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At King Solomon’s command they quarried fine large stones for the foundation of the temple. Solomon’s and Hiram’s workmen and men from the city of Byblos prepared the stones and the timber to build the temple. (1 Kings 5:17-18)

The temple was quite small but none the less impressive:

Inside it was 27 metres long, 9 metres wide, and 13.5 metres high. The entrance room was 4.5 metres deep and 9 metres wide, as wide as the sanctuary itself. The walls of the temple had openings in them, narrower on the outside than on the inside. Against the outside walls, on the sides and the back of the temple, a three-storied annexe was built, each storey 2.2 metres high. Each room in the lowest storey was 2.2 metres wide, in the middle storey 2.7 metres wide, and in the top storey 3.1 metres wide. The temple wall on each floor was thinner than on the floor below so that the rooms could rest on the wall without having their beams built into it. The stones with which the temple was built had been prepared at the quarry, so that there was no noise made by hammers, axes, or any other iron tools as the temple was being built. The entrance to the lowest storey of the annexe was on the south side of the temple, with stairs leading up to the second and third storeys. So King Solomon finished building the temple. (1 Kings 6:2-9)

An inner court was built in front of the temple, enclosed with walls which had one layer of cedar beams for every three layers of stone. (1 Kings 6:36)

Metal

The inner sanctuary and altar of Solomon's temple were overlaid with gold. The doors were olive and pine wood, also carved and covered in gold.

In the rear of the temple an inner room was built, where the Lord’s Covenant Box was to be placed. This inner room was 9 metres long, 9 metres wide, and 9 metres high, all covered with pure gold. (1 Kings 6:19)

The inside of the temple was covered with gold, and gold chains were placed across the entrance f the inner room, which was also covered with gold. The whole interior of the temple was covered with gold, as well as the altar in the Holy of Holies. (1 Kings 6:21-22)

Even the floor was covered with gold. (1 Kings 6:30)

A metalworker called Huram from Tyre did the bronze work:

King Solomon sent for a man named Huram, a craftsman living in the city of Tyre, who was skilled in bronze work. His father, who was no longer living, was from Tyre, and had also been a skilled bronze craftsman; his mother was from the tribe of Naphtali. Huram was an intelligent and experienced craftsman. He accepted King Solomon’s invitation to be in charge of all the bronze work. (1 Kings 7:13-14)

Solomon wrote to Hiram of Tyre:

Now send me a man with skill in engraving, in working gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in making blue, purple and red cloth. He will work with the craftsmen of Judah and Jerusalem whom my father David selected. (2 Chronicles 2:7)

Hiram replied:

I am sending you a wise and skillful master craftsman named Huram. His mother was a member of the tribe of Dan and his father was a native of Tyre. He knows how to make things out of gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone and wood. He can work with blue, purple, and red cloth, and with linen. He can do all sorts of engraving and can follow any design suggested to him. Let him work with your skilled workers and with those who worked for your father, King David. So now send us the wheat, barley, wine and olive oil that you promised. (2 Chronicles 2: 13-15)

Huram cast two bronze columns, each one 8 metres tall and 5.3 metres in circumference, and placed them at the entrance of the temple. He also made two bronze capitals, each one 2.2. metres tall, to be placed on top of the columns. The top of each column was decorated with a design of interwoven chains, and two rows of bronze pomegranates. The capitals were shaped like lilies, 1.8 metres tall, and were placed on a rounded section which was above the chain design. There were 200 bronze pomegranates in two rows round each capital. Huram placed these two bronze columns in front of the entrance of the Temple: the one on the south side was named Jachin (he establishes), and the one on the north was named Boaz (by his strength). The lily-shaped bronze capitals were on top of the columns. And so the work on the columns was completed. (1 Kings 7:15-22)

Huram made a round tank of bronze, 2.2. metres deep, 4.4. metres in diameter, and 13.2 metres in circumference. All round the outer edge of the rim of the tank were two rows of bronze gourds, which had been cast all in one piece with the rest of the tank. The tank rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outwards, three facing in each direction. The sides of the tank were 75 millimetres thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, curving outwards like the petals of a lily. The tank held about 40,000 litres. (1 Kings 7:23-26)

