Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| The Temple of Solomon Did Not Take Forty-Six Years to Build. With Regard to that of Ezra We Cannot Tell How Long It Took. Significance of the Number Forty-Six.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
22. The
Temple of Solomon Did Not Take Forty-Six Years to Build. With
Regard to that of Ezra We Cannot Tell How Long It Took.
Significance of the Number Forty-Six.
The Jews therefore said, “Forty and six years was
this temple in building,5106
and wilt thou raise
it up in three days?” How the Jews said that the temple had
been forty-six years building, we cannot tell, if we adhere to the
history. For it is written in the third Book of Kings,5107
that they prepared the stones and the wood
three years, and in the fourth year, in the second month,5108
when Solomon was king over Israel, the king
commanded, and they brought great precious stones for the foundation of
the house, and unhewn stones. And the sons of Solomon and the
sons of Hiram hewed the stones and laid them in the fourth year, and
they founded the house of the Lord in the month Nisan and the second
month: in the tenth year in
the month Baal, which was the eighth month, the house was finished
according to the whole count and the whole plan of it. Thus
comparing the time of its completion with the period of building, the
building of it occupies less than eleven years. How, then, do the
Jews come to say that the temple was forty-six years in building?
One might, indeed, do violence to the words and make out the period of
forty-six years at all costs, by counting from the time when David,
after planning about the building of the temple, said to Nathan the
prophet,5109
“Behold I
dwell in a house of cedar, and the ark of God dwelleth in the midst of
the tent,” for though it is true that he was prevented, as being
a man of blood,5110
from carrying out
the building, he seems to have busied himself in collecting materials
for it. In the first Book of Chronicles,5111
certainly, David the king says to all the congregation, “Solomon
my son, whom the Lord hath chosen, is young and tender, and the work is
great, because he is not to build for man but for the Lord God.
According to my whole power I have prepared for the house of my God,
gold, silver, brass, and iron, wood, stones of Soom, and stones for
filling up, and precious stones of many kinds, and all sorts of
precious wood, and a large quantity of Parian marble. And besides
this, for the pleasure I have taken in the house of my God, the gold
and the silver I possess, lo, I have given it for the house of my Lord,
to the full; from such supplies5112
| 5112 LXX. reads
“besides what;” neither reading yields a good sense. | I prepared for
the house of the saints, three thousand talents of gold from Suphir,
and seven thousand talents of stamped silver. that the houses of God
may be overlaid with them by the hands of artificers.” For
David reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in
Jerusalem;5113
so that if it could
be shown that the beginning of the preparations for the temple and of
David’s collecting the necessary material, was in the fifth year
of his reign, then, with some forcing, the statement about forty-six
years might stand. But some one else will say that the temple
spoken of was not that built by Solomon, for that it was destroyed at
the period of the captivity, but the temple built at the time of
Ezra,5114
with regard to which the forty-six years can
be shown to be quite accurate. But in this Maccabean period
things were very unsettled with regard to the people and the temple,
and I do not know if the temple was really built in that number of
years. Heracleon pays no attention to the history, but says that
in that he was forty-six years preparing the temple, Solomon was an
image of the Saviour. The number six he connects with matter,
that is, the image, and the number forty, which he says is the tetrad,
not admitting of combination, he connects with the inspiration and the
seed in the inspiration. Consider if the forty cannot be taken as
due to the four elements of the world arranged in the building of the
temple at the points at issue,5115
| 5115 Reading ἠγωνισμένοις.
Another suggested reading is γεγωνιωμένοις,
which might give the sense “at the corners.” Neither
is satisfactory. | and the six to the
fact that man was created on the sixth day.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
