Temple in Jerusalem

Central sanctuary of Jewish worship, situated on Mount Moriah (the har ha-bayit, Temple Mount) in Jerusalem. The First Temple was built by King Solomon c.960 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE. The Second Temple was dedicated c. 520 BCE and destroyed by the Romans under Titus in 70 CE.

First Temple Originally, King David had wanted to build the Temple, but God, through Nathan the prophet, rejected this wish, evidently on the grounds that he had shed blood. Instead Nathan informed David that his son Solomon would build the Temple (II Sam. 7:12-13).

When Solomon became king, he enlisted the aid of his ally Hiram, the king of Tyre (980-946 BCE), in the construction of the Temple. In return for wheat, oil, and wine, Hiram supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress wood, as well as gold. Hiram's servants floated the wood down to Jaffa on rafts. Hiram also sent Solomon artisans and craftsmen to aid him. Construction began in the fourth year of Solomon's reign (c.964 BCE) and took seven years to complete.

The Temple itself was a magnificent structure, made of the finest materials. It was a stone building standing within a royal compound which also housed the palace, a Hall of Judgment, the Hall of Cedars, and a house for Solomon's wife, Pharaoh's daughter. The Temple was 60 cubits (90 feet) long, 20 cubits (30 feet) wide, and 30 cubits (45 feet) high (one cubit = c. 18 inches). It was faced by the patio of the forecourt, which added ten cubits to its length. The main structure was surrounded by a three-story building divided into chambers, with the levels connected by trapdoors. These probably served as storerooms for the Temple treasures. The main building was divided into an inner room, the Holy of Holies (the devir) on the west, measuring 20 by 20 cubits, and an outer room (the azarah) measuring 20 by 40 cubits on the east. Around the Temple was a walled-in compound. The entrance to the Temple was through the porch, on each side of which stood a massive bronze pillar. The two pillars had names: Jachin and Boaz.

The inner walls of the Temple were paneled with cedar wood. The floor of the Holy of Holies was likewise of cedar wood, while that of the outer room was of less expensive cypress wood. The walls were decorated with carvings of gourds, cherubs, palm trees, and flowers in bloom, and were encrusted with gold. There were doors to both the outer room and the Holy of Holies. The walls of the latter were decorated on both sides, and its floor was plated with gold (I Kings 6:29-30). The Holy of Holies was entered only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, by the High Priest.

The most important object in the Temple was the Ark, which was installed within the Holy of Holies. Inside the ark stood the two Tablets of the Covenant with the Ten Commandments. The Ark linked the Temple historically to the Shiloh Sanctuary, which had existed for 369 years, as well as to the Sanctuary which had accompanied the Israelites in the desert. Two wooden cherubs with outspread wings surrounded the Ark, symbolizing the Divine Presence.

In the outer room stood the main implements of the Temple's daily worship: an Incense altar, the table for the Showbread, and ten lampstands (see Menorah). These were all made of gold or gilded. In front of the Temple stood a "sea," an immense bronze water basin supported by 12 bronze cattle. Along the east front of the building stood ten smaller water basins, each on its own wheeled stand, five to the north of the entrance and five to the south. A bronze Altar also stood in the courtyard, which was used for the various Sacrifices, both communal and individual.

Within the Temple compound were three enclosure for specific groups: the ezrat kohanim (the priestly enclosure) for the Priests working in the Temple; the ezrat yisra'el (the enclosure for Israelites) for male worshipers; and the ezrat nashim (the women's enclosure) for female worshipers.

During Solomon's reign, the Temple was the focal point of all Jewish ritual and pilgrims came to it from all the tribes of Israel (see Pilgrimage; Pilgrim Festivals). However, at the time of the reign of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, the Temple's unique position was challenged. Jeroboam, who revolted and established the northern kingdom of Israel, taking with him ten of the Twelve Tribes, set up two other temples, in Dan and Beth-El, to keep his subjects from coming to Jerusalem. Although later kings of Israel who were allied with the kings of Judah relaxed the prohibition against going to Jerusalem, the First Temple never again regained its centrality for all the Twelve Tribes.

The Temple itself served as the site for Prayer and for the bringing of sacrifices to God. In addition to the different communal sacrifices offered daily and the additional communal sacrifices brought on the Sabbaths, festivals, and the New Moon (Num. 28-29), individuals offered their own sacrifices, either in thanks or as part of their atonement for sins committed through negligence.