Huram also made ten bronze carts; each was 1.8 metres long, 1.8 metres wide and 1.3 metres high. They were made of square panels which were set in frames, with the figures of lions, bulls, and winged creatures on the panels; and on the frames, above and underneath the lions and bulls, there were spiral figures in relief. Each cart had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. At the four corners were bronze supports for a basin; the supports were decorated with spiral figures in relief. There was a circular frame on top for the basin. It projected upwards 45 centimetres from the top of the cart and 18 centimetres down into it. It had carvings round it. The wheels were 66 centimetres high; they were under the panels, and the axles were of one piece with the carts. The wheels were like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of bronze. There were four supports at the bottom corners of each cart, which were of one piece with the cart. There was a 22 centimetre band round the top of each cart; its supports and the panels were of one piece with the cart. The supports and panels were decorated with figures of winged creatures, lions, and palm trees, wherever there was space for them, with spiral figures all round. This, then, is how the carts were made; they were all alike, having the same size and shape. (1 Kings 7 27-37)

Huram also made ten basins, one for each cart. Each basin was 1.8 metres in diameter, and held about 800 litres. He placed five of the carts on the south side of the temple, and the other five on the north side; the tank he placed at the south-east corner. (1 Kings 7:38-39)

Huram also made pots, shovels, and bowls. He completed all this work for King Solomon for the Lord’s temple. This is what he made:

• The two columns
• The two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the columns
• The design of interwoven chains on each capital
• The 400 bronze pomegranates, in two rows of a hundred each round the design on each capital
• The ten carts
• The ten basins
• The tank
• The twelve bulls supporting the tank
• The pots, shovels and bowls

All this equipment for the temple, which Huram made for King Solomon, was of polished bronze. The king had it all made in the foundry between Sukkoth and Zarethan, in the Jordan Valley. (1 Kings 7:40-46)

The pots, shovels and bowls: the Bible details as:

30 gold basins, 1000 silver basins, 30 golden bowls, 40 silver bowls, and 1029 other vessels. He covered the altar in gold and manufactured gold flowers, lamps, snuffers, tongs, cups, incense dishes, pans to hold burning charcoal, and hinges for the inner and outer doors

.

Solomon also had gold furnishings made for the temple; the altar, the table for the bread offered to God, the ten lampstands that stood in front of the Holy of Holies, five on the south side and five on the north; the flowers, lamps, and tongs; the cups, lamp snuffers, bowls, dishes for incense, and the pans used for carrying live coals; and the hinges for the doors of the Holy of Holies and of the outer doors of the temple. All these furnishings were made of gold. (1 Kings 7 48-50)

The temple which King Solomon built was 27 metres long and 9 metres wide. The entrance room was the full width of the temple, 9 metres, and was 54 metres high. The inside of the room was overlaid with pure gold. the main room was panelled with cedar and overlaid with fine gold, in which were worked designs of palm trees and chain patterns. The king decorated the temple with beautiful precious stones and with gold imported from the land of Parvaim. He used the gold to overlay the temple walls, the rafters, the thresholds, and the doors. On the walls the workers carved designs of winged creatures. The inner room, called the Holy of Holies, was 9 metres long and 9 metres wide, which was the full width of the temple. Over 20 tonnes of gold were used to cover the walls of the Holy of Holies. 570 grammes of gold were used for making nails, and the walls of the upper rooms were also covered in gold. The king also ordered his workers to make two winged creatures out of metal, cover them with gold, and place them in the Holy of Holies, where they stood side by side facing the entrance. Each had two wings, each wing 2.2. metres long, which were spread out so that they touched each other in the centre of the room and reached the wall on either side of the room, stretching across the full width of about 9 metres. (2 Chronicles 3:3-13)

The king made two columns, each one 15.5 metres tall, and placed them in front of the temple. Each one had a capital 2.2. metres tall. The tops of the columns were decorated with a design of interwoven chains and one hundred bronze pomegranates. The columns were set at the sides of the temple entrance: the one on the south side was named Jachin, and the one on the north side was named Boaz. (2 Chronicles 3:15-17)

King Hiram of Byblos, on a Cherubim Throne  -- the bas relief is from his sarcophagus. The Cherubim have been identified as Winged Sphinxes (p. 127. Sabatino Moscati. The Phoenicians. Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri Bompiani, Sonzono, Etas S.p.A. Milan. March 1988). Moscati dates the sarchopagus to the 13th-12th century B.C. that is about 300 years before King Solomon.

