Temple in Jerusalem

Under the Jerusalem Temple (Hebrew בֵּית - הַמִּקְדָּשׁ, Bet HaMikdash ) refers to one of the Temple of Solomon, which the beginning of the 6th century BC was destroyed by the Babylonians, on the other hand the so-called Second Temple ( completed 515 BC BC) until it was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans.

The first Jerusalem Temple was built according to the biblical representation of Solomon on Mount Zion. However, archaeologists assume that this temple was just like the " Solomonic " palaces built only about two hundred years after the reign of Solomon. This temple was like the entire city of Jerusalem destroyed BC when it was conquered by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II 586.

After the Babylonian exile, a second Temple was built in Jerusalem, according to the biblical representation during the reign of the Persian king Darius I. This temple was from 21 BC under Herod the Great rebuilt fundamentally and finally at the suppression of the Jewish War by the Romans in 70 AD destroyed. The west wall of this temple, also known as the Wailing Wall, is preserved to this day. On the Temple Mount itself are the Rock and the al -Aqsa Mosque, the most important to the holy sites in Mecca and Medina sanctuaries for Muslims.

  • 3.1 Serubbabelischer Temple
  • 3.2 Herodian Temple
  • 3.3 remains and present situation

The tent Sanctuary ( Mishkan, Tabernacle )

In the second book of Moses (Ex 25-27 EU 36-39 EU and ex ) the construction of a collapsible and portable tent shrine is described in great detail. There, the sanctuary " tent of meeting " (Ex 27,21 EU) is called. The tent served according to biblical representation of the Israelites during their wandering in the desert and up to the time of King David as a central place of encounter with God. First, it was carried on the walks, later it had its location at Shiloh about the middle of the land of Israel.

According to the Biblical description of the tabernacle was 30 cubits long, ten cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Inside the Holy of Holies was HaKodashim Kodesh ( קדש הקדשים literally " the holy of sanctuaries ") with the ark. Some researchers are of the opinion that details in the description of the tent sanctuary and its ceremonies in reality the conditions and customs of the later stone temple stem and were only subsequently projected back to the tent sanctuary.

After David had captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites and made it the capital of Israel, he was there to bring the tent sanctuary. Later, it may have been kept in disassembled form in the temple of Solomon; latest with the destruction of this temple it was lost.

The temple of Solomon

Source location

Information on the Temple of Solomon provides exclusively the Hebrew Bible. The records of Solomon's temple can be found in 1 Kings 5.15 to 6.38 EU, and 2 Chr 1.18 to 5.1 EU, other individual notes also in Jer 52 EU and 25 EU 2 Kgs. The biblical data are from the historical point, however, disputed. From the Bible independent historical evidence have not been recognized. In this respect, the existence of a temple of " Solomonic " time is no archaeological evidence as.

Dating

According to biblical data (1 Kings 6.1 EU) the construction of the first permanent temple of Solomon in the fourth year of his reign began. This corresponds according to biblical chronology to the year 957 BC The construction took seven years (1 Kings 6.38 EU). Solomon's reign thus began 961 BC

After architectural and astronomical investigations Erwin Reidinger has confirmed this chronology. He tried to the place and the geographical orientation of the Most Holy of Solomon's Temple based on the still visible architectural features of the rock within the present Dome of the Rock and the Herodian wall curves to reconstruct and assumes that the data of the sunrise in the direction of control line this reconstruction conclusions allow the time of the original construction. Reid Ingers basic assumptions and conclusions have been found in archaeological science no greater reverberation.

Construction

The stone building was erected with the help of Phoenician builders on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem and had the dimensions of 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. It was surrounded on three sides with side rooms in three storeys above the other, which served to preserve the treasures of the temple and equipment. The entrance site was preceded by a vestibule, also 20 cubits wide, ten cubits deep (1 Kings 6.3 EU) and 120 cubits high ( 2 Chr 3,4 ELB after the Masoretic text, in a few text traditions also 20 cubits high be called ). Previously, there were two bronze pillars, Jachin and Boaz ( " strength and power" ), who had no structural function, but flanked the entrance to the porch. As usual in ancient times was the entrance to the east, the Holy of Holies in the west.

Facility

The interior contained a 40 cubits long front room, the saints, in which the golden candlestick, the table of showbread and the altar of incense stood, and one by a curtain of them divorced square back room of 20 cubits, the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant and the two large cherubim. Both rooms were on the walls, the Holy of Holies ( Adyton ) also paneled to the floor and the ceiling with timber. The large main altar for burnt offerings stood in the courtyard, in front of the entrance to the temple proper.

