Bede's Of the Temple of Solomon
Translated from Migne's Patrologia Latina, De templo Salomonis, Vol 91
EPISTOLA AD EUMDEM ACCAM, DE TEMPLO SALOMONIS
The vessel of election and teacher of nations exhorts us to the reading of divine words, bearing true witness with his voice that whatever has been written has been written for our instruction, so that through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures, we may have hope (Rom. XV). There he declares that in order to obtain the hope of heavenly goods, we must have patience and regard for the consolation of the Scriptures. Namely, patience, so that whatever adversities may arise, we may bear them with a humble and submissive mind, as if they were scourges inflicted by a just judge and merciful father; either for the glory of virtues and the increase of merits, if we the just and innocent are afflicted; or for the correction of morals, if we are entangled in vices. The consolation of the Scriptures is to be sought, so that by frequent meditation on them, we may recall to memory how much those supreme fathers, and the illustrious lights of the Church, often endured the affliction of darkness in this present life, how much glory with the Lord they rightfully received in the future life for their piety and patience, and how much incorruptible praise and renown they also left among all the faithful in this life, as Scripture says (Prov. X): The memory of the just is with praises, and again (Eccli. XLIV): The bodies of the saints are buried in peace; and their names live through generations and generations. Also, the apostle James (James V): Behold, we call blessed those who have endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the outcome of the Lord. It is not for nothing that he added, after speaking of the hardships of the just: And you have seen the outcome of the Lord; because he who lived without fault here did not depart from here without a scourge; he who appeared in the world to heal the sick and raise the dead chose, in order to teach us the example of patience, to leave the world through the weakness of death. Hence, the Psalmist, having said (Psalm. LXVII): Our God is the God of salvation; immediately adds, in admiration or rather in astonishment: And the Lord God has the ways out of death.
Therefore, through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures, let us have hope, also of consoling ourselves after our afflictions and pressures, since we too have endured patiently in tribulation, and have recalled to mind their actions, who both by the merit of justice have far surpassed us, and have endured far greater struggles of adversity than we have. Indeed, they often suffered persecution from the unjust because of the justice in which they excellently shone, so that they might receive, along with the exercise of justice, the crown of invincible patience, and moreover, leave behind with glorious perseverance the preordained footsteps for all who follow them. However, we are often chastised by the mercy and providence of our Creator for our transgressions, so that, returning to our conscience with healthful compunction, we may diligently punish with tears what we have committed through deceiving allurements and negligences; and thus corrected by the Lord's assistance, we may deserve to belong to the hope of life and to the fellowship of those who, though innocently afflicted, were just. For we also find this in the consolation of the Scriptures, because the Lord blessed all those who fear Him, both small and great (Psalm 113), and declared that in the house of His Father there are many mansions for us. With this consolation now, my most beloved bishop, I daily alleviate the present anxieties of temporal matters, and am not in doubt that you are sublimely encouraged to see the good of the Lord in the land of the living, transcending the evils of men who reign in the land of the dying, as one abundantly supplied not only with the pages of divine writings, but also with their pious expositions, which the venerable Scripture of the fathers has left us. However, since new things sometimes delight more, it seemed to me good to send to your holiness a little work that I recently composed allegorically, following the footsteps of great commentators on the creation of the temple of God, for your perusal. The more you, being intent on its reading, discover the many mysteries of Christ and the Church embedded in the ancient pages, and the greater the gifts of God which you see promised there, either given to us in the present or promised for the future, the lighter and less concerning you will judge all the vanities and adversities of fleeting things, and the prosperous; following the example of the blessed John, who was banished by a wicked emperor to the confines of a very small island, but was immediately introduced by the pious Creator, through the Spirit, to contemplate those infinite secrets of the heavenly mansions. And where he was thought by deceived enemies to be bereft of the support and company of friendly men, there he deserved to enjoy the vision and conversation of angelic friends. Taught by them, he learned ever more and more to scorn the allurements and bitterness of the world, the more sublimely he beheld those things, which by their greatness and eternity are far more to be feared and loved. Farewell always, my most beloved, and intercede for us.
HERE BEGINS THE BOOK.
CHAPTER ONE. That the construction of the tabernacle and the temple represents one and the same Church of Christ.
The house of God which King Solomon built in Jerusalem was made as a figure of the holy universal Church, which is being built daily by the grace of the peaceful king, that is, our Redeemer, from the first chosen one to the last one who will be born at the end of the world. This house partly still journeys from Him on earth, partly, having evaded the hardships of pilgrimage, already reigns with Him in heaven, where, after the final judgment is completed, it will fully reign with Him. To this house belong the chosen angels, whose likeness is promised to us in the future life, with the Lord saying: "But they who are counted worthy of that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection" (Matthew XIX). To this belongs the Mediator Himself, between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, bearing witness Himself when He said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John II). The evangelist, explaining this, added: "But He spoke of the temple of His body." The Apostle says about us: "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (II Cor. VI). Therefore, if He became the temple of God through assumed humanity, and we are made the temple of God through His Spirit dwelling in us, it certainly stands that the material temple held the figure of all of us and Himself, that is, the Lord and His members which we are. But of Himself, as the uniquely chosen and precious cornerstone laid in the foundation, and of us as living stones built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, that is, upon the Lord Himself (Ephesians II). This will be better revealed from the considered order of the temple itself, so that in some respects the figure pertains to the Lord Himself, in some respects to all the elect, in some respects it describes the undefiled happiness of the angels in heaven, in some respects the invincible patience of men on earth, in others it shows the help given by angels to men, in others it demonstrates the struggles of men rewarded with angels. The same spiritual house of the Lord is also signified by the tabernacle once made in the desert by Moses (Exodus XXV). But because that house was in the journey to the land of promise, whereas this one was built in the land of promise itself and in the city of Jerusalem; that one, so that it might be transported frequently from place to place by the ministry of the Levites and finally brought into the land of promised inheritance; this one, so that it might stand with an inviolable foundation always constructed in the royal city itself, till it fulfilled the given role of heavenly figures; in that could be figured the labor and exile of the present Church, in this the future rest and blessedness. Or certainly because that was made by the sons of Israel only, but this by proselytes and gentiles also, in that can be symbolically expressed principally the fathers of the Old Testament and the ancient people of God, in this, however, the Church gathered from the gentiles. Although the building of both houses, thoroughly examined in a spiritual sense, is shown in multiple ways to indicate the daily labors of the present Church, the eternal rewards in the future, and the joys of the heavenly kingdom, and the election of the first Church from Israel, and the salvation of all nations in Christ. Therefore, intending to discuss, with the Lord's help, the construction of the temple, and to seek in the material structure the spiritual dwelling of God, it seems appropriate to say something first about its workers, who and where they were from, and about the building material itself. For the Apostle testifies that these are pregnant with spiritual mysteries, saying, "All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction" (I Cor. X).
