Who built the First Temple in Jerusalem

The crowning achievement of King Solomon's reign was the erection of the magnificent Temple (Hebrew- Beit haMikdash) in the capital city of ancient Israel - Jerusalem. His father, King David, had wanted to build the great Temple a generation earlier, as a permanent resting place for the Ark of the Covenant which contained the Ten Commandments. A divine edict, however, had forbidden him from doing so: "You will not build a house for My name," God said to David, "for you are a man of battles and have shed blood" (I Chronicles 28:3).
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Socio-economic background
Terminology
Worship & sacrifice
Architectural design
The end of the Temple period

The Bible's description of Solomon's Temple (also called The First Temple) suggests that the inside ceiling was was 180 feet long, 90 feet wide, and 50 feet high. The highest point on the Temple that King Solomon built was actually 120 cubits tall (about 20 stories or about 207 feet).

According to the Tanach (II Chronicles):
3:3- "The length by cubits after the ancient measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits".
3:4- "And the porch that was before the house, the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height a hundred and twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold."

Solomon spared no expense for the building's creation. He ordered vast quantities of cedar wood from King Hiram of Tyre (I Kings 5:2025), had huge blocks of the choicest stone quarried, and commanded that the building's foundation be laid with hewn stone. To complete the massive project, he imposed forced labor on all his subjects, drafting people for work shifts that sometimes lasted a month at a time. Some 3,300 officials were appointed to oversee the Temple's erection (5:2730). Solomon assumed such heavy debts in building the Temple that he is forced to pay off King Hiram by handing over twenty towns in the Galilee (I Kings 9:11).

When the Temple was completed, Solomon inaugurated it with prayer and sacrifice, and even invited nonJews to come and pray there. He urged God to pay particular heed to their prayers: "Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built" (I Kings 8:43).

Sacrifice was the predominant mode of divine service in the Temple until it was destroyed by the Babylonians some four hundred years later, in 586 BCE. Seventy years later, after the story of Purim, a number of Jews returned to Israel - led by the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah - and the Second Temple was built on the same site. Sacrifices to God were once again resumed. During the first century B.C.E., Herod, the Roman appointed head of Judea, made substantial modifications to the Temple and the surrounding mountain, enlargening and expanding the Temple. The Second Temple, however, met the same fate as the first and was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E., following the failure of the Great Revolt.

As glorious and elaborate as the Temple was, its most important room contained almost no furniture at all. Known as the Holy of Holies (Kodesh Kodashim), it housed the two tablets of the Ten Commandments inside the Ark of Covenant. Unfortunately, the tablets disappeared when the Babylonians destroyed the Temple and, therefore, during the Second Temple era the Holy of Holies was reduced to small, entirely bare room. Only once a year, on Yom Kippur, the High Priest would enter this room and pray to God on behalf of the Israelite nation. A remarkable monologue by a Hasidic rabbi in the Yiddish play The Dybbuk conveys a sense of what the Jewish throngs worshiping at the Temple must have experienced during this ceremony:

God's world is great and holy. The holiest land in the world is the land of Israel. In the land of Israel the holiest city is Jerusalem. In Jerusalem the holiest place was the Temple, and in the Temple the holiest spot was the Holy of Holies.... There are seventy peoples in the world. The holiest among these is the people of Israel. The holiest of the people of Israel is the tribe of Levi. In the tribe of Levi the holiest are the priests. Among the priests, the holiest was the High Priest.... There are 354 days in the [lunar] year. Among these, the holidays are holy. Higher than these is the holiness of the Sabbath. Among Sabbaths, the holiest is the Day of Atonement, the Sabbath of Sabbaths.... There are seventy languages in the world. The holiest is Hebrew. Holier than all else in this language is the holy Torah, and in the Torah the holiest part is the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments the holiest of all words is the name of God.... And once during the year, at a certain hour, these four supreme sanctities of the world were joined with one another. That was on the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and there utter the name of God. And because this hour was beyond measure holy and awesome, it was the time of utmost peril not only for the High Priest but for the whole of Israel. For if in this hour there had, God forbid, entered the mind of the High Priest a false or sinful thought, the entire world would have been destroyed.

To this day, traditional Jews pray three times a day for the Temple's restoration.

Over the centuries, the Muslims who eventually took control of Jerusalem built two mosques on the Temple Mount, the site of the two Jewish Temples. (This was no coincidence; it is a common Islamic custom to build mosques on the sites of other people's holy places.) Since any attempt to level these mosques would lead to an international Muslim holy war (jihad) against Israel, the Temple cannot be rebuilt in the foreseeable future.

Sources: Joseph Telushkin. Jewish Literacy. NY: William Morrow and Co., 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.

