The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 104

berea that the prophet himself speaks of were exactly double those of the tabernaole, bis temple as seen in vi.sion (eh. xl. 2; xliii. as the following ~ble will show :- 2, 3). The true account of this portraiture would therefore seem to be that, while it TABERNACLE, TEMPLE, borrowed largely from the plan and propor- cubits. oubits. tions of Solomon's Temple, it was designed Entire length ..... , .. • . 40 . , .... , , 80 to serve as " the beau ideal of what a Se- ,. width .......... 20 ........ 40 mitic temple should be" (Fergusson, Diet. ,, height . . . . . . . . . . 15 ........ 30 Bib. iii. p. 1460. In a paper in the "Contem- Length of Holy Place .. 20 .... , ... 40 porary Review," vol. xxvii. p. 978, Fergus- Width ................ 10 .... , ..• 20 son adopts the idea that it was designed to Height ................ 10 ........ 20 serve as a basis for the future restoration of Length of Holy of Holies, 10 , .....•• 20 the temple.) Width ........ , . . . • . . . 10 . . . . • . . . 20 Two other authorities, whose accounts Height ........••.... , . 10 . , . . . . . . 20 have a direct bearing on the sacred narra- Width of Porch ........ 10 ........ 20 tive, must be mentioned here--Josephus and Depth ...... , ......... 5 ...•..•. 10 the Talmudic tract on the temple, called The only exception to this rule is that of Midd,oth (i.e., measures). Unfortunately, the side chambers, which (on the lowest neither is of much avail for the illustration story) were but five cubits wide, i.e., they of the text we have now to consider. were identical in width with the verandah. J osephue, too often unreliable, would seem It is held by some, however, that with the to be especially so here. " Templum aediji- enclosing walls, they were ten cubits. If cat," says Clericus, "quale animo conceperat this were so, it follows that here again the rum quale legerat a Salomone conditum." same proportions are exactly preserved. "Inconsistency, inaccuracy, and exaggera- It will be clear from this comparison that tion are plainly discoverable in the measure- the temple was constructed, not after any ments given by Josephus" (Conder, "Hand- Egyptian or Assyrian model, but that it book to Bible," p. 368). "Wherever the preserved the features and arrangement of Mishn.a is not in accord with Josephus the the consecrated structure, the pattern of measurements of the latter are untrust- which was showed to Moses in the Mount worthy" (ib. p. 369). The writers of the (Exod. xxv. 9, 40; cf. Acts vii. 44; Heb. :Misbna, again, refer generally, as might viii. 5), so that when "David gave to Solo- be expected, to the temple of Herod, mon his son the pattern of the porch," &c., or confuse in their accounts the three " and the pattern of all that he had by the temples of Solomon, Herod, and Ezekiel spirit" (1 Cbron. xxviii. 11, 12), the same (Bahr). The student of temple archi- arrangement and similar proportions were tecture oonsequently derives but scant consciously or unconsciously preserved. assistance in his work from the writings of The temple differed from the taberno.cle tlilinBpired historians. only so far as a large house necessarily Perhaps this is the proper ple.ce to remark differs from a email tent. It ie also to be observed that every on the close correspondence between temple dimension of the temple was either ten and tabernacle. (See Fergusson, Diet. Bib. cubits-the holy of holies wo.s a cube of ten iii. p. 1455). In the first place, in plan and cubits-or a multiple of ten, just as the arrangement the two structures were identi- dimensions of the tabernacle are either five cal Each faced the east ; each had three cubits or multiples of five. Now this deci- parts, viz., porch, holy place, and holy of mal arrangement can hardly have been holies, while the side chambers of the temple accidental. Not only bad the Jews ten (ver. 5) were analogous to the verandah Iingers, but they had ten oommand.ments, formed by the projecting roof, or cnriains, and a system of trnths or tithes, and this which ran round three sides of the taber- number, therefore, was to them, no doubt, nacle. Secondly, the measurements both of the symbol of completeness ('' Symbol der &be whole edifice and of its component parts Voll.endung und Vollko.'llmenheit.'' Bli.hr, CB, VI, 1-38.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 99