CHAPTER II. How Hiram, King of Tyre, Assisted Solomon in His Work. The historical account in the Books of Kings narrates that Solomon, intending to build a house for the Lord, sought assistance from Hiram, king of Tyre, who was always a friend of David and had also begun to establish peace with Solomon after he obtained the kingdom. He found Hiram readily willing to assist him in all things, to the extent that Hiram provided him with artisans, wood, and gold as needed. In gratitude for this kindness, Solomon annually provided him with many measures of wheat and oil for his household (1 Kings 5). There is no doubt that Solomon, whose name means "peaceful," both by his name and the very peaceful condition of his reign, signifies the one of whom Isaiah says: "His dominion will be multiplied, and his peace will have no end" (Isaiah 9). Hiram, whose name means "living on high" in Latin, symbolically represents the Gentile believers who are glorious in both faith and life. There is also nothing to prevent considering that Hiram, being a king and assisting Solomon with royal power in the building of the house of the Lord, typically denotes the rulers converted to the faith, through whose aid the Church is often assisted, nobly augmented, and strengthened against heretics, schismatics, and pagans by their princely decrees. Therefore, Solomon sought help from Hiram in the work of the temple because, when the Lord came in the flesh to build for Himself His beloved house, the Church, He intended to choose assistants from not just the Jews but also from the Gentiles. For from both peoples He took ministers of the word. Hiram sent Solomon cedar and fir wood cut from Lebanon to be placed in the house of the Lord because the converted Gentiles sent to the Lord men who were once renowned in the world but, cut down by the axe of the Lord's admonition, were now cast down and humbled from the mountain of their pride. Being instructed according to the standard of evangelical truth, they are placed in the building of the Church according to their merit or time.
He also sent artisans as philosophers converted to true wisdom, who by right were appointed to rule over the peoples by virtue of their teaching, offered by the Lord to the nations. Such was Dionysius the Areopagite in the times of the apostles, such thereafter was the sweet teacher and most steadfast martyr Cyprian, and many others. He also sent gold, which is accepted in the same significance, as it undoubtedly signifies men distinguished by wisdom. For all these offerings the nations expect from the Lord the gifts of heavenly grace, namely the wheat of the word of God, and the oil of charity and anointment, and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. It aptly corresponds to the matters of the Church that Solomon urgently says to Hiram for the aid of the sacred work: "So command that cedars be cut for me from Lebanon, and my servants will be with your servants." Indeed, the servants of Hiram, who cut the cedars from Lebanon for Solomon, are the teachers chosen from the nations, whose duty is to correct those who rejoiced in worldly matters and glory, subduing their pride and transferring their will to the service of their Redeemer. Solomon’s servants were with those servants, laboring together in the mentioned work; because the first teachers from the nations needed to be instructed in the word of faith by the apostles themselves, who had learned from the Lord, lest if they began to teach without teachers, they would be teachers of error. Therefore Solomon wanted Hiram’s servants to cut timber for him from Lebanon, because they were more skilled than his own servants at cutting. And for this reason, he wanted his own servants to be present, to show the cutters what size the timbers should be. The figure of this matter is evident, as unquestionably the apostles, who were privileged to hear the word of the gospel from the Lord, knew how to preach it more precisely to others; but the gentiles converted from error and transformed to the truth of the Gospel knew the errors of the gentiles better, and as they knew them more precisely, they learned how to refute and nullify them more skillfully. Indeed, Paul knew the mystery of the Gospel better, which he learned through revelation, but Dionysius could better refute the false doctrines of Athens, whose errors and all the arguments he had known since childhood. To this understanding corresponds aptly what follows: "For you know that there is no one among my people who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians." For there was no one among the people of the Jews, where the Lord physically taught, who knew so skillfully to refute the errors of the nations, as the gentiles converted to faith, and made Christians from the nations. For the Sidonians and Tyrians, being people of the gentiles, are rightly taken in figure to represent the gentiles.