The Temple was the site to which the Omer (the first barley measure, harvested on the second day of Passover) and the First Fruits (on Shavu'Ot) were brought. On Passover eve, all families were required to come to Jerusalem to offer the paschal sacrifice, the lambs being sacrificed in the forecourt of the Temple. Many of the Psalms were originally composed for use in the Temple.

During its history of four centuries, the Temple was repaired numerous times and changes were introduced in its structure and furnishings. Thus King Joash (836-798 BCE) ordered that the money brought to the priests be utilized for repairing the breaches in the Temple and for refurbishing those implements that required repair (II Kings 12). Similarly, King Josiah (639-609) was responsible for renovations (II Kings 22). On the other hand, under Kings Manasseh (698-642), possibly as a concession to the king of Assyria, and Amon (641-640), the worship of other gods was introduced to the Temple.

Second Temple The Second Temple was dedicated in Jerusalem sometime between 521 and 517 BCE, some 65-70 years after the destruction of the First Temple. Its rededication followed Cyrus' decree permitting the return of the exiled Jews from Babylonia to Judah. Virtually the entire period between his decree and the dedication was marked by stubborn efforts on the part of the country's non-Jewish populace from the Samaria region to prevent the Temple's reconstruction. Spurring on the Jews in the project of rebuilding were the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, whose encouraging words were directed in the main toward the people's leaders, Zerubbabel of the Davidic line and the High Priest Joshua (or Jeshua as he is referred to in the later books of Ezra and Nehemiah). The rebuilt Temple at this stage, however, was but a shadow of its former glory.

The Zadokite line now resumed the High Priestly role its original forebear, the High Priest Zadok, had assumed under King Solomon roughly 450 years earlier (I Kings 2:35).

Approximately 70-80 years after its rededication, in the period of Ezra and Nehemiah the Second Temple resumed its primacy in the history of the people. Ezra and Nehemiah saw to it that priestly and Levite genealogy was carefully reappraised and that the various Temple duties and personnel were reapportioned.

Over two centuries later, in the year 200 BCE, the Seleucid monarch Antiochus III instructed his local governor, Ptolemy Thraseas, as a sign of his appreciation of the local Jews' assistance in his military campaign, to ensure the sanctity of the Temple and its adjoining areas. The king even included a list of unclean animals which may not be brought into the city precincts (Jos., Ant. XII,.138ff.).

The Temple's fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse upon the accession of Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) to the Seleucid throne. With the assistance of certain Hellenizing elements among the Jewish High Priestly and lay aristocracy, the Temple was converted into a place of pagan worship. This and other acts of brutal repression of the Jewish faith brought on the revolt of the Hasmoneans, which eventually led to the restoration of the Temple's exclusively Jewish character by Judah Maccabee. The date of the Temple's rededication (in 164 BCE), 25 Kislev, is commemorated in the Hanukkah festival.

The last non-Maccabean High Priest, Onias IV, whom events compelled to flee his exalted station and homeland, was responsible for the establishment of a temple on Egyptian soil (in the 60s of the second century BCE).

The first of the Hasmoneans to don the High Priestly vestments was Judah's brother, Jonathan, about the year 150 BCE, and wit' this the eight-century-old Zadokite line was brought to an abrupt end. The Hasmoneans retained the High Priesthood for over a century until the accession of Herod to the kingship. High Priests were now installed and deposed at the whim of King Herod and his successors, with the prodding and connivance of Roman procurators and governors. When the Revolt against Rome erupted in 66 CE, one of its initial acts was to end Temple sacrifices on behalf of the Roman emperor and his family.

Structure The Bible, the Talmud, and Josephus, as well as the more recent archeological excavations, account for the bulk of the available information on the Second Temple structure. No real picture is available of the structure during the time of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, or even of Ezra and Nehemiah, other than the knowledge that during all this period the Second Temple was but a faint shadow of its former glorious self. Not much is known either of the Temple structure during the years that followed and under the Hasmoneans.

The available picture is that of the much enlarged and magnificent building begun by Herod in 20/19 BCE. Although the rebuilt Temple was formally dedicated a year and a half later, work on the structure continued for decades, with the finishing touches being made only some two years before the beginning of the Revolt in 66 CE.

The Temple Mount was now surrounded by massive walls. The outer forecourt or Temple esplanade was a greatly enlarged quadrangle, with another rectangular space, the forecourt proper, inside the quadrangle area. Entrance to the forecourt was by a flight of steps, around the base of which ran a railing (soreg) with warning signs in Greek and Latin, put up at regular intervals, banning the entrance of non-Jews beyond this area on pain of death.