Use and cult

It is now generally believed that the saint was only accessible to the priests, the Holy of Holies could only the High Priest once a year, on Yom Kippur, enter. According to tradition, the Talmud, however, cleaning workers were let down from the top in baskets in the room from time to time; these did their work with a view to the wall, looking at the interior of the room was strictly forbidden.

The temple building was surrounded by an inner court of the priests to the altar of burnt offering, the purification tanks and other equipment, and this surrounded by colonnades with bronze gates of the particular for the people and by a wall separated the outer court.

Destruction

The temple was destroyed at the beginning of the Babylonian exile by the Babylonians.

The Second Temple

Serubbabelischer Temple

Grandson of King Jehoiachin and at the same time governor of Persia in the province of Judah - - A few decades after the return of the Jews from Babylonian exile to Jerusalem was the second, after Zerubbabel named the temple was constructed. This was at least built in the same place and roughly according to the plan of the first 515 and completes BC. The disputes over the construction of the temple have been found in Haggaibuch their literary expression.

Flavius ​​Josephus quotes a description of Hecataeus of Abdera. After this the perimeter wall of the temple area was 500 feet ( 150 m ) long, the breadth of the court was 100 cubits ( about 45 meters), in the courtyard, a square altar was made ​​of white, unhewn stones, 20 yards ( nine meters ) to the sides and ten cubits ( 4.5 m) high, and inside the temple only a candlestick and an altar were erected, both of gold and two talents weight. In addition, a sanctuary lamp had burned in the temple always. The Holy of Holies was empty now, as the ark was probably lost in the destruction of Solomon's Temple.

By Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrated 169 BC, this temple was restored by Judas Maccabeus and secured militarily. This restoration is still celebrated in the Chanukah celebration.

Herodian Temple

Under Herod the Great (hence the Herodian Temple ) began in 21 BC, a complete transformation of the temple on a large scale in the Greek style. This temple was according to Flavius ​​Josephus, a stadium ( 185-200 m) long and a stadium wide.

In the Jewish-Roman War in 70 of the temple was the last bulwark of the Jews and was finally destroyed by the Romans.

Remains and present situation

It is believed that the so-called Western Wall is the only part of the erected under Herod the Western Wall of the Temple Mount complex. Orthodox Jews do not enter the Temple Mount, in an effort to avoid a unwissentliches entering the holy of holies and of the place where the ark was. Where is the Holy of Holies was located exactly, is not known. It is sometimes assumed that it was built over the exposed rock, which is located in the center of the Dome of the Rock today.

Subsequent development of the Temple area

After the destruction of the Temple Rome erected in place of a Jewish temple of Jupiter. To the Jews from entering Jerusalem and the temple complex was only allowed on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple on the 9th day of the month of Av.

Under the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity the Jupiter temple was torn down, whereupon it was built by a Christian basilica. This church was in turn demolished in the reign of the Roman emperor converted back to paganism Julian.

Julian planned 363 AD, the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, but this was then set aside in favor of the Persian campaign and never realized. Theodoret describes in his Ecclesiastical History (Vol. 3, Chap. 20) that the building was probably started it but come to supernatural phenomena, severe earthquakes and fires, which then the builders eventually abandoned their plans and escape had taken.

Since 691 stand on the temple of the Islamic Dome of the Rock, and since 705/715, the Al -Aqsa Mosque.

The question of the new construction of the temple

For decades, made ​​by a small group of rabbis aspirations to the new construction of the temple. There is general within Judaism, the opinion that the construction of the Third Temple could only happen in the messianic age.

The Temple of Reform Judaism (19th Century )

Beginning of the 19th century was formed in Germany is oriented to the education reform movement of Judaism. From it also a redesign of the synagogue, which was now known as Temple developed. At the same time the goal was abandoned, the temple in Jerusalem to rebuild. One of the first Reform temple was inaugurated in 1844 in Hamburg New Israelite Temple in the pool road.

The "Hamburger temple model " of Solomon's Temple

The Hamburg Temple model is a 12 sqm large baroque architecture model of Solomon's Temple of wood. It was built in 1680-1692. After his first location in the opera at the goose market it passed over London and Dresden ( Kennel, 1734 ) back to Hamburg in the Museum of Hamburg History ( from 1910). The given by the Hamburg Senator Gerhard Schott in order model is in the tradition of many attempts at reconstruction in the Renaissance and Baroque, who sought to approach from a theological, or architecture bibelkundlicher theoretical point of view the original shape of the temple described in the Bible.

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