CHAPTER III. How many workmen Solomon had in the work of the temple. How many servants our Solomon has sent into this work is indicated in the following mystical speech: "Solomon chose workmen from all Israel, and the number was thirty thousand men, and he sent them to Lebanon ten thousand by month in rotation, so that they were in their own homes for two months." First, it should be noted that Solomon did not choose workers from all of Israel in vain, nor was there any portion of the people from which worthy men were not chosen, because now they are not to be chosen from one tribe of Aaron's priesthood, but they are to be sought from the whole Church, who are sufficient to build the Lord's house either by their example or by their teaching, and wherever they are found, they are to be immediately promoted to the office of teachers without any respect of persons. When such men are ordained to instruct the unfaithful and call them into the fellowship of the Church, they are nurtured as brave and chosen men to fell the materials for the temple in Lebanon. Indeed, the number of thirty thousand, in which these woodcutters were counted, can be aptly referred to the figure of those who are perfected in the faith of the Trinity, which is especially fitting to teachers. But because thirty thousand were so ordered that ten thousand labored in the holy work each month, we must consider the sacrament of the number ten more carefully. Ten thousand men from Israel are sent to cut wood for the work of the Lord, because whoever are to be ordained as teachers and instructors of the ignorant must both observe the ten commandments of the law in all things themselves and teach their hearers that they must be observed, and must always hope for and intimate to their hearers the rewards in heaven, which are usually figured by the denarius. Furthermore, the three months during which the rotation was imposed on each group of cutters typically announce the perfection of the three virtues of the Gospels, namely almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. When the Lord said in the Gospel, "Take heed that you do not do your righteousness before men, to be seen by them" (Matthew 6); in the continuation of the same sentence, he mentioned nothing other than almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, which are to be done not for the display to men, but for the glory of the internal observer alone, otherwise they would remain void of the fruit of eternity. By these words, he clearly taught that all the fruits of virtues are insinuated by these three, as if by branches springing from the one root of charity. For by almsgiving is comprehended all that we work benevolently towards our brothers to fulfill the love of neighbor.
Through prayer, we join ourselves to our Creator in all things through internal compunction. Through fasting, we guard ourselves from the contamination of sins and the enticements of the world, so that with a free mind and chaste body, we may constantly adhere to the love of our Creator and our neighbor. And these are the three months of the temple workers. For since a month is completed by the fullness of the days of the lunar cycle, through it the fullness of each one's spiritual virtue is shown, in which the mind of the faithful is daily illuminated by the Lord, as the moon is by the sun. One month during which wood was cut for the work of the temple means almsgiving, that is, the work of mercy by which we labor for the salvation of our neighbor, that by progressing well they may arrive in the unity of the holy Church, by teaching, correcting, spending temporal goods, and showing examples of life. The other two months, during which they were allowed to remain in their own houses and attend to their own needs, represent prayer and fasting, by which, besides the efforts towards the needs of our brothers externally, we inwardly turn our mind to the Lord to care for our own salvation. And since they alone perfectly care for either their own or their brother's salvation, who humbly submit to the insight of divine grace, it rightly follows: And Adoniram was over such a levy. For Adoniram, who is called "My Lord is exalted" in Latin, insinuates none better than the Lord Savior, whom he imitates by name. And now Adoniram is placed over the temple workers so that by his provision it is duly ordered, in which months each should go out to work, and when they should return again to care for their own house; since the Lord and our Savior, with His familiar illumination, informs the minds of holy preachers to discern when it is fitting to undertake the work of building the Church by preaching or performing other works of piety; and when it is again appropriate to return to examine their own conscience, as if to inspect their own house, and render it worthy of the heavenly visitor and inspector through prayers and fasting. Therefore, Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand hewers in the mountain, besides the chiefs who numbered three thousand three hundred, overseeing the people and those who did the work. He calls hewers of stones stonemasons. The same hewers of stones and wood also figuratively designate the holy preachers, who labor with the word of God on the minds of the foolish, and strive to transform them from the baseness and deformity in which they were born, and responsibly render them suitable for the unity of the faithful, that is, for edification. And both wood and stones are cut in the mountain, and the hewn and prepared materials are transported to the mountain of the house of the Lord, showing that all men are born on the mountain of pride, because we have derived the origin of our flesh from the transgression of the first man, which pride caused. Whoever, by the grace of God, are preordained for life, are cut down through catechizing and receiving the sacraments of faith, and are transferred from the mountain of pride to the mountain of the house of the Lord, because they are rescued from the power of darkness to the summit of virtues, which is in the unity of the holy Church. It should be noted, however, that these workers were so distributed that part were cutting stones in the mountain, and part were carrying burdens. For there are diverse gifts of the Spirit, and some have greater constancy in speaking and rebuking the unruly, some are gentler for consoling the faint-hearted and uplifting the weak, and some are endowed with the gift of both virtues meeting for the work of the Lord; such as those whom the Apostle speaks to, saying: "Admonish the unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient with all." But the officers who were over each work are the authors of the holy Scripture, by whose teaching we are instructed in all ways how to teach the ignorant, rebuke the contemptuous, how we should bear one another’s burdens to fulfill the law of Christ. And the more anyone labors in supporting the needs of others, or in correcting their faults, the more certain future rewards he expects, whether of the rest of souls after death or of the blessed immortality of the bodies. Hence rightly the aforementioned workers are said to be seventy thousand and eighty thousand. Seventy, for the sabbath rest of souls; for the seventh day is consecrated for rest. Eighty, for the hope of resurrection, which preceded on the eighth day, that is, after the sabbath in the Lord, and is also hoped to come for us on the eighth day and in the eighth age. The chiefs, however, were three thousand three hundred, accurately signifying the faith of the holy Trinity, which the holy Scriptures preach to us. And if, instead of three thousand three hundred chiefs, it is written three thousand six hundred in the book of Chronicles, it refers to the same perfection of those noble men. For since the Lord completed the adornment of the world in the number six, rightly in it the works of the good are frequently figured; and because holy Scripture, with the faith of truth, teaches us to have works of justice, rightly it is testified that the chiefs of the temple were three thousand six hundred. Nor should it be passed over that these seventy and eighty thousand burden bearers and stonemasons with their chiefs were not from Israel, but from proselytes, that is, strangers dwelling among them. For it is written in the book of Chronicles: "Solomon counted all the men who were aliens in the land of Israel, after the number which David his father had counted, and they found one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred, and made seventy thousand of them bearers of burdens," etc. Proselytes were called in Greek those who, having come from other nations, by accepting circumcision, had entered into the faith and fellowship of the people of God. Therefore, the workers of the house of the Lord were from the children of Israel, from proselytes, and from the Gentiles. From the children of Israel, namely, thirty thousand were sent to cut cedars from Lebanon. From the proselytes those of whom we were just speaking, stonemasons. From the Gentiles, Hiram himself and his servants, who cut wood from Lebanon with the servants of Solomon. Indeed, every kind of man, by which the church was to be built, preceded in the building of the temple. For Jews, proselytes, and Gentiles converted to the truth of the Gospel, construct one and the same Church of Christ, whether by living rightly or by teaching.