Access to the inner and outer forecourts for Jews as well was subject to certain restrictions, particularly with regard to ritual impurity. The Mishnah tractate of Middot distinguishes between five areas and their correspondingly ascending degrees of sanctity: the Temple Mount; the hel (i.e., the space inside the aforementioned railed-off area); the court of women; the court of Israelites; the court of priests. The Holy of Holies remained the most sacrosanct part of the Temple compound. It was actually one of two chambers in the Temple proper, lying immediately beyond the antechamber which contained the incense altar, the candelabrum (menorah), and the showbread table.

Rabbinical sources indicate that the seat of the Great Sanhedrin was located within the inner forecourt of the Temple Mount. Some sort of Synagogue was also in use there. Josephus describes the Temple's exterior covering of massive plates of gold with their brilliant reflection of the sun's rays, while the rabbis waxed enthusiastic over the magnificence of the Second Temple: "He who has not seen the House of Herod [i.e., the rebuilt Herodian Temple] has never in his life seen a beautiful structure."

Ritual The principal ministrants at the Temple service were the priests and the Levites, the latter assisting the priests in the daily service, while also assuming the functions of Temple singers (see Music and Song), gatekeepers, and Temple servants. The highest-ranking member of the priestly hierarchy was the High Priest. There was also the highly important post of segan or Temple captain, who was in charge of order in and around the Temple area. It would appear, at least during the latter years of the Second Temple period, that the segan was also there to keep a watchful eye on Sadducee High Priests in case they strayed from Pharisaic Temple ritual. In addition to these high-ranking officiants, there were several categories of officialdom, including Temple treasurers and lesser-ranking captains.

The entire priesthood was subdivided into 24 groups (see Mishmarot and Ma'Amadot) who took weekly turns to enable all its members to participate in the ministrations at one time or other. Each priestly group had a corresponding Levitical group. There was a further subdivision of the priestly groups into "households" (baté avot), with each such house responsible for a specific number of days of Temple service. There was also a Temple physician, a choirmaster, and a special officer in charge of the priestly vestments.

Sacrificial worship took place daily, including the Sabbath day and the various festivals. Present at these daily Temple services was a "stand-by" group of lay Israelites (ma'amad) who represented their brethren from the various sections of the country. The entire Jewish population was divided into 24 such ma'amadot to correspond with the priestly and Levitical groups. This innovation provided the entire people with a sense of participation in the Temple service. For the sacrificial system see Sacrifices and Offerings.

Although the Bible contains no references to prayers during the sacrificial services, the Second Temple did have prayers, blessings, and readings from the Pentateuch. At the conclusion of the incense offering, the priests blessed the general assemblage (the Priestly Blessing is still recited in synagogues throughout the world).

Music and song contributed to the beauty of Divine worship. At various points in the daily sacrifice ceremonial, the Levites would join in with song and string music and the sounding of the silver trumpets. At each of these trumpet choruses, the people would prostrate themselves in adoration of the Almighty. In addition, the Levites would chant a special Psalm for each day of the week.

After the Destruction The sages taught that the First Temple was destroyed because of the sins of immorality, idolatry, and bloodshed, while the Second Temple fell because of unprovoked hatred among Jews. The destruction of the Second Temple affected virtually every aspect of religious thought and practice. On the one hand, this was expressed in Mourning practices; on the other, by undying hope and expectation of its reconstruction.

The mourning was expressed in various ways. Thus, the Halakhah determined that when a Jew paints the interior of his house, he should leave a square cubit uncovered as a reminder of the Temple. The Talmud decreed that he who sees the ruins of the Temple should make a tear in his garments, the traditional sign of mourning. The kabbalists instituted a prayer service (Tikkun ḥatsot) which includes elegies on the destruction of the Temple. The annual fast of Tishah Be-Av is observed in memory of both Temples. The sense of mourning found expression in folklore. It was a practice to daub the forehead of a groom with ashes. The breaking of a glass by the groom at the conclusion of the Marriage ceremony was also popularly interpreted as an expression of mourning for the destruction of the Temple.

