The workmen and the materials employed in the erection of the temple were chiefly procured by Solomon from Hiram, king of Tyre, who was rewarded by a liberal importation of wheat. Jose phus states that duplicates of the letters which passed between Solomon and king/ Hiram were still extant in his time, both at Jerusalem and among the Tyrian records. He informs us that the person, employed in collecting and arranging the materials foi the temple were ordered to search out the iargest stones for the foundation, and to prepare them for use on the mountains where they were procured, and then convey them to Jerusalem. In this part of the business Hiram's men were ordered to assist.
Josephus adds that the foundation was sunk to an astonishing depth, and composed of stones of singular magnitude, and very durable. Being closely mortised into the rock with great ing,enuity, they formed a basis adequate to the support of the intended structure. Josephus gives to the temple the same length and breadth as are given in Kings, but mentions 6o cubits as the height. He says that the walls were composed entirely of white stone ; that the walls and ceilings were wainscotted with cedar, which was covered with the purest gold; that the stones were put together with such ingenuity that the smallest interstices were not perceptible, and that the timbers were joined with iron cramps.
The temple itself and its utensils are described in I Kings vi. and vii. and 2 Chron. iii. and iv.
Many attempts have been made to represent the architectural proportions of the temple. According to the account in Kings it was 60 cubits long, 20 wide, and 3o high. Josephus, however (Antiq. viii. 3. 2), says : 'The temple was 6o cubits high and 60 cubits in length ; and the breadth was 20 cubits ; above this was another stage of equal dimensions, so that the height of the whole struc ture was r2o cubits.' It is difficult to reconcile this statement with that given in Kings, unless we suppose that the words tror Tol's yerpoes, equal in measures, do not signify an equality in all dimen sions, but only as much as equal in the number of cubits ; so that the porch formed a kind of steeple, which projected as much above the roof of the temple as the roof itself was elevated above its foundations. As the Chronicles agree with Jose phus in asserting that the summit of the porch was 120 cubits high, there remains still another ap parent contradiction to be solved—viz. how Jose
phus could assert that the temple itself was 6o cubits high, while we read in Kings that its height was only 30 cubits. We suppose that in the book of Kings the internal elevation of the sanctuary is stated, and that Josephus describes its external elevation, which, including the basement and an upper storey (which may have existed, con sisting of rooms for the accommodation of priests, containing al-so vestries and treasuries), might be double the internal height of the sanctuary. The internal dimensions of the holy,' which was called in preference 9:+rl, was 4o cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 3o cubits high. The holy was separated from the 'holy of holies' ("0;1) by a partition, a large openinr* in which was closed by a suspended curtain. The holy of holies was on the western extremity of the entire building, and its internal dimensions formed a cube of 20 cubits. [These measurements are exactly double those of the cor responding places in the tabernacle, excepting the height of the sanctuary, which was three times that of the tabemacle—perhaps because the one had an elevated roof and the other was flat. This falls in with what is said in Wisd. ix. 8, that the temple of Solomon was a resemblance (Altman, imitation) of the holy tabernacle.] On the east ern extremity of the building stood the porch, 7rp6vaos. At the entrance of this pronaos st'ood the two columns called Jachin and Boaz, which were 23 cubits high.
The temple was also surrounded by three 3):1+, storeys of chambers, each of which storeys was- five cubits high, so tbat there remained above ample space for introducing the windows, requisite more for ventilation than for the admission of light into the sanctuary. Now, the statement of Josephus, who says that each of these storeys of chambers (Ith'S.) was 20 cubits high, cannot be reconciled : with the Biblical statements, and may prove that he was no very close reader of his authorities. Perhaps he had a vague kind of information that the chambers reached half-way up the height of the building, and taking the maximum height of 12o cubits instead of the internal height of the holy, he made each storey four times too high. The windows, which are mentioned in Kings vi. 4, consisted probably of lattice-work.