CHAPTER IV. Of what kind of stone the temple is made. And the king commanded that they should take large, precious stones for the foundation of the temple, etc. The foundation of the temple is mystically understood as nothing other than what the Apostle shows, saying: For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ (I Cor. III). Who, therefore, may rightly be called the foundation of the house of the Lord, because (as Peter says) there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts IV). Into this foundation, large and precious stones are taken, when eminent men by their deeds and holiness adhere with intimate holiness of mind to their Creator, so that the more firmly they place their hope in Him, the more strongly they suffice to guide the lives of others, which means to bear the breadth. Thus, the stones which were placed in the foundation of the temple to bear the entire building are properly the prophets and apostles, who received the word and sacraments of truth, whether visibly or invisibly, from the wisdom of God itself. Hence, we who strive to imitate their doctrine and life according to our capacity, are said by the Apostle to be founded upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Eph. II). But also, generally, all the perfect ones, who have learned to adhere faithfully to the Lord Himself and to bear strongly the necessities of their brethren imposed upon them, can be indicated by these large and precious stones. These stones are rightly ordered to be first squared and then placed in the foundation. For every square thing, whichever way it is turned, is accustomed to stand fixed. To which figure indeed the hearts of the elect are likened, who have learned to stand in the firmness of faith such that by no adversity of occurring events, nor even by death itself, can they be inclined from their uprightness of state. Such teachers the Church has received abundantly, not only from Judea but also from the Gentiles. Hence, it is fittingly added about such large, precious, and squared stones: Which the builders of Solomon and the builders of Hiram dressed. Precious stones are dressed, indeed, when the chosen believers, by the instruction and diligence of the saints, leave behind whatever harmful and vain elements they have within themselves, and before the sight of their Creator, they show only the rule of inherent justice, as the form of squaring.
The stones, however, were worked upon not only by Solomon's masons but also by Hiram's masons, because from both groups of God's people there were some who by the right of their eminent teachers also became teachers, and as it were, squared them to prepare the lifting of the building to the house of the Lord. For not only Jeremiah and Isaiah and the other prophets from among the circumcision but also the blessed Job with his sons, who were from the Gentiles, provided to the teachers of the following age the highest example of life and patience and the greatest proclamations of salvific doctrine, so that with unnecessary words, acts, and thoughts cast aside, they would become worthy and fit to bear the burden of the Holy Church. Moreover, the Giblites prepared wood and stones for building the house. Giblos is a city of Phoenicia, mentioned by Ezekiel, saying, "Thy wise men, O Tyre, became thy pilots; the elders of Gebal and its wise men" (Ezek. 27), in lieu of which in Hebrew it is Gobel or Gebel, which means 'defining' or 'bordering'. This term aptly suits those who prepare the hearts of men for the spiritual building, constructed from the virtues of the soul. Thus, indeed, their listeners are able to teach faith and works of justice, while they themselves, having been first educated by the holy scriptures, have learned diligently the sure definition of truth, what faith is to be held, and the path of virtues to be walked. For one who ignores the discernment of the Catholic faith claimed the office of doctor in vain. Nor do they build a sanctuary for the Lord, but rather ruin for themselves, those who try to teach others a rule which they themselves have not learned. In building the house of the Lord, first it is necessary to cut the wood and stones from the mountain; because those whom we seek to instruct in the faith of the truth, we must first teach to renounce the devil and be released by being reborn from the lot of the first transgression in which they were born. Then we must seek precious and large stones, and place them in the foundation of the temple; so that we remember, having rejected former conduct, to examine their lives and morals in all things, to set them as an example for our listeners to imitate, whom we know to particularly adhere to the Lord through the virtue of humility, whom we see to endure immovable as if squared against all incursions of temptations with invincible mental stability, whom we recognize as precious and large by reputation and merit. After such significant and great stones are composed in the foundation, the house must be built with carefully prepared woods and stones, and placed in proper order, having been formerly abstracted from their original situation or root: because after the rudiments of faith, after laying in us the foundation of humility following the example of eminent men, a wall of good works must be added upwards, as if by superimposed layers of stones, by walking and progressing from virtue to virtue. Or certainly the large, precious, squared stones of the foundation are the first, as I said before, teachers of the churches, who heard the word of salvation directly from the Lord. The subsequent orders of stones or woods are the successive priests and teachers of their time, by whose preaching and ministry the Ecclesia building grows or is arranged with virtues. Moreover, the color of the stones with which the temple was made is clearly stated in the book of Paralipomenon, with David speaking to Solomon, showing him the expenses for the temple which he had prepared: "I have prepared every precious stone and Parian marble in abundance." But Parian marble says white marble, such as that island is accustomed to produce; whence the poet says: Olearon, and snow-white Paros, and the scattered Cyclades across the sea, and we read the frequent straights stirred by the winds.