According to Jewish tradition, the original Jerusalem Temple was ordained by Yahweh/God, as described in 2 Samuel 7:12 where Yahweh commands Nathan to tell David:

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

As well as the postexilic text, 1 Chronicles 28:2-7, where David declares:

I had planned to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God; and I made preparations for building. But God said to me, 'You shall not build a house for my name, for you are a warrior and have shed blood'…He said to me, 'It is your son Solomon who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be a son to me, and I will be a father to him. I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues resolute in keeping my commandments and my ordinances, as he is today.'

Socio-economic background

The construction of the First Temple period marked a transition from nomadic or migrant to a settled and established lifestyle. The Israelite, or Judean, community was no longer mobile, and therefore, the portability of the Tabernacle was no longer a priority. Not only was the community no longer mobile but a monarchy was also established, representing a significant transition in the political and socio-economic way of life. Interestingly enough, within close proximity to the Temple a palace was established, architecturally symbolizing to the Israelites that Yahweh was working through the king. In a sense, the Temple became the king's 'private chapel', presenting the Temple as an elitist form of worship, a concept that was strengthened by the power of the developing priestly class.

Location

First and Second Temple Judaism was a religion of sacrifice, and it was in the Temple that such practices were enacted.

The location of the Temple was not selected by chance but was rather erected on a site of great significance within the biblical tradition: Mount Moriah. It was upon Mount Moriah that Abraham was commanded to bring his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to his God. His devotion ensured, God saved Isaac and created his covenant with Abraham (Gen. 22). In a rather poetic manner, the establishment of the Temple on this location appears to make complete sense. First and Second Temple Judaism was a religion of sacrifice, and it was in the Temple that such practices were enacted. The fact that the Temple was established on the same location that the Judeans believed Abraham nearly sacrificed his own son was surely no coincidence, and indeed this was precisely the message that the Judeans sought to create. Instead, the building was likely established before Gen. 22 was recorded, making the text an attempt to legitimize the location, and therefore, the establishment of the Temple. All in all, the building and the text are to be understood as representing two parts of a complicated system of sanctification and legitimization by the community in order to rationalize the transition from a migratory and mobile form of worship to one of alleged permanence.

Terminology

Although the Temple is referred to as a single institution here, it is important to note that the Jerusalem Temple was rebuilt at least three times in antiquity. The first was erected under Solomon, as is described in great detail within 1 Kings 5-6, approximately during the 10th century BCE. The second was built by returning exiles in approximately 515 BCE, while the third, and most elaborate, was developed under Herod in approximately 19-9 BCE, although it remained under renovations until its destruction in 70 CE. Generally, the Temple established by the returning exiles and Herod's Temple are conflated in scholarship and referred to as simply, the 'Second Temple', or the 'Second Temple period'. Although the physical characteristics described will refer to Second Temple evidence, the term 'Temple' here will represent all three as it is the general establishment of the institution that is of interest rather than the architectural differences between all three.

Worship & sacrifice

As the Temple became the center of worship with sacrifice playing an important, even crucial, role within ancient Judaism, laws and obligations were established in order to accommodate sacrificial requirements imposed on the Judean community, both within ancient Palestine and in the Diaspora. Both the book of Exodus and Deuteronomy attest to three mandatory pilgrimages: Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot.

Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the festival of unleavened bread, at the festival of weeks, and at the festival of booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed; all shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you (Deut. 16:16-17).

Three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me… No one shall appear before me empty-handed…Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God (Exodus 23:14-17).

These passages suggest that not only were acts of pilgrimage required but so were tithes and sacrificial offerings as is demonstrated in Deuteronomy 16:6.

[B]ringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.

Such passages demonstrate the significant economic role the Temple played in the ancient world. With large influxes of pilgrims, institutions such as hostels, public mikva'ot, money changers, and so on, would have developed in Jerusalem in order to accommodate and meet the needs of the individuals travelling to maintain sacrificial requirements.

Architectural design

The sacrificial practices that occurred within the Temple were reflected in the architectural design, with the division of the Temple platform into two separate courts: the Outercourt (non-Judean and Judean granted access), and the Innercourt (only Judeans granted access). The Innercourt was then divided into three smaller courts including the Court of Priests, which consisted of the Temple and altar, as well as the Court of Israel, and the Court of Women. As a result, worship was sexually segregated and access to the Holy of Holies was permitted only to the High Priest. As the Innercourt was accessible only to the Judeans, the Temple was marked as a space for Israelites alone, thereby demarcating the boundary of the Judean ethnos (people).

The end of the Temple period

Although access to the ancient synagogue was not restricted to the Judeans alone, several of the Temple rituals were transferred to the synagogue following the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Rituals such as the blowing of the shofar and the waving of the lulav during Sukkot were practiced within the synagogue, preserving the Temple traditions as well as a ritualistic aspect of Temple Judaism. While sacrifice was only permitted in the Temples, generations following the destruction of the Temple sought compromises and adaptations in order to preserve their cultural and ritualistic heritage, and in many situations the synagogue provided a means of continuity.

This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication.

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Submitted by Dana Murray, published on 06 January 2016. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

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