The sense of hope was incorporated in the Liturgy. The Amidah was emended to include a plea for the restoration of the text of the 17th benediction of the Temple and the sacrificial service, while the Mishnah, after a detailed description of the sacrificial system in the tractate Tamid, quotes the prayer, "May it be God's will that the Temple be speedily rebuilt in our days, Amen." R. Ishmael ben Elisha, aware that he had violated a rabbinic prohibition, wrote, "When the Temple is rebuilt, I will bring a fat sin-offering." Throughout the centuries, descendants of the priests studied the Temple ritual against the time when they would be recalled to their functions.

This speculation received new relevance for certain Jews after the Old City of Jerusalem returned to Jewish sovereignty in 1967. The issue of whether a Jew may enter the Temple area while in the state of ritual impurity in which all Jews have been since the destruction of the Temple has led to controversy over the location of the "Temple area." According to the halakhah various preconditions must be met before the Temple can be rebuilt: the majority of Jews must be living in Erets Israel; there must be conditions of peace; the desire for a Temple must stem from a genuine religious feeling among the Jewish people; a supernatural token of Divine approval must be given; and a true prophet must order the rebuilding. According to Maimonides, the Third Temple will not be built by human hands but has been constructed in heaven, from where it will miraculously descend at the appropriate time.

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In ancient Israel, as in other cultures of the ancient Near East, the primary function of a temple was to serve as the dwelling place for the deity. The Bible provides indications, explicit and implicit, that in ancient Israel there were more than a dozen such houses of the Lord. They were found in Bethlehem and Hebron in Judah, Nob, Mizpah and Gibeah of Saul in Benjamin, Shiloh, Bethel, Gilgal, Shechem and Micah's house in Ephraim, Ophrah in Manasseh, Mizpah in Gilead and Dan in Naphtali. These temples were closed structures which housed tokens of divine presence (the ark, sacred pillars, teraphim) as well as objects for performance of daily cult (altars, lampstands and bread tables) and divination (ephod, Urim and Thummim). They were tended by priestly families, and served as places for pilgrimage and worship, community celebration of annual festivals and performance of public ceremonies of various types. Activities performed within their precincts were said to have been conducted "in the presence of the Lord". Several of these temples were maintained by private families, while others fostered traditions linking their foundation with the lives and migrations of the patriarchs. The tabernacle, which accompanied the Israelites in the desert, is also portrayed as a temple, only structurally adapted so as to be portable. No archeological remains of the temples mentioned have been found. The only Israelite temple uncovered in excavations – the one in Arad – is not mentioned in the Bible. A temple of God Yhw is mentioned in the Persian period papyri from the Jewish community of Elephantine in Egypt.

Of all the temples, the one which achieved prominence in later Israelite history and in the history of civilization in general was one of the latest – that in Jerusalem. The plan to build this Temple was conceived by King David as part of his program to make a tribally neutral and strategically located city both the political capital and the spiritual center (II Sam chaps. 5-7). He selected and purchased the site for the Temple, and made certain material preparations for the building project (II Sam 24:18-25; I Chr 21:17-29:20). Opposition of an unclear nature from Nathan the prophet (II Sam 7:1-17) and David's constant involvement in war are said to be the reasons that implementation of the design was postponed until the time of David's son and successor, Solomon.

The detailed account of the building of the Jerusalem Temple (I Kgs chaps. 5-8) is meant to portray Solomon as an ideal king. It contains certain literary material contemporary with the events described, but in its overall design it is a typical ancient Near Eastern royal building report of the kind found in numerous Mesopotamian inscriptions from the early 2nd millennium until the mid-1st millennium B.C. The building of the Temple is reported to have been started in Solomon's fourth year (I Kgs 6:1, 37). The building project lasted seven years, a typological number lending heroic proportions to the endeavor. Despite the positive portrayal of the building project, building the Temple and other public works actually placed a heavy burden on the public treasury and the native populace. This led to a large national debt, the eventual secession of border land to the neighboring king, and ultimately to popular unrest and the dissolution of the United Monarchy.

The prestige of the Temple in Jerusalem overshadowed that of other Israelite temples by its proximity to the royal court and patronage of the crown. The fact that it housed the venerated ark of the covenant designated it as the successor of the temple in Shiloh. Following the Assyrian devastation of the Northern Kingdom (722 B.C.) and its numerous temples, and the religious reforms under Kings Hezekiah and Josiah, the Jerusalem Temple achieved the status of the sole recognized site of legitimate cult. It was destroyed by the Babylonian army in 586/587 B.C. During its history of four centuries, the Temple had been repaired several times and changes introduced in its structure and furnishings. Under Kings Manasseh and Amon, the cults of other gods were temporarily introduced.