Therefore, he calls Paros snow-white, because it sends marble of the whitest kind: moreover, it is one of the Cyclades, with which stone Josephus indicates the temple had been made, saying: "He raised the temple to the ceiling, constructed from white stone, its height was 60 cubits and one hundred" (Book VIII Antiquities 3); nor is the meaning of the mystery hidden. For it is clear to anyone that the white marble from which the house of the Lord is constructed signifies the clean action of the chosen ones and a conscience purified from every stain of corruption. Such as the wise architect wished them to be, placing them as precious stones adorned with gold and silver upon the foundation of Christ: "Beloved," he said, "let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, completing holiness in the fear of God."
CHAPTER V. When and where the temple was built. Thus it happened in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, etc. What is said in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month of King Solomon over Israel, is the intended meaning. In the fourth year of King Solomon, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month. The second month, however, is called May: for April, in which the Passover is celebrated, was the beginning of months among the Hebrews, the first of the months of the year. From this it is plainly evident that immediately, after the Passover was completed, he began to build the house for the Lord, and the people, consecrated by the mystical solemnity, set their hands to the mystical work. There is also a mention of the exodus from Egypt when the tabernacle began to be built, so that the reader may be reminded of how many years elapsed between the construction of each house, and may recognize the spiritual sacrament of this total period. For four hundred and twenty make four hundred and eighty. Four, however, are aptly suited to the evangelical perfection, because of the number of the evangelists themselves. One hundred and twenty pertain to the teaching of the law, because of the same number of years as the lawgiver. In this number, too, the grace of the Holy Spirit was received by the early Church, clearly showing that those who use the law lawfully, that is, recognizing and embracing the grace of Christ in it, are rightly filled with the grace of His Spirit, by which they become more fervent in His love. We have also said that by the tabernacle which Moses and the children of Israel made in the desert, the synagogue was meant; but by the temple which Solomon and the children of Israel, with the help of proselytes and Gentiles, constructed, the church of the Gentiles can be designated. The worship and religion of the tabernacle remained for four hundred and eighty years, and then the temple began to be built, because the scripture of the Old Testament abounds with such perfection that if anyone understands it well, it contains within itself all the mysteries of the New Testament. Many of the fathers of the Old Testament lived with such a pinnacle of perfection that they should in no way be considered inferior to the apostles and apostolic men. The tabernacle remained with the people of God until the construction of the temple, for four hundred and eighty years, that is, one hundred and twenty multiplied by four: for from the time of the giving of the law of God until the incarnation of the Lord and the time of revealed grace, there have never been lacking men who, established in the law, observed the evangelical perfection in mind and work; nor was there a lack of scripture that intimated the grace of the New Testament in the Old with prophetic sayings. But the fact that the house of the Lord began to be built in the fourth year of King Solomon can be mystically referred to as occurring after the completion of the dispensation of the Lord's incarnation, written in the four books of the Gospel, sent down from Heaven by the Holy Spirit, and the structure of the church began. And the fact that it was begun in the second month can be referred to the choice of the Gentiles, who received the building after Israel was first. Hence the second month was granted in the law for making the Passover to those who were unclean because of a soul or who were far away and could not come in the first month to make the Passover. In which we are most clearly designated, who were unclean because of the death of our soul, and still far off from the people of God, unable to keep the first Passover, which was made in the flesh and blood of the Lamb. But today we celebrate the second Passover, made in the body and blood of our Redeemer, by whom we have been sought and cleansed. As for the place where the temple was built, it is more clearly shown in the book of Chronicles, where it is written: And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, which had been shown to David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite (2 Chron. 3).
Therefore, the house of the Lord is built on the mountain, in the vision of peace, because the church, expanded throughout the world, stands firm in one and the same faith and in the fellowship of Catholic truth. For God is not in the division of minds, but His place is made in peace, and His habitation in Zion (Psalm 75). It is built on the mountain, namely on the Lord the Savior Himself, about whom Isaiah says: "In the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established at the summit of the mountains" (Isaiah 2). And He says about Himself in the Gospel: "A city set on a hill cannot be hidden" (Matthew 5). He is indeed the mountain of mountains, who, though He arose from the earth through the origin of the flesh He assumed, surpasses the power and sanctity of all earthborn beings by the summit of His unique dignity. Certainly, on this mountain the city or house of the Lord is erected, for if our hope and faith do not take root in Him, they are nothing. This mountain is rightly called Moriah, that is, the vision, because He deigns to see and help His chosen, who labor in this present life, preserving them for the eternal vision of His glory. For He is the place where Abraham offered his son Isaac to the Lord and, by the devotion of his obedience, deserved to be seen by Him, from which it also received its name. Hence, the Lord says: "Take your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of vision, and offer him as a burnt offering" (Genesis 22). For the land of vision, in Hebrew, it says the land of Moriah. And because the sacrifice of Isaac prefigured the Lord's Passion, it is rightly that a temple is built on the place of the same sacrifice; for by faith and the mysteries of the Lord's Passion, the church, dedicated, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. About this mountain, it is well added: "Which was shown to David his father." For it was shown to David, as well as to the other prophets, that the Lord would come in the flesh, who would cleanse the church called from the Gentiles from sins through the sacraments of His own Incarnation, and would consecrate it as a faithful and beloved house for Himself. It is well, however, added: "In the place which David had prepared." For David had prepared a place for the Lord by singing, and the other prophets by prophesying, truly to Solomon, in whom the house would be built; for they established the hearts of their hearers in the faith of the truth, diligently admonishing them to receive the Son of God coming in the flesh with a faithful and devoted mind. Hence, the Lord, about the peoples prepared to believe in Him, says to His disciples: "Lift up your eyes, and see the fields, that they are already white for harvest; and he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together" (John 4). As if He were saying with other words about the building of the temple: "Lift up your eyes, and see the place, for it is now ready for the building of the house of the Lord. And he who builds by teaching receives wages, and gathers precious stones into eternal life, that both he who prepares the place and he who builds may rejoice together"; that is, the prophet predicting the coming of the Lord and the apostle proclaiming His coming both obtain one reward together. The same place was well in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, for the church is customarily designated by the term threshing floor, as John says about the Lord: "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor" (Matthew 3:12). Ornan, who is interpreted as illuminated, was a Jebusite by nation. By nationality, he signifies the Gentiles, but by name shows those same Gentiles to be enlightened by the Lord and transformed into sons of the Church, to whom the Apostle rightly says: "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord" (Ephesians 5:8). Jebus is the same city as Jerusalem. And Jebus indeed means trampled; but Jerusalem means the vision of peace: in which, as long as Ornan, a Gentile, reigned, it was called Jebus. When David bought the place of the burnt offering in it, and Solomon built the Temple of the Lord in it, it was no longer called Jebus, but Jerusalem; for surely the Gentiles, as long as they remained ignorant of the divine worship, were trampled upon and mocked by unclean spirits, following as they were led towards mute idols. But when the grace of their Creator regarded them, they immediately found both the place and name of peace within themselves, with the Lord saying about them: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9). Therefore, when Ornan still had the kingdom in this city, it was called Jebus; but when he sold the place of his threshing floor with the oxen and threshing sledges to King David, it received the name Jerusalem; for while the Gentiles persisted in their obstinacy, they were trampled upon, as vile and abject, by malignant spirits. But when they learned to sell all their possessions and offer them to the true King, they could no longer be trampled on by demons and vices but became more composed of the inner peace which they had with their Creator.
