Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (), was a Temple in Jerusalem believed to have existed between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE. Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it was commissioned by biblical king Solomon, the son of King David. It was reportedly destroyed during the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. According to Josephus, this was 470 years after it was built.
Due to the extreme religious and political sensitivity of the site, no recent archaeological excavations have been conducted on the Temple Mount, and no positively identified remains of the destroyed temple have been found. Most modern scholars agree that the First Temple existed on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by the time of the Babylonian siege, and there is significant debate among scholars over the date of its construction and the identity of its builder.
The Hebrew Bible, specifically within the Book of Kings, includes a detailed narrative about the construction's ordering by King Solomon, the penultimate ruler of the United Kingdom of Israel. It further credits Solomon as the placer of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies, a windowless inner sanctum within the structure. Entry into the Holy of Holies was heavily restricted; the High Priest of Israel was the only authority permitted to enter the sanctuary, and only did so on Yom Kippur, carrying the blood of a sacrificial lamb and burning incense. In addition to serving as a religious building for worship, the First Temple also functioned as a place of assembly for the Israelites. The First Temple's destruction and the subsequent Babylonian captivity were both events that were seen as a fulfillment of biblical prophecies and thus affected Judaic religious beliefs. Trotter claims that this precipitated the Israelites' transition from either polytheism or monolatrism (as seen in Yahwism) to firm Jewish monotheism.
Previously, many scholars accepted the biblical narrative of the First Temple's construction by Solomon as authentic. During the 1980s, skeptical approaches to the biblical text as well as the archaeological record led some scholars to doubt whether there was any Temple in Jerusalem constructed as early as the 10th century BCE. Some scholars have suggested that the original structure built by Solomon was relatively modest, and was later rebuilt on a larger scale.David Ussishkin In: A.G. Vaughn and A.E. Killebrew (eds.), Solomon's Jerusalem: The Text and the Facts on the Ground. Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology; The First Temple Period, Atlanta, 2003, pp. 103–115
No direct evidence for the existence of Solomon's Temple has been found. Due to the extreme religious and political sensitivity of the site, no recent archaeological excavations have been conducted on the Temple Mount. Nineteenth and early-twentieth-century excavations around the Temple Mount did not identify "even a trace" of the complex. Some attribute this to the extensive building done in the area during Herod’s time.
Two 21st-century findings from the Israelite period in present-day Israel bear resemblance to Solomon's Temple as it is described in the Hebrew Bible: a shrine model from the early half of the 10th century BCE in Khirbet Qeiyafa; and the Tel Motza temple, dated to the 9th century BCE and located in the neighbourhood of Motza within West Jerusalem. The biblical description of Solomon's Temple also appears to share similarities with several Syro-Hittite temples of the same period discovered in modern-day Syria and Turkey, such as those in Ain Dara and Tell Tayinat.Batiuk, S., Harrison, T E, and Pavlish, L., The Ta'yinat Survey, 1999-2002, in The Amuq Valley Regional Projects, Volume 1: Surveys in the Plain of Antioch and Orontes Delta, Turkey, 1995–2002, Oriental Institute Publications 131, pp. 171-192, Oriental Institute, 2005Monson, John M. "The Temple of Solomon: Heart of Jerusalem", C. The Ain Dara Temple: A New Parallel from Syria, pp. 10, 16. In "Zion, city of our God", Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (1999), editors: Hess, Richard S. & Wenham, Gordon J. . Retrieved 15 February 2011.
Seventy years later, when Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylonia, he allowed the exiles to return to Judea and build the Second Temple.
Location Archeologist Israel Finkelstein writes that the exact location of the Temple is unknown. It is believed to have been situated upon the hill that forms the site of the Second Temple and present-day Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock is situated.Israel Finkelstein Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey
According to the Bible, Solomon's Temple was built on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where an angel of God had appeared to David (). The site was originally a threshing floor David had purchased from Araunah the Jebusite (; ).
Schmid and Rupprecht are of the view that the site of the temple used to be a Jebusite shrine that Solomon chose in an attempt to unify the Jebusites and Israelites.
Biblical narrative Construction According to 1 Kings, the foundation of the Temple is laid in Ziv (now known as the month of Iyar), the second month of the fourth year of Solomon's reign and construction is completed in Bul (now known as the month of Cheshvan), the eighth month of Solomon's eleventh year, thus taking about seven years.