With the agreement and material assistance of the new Persian empire, the Temple of Jerusalem was refounded during the time of Cyrus the Great by repatriated exiles, but completion of its reconstruction was delayed through the opposition of Judah's neighbors and economic crisis until the time of Darius (Ezra chaps. 1-6; Hag; Zech chaps. 1-8). The rebuilt (Second) Temple, which was more modest than the first, was defiled and rededicated during the Hasmonean period and was eventually demolished and totally rebuilt as a magnificent new structure by King Herod. Herod's Temple was destroyed by Roman legions in A.D. 70.

As was the case with the other Israelite temples, nothing remains of the Solomonic Temple. Nonetheless, there is sufficient biblical evidence for a reasonably clear reconstruction of the details of the Temple, its decorations and furnishings. A minute description is found in I Kings chapters 6-7. A parallel, even though somewhat variant, description is provided by II Chronicles chapters 3-4. The prescription for the future Temple in Ezekiel chapters 40-48 as well as the description of the tabernacle in Exodus chapters 25-31, 35-40 are both reflections of the Solomonic Temple. Additional details of temple architecture may be gleaned from various stories preserved in the Book of Kings as well as from the prophetic books, especially Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

The Temple was a hewn stone building standing within a royal compound which also contained the palace, a Hall of Judgment, the Hall of Cedars and a house for Solomon's wife, Pharaoh's daughter. It was 60 cubits long, 20 wide and 30 high. It was faced by a patio of the forecourt which added 10 cubits to the length. The main structure (excluding the patio) was surrounded by a three-story building. It was divided into chambers and the stories were connected by trap doors. This probably served as store rooms for Temple treasures. The main building was divided into an inner room, "Holy of Holies", measuring 20�20 cubits and an outer room measuring 20�40 cubits. Around the Temple was a walled-in courtyard.

The inner walls of the Temple were paneled with cedar wood. The floor of the Holy of Holies was likewise of cedar wood while less expensive cypress wood was used for the floor of the outer room. The walls were decorated with carvings of gourds, cherubim, palm trees and flowers in bloom. They were also encrusted with gold. There were doors to both the outer room and the Holy of Holies. The ones to the inner sanctum were of olive wood and the door posts were pentagonal. The doors to the outer sanctum were of cypress and the doorposts rectangular. The walls of the Holy of Holies were decorated on both sides and its floor was plated with gold (I Kgs 6:29-30). There thus seems to have been a material and technological gradation, the more expensive and ornately made items in the areas of greater sanctity, with less valuable and simpler ornamentations in areas of lesser sanctity.

The most important Temple vessel was the ark which was installed in the Holy of Holies on the occasion of the Temple's dedication. This sacred object linked the new Temple historically to the prestigious Shiloh temple as well as to the heroic age of the wanderings in the desert, but its main function was as a symbol of the divine presence within the Temple, for it represented God's footstool or throne. It was placed under the outspread wings of the two olive wood cherubim which Solomon had manufactured, also symbols of divine presence. In the outer room stood the main implements of the Temple's daily cult: an incense altar, a bread table and ten lampstands. These implements were made of gold or were gilded and their fabrication was attributed to Solomon. The most visible and impressive, although far from the most important cultically, were the bronze monumental implements produced by the Phoenician artisan Hiram and placed in the forecourt and in the courtyard in front of the Temple. In the forecourt stood the two pillars Jachin and Boaz. In front of the Temple, stood a "Sea", an immense bronze water basin supported by twelve bronze cattle. Along the east front of the building stood ten smaller water basins, each on its own wheeled stand, five to the north of the entrance and five to the south. The wheeled stands were decorated with lions, cherubim and bovine forms. A bronze altar also stood in the courtyard.

The original concept of the Temple as a House of God, a divine dwelling place within the human society, seems to have fallen out of favor and the Deuteronomistic literature associated with the religious reforms of King Josiah tries to redefine the function and meaning of the Temple. These new ideas are expressed especially in the great dedication prayer attributed to Solomon (I Kgs 8:14-61). The Temple is no longer thought of as God's dwelling place but rather a building associated with his name. It is a place on earth towards which God's eyes and ears are constantly directed and prayers said in the Temple or directed towards it from anywhere outside will therefore be heard and accepted. Despite the new ideas, the old concept of the Temple as a place of tangible divine presence never died out. In Ezekiel's vision of the Temple of the future, the Divine Majesty is to enter the Temple, just as it left the Old Temple prior to its destruction.