King Solomon had a bronze altar made, which was 9 metres square and 4.5 metres high. He also made a round tank of bronze, 2.2 metres deep, 4.4. metres in diameter, and 13.2 metres in circumference. All round the outer edge of the rim of the tank were two rows of decorations, one above the other. The decorations were in the shape of bulls, which had been cast all in one piece with the rest of the tank. The tank rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outwards, three facing in each direction. The sides of the tank were 75 millimetres thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, curving outwards like the petals of a flower. The tank held about 60,000 litres.

They also made ten basins, five to be placed on the south side of the temple and five on the north side. They were to be used to rinse the parts of the animals that were burnt as sacrifices. The water in the large tank was for the priests to use for washing.

They made ten gold lampstands according to the usual pattern, and ten tables, and placed them in the main room of the temple, five lamp-stands and five tables on each side.

They also made a hundred gold bowls.

They made an inner courtyard for the priests, and also an outer courtyard. The doors in the gates between the courtyards were covered with bronze. The tank was placed near the south-east corner of the temple.

Huram also made pots, shovels, and bowls. He completed all the objects that he had promised King Solomon he would make for the temple:

• The two columns
• The two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the columns
• The design of interwoven chains on each capital
• The 400 bronze pomegranates arranged in two rows round the design of each capital
• The ten carts
• The ten basins
• The tank
• The twelve bulls supporting the tank
• The pots, shovels and forks

Huram the master craftsman made all these objects out of polished bronze, as King Solomon had commanded, for use in the temple of the Lord. The king had them all made in the foundry between Sukkoth and Zeredah in the Jordan Valley. (2 Chronicles 4:1-17)

King Solomon also had gold furnishings made for the temple: the altar and the tables for the bread offered to God; the lampstands and the lamps of fine gold that were to burn in front of the Holy of Holies, according to plan; the flower decorations, the lamps, and the tongs; the lamp snuffers, the bowls, the dishes for incense, and the pans used for carrying live coals. All these objects were made of pure gold. The outer doors of the temple and the doors to the Holy of Holies were overlaid with gold. (2 Chronicles 4:19-22)

Two winged creatures were made of olive wood and placed in the Holy of Holies, each one 4.4 metres tall. Both were of the same size and shape. Each had two wings, each wing 2.2 metres long, so that the distance from one wing tip to the other was 4.4. metres. They were placed side by side in the Holy of Holies, so that two of their outstretched wings touched each other in the middle of the room, and the other two wings touched the walls. The two winged creatures were covered with gold. The walls of the main room and of the inner room were all decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers... A double door made of olive wood was set in place at the entrance of the Holy of Holies; the top of the doorway was a pointed arch. The doors were decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers. The doors, the winged creatures, and the palm trees were covered with gold. For the entrance to the main room a rectangular door-frame of olive wood was made. There were two folding doors made of pine and decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers, which were evenly covered with gold. (1 Kings 6: 23-35)

King Hiram seems to have been given a bit of a raw deal by Solomon:

King Hiram of Tyre had provided him with all the cedar and pine and with all the gold he wanted for this work. After it was finished, King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the region of Galilee. Hiram went to see them, and he did not like them. So he said to Solomon, "So these, my brother, are the towns you have given me!" For this reason the area is still called Cabul (worthless). (1 Kings 8:10-13)

The temple was finished in 960 BC, having taken seven years to build. Though Solomon at this time thought enough of his god Yahweh to build this magnificent temple in his honour, in later life he worshipped the Phoenician gods instead.

All the contents of the temple were taken off as loot when Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in the 6^th century BC. The Persians, whose empire succeeded that of the Babylonians, restored some of the treasures:

Cyrus gave them back the bowls and cups that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and had put in the temple of his gods. He handed them over to Mithredath, chief of the royal treasury, who made an inventory of them for Sheshbazzar, the governor of Judah, as follows:

• gold bowls for offerings 30
• silver bowls for offerings 1,000
• other bowls 29
• small gold bowls 30
• small silver bowls 410
• other utensils 1,000

In all there were 5,400 gold and silver bowls and other articles which Sheshbazzar took with him when he and the other exiles went from Babylon to Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:7-11)

Solomon’s Palace and his Egyptian Wife’s Palace

Solomon’s two palaces took much longer to complete than the temple:

Solomon also built a palace for himself, and it took him thirteen years. The Hall of the Forest of Lebanon was 44 metres long, 22 metres wide, and 13.5 metres high. It had three rows of cedar pillars, fifteen in each row, with cedar beams resting on them. The ceiling was of cedar, extending over store-rooms, which were supported by the pillars. In each of the two side walls there were three rows of windows. The doorways and windows had rectangular frames, and the three rows of windows in each wall faced the opposite rows. The Hall of Columns was 22 metres long and 13.5 metres wide. It had a covered porch, supported by columns. The Throne Room, also called the Hall of Judgement, where Solomon decided cases, had cedar panels from the floor to the rafters. Solomon’s own quarters, in another court behind the Hall of Judgement, were made like the other buildings. He also built the same kind of house for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt. (1 Kings 7:1-8)

All these buildings and the great court were made of fine stones from the foundations to the eaves. The stones were prepared at the quarry and cut to measure, with their inner and outer sides trimmed with saws. The foundations were made of large stones prepared at the quarry, some of them 3.5 metres long and others 4 metres long. On top of them were other stones, cut to measure, and cedar beams. The palace court, the inner court of the temple, and the entrance room of the temple had walls with one layer of cedar beams for every three layers of cut stone. (1 Kings 7:9-12)

The Second Temple

Solomon’s temple was completely destroyed in 587 BC by the Babylonians when they captured Jerusalem. When the Persian Empire took over from the Babylonian Empire, King Cyrus allowed the Hebrews to return to Jerusalem and build a second temple on the site of the first. King Herod the Great, who ruled from 37-4 BC, restored the second temple. This is why he restored the temple treasures.

One of the main activities of tourists throughout the ages has always been looking at and admiring ancient buildings. On the other hand, locals all over the Middle East generally find their old buildings embarrassing - signs of an old-fashioned past they’d prefer to forget. They like to look at and admire new, modern buildings, which they regard as signs of progress. Jesus’ disciples, therefore, during their last visit to Jerusalem with Jesus, admired Herod’s recently renovated second temple:

Jesus left and was going away from the temple when his disciples came to him to call his attention to its buildings. "Yes," he said, "you may well look at all these. I tell you this: not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down." (Matthew 24:1-2)

As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said, "Look, teacher! What wonderful stones and buildings!" Jesus answered, "You see these great buildings? Not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down." (Mark 13::1-2)

Some of the disciples were talking about the temple, how beautiful it looked with its fine stones and the gifts offered to God. Jesus said: "All that you see - the time will come when not a single stone here will be left in its place, every one will be thrown down." (Luke 21:5-6)

As He predicted, the second temple was razed to the ground. It was completely destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD and has never been rebuilt. All that remains is the foundation of the west wall. Jews go there to lament the second temple’s destruction so it is now known as the wailing wall. The blocks of stone are huge, following the Phoenician model.

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2. Lecture on the Logistics of King Solomon's Temple

This lecture was intended for delivery to Freemasons’ Lodges, in aid of various charities. As you may know, Freemasons are renowned worldwide for their Charitable Giving, and for their unstinting assistance to Good Causes. Don’t believe those old wives’ tales of conspiracies and bizarre ritualistic goings-on. These stories do make us laugh!

For those who have never travelled to the Middle East, I refer you to the map. Please study it whilst I point out a few things you may find of interest.

You will see immediately that it is a map of the Holy Land, as it was in the Good Old Days, and pretty much as it is now.

In the upper left hand quadrant you will see the Eastern End of the Mediterranean Sea, which we’ll take as being Sea Level, which is surprisingly relevant in this part of the world.

About a quarter of the way down the centre of the page, you will observe the Sea of Galilee, which is also known as the Lake of Galilee, or Lake Tiberius, or the Sea of Chinnereth. Whatever you want to call it, it is the most beautiful blue lake, well stocked with fish, and an absolute delight to live by. But you may not know that the surface of this lake is about 700 feet below Sea level. The reason for this , is that the lake is part the way down in an enormous rift in the earth’s surface. This rift is, in fact, the uppermost part of the Great Rift Valley, which starts in central Africa near Lake Tanganyika, cuts across the bottom of Ethiopia, up the Red Sea, which actually sits IN a part of the Great Rift, up the Gulf of Aqaba, then, after momentarily disappearing at Aqaba City itself, takes a final plunge down and up in the centre of the area shown in the map. It is an enormous natural fault in the Earth’s surface, and the Sea of Galilee sits part way down it.

