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Composition of Temple of Solomon |
by David Bowman
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The most important Biblical sacred architectural object is the legendary Temple of Solomon the King. According to 1Kings it was built in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt (around 960 B.C.). This temple bears important symbolic relevance especially for masonic mythology of the murder of master Hiram, and its plan was drawn in many variants by many scholars and architects. Even though it is most thoroughly researched composition, the symbolism remains somehow obscure, especially uncertain is the name of the deity that the temple served. If the Israelites possessed any heritage from the Egyptian magickal corpus, it would most probably be encoded into the composition of Solomon's Temple. The whole plan of the temple is not to carefully described so different interpretations of the overall plan are possible, but the most vital parts are described precise enough in 1Kings, and 2Chronicle. Additional information is gathered from Ezekiel's vision where he envisions the replica of the temple. There are several possible sources of inspiration for the temple, from various types of Egyptian temples to neighboring Phoenician, the land of master Hiram who made two legendary brazen pillars - Jachin and Boaz - for the temple.
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Composition of Temple of Solomon |
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The main proportions and the disposition of space clearly resemble older Tabernacle in the wilderness, a prototype of a sanctuary. Solomon's Temple consists of three main parts along the axis of the entrance: the porch of 10 cubits before the temple, the hall 40 cubits long called Hikal, and Holy of Holies, a cubical oracle of 20 cubits called Devir, that could be entered by the High Priest only once a year on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The oracle hosts two Kerubim guarding the Ark of Covenant containing the tablets of Law between them. The inside of the temple was entirely covered with cedar wood overlayed with gold. The height of the temple hall, Hikal, is 30 cubits, while Devir is a cube of 20 cubits, perhaps elevated 10 cubits above ground. The exact plan of the temple is questionable, since some bits of information are missing or are at odds. But the main proportions of the sanctuary and the Holy of Holiest are unquestionable, and perhaps preserving the most important part of the information.
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Rational spatial diagonals of Temple of Solomon |
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There are a few facts about the composition of the sanctuary of King Solomon's Temple that suggest that the architect understood the Egyptian canon employed in the composition of the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid. The first striking property of both spaces is the same 2:1 ratio of Hikal's floor plan as the two squares in the King's Chamber. A solid diagonal of the main temple building is exactly 70 cubits, which mimics the solid diagonal of the King's Chamber, 700 digits, both encoding the symbolism of number 7. Another correlation is the Pythagorean Triangle found in the heart of the pyramid, and traced on the walls of Hikal, since the length of 40 cubits and the height of 30 give the diagonal of 50 cubits. These proofs should exclude the possibility that a correlation between the main part of King Solomon's Temple and the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid is a mere coincidence. This planning was carefully pre-meditaded, indicated in a simple task, for example, of encoding all prime numbers from 1 to 7, reffering to the measures and diagonals that all together represent the first seven 'sacred' numbers (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 cubits).
Both most important dimensions of the Great Pyramid are encoded into this composition: the sum of all whole dimensions of the composition is 10+20+30+40+50+60+70 = 280 cubits, which is the same as the height of the Great Pyramid in royal cubits. The sum of the edges of the main cubus 20 / 30 / 60 cubits is 440 cubits, the same as the length of the base of the Great Pyramid. Two most important numbers of the Giza composition 13, and 14, are also encoded in the diagonal and walls of Devir. The diagonal of Devir if taken as whole is 28 cubits, or twice 14. In the same manner is two times 13 concealed in the axial distance of the walls that surround Devir, 26 cubits = 2 x 13.
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