The Hebrew Bible says that the Tyrians played a leading role in the construction of the Temple. The Second Book of Samuel mentions how David and Hiram forged an alliance. This friendship continues after Solomon succeeds David, and the two refer to each other as brothers. A literary account of how Hiram helps Solomon build the Temple is given in 1 Kings (chapters 5–9) and 2 Chronicles (chapters 2–7).; ; Hiram agrees to Solomon's request to supply him with cedar and cypress trees for the construction of the Temple. He tells Solomon that he will send the trees by sea: "I will make them into rafts to go by the sea to the place that you indicate. I will have them broken up there for you to take away." In return for the lumber, Solomon sends him wheat and oil. Solomon also brings over a skilled craftsman from Tyre, also called Hiram (or Huram-abi), who oversees the construction of the Temple. Stonemasons from Gebal (Byblos) cut stones for the Temple.
Construction of the Temple took seven years. After completion of Solomon's palace (which took an additional 13 years) Solomon hands over twenty cities in the northwestern Galilee near Tyre as a repayment to Hiram. Hiram was not pleased with the gift, however, and asks "what are these towns that you have given me, my brother?". Hiram then calls them "the land of Cabul", and the writer of 1 Kings 9 says they were called by this name "to this day". Hiram however remains on friendly terms with Solomon.
The Second Book of Chronicles fills in some details of the construction not given in narrative brought in 1 Kings. It states that the trees sent as rafts were sent to the city of Joppa on the Mediterranean coast, and in return for the lumber supplied, Solomon, in addition to the wheat and oil, sent wine to Hiram.
Transfer of the Ark of the Covenant According to biblical narrative, the purpose of Solomon’s Temple was as a House of God, a site in which God shall dwell (Deuteronomy 12:5) and record that in the seventh month of the year, during the Feast of Tabernacles,Barnes, W. E. (1899), Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on 2 Chronicles 5, accessed 17 April 2020 the priests and the Levites brought the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandments, from the City of David. Within the temple, the Ark was placed inside the Holy of Holies.
Dedication and recount the events of the temple's dedication. When the priests emerged from the holy of holies after placing the Ark there, the Temple was filled with an overpowering cloud that interrupted the dedication ceremony,Pulpit Commentary on 1 Kings 8 , accessed 2 October 2017 "for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord [such that] the priests could not stand to minister" (1 Kings 8:10–11; 2 Chronicles 5:13, 14). Solomon interpreted the cloud as "[proof] that his pious work was accepted":
The allusion is to :Lumby, J. R. (1886), Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on 1 Kings 8, accessed 18 April 2020, although the reference quoted here is Leviticus 16:3
The Pulpit Commentary notes that "Solomon had thus every warrant for connecting a theophany with the thick dark cloud". Solomon then led the whole assembly of Israel in prayer, noting that the construction of the temple represented a fulfilment of God's promise to David, dedicating the temple as a place of prayer and reconciliation for the people of Israel and for foreigners living in Israel, and highlighting the paradox that God who lives in the heavens cannot really be contained within a single building. The dedication was concluded with musical celebration and sacrifices said to have included "twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep".; These sacrifices were offered outside the temple, in "the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the Lord", because the altar inside the temple, despite its extensive dimensions,: dimensions are not stated in 1 Kings was not big enough for the offerings being made that day.; Pulpit Commentary on 2 Chronicles 4 , accessed 19 April 2020 The celebration lasted eight days and was attended by "very great assembly [gathered] from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt".; The subsequent feast of Tabernacles extended the whole celebration to 14 days,Barnes, A., Barnes' Notes on 2 Chronicles 7, accessed 19 April 2020 before the people were "sent away to their homes".
After the dedication, Solomon hears in a dream that God has heard his prayer, and God will continue to hear the prayers of the people of Israel if they adopt the four ways in which they could move God to action: humility, prayer, seeking his face, and turning from wicked ways.Mathys, H. P., 1 and 2 Chronicles in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary , p. 287 Conversely, if they turn aside and forsake God's commandments and worship other gods, then God will abandon the temple: "this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight".;
Plunder According to the biblical narrative, Solomon's Temple was plundered several times. In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign (commonly dated to 926 BCE), Egyptian pharaoh Shishak (positively identified with Shoshenq I) took away treasures of the Temple and the king's house, as well as shields of gold that Solomon had made; Rehoboam replaced them with brass ones (; ). A century later, Jehoash, king of the northern Kingdom of Israel, advanced on Jerusalem, broke down a portion of the wall, and carried away the treasures of the Temple and the palace (). Later, when Ahaz of Judah was threatened by defeat at the hands of Rezin of Aram-Damascus and Pekah of Israel, he turned to king Tiglath-Pileser IV for help. To persuade him, he "took the silver and gold that was found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the King of Assyria" (). At another critical juncture, Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors and doorsteps of the temple he himself had overlaid, and gave it to king Sennacherib ().
Joash's restoration and recount that King Joash and the priests of the temple organised a restoration programme funded from popular donations. The temple was restored to its original condition and further reinforced.
Destruction by the Babylonians
According to the Bible, the Temple was plundered by King Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire when the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem during the brief reign of Jehoiachin c. 598 BCE ().