Now look half way down the map, in the centre, and you will see the Dead Sea. Well known to all of us for its great saltiness. The Dead Sea sits right down in the sump of this trench. Rivers flow into it, but of course rivers cannot flow out of it, because there’s nowhere to flow. The evaporation from the surface roughly equals the inflow of water from those rivers. The surface of the Dead Sea is 1300 ft below sea level, and is the lowest exposed place on Earth.

Now look at the top of the page, and you will see Mount Hermon, which would be of very little interest to us, except that in its foothills there are many springs, and they combine with the snowmelt to form streams that become the River Jordan.

This newly formed River Jordan runs cleanly down into this valley, and empties into the Sea of Galilee, keeping it fresh, clean and clear.

Then the river Jordan comes out at the South end of the Lake, and runs down to the Dead Sea. This second part of the River Jordan is the famous part, the part everyone wanted to cross. Owing to the nature of the soil through which it passes, it quickly becomes turbid and foul. It twists and turns rather like a snake in agony. Aerial photographs of it indicate that although the distance from the Lake of Galilee to the Dead sea is about 70 miles, that river covers about 250 miles, where it twists about so much. It runs in a kind of flat-bottomed trench called various names, but we’ll call it The Ghor.

This Ghor is, of course, very fertile, and for much of its length it is densely vegetated. This vegetation is called The Jungle of The Jordan.

Each side of this Ghor is an area of flat clay ground called The Plain of Jordan. This plain contains several sites of ancient towns and villages, including Succoth and Zeredathah, between which, the Bible tells us, were situated the foundries in which were cast all the pillars and bronze items for King Solomon’s Temple. These two villages are about 6 miles apart, and a mile of so from the River Jordan. Succoth and Zeredathah are about 800 feet below sea level. Each is now merely a mound of crumbled dried mud bricks called a “TEL“.

Now look to the left of the Dead Sea and you will observe Jerusalem, with Bethlehem 5 miles South of it. Jerusalem is not down in this valley, but is, as it were, up on the bank at the side. In fact Jerusalem is virtually on top of a small mountain, at an altitude of 2600ft ABOVE sea level, so you will realise that to get from Succoth up to Jerusalem, you need to climb a total of 3400 ft, and the shortest practical route there in those days was about 100 miles.

Now look over on the coast of the Mediterranean, and you will see JOPPA, in Solomon’s time an important port. Now called Jaffa, a suburb of Tel Aviv. And further up the coast you will see TYRE of which Hiram was King. Tyre in those days was a tiny island just off the coast. It was later joined by a causeway which has thickened up, and Tyre is now just a protuberance from the main Lebanese coastline. Tyre was what was called a CITY STATE, which meant that it was a little country all on its own. There were several of these City States along that part of the coast, and they formed themselves into an alliance called PHOENICIA.

The Phoenicians, the inhabitants of this alliance, were quite remarkable people. They were, without a shadow of doubt, the finest traders of their time, and perhaps the greatest traders ever, and Hiram their King was probably the greatest trader of them all. The tentacles of their trading empire stretched for hundreds, and even thousands of miles in all directions.

Now look at the bottom half of the map, and you will see, stretching from the Dead Sea down to Aqaba, (or, strictly speaking, UP to Aqaba), the Wadi Arabah. A long, bleak desert valley of very little interest to us except that 15 miles North of Aqaba you will see TIMNA, and just South East of the Dead Sea you will observe FAINAN. Both small valleys very rich in copper ore.

Although the valley seems very narrow when you look at a map like this, nevertheless it is a colossal trench, some miles wide, and quite amazing to fly over.

Now let’s start talking about King Solomon and his famous Temple.

First of all, let’s look at King Solomon himself. What do we know about him, and from whence did we learn it? Solomon‘s story is derived principally from The Holy Bible, which seems to be the main source of all we know about him. His story is told in two places in The Bible, in the First Book of Kings, and in the Second Book of Chronicles.

The First Book of Kings was written, probably about 450-500 BC, and the general consensus seems to be that it was written, probably in Aramaic, by Ezra. About 150 or so years later, The Chronicler (Real name unknown to us) translated Ezra’s work into Greek, with certain amendments, additions, omissions, etc.. But generally, both versions tell about the same story.