Chapter VI. Of what measure it was made. The house which King Solomon built for the Lord had 60 cubits in length, etc. The length of the house signifies the longsuffering of the holy Church, by which in the exile of this pilgrimage patiently tolerates all adversities, until it reaches the homeland it expects. The width intimates charity, by which, with the breadth of the heart opened, it rejoices to love not only friends in God but also enemies for God's sake, until the time comes when, with its enemies converted or utterly destroyed, it rejoices with friends alone in God in peace. The height proclaims the hope of future remuneration, by the consideration of which it willingly despises all lowly things, whether they allure or oppose, until, surpassing both, it alone deserves to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living; hence the length of the house is aptly comprehended by the number sixty cubits. For the number six, in which the world was made, usually designates the perfection of good works. And it is necessary for us to bear the distresses of our pilgrimage with patience, so that by the merit of good operation we may be able to enter the promised homeland when it appears. The width is determined by the number twenty, on account of the double aspect of charity, by which we love God and our neighbor. The height by the number thirty, on account of the faith of the holy Trinity, who is [which is] one God, in the vision of whom all the desires of our hope are suspended. Thus six pertains to the perfection of work, two to the love of God and neighbor, three to the hope of divine vision. Each of these numbers is rightly multiplied by ten because it is only through faith and the observance of the Decalogue of the law that either our patience is healthfully exercised, or charity is beneficially kindled, or hope is sublimely carried off to eternal desires. It should be noted here that the 30 cubits of height did not reach to the roof of the temple but to the lower ceiling: for it is clearly written in the book of Chronicles that the height was 120 cubits (II Chron. III). The mysteries of which will be more aptly treated later, when the order of reading reaches the middle and third chambers. There was a portico in front of the temple 20 cubits in length, according to the measure of the width of the temple, and it was 10 cubits wide in front of the face of the temple. Of this portico, it is written in the book of Chronicles: But the portico in front of the house was extended in length according to the measure of the width of the house, 20 cubits.
Thus it is evident that this portico was made on the eastern part of the temple. For the temple was oriented to the east, just as the tabernacle, and it had the door of the portico facing the east towards the door of the temple, as the Jewish historian Josephus very clearly teaches: so that the rising equinoctial sun, with the lines of its rays directed through the three doors, namely of the portico, the temple, and the oracle, could shed light upon the Ark of the Covenant (Antiq. l. VIII, c. 3). Because the temple designates the holy Church, the portico which was in front of and closer to the temple usually received the sunlight; what is more fitting than to consider that it typifies that part which preceded the times of the Lord’s incarnation? in which the patriarchs and prophets are included, who were the first to receive the rising Sun of Righteousness in this world, and they bore witness to the Lord being born in the flesh, either by living, preaching, being born, or dying. Therefore, the door of the temple is the Lord; because no one comes to the Father except through Him. Hence, elsewhere He says: I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved (John X). The door of the portico is the prophetic word, which guided those entering by a straight path to the door of the Lord; because it proclaimed the grace of the Lord Savior, by which He was to redeem the world. Therefore, the entire construction of the portico signifies the faithful of that time. Accordingly, the door in the portico symbolizes the teachers, who illuminated others with the light of life and opened the gate of entry to the Lord. And rightly there is one door because of the consonant faith and love for the truth among all the saints; which portico, according to the width of the temple, was twenty cubits long, because the ancient just awaited with much patience and long-suffering the time when the Lord, manifest in the flesh, would bring the new grace of the Gospel to the world, not themselves having received the promises, but seeing and greeting them from afar. Therefore, they equaled the length of the temple in their own length, because with the long-suffering of a devout mind they desired the expansion of the Church in the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord; although they were as yet separated by time from the sacraments of the Lord’s incarnation, they were nevertheless near in faith and proclamation. In the very front part of this most sacred portico were the blessed proto-martyr Abel, Seth, Enoch, and the other just ones of the original world; in its innermost part and almost near the mystical wall of the temple, the parents of the Lord’s precursor, Simeon, Anna, and others occupied a place. And although they merited to see His birth, they could not reach the hearing of His doctrine and the perception of His sacraments. This portico was well ten cubits wide, because such as these, even if they had not yet received the words or mysteries of the Gospel, which were to be delivered through the Lord; nevertheless, they kept the commandments of the Decalogue, which they received, with a heart enlarged in perfect love of the Lord.
