The Temple of Solomon

"In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord." - 1 Kings 6:1

"In the year that king Uzziah died. I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the hekhal (sanctuary)." - Isaiah 6:1

There was not any one entity more central to the Yahwistic Judean religion during the monarchy than the temple of Solomon. It symbolized the presence of YHWH in the nation, as well as his enduring protection of the nation and the Davidic royal throne. Judean worshippers directed their prayers toward the Solomonic temple, and eventually, the Judean prophets and theologians declared that this was the only legitimate location where priests could perform sacrifices and other religious rites for YHWH. Its significance can be seen most clearly in the dramatic cognitive dissonance experienced by the Judeans in Babylonian captivity after the destruction of the temple, which had been so central to their religious conception that they had great difficulty reconciling its destruction with their continued belief in YHWH at all.

The Temple and the Biblical descriptions of it have fascinated people for centuries and led to all kinds of conjecture and imagination. In addition to countless works of art, Isaac Newton tried to make a model of it in his writings, and he wrote about the temple extensively. Even Freemasons give a nod to Solomon's Temple by calling their meeting places temples as well. That said, the Temple remains an enduring mystery due to conflicting accounts and descriptions of it in the Bible, and some scholars have even put forth theories that the structure was not originally designed to serve religious purposes in the first place.

The Temple Mount remains the holiest place in Judaism over 2,000 years later, and due in part to that religious sensitivity and the current placement of the Al-Aqsa mosque there, archaeological work is almost nonexistent. As a result, some have continued to question whether Solomon's Temple ever actually existed, pointing not only to lack of physical evidence but also the fact that contemporary Jewish literature aside from the Bible makes no mention of it. The political tensions between the modern state of Israel and the Palestinians have also made the temple and all of Jerusalem contentious issues.

The Temple of Solomon: The History of the Jerusalem's First Jewish Temple discusses the history, mystery and controversy surrounding the temple, examining the Bible and historical record in an attempt to separate fact from fiction. Along with pictures and a bibliography, you will learn about Solomon's Temple like never before, in no time at all.