Now, logically, if Solomon’s story was being narrated as ancient history in 450-500 BC, then he obviously pre-dates that time. And so he does, by a long way. Solomon was King of the Hebrews from approximately 960-920 BC. That is nearly 3000 years ago, 1200 years after the Egyptian pyramids were built, 400 years after King Tutankhamun was interred, 1500 years after Stonehenge in England was completed, and 2 300 years after UTZI THE ICEMAN, (discovered up in the Alps with an arrow in his back) died.

The next thing we have to realise is that the Hebrews had never built a Temple before. Previous to this their most treasured possession, the ARK OF THE COVENANT, had been kept in a tent called The Tabernacle, which they had carried about with them during their wanderings in the Wilderness. Now happily settled, they wanted to build a permanent House For God, and the remarkable thing is, they hadn’t a clue how to go about it. King Solomon himself had no idea of how to go about constructing a suitable Temple. BUT HE KNEW A MAN WHO DID!! Hiram, King of Tyre. By Solomon’s time the Phoenicians had lots of Gods, and had built many Temples in which to worship them. In fact, they had by now developed what you might call a PHOENICIAN STANDARD TEMPLE, which was three times as long as it was wide, and had two free-standing pillars at its porch way or entrance.

So Solomon wrote a letter to Hiram, and letters in those days were not written on paper, velum, or parchment, (none of those things had been invented yet). Most probably on papyrus, or scratched on tablets of wet clay which then had to be baked. He asked for men, materials, a design, and someone to oversee the work. No specifications given. Every subcontractor’s dream! Just think of all those extras to be piled on!

Hiram agreed to supply all these things, including the main overseer, whose name seems to have been Huram, (he was stated to be the son of a widow of the tribe of NAPHTALI), and is known in Masonic circles as Hiram Abiff.

What was Solomon going to get for his money? He was going to get a Temple built by Phoenician men, to a Phoenician design, using Phoenician materials, and the whole thing overseen by a Phoenician!. So he was going to get what was probably a bog-standard Phoenician Temple, to an already established layout.

So how big was this Temple? Luckily Kings and Chronicles agree that it was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide (there’s that ratio of 3:1), and thirty cubits high. The cubit used would undoubtedly have been the ROYAL CUBIT, which was just under 21” long, thus the Temple would have been about 105’ long, about 35’ wide, and 52’ high, and these dimensions would undoubtedly have been the working space INSIDE the Temple, because walls were exceedingly thick in those days. We must also realise that the roof may have been a PITCHED THATCHED ROOF, as there is little evidence yet obtained of flat roof construction at that time. (Flat roofs are the very devil to make waterproof, without the sort of sealing materials we have now). Even the earliest Greek Temples may have had thatched roofs. So the height would have been to the apex of the roof, and probably not to the height of the sidewalls. The weight of stones used in building this Temple would have amounted to about three thousand tons! This Temple wasn’t going to blow away in the wind.

There was nothing, however, in connection with this magnificent structure, more remarkable, or that more particularly struck the attention, than the two great pillars which were placed at the porch way or entrance, a normal Phoenician feature.

Why did the Phoenicians have two pillars at the entrance of their Temples? They were symbols of fertility. They were, if you like, phallic symbols, and when you think about the shape of them, a vertical pillar with a Chapiter bulging out at the top, I don’t need to go into any more anatomical details for you to understand what I’m saying, although why two of them I can’t conceive…

What were the Phoenician pillars made of? Probably wood. A tree trunk, stripped of its bark and branches, a Chapiter built on the top, and the whole thing maybe painted or protected in some way.

Solomon, however, had the most brilliant bit of sideways thinking he could possibly have had. He wanted his pillars to be made out of bronze. Now this must have set Hiram Abiff back on his heels somewhat, as nothing as ambitious as this had ever been done before.

How big were those pillars? Here we have one of those anomalies between Ezra and Chronicler. Ezra says that they were 23 cubits high, and 4 cubits in diameter, which give us an aspect ratio of 5 ¾:1, which fits in well with the progression of pillars, as the Egyptians were building pillars 5:1 about a hundred years before Solomon, and the first of the Noble Orders of Architecture, The Tuscan, which were about 7:1, came about a hundred years after him. Whereas Chronicler tells us that the pillars were 40 cubits high, and with his 4 cubits in diameter, that give us a ratio of 10:1, which was not achieved for another 500 years, and then it was by the Greeks, who’d been working at it for a long time, so Chronicler got it wrong, and Ezra got it right.