The most important task that faced the people on their return from the Babylonian Exile was the building of the new House of God. Both Zerubbabel, the secular leader and Jeshua the priest, erected on altar from which the sacrificial offerings were made (Ezra 3:2, 6). One of the important changes introduced into this new building was the addition of an outer court, which surrounded the Temple and the inner court. This new court was the Court of Women, to which both men and women were admitted (the inner court, the Court of Israel, was for men only). In the Hellenistic period, some embellishments were added from time to time. The Temple was defiled in the days of Antiochus IV (Dan 9:27, etc.), and was then reconsecrated by the Maccabees. It was completely rebuilt by Herod the Great, who began to build the new Temple in the 15th or 18th year of his reign. Ten thousand skilled laborers (1,000 of them priests), half stone-dressers, half carpenters, were engaged in the operation.

By building huge retaining walls Herod doubled the area of the Temple Mount. On top of this huge podium, most of which is still preserved, he built the Temple proper. All round the Temple Mount beautiful marble porticos were constructed. Two large bridges connected the Temple with the city on the west. In front of the Temple was the inner court, the Court of Israel, in which were the large altar, the laver, the slaughterhouse and the tables on which the offerings were prepared. Around this court were storerooms for the materials necessary to the ritual. To the west of it was the huge Court of the Women, with large rooms at each corner for Nazirites (people who had taken certain vows of abstinence) and lepers, and also for wood and oil.

The Temple itself contained the same three elements as Solomon's Temple: porch, hall and Holy of Holies. The back wall of the porch was gold-plated and in it hung a golden lamp. In the center of the facade was the main entrance, over which was suspended a golden bunch of grapes. The only pieces of furniture in the porch were the two tables, one of gold, the other of marble, on which the shewbread was placed. This entrance was covered only by a veil. In the hall stood the golden altar, the golden table for the shewbread, on which were two frankincense goblets and the golden candelabrum. A double veil separated the hall from the Holy of Holies, to which only the high priest had access, and then only on the Day of Atonement. There was no furniture at all in this part of the Temple.

The whole complex of Temple and courts was surrounded by a rail and entry to the enclosure was forbidden to Gentiles. The approach to the Temple Mount was by two gates on the south, the Double and the Triple Gates. The king and the priests used the bridges on the west.

As a child Jesus was presented in the Temple (Luke 2:22-39), and was brought there when he reached the age of legal responsibility (Luke 2:41-51). During his ministry he visited the Temple (John 2:13-14), and approved its ritual practices (Matt 5:23-24, but he was critical of the formalism that menaces every cult, and reacted violently against certain corrupt practices associated with the Temple (Matt 21:12-17). He is reported as having predicted the destruction of the Temple (Matt 24:1-2) and its replacement by his own body as the place of God's encounter with humanity (Mark 14:58; John 2:18-22). The symbol of the tearing of the veil of the Temple (Mark 15:38) implied the end of the Temple as the sign of God's presence.

Nonetheless, those of his early disciples who were Jews continued to frequent the Temple (Acts 2:46; 3:1-11). Even Paul, who had repudiated Jewish practices for his pagan converts, went there to present an offering (Acts 21:26). Stephen, however, was put to death because of his criticism of the Temple (Acts 7:47-48).

Paul developed the concept of the community as a spiritual temple (I Cor 3:16-17; 6:19; II Cor 6:16), a theme that appears elsewhere only in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Paul derived the idea from the presence of God in the community, whereas the Essenes derived it from the concept of prayer as a spiritual sacrifice. For the latter it was but a temporary substitute for the polluted Temple in Jerusalem, but for the former it had a much more profound significance. It was a Temple in which all humanity could approach God, the wall dividing Jews from pagans, which had characterized the Jewish Temple, having been abolished (Eph 2:14-22).

A very different use of the Temple theme appears in Hebrews and Revelation. The Temple of Jerusalem is transferred to the heavenly sphere, and becomes the celestial sanctuary in which Christ, the new and eternal high priest, offers not the flesh of animals but his own blood (Heb 9:11ff), and in which the holy ones perform a continuous liturgy of prayer and praise (Rev 5:6-14; 7:15).

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The central place of worship for the Israelites. The first Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon. The stone tablets received by Moses on Mount Sinai — tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written — were kept in the central chamber of Solomon's Temple. Solomon's Temple was later destroyed, as were two succeeding temples built on the site.

A wall remaining from the temples, known as the Western Wall, is one of the most sacred places for Jews today.

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