CHAPTER VII. On its windows and panels around. And he made windows for the temple with oblique latticework. The windows of the temple are holy teachers and spiritual ones in the Church, who, being spiritually elevated, are permitted to see the heavenly secrets more clearly than others. When they reveal publicly to the faithful what they see in secret, it is as if the oblique lattice windows, which were wider inside, receive the sunlight; because it is necessary for anyone who perceives the light of higher contemplation, even for a moment, to immediately broaden the embrace of their heart by greater diligence in chastening and preparing for higher deeds. And he built chambers around the wall of the temple, in the walls of the house, around the temple and the oracle, and made lateral chambers around it. The upper chamber had a width of five cubits, the middle chamber six cubits, and the third chamber seven cubits in width (Matt. IV). These chambers in the Gospel, where the Lord was tempted by the devil, were called the pinnacles of the temple. And we read also that James, the brother of the Lord, an apostle, was lifted to the pinnacle of the temple, from where he preached to the people (Hegesippus, l. V). However, whether it was customary for teachers to sit in these chambers to make sermons to the crowd below, we do not find anywhere in the Scriptures. Therefore, the reason for the sacrament is clear, because these three chambers represent the three degrees of the faithful, namely those who are married, those who are continent, and virgins, distinguished indeed by the height of their profession but all relating to the house of God and adhering to it with a fixed mind in the same faith and truth. Where it is beautifully said, the upper chamber had a width of five cubits, the middle six, the third seven. Therefore, the upper chamber was narrower than the others, the middle wider than the upper, but narrower than the lowest, because an exalted profession of virtue should uphold a higher way of living. For whoever has renounced the bond of marriage and consecrated their virginity to the Lord should also display manners worthy of virginity. They should abstain from idle talk, anger, strife, slander, indecent attire, feasting, drinking, contention, and jealousy; and on the contrary, they should devote themselves to holy vigils, prayers, divine readings, psalms, teachings, and almsgiving, as well as other fruits of the Spirit, such that they hold the state of future life in their profession where they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven. They should strive to imitate this state, as much as possible for mortals, in the present. But the lowest chamber had a greater width, because it is not said to the married: "Go, sell what you have and give to the poor"; but, "If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness," and so on (Matt. XIX). The continent hold a middle place, inferior to the virgins but superior to the married. Their most glorious portion built the primitive church in Jerusalem, where it is written by blessed Luke, "The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul," and so on (Acts IV).
History testifies that most of them had left their wifely embraces, as it mentions in the story of Saint Stephen, where it calls the women of the same religion, not wives, but widows of them. Each floor had walls around it, that is, little towers, so that no one standing or sitting on the same floors could fall to the lower levels (Acts VI), which we read happened to King Ahaziah in Samaria. Truly, these walls are fittingly designated as the daily defenses of divine protection towards us. Concerning which the Psalmist says: "The angel of the Lord shall encamp around those who fear him, and deliver them" (Psalm XXXIII). Indeed, King Ahaziah of Samaria ascended to the upper room, he who had separated himself from the house of David, but fell through the lattice; because even if heretics or schismatics seem to ascend some height of good action, since they do not have the bond of Church unity, as if protected by open and unstable walls, they always relapse into the depths of vice, while, deprived of divine aid, they perish in the pride of their stubbornness. It is explained by what skill these aforementioned floors are attached to the walls of the temple when it is added: "He placed beams around the house on the outside, so they would not be attached to the walls of the temple." Therefore, the beams that fortified and adorned the house from the inside were so long that their ends projected outward: indeed, in the lowest order seven cubits, in the middle six, in the highest five. And on these ends of the beams the floors were placed, not attached to the temple walls, but positioned next to the walls, on the beams that extended from the walls. Who then are designated as the beams of the house, which carry the floors, if not preachers? While themselves holding a high and honorable place in the church of God, they lift the weaker and more fragile away from the desire of the lowly by their preaching, and elevate them to desire and hope for heavenly things. They also help by their intercessions, so that they may persist in their endeavors. We read in the book of Chronicles that the beams of the temple, like its other interiors, were covered with gold. There is no doubt that this was so, the parts of the beams which were inside the temple were covered with gold plates, but the parts that were visible outside were not gilded, showing the appearance and shape of the cedar itself, on which the floors were laid. Therefore, what part of the beams protruded outward signifies the life of the saints, which could become known to us below. What shone gilded inside the temple metaphorically signifies the clarity with which they rejoice in the heavenly homeland in the sight of their Creator. This clarity of the golden beams was visible only to those who had entered the temple, because how great is the abundance of the sweetness of God, which he hides for those who fear him, and those who perfectly hope in him, only those who have merited to enter the heavenly kingdom know. Yet, when we see or read about the life, sufferings, and teachings of the saints, we are motivated by their example, as if we are lifted up from the earth by the ends of the beams that appear outward, because although we still cannot perceive the internal glory of the saints, from what we have been able to see outwardly, we faithfully adhere to the lofty members of the Church. We can also understand these things about the saints still in this life, whose purity of love, with which they shine in the hidden parts of their hearts before the Lord, we cannot see. Yet, from what they show outwardly by speaking, acting, or suffering, we find help for our salvation.