So what does this 23cubits and 4 cubits translate to in terms of measurements we can relate to? It comes to forty feet high, and seven feet in diameter.

Have you ever noticed that, in the English King James version of the Holy Bible, there is no mention of those pillars being hollow? So let’s see if they could have been solid, and bronze. It’s very easy to calculate that the weight of each pillar would have been about 370 tons. Those of you with any foundry experience will know that you must pour in all your molten metal in one go, which here means that you have to pour in 370 tons of molten bronze in one pour. But before you can do that, you have to MELT 370 tons of bronze. When I tell you that to melt just one ton of bronze, you need 20 tons of charcoal, which was the only heating medium they had in those days. Charcoal comes from processed green wood, and to make one ton of charcoal, you have to start out with 7 tons of wood. Now multiply those figures together, and you will see that to melt one ton of bronze, you have to start with 140tons of green wood, processed down into twenty tons of charcoal, to do the job. BUT. We have to melt 370 tons of bronze, which means starting with nearly fifty thousand tons of green wood (probably more green wood than is in the entire Jordan Valley anyway) processed down into about 7000 tons of charcoal, to do the job. And we’re only yet talking about ONE pillar! What about the crucibles? Most crucibles unearthed by Archaeologists can hold about 350lbs of molten metal, which is just about manipulateable by two very strong foundry men. The famous Archaeologist Nelson Glueck discovered, in 1939, a used crucible at Ezion Geber that he estimated could have held about three tons, but as all its support and tilting framework had long ago vanished, we have no idea how they could have manipulated it. We, however, need a crucible capable of holding 370 tons! Maybe one exists now, but certainly not then. What about the mould that they would have needed to pour this molten metal into? It had to contain a cavity forty feet long and seven feet in diameter, and be very strong. We could construct one now, but there’s no way they could have made one then. All they had was clay. And even if they had, how would they dry it out? Before pouring, the mould must be 100% dry.

But even if they HAD overcome all these difficulties, and cast this pillar, let it set and cool, broken away the mould, burnished the outside, how do they get it from the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredathah, 800 ft below Sea Level, up to Jerusalem, 100 miles away, 3400 ft up, and on the wrong side of the River Jordan?

I will stick my neck out and say that there is NO WAY those pillars were solid. OK, then. Perhaps they were hollow. The dimension of a hand’s breadth in thickness of the wall has been mooted here and there. Does this make life any easier? I’m afraid not. Each pillar will still weigh 70 tons. Still totally unmakeable, by the technology then existing.

Yet it says in the Bible that they DID cast those pillars in the Plain of Jordan, and that they DID take them up to Jerusalem and set them up in the courtyard of The Temple, but we’ve just had a quick look at it, and there’s NO WAY they could have done it.

YET THEY DID!!! YET THEY COULDN’T HAVE. So how do we account for that which at first view appears a paradox?

We have to remember something important here. Hiram Abiff was nobody’s fool. Who else would Hiram King of Tyre have entrusted with this incredibly lucrative contract? Only his very best man, and HA was that man. He must have been extraordinarily clever and innovative. He must have been the Leonardo da Vinci of his day, the Barnes Wallis of Lebanon, the Isambard Kingdom Brunel of the Middle east. He solved this problem. So how did he do it? (We must also remember that this era was right at the end of the Bronze Age, and at the beginning of the Iron Age. Iron was new, expensive, and more difficult to work, for a purpose which did not require the strength of iron. Bronze had been around for centuries. They knew all about it, how to mix it, how to cast it, how to work it. Bronze was the obvious choice over Iron.)

I gave it a lot of thought, and then it suddenly dawned on me just HOW he did it. He made each pillar as a set of segments or rings, which, when placed one on top of the next, would give the appearance of a solid pillar. Relatively easy to make and construct, as each ring could be, say ½ cubit (about 10 ½”) high or thick. Such a segment would weigh about 1 ½ tons. Each would take about two weeks to make from start to finish, and we would need 46 rings per pillar, totalling 92 rings. 92 fortnights is 3 ½ years, and they had 7 ½ years to finish the job, so we know that, technologically, they could have done it, and the time factor fits in well.

Here we have to ask a very important question, however. WHERE THE DEVIL DID THEY GET ALL THAT BRONZE??? We are talking of serious quantities of bronze, and bronze does not grow on trees. It was an expensive commodity then, and it is an expensive commodity now. Where did they get it?

