace the ark of the Lord in the sanctuary, in its appointed place; and ordered that it should not any more be removed from place to place, as it had been during the reign of the wicked kings, his predecessors, 2 Chron. xxxv. 3.

"Nebuchadnezzar took away a part of the sacred vessels of the temple of the Lord, and placed them in the temple of his god, at Babylon, under the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6,7; A. M. 3398, B. C. 602, before the vulgar era 606. He also carried away others, under the reign of Jehoiachin, 2 Chron.

A. M. 2981. A. C. 1023; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4375. A. C. 1036. 2 SAM. xix—1 KINGS viii. xxxvi. 10; A. M. 3405, B. C. 595, before the vulgar era 599. Lastly, he took the city of Jerusalem, and entirely destroyed the temple, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, A. M. 3416, B. C. 584, before the vulgar era 588; 2 Kings xxv. 1, 2, 3, &c., 2 Chron. xxxvi. 18, 19.

of Solomon, and from that which was rebuilt by Zerubbabel after the captivity. This is the description that Josephus has left us of it, who himself had seen it :

"The temple, properly so called, was built sixty cubits high, and as many broad; but there were two sides of front, like two arms or shoulderings, which advanced twenty cubits on each side, which gave in the whole front an hundred cubits, as well as in height. The stones

5

"The temple continued buried in its ruins for the space of fifty-two years, till the first year of Cyrus at Babylon, A. M. 3468, B. C. 532, before the vulgar era 536. Then Cyrus gave permission to the Jews to re-made use of in this building were white and hard, twentyturn to Jerusalem, and there to rebuild the temple of the five cubits long, eight in height, and twelve in width. ' Lord, Ezra i. 1, 2, 3, &c. The following year they laid "The front of this magnificent building resembled that the foundation of the second temple; but they had hardly of a royal palace. The two extremes of each face were been at work upon it one year, when either Cyrus or his lower than the middle, which middle was so exalted that officers, being gained over by the enemies of the Jews, those who were over against the temple, or that apforbade them to go on with their work; Ezra iv. 5; proached towards it at a distance, might see it though A. M. 3470, B. C. 530, before the vulgar era 534. After they were many furlongs from it. The gates were almost the death of Cyrus and Cambyses, they were again for- of the same height as the temple; and on the top of the bidden by the Magian, who reigned after Cambyses, and gates were veils or tapestry of several colours, embelwhom the Scripture calls by the name of Artaxerxes; lished with purple flowers. On the two sides of the doors Ezra iv. 7, 17, 18, &c. ; A. M. 3483, B. C. 517, before were two pillars, the cornices of which were adorned the vulgar era 521. Lastly, these prohibitions being with the branches of a golden vine, which hung down superseded under the reign of Darius, son of Hystaspes, with their grapes and clusters, and were so well imitated, Ezra vi. 1, 14; Hag. i. 1, &c.; A. M. 3485, B. C. 515, that art did not at all yield to nature. Herod made very before the vulgar era 519; the temple was finished and large and very high galleries about the temple, which dedicated four years after, A. M. 3489, B. C. 511, be- were suitable to the magnificence of the rest of the buildfore the vulgar era 515, twenty years after the returning, and exceeded in beauty and sumptuousness all of from the captivity.

"This temple was profaned by order of Antiochus Epiphanes, A. M. 3837. The ordinary sacrifices were discontinued therein, and the idol of Jupiter Olympus was set up upon the altar. It continued in this condition for three years; then Judas Maccabæus purified it, and restored the sacrifice and worship of the Lord; 1 Mac. iv. 36; A. M. 3840, B. C. 160, before the vulgar era 164.

"Herod the Great undertook to rebuild the whole temple of Jerusalem anew, in the eighteenth year of his reign, A. M. 3986. He began to lay the foundation of it A. M. 3987, forty-six years before the first passover of Jesus Christ, as the Jews observe to him, by saying, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?' This is not saying that Herod had employed six and forty years in building it; for Josephus assures us, that he finished it in nine years and a half. But after the time of this prince, they all continued to make some new addition to it; and the same Josephus tells us that they went on working upon it even to the beginning of the Jewish war. ✦

3

"This temple, built by Herod, did not subsist more than twenty-seven years, being destroyed A. M. 4073, A. D. 73, of the vulgar era 69. It was begun by Herod in 3987, finished in 3996, burned and destroyed by the Romans in 4073.

"This temple of Herod's was very different from that

the kind that had been seen before.

"The temple was built upon a very irregular mountain, and at first there was hardly place enough on the top of it for the site of the temple and altar. The rest of it was steep and sloping. But when king Solomon built it he raised a wall towards the east, to support the earth on that side; and after this side was filled up, he then built one of the porticos or galleries. At that time this face only was cased with stone, but in succeeding times, the people endeavouring to enlarge this space, and the top of the mountain being much extended, they broke down the wall which was on the north side, and enclosed another space, as large as that which the whole circumference of the temple contained at first. So that, at last, against all hope and expectation, this work was carried so far that the whole mountain was surrounded by a treble wall. But for the completing of this great work, whole ages were no more than sufficient; and all the sacred treasures were applied to this use, that the devotion of the people had brought to the temple from all the provinces of the world. In some places these walls were above 300 cubits high, and the stones used in these walls were some forty cubits long. They were fastened together by iron cramps and lead, to be able to resist the injuries of time. The platform on which the temple was built was a furlong square, or 120 paces." Thus far Calmet and Josephus.'

THE

OF THE BIBLE.

BOOK VI.

CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THINGS, FROM THE BUILDING OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE, TO THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY, IN ALL ABOUT 400 YEARS,-ACCORDING TO DR HALES, 422 YEARS from the FOUNDATION of the 1EMPLE, AND OF COURSE 414 YEARS AND SIX MONTHS FROM ITS BEING FINISHED.