The house, however, when it was being built from hewn stones, etc. These things properly belong to that part of the church which, after the labors and struggles of this age, will have deserved to be introduced to eternal rewards. For there only the perfect and spotless, and those chastened from every stain of iniquity, enter. For nothing defiled, making an abomination and falsehood, will enter that city, as John wrote in the Apocalypse. Hammer and axe, and every tool of iron, are not heard, because here we are beaten with adversities, and we are exercised by the discipline of truth, that there we may be arranged in places according to our merit, and with chastisement ceasing, by the glue of love alone, by which we are bound to one another, we may be enriched by being filled with one spirit. However, although it is said: Noah was a perfect man in his generations, and blessed are the spotless in the way, and such like, no one can truly be perfect and without blemish, as long as he walks in the way of this life. For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. Nevertheless, according to the manner of this time, those are called perfect and spotless, who will then truly be perfected, when, released from the bonds of the body, they reach that immortal beauty of the house of the Lord, and ascend to the place of the tabernacle of His glory, and only the perfect and spotless, and those chastened from every stain of iniquity, will enter that city.
CHAPTER VIII On the ascent or structure of the middle and third tabernacle. The door of the middle side was on the right side of the house, etc. Some, misunderstanding this place, think that the door of the temple was on the south, not paying attention that if Scripture had wanted to signify this, it would not say in this way: the door of the middle side was on the right side of the house, but rather simply, and the house had a door to the south. Now, however, it signifies something far different. The right side of the house, indeed, refers to the southern side of the temple. In whose eastern part the door was made at the very corner, near the ground. Entering in, they immediately ascended gradually to higher places, having a way of ascent through the very inner sides of the wall, until by such a journey they reached the middle chamber, and from the middle to the third. This is undoubtedly the case, although Scripture does not say so, because ascending in this way they had very frequent windows from the south, by the light of which they could make the journey surely and without stumbling. This place indeed specifically regards the body of the Lord, which he took from the Virgin. For the door of the middle side was on the right side of the house, because when the Lord died on the cross, one of the soldiers opened his side with a spear. And rightfully on the right side of the house, because the holy Church believes that his right side was opened by the soldier. Where the evangelist also used an apt word, not to say struck or wounded, but opened, as if the door of the middle side, through which the way to heavenly things would be opened to us. Accordingly, he added: And immediately blood and water came out. Water with which we are washed in baptism, and blood with which we are consecrated in the holy chalice. Through this door, we have an ascent into the middle chamber, and from the middle to the third; because through the faith and mysteries of our Redeemer, from the present conversation of the church, we ascend to the rest of souls after death, and again from the rest of souls on the coming day of judgment to the immortality of bodies as if to the third chamber with a higher advancement, from which we will live forever in great happiness of both, namely body and soul. Which journey was indeed done invisibly, so that only those who entered knew it, although those outside also saw the door itself, because indeed the acts of the faithful in this world, and the celebrations of the sacraments can also be seen by the reprobates; but the secrets of faith and the grace of intimate love none recognize unless through these things the Lord as a guide leads to heavenly things. For whoever says he knows God, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar.
It should be noted that the height of 30 cubits, mentioned above, reached up to the middle chamber. Additionally, another thirty cubits were added up to the third chamber, reaching the portico that surrounded the temple from the south, north, and west, as we learn from the account of Josephus. Then, up to the top of the temple roof, another 60 cubits were counted, thus the total height of the house, according to the book of Chronicles, was completed at 120 cubits. The portico, which was in front of the temple to the east, according to the testimony of the aforementioned volume, had the same height in cubits. The book calls the porticoes we mentioned around the temple, storehouses and chambers. Moreover, David gave his son Solomon the description of the portico and temple, and the storehouses, and upper chambers, and inner rooms in the sanctuary and the house of atonement. He also mentioned the outer houses that were beyond the court of priests around the temple when he immediately added: “And also all the courts and rooms around for the treasuries of the house of the Lord, and the treasuries of the holy things.” The fact that the entire height of the temple was 120 cubits refers to the same mystery, that the early church in Jerusalem, after the passion, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord into heaven, received the grace of the Holy Spirit in this number of men. For fifteen, which consists of seven and eight, is sometimes referred to as a signification of future life, which is now carried on in the rest of the souls of the faithful and will be completed at the end of the world in the resurrection of immortal bodies. The fifteen taken in a triangular number, that is, when all its parts are counted, make 120. Therefore, the number of one hundred and twenty appropriately signifies the great blessedness of the elect in the future life. Aptly in this, the third chamber of the house of the Lord is consummated, because after the present labors of the faithful, after the rest of the souls is received in the future, the full happiness of the whole church will be completed in the glory of the resurrection. To this mystery it also pertains, as we have said, that the Lord, rising from the dead and ascending to heaven, sent the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire to this number of men, who made those who were separated by the diversity of languages have a common speech in the praise of God. For the church also, rising from death in its own time, and ascending to heaven in corrupted flesh, will be fully and perfectly illuminated by the gift of the Holy Spirit, when according to the promise of the apostle God will be all in all. Then there will be a complete union of languages in all to proclaim the great deeds of God because in harmonious mind and voice, everyone will praise the glory of the divine majesty, which they will see present.
CHAPTER IX. That the walls are covered with cedar and the floor with fir. And he built the house, and completed it, etc. The ceilings are panels, which, arranged and decorated with great beauty, are affixed with beams to the lower part. And because the house of the Lord was made with three floors, it undoubtedly had three ceilings. But what more fitting can we believe is signified by the ceilings than the more elevated righteous ones in the holy church? Whose work and teaching, set forth as an example to all, preeminently stands out as if higher up, and who, through their intercessions and exhortations, protect the minds of the weak, so they do not fall in temptations. These ceilings, appropriately, are described as being made of cedar. For cedar is a tree of entirely imperishable nature, of pleasant odor, bright appearance, driving away and killing serpents with its burning scent. These attributes suit those who are perfect, whose patience is invincible, their fame of virtues is outstanding, their presence is most pleasing to all good people, their authority is most steadfast in overcoming and refuting those who resist the truth, who in this life and in the next shine with singular eminence above other saints.