What is bronze? Bronze is a mixture of copper and tin, in the ratio of 90% copper to 10% tin.

What quantity are we considering? If each pillar in this hollow form weighed 70 tons, and we have two pillars, we know we need 140 tons just for them. But we mustn’t forget that incredible artefact called THE SEA OF BRONZE, which was a huge sort of bucket which stood in the courtyard of the Temple. It could hold 10 000 gallons (about 45 000 litres) of water to form a symbolical Sea, to prove that God was not only God of the land, but also of the Sea. It is described in such detail in The Bible that we can easily draw it out and calculate the weight of bronze used in its manufacture (It stood on twelve cast bronze oxen, three each facing East, West, North and South), and it was approximately forty tons. Then there were the lavers, their stands and trolleys, the basins, shovels and flesh hooks, all made of bronze. The total of bronze must have been about 200 tons. Maybe the greatest single collection of bronze in any one place in the whole of history.

Where did they get it? We are talking of 180 tons of copper and 20 tons of tin. The copper undoubtedly came from either Timna or Fainan, although there has as yet been found no traces at Timna of occupation in the tenth century BC. Fainan seems more likely, but we await further investigation.

What about the tin? Here we hit a snag, as there was no tin in Israel, nor in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Mesopotamia, Cyprus nor Turkey at that time.

This caused me to carry out extensive research on tin sources, and I found that there were five traceable sources at that time, but all except one were not viable owing to distance or insufficient yield or production, or difficulty of political or geographical access. The one that WAS easily possible was Cornwall, in England. Although a fair distance, the journey would have been carried out with the relatively sophisticated boats they apparently had in those days. And anyway, the Phoenicians, who owned and manned the boats, would have been pleased to take that opportunity to carry out, not only a tin-gathering trip, but also to do a lot of lucrative trading whilst doing so! Remember, they were the Mediterranean’s greatest traders!

In recent years some researchers had thought that the tin came from what is now Afghanistan, but the distance, the terrain and the passage through the territory of hostile tribes would have rendered that journey exceedingly hazardous and costly.

Incidentally, Copper mining in the Timna valley ,and in Cornwall both ceased finally in 1998, only a few years ago, after probably well over three thousand years of production.

So we know that, technology-wise, time-wise, and source-wise they could have done it all.

Now we must ask a very important question. What did Solomon’s Temple cost, and who paid for it?

We know what the labour costs were, because it tells us in The Bible that upwards of

150 000 men toiled for 7½ years to build it. These were every type of worker, not just on the site itself, but also in the quarries, in the mines and foundries, in the boats, in the forests of Lebanon and in the fields growing food. If we multiply these figures together to come up with a number of man-years, we get over a million. Most of the workers were the equivalent of labourers, and at today’s costs, what’s a labourer getting paid? Is it about £10 000 ($15 000) a year? Somewhere about that much. So we have a total labour bill of £10 000 000 000, or ten billion pounds by today’s reckoning. This would of course, have included the rebuilding and fortifying of Jerusalem, Hazor, Gezer and Megiddo, all these works being described in the Bible as being carried out by Solomon at that time. Also being included were the construction of Solomon’s Palace, and that of his favourite wife, the daughter of the Egyptian Pharoah. Where did this money come from? (Here I should say that money wasn’t invented until about 700 BC, so we’re talking figuratively here, all was done by barter). Well, it came from the People of Israel, as no-one else is going to pay their bills for them. The population of Israel was about one million people at that time, the Bible tells us so, and thus we are talking about an EXTRA tax burden of about £10 000 for every man, woman and child in Israel at that time. Even spread over the 7 ½ years, it still comes to over £1 300 a year. It must have hurt them, but it WAS all paid. Where did the money go? Well, we know where it went, don’t we? It went into the pockets of those very clever, shrewd people called The Phoenicians. They weren’t the Med’s greatest traders for nothing! Hiram King of Tyre must have done very well indeed out of it all. No wonder foreign peoples got so jealous of the Phoenicians that in the end they invaded them and took all they had.

So, I suppose that finally we must ask whether Solomon was such a wise King after all? Was he the epitome of wisdom? Was he the wisest man who ever lived? It seems to me that Hiram of Tyre saw him coming, so who WAS the wisest King?

© Copyright, David Skinner. 
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damoi.co.uk, England.