TEMPLE
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TEMPLE
Lee, Text-hook of Temperance ; Crane, A rts of Intoxi- cation ; riargreaves. Our Wasted Jiesouiceg : Lizars, Alcohol and Tobacco; The Prohibilionint's Text-book; Bacchus Dethroned; Hunt, Alcohol as a Food and Medicine; Vat tow, Bible W'ims, or Laws of Fermenta- tion ; IJichariison, Action of Alcohol on the Body and on the Mind: Kdmiiiids, Medical Use of Alcohol; Eioh- anlson, Medical Profession and Alcohol, ami Moderate Drinking; Storey, Alcohol, its Auture and Effects; The Centennial Temperance Volume, (J. T. C.)
Temple, a word used to designate a building dedi- cated to tlie worship of a deity. In this article we treat only of the scries of edilices erected for that pur- pose at Jerusalem, and in doing so we use, in part only, the treatment of the subject in the Biblical dictionaries of Kitto, Smith, and Fairbairn. See Palace.
I. Names. — The usual and apjiropriate Heb. term for this structure is ^^"n, luykul, which properly denotes a royal residence, and hence the sacred name mtT^, Je- hovah, is frequently added ; occasionally it is also qual- ified by the epithet 'C~ip, kddesh, sanctuary, to designate its sacredness. Sometimes the simpler phrase TT^a nin*', b<-yth yehovdh, house of Jehovah, is used; and in lieu of the latter other names of the Deity, especiall}' d'^n'SX, elohim, God, are employed. The nsual Greek word is I'rti'c, which, however, strictly denotes the cen- tral building or fane itself; while the more general term Upov included all the associated structures, i. e. the 'sur- rounding courts, etc.
The above leading word ?3"v} is a participial noun from the root ?zn, to hold or receive, and reminds us strongly of the Koman iemphim, from r'tf-itroQ, rif^tvoj, locus liberatus et effatus. When an augur had defined a space in which he intended to make his observations, he tixed his tent in it (tabernaculum capere'), with planks and curtains. In the arx this was not necessary, be- cause there was a permanent aurpiraculum. The Sept. usually renders OZ'^Ti, "temple," bj' oIkoq or vaoc, but in the Apocrj'pha and the New Test, it is generally called TO upov. IJabbinical appellations are lli'npafi r''3. heyth ham- Mikddsh, the house of the sanctuary, H'^S ni'^nsn, the chosen house, Cwb^n ri"2, the house of ages, because the ark was not transferred from it, as it was from Gilgal after 24, from Shiloh after 3G9, from Nob after 13, and from Gibcon after 50 years. It is also called "i""^, a dwelling, i. e. of God.
In imitation of this nomenclature, the word temple elsewhere in Scripture, in a figurative sense, denotes sometimes the Church of Christ (Kev. iii, 12): "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God." Paul says (2 Thess. ii, 4) that Antichrist " as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Sometimes it imports heaven (Psa. xi, 4) : " The Lord is in his holy temple ; the Lord's throne is in heaven." The martj-rs in heaven are said to be "before the throne of God, and to serve him day and night in his temple" (Rev. vii, 15). The soul of a rigliteous man is the temple of God, because it is in- habited by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. iii, 16, 17; vi, 19; 2 Cor. vi, 16).
II. History of the Temple and its Several Successors. — 1. The First Temple. — After the Israelites had ex- changed their nomadic life for a life in permanent habi- tations, it was becoming that they should exchange also their movable sanctuary or tabernacle for a temple. There elapsed, however, after the conquest of Palestine, several centuries during which the sanctuary continued movable, although the nation became more and more stationary. It appears that the first who planned the erection of a stone -built sanctuary was David, who, when he was inhabiting his house of cedar, and God had given him rest from all his enemies, meditated the design of building a temple in which the ark of God
might be placed, instead of being deposited "withiil curtains," or in a tent, as hitherto. This design was at first encouraged by the iinipliet Nathan; but he was afterwards instructed to tell David that such a work was less appropriate for him, who had been a warrior from his youth, and had shed much blood, than for his son, who should enjoj' in ijrosperity and peace the re- wards of his father's victories. Nevertheless, the de- sign itself was highly approved as a token of proper feelings towards tlie Divine King (2 Sam. vii, 1-12; 1 Chrou. xvii, 1-14; xxviii). See Daviu. We learn, moreover, from 1 Kings v and 1 Chron. xxii that Da- vid had collected materials which were afterwards em- ployed in the erection of the Temi)le, which was com- menced four years after his death, in the second month (comp. 1 Kings vi, 1 ; 2 Chron. iii, 2). This corresponds to May, P».C. 1010. AVe thus learn that the Israelitish sanctuary had remained movable more than four cen- turies subsetjuent to the conquest of Canaan. "In the fourth year of Solomon's reign was the foinidation of the house of the Lord laid, in the month Siv; and in the eleventh year, in the month Bui, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughont all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it." See Solomon.