Temple 201-First Temple (Solomon’s) Research-Conclusion

Solomon had several places for his throne, the Hall of Judgment and the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Why would he do this? It depended on the crime. A death sentence in the Second Temple could only be carried out if it was given in the Chamber of Hewn Stone. He had to stand before the Lord in the Azarah. There was another chamber outside of the 500c x 500c Temple Mount in the Royal Stoa. This is where they brought Yeshua because they had moved out of the Chamber of Hewn Stone in protest against Pilate. But they could not give Yeshua a death sentence there, so they needed the Romans to do it. This went according to prophecy because Yeshua was to be crucified, but crucifixion was not the Jewish method of execution in a death sentence. There was a third chamber, according to Josephus, where the Great Sanhedrin met in the upper city of Jerusalem. The further away from the Azarah, the less “power” they had. So, lesser offenses were judged in “lesser” areas with lesser kedusha.

Working on these structures and knowing where they were is beneficial to us. For instance, knowing where the Chamber of Hewn Stone was has a bearing on the trial of Yeshua. A death sentence could only be carried out if it was given in the Azarah, the presence of God. That is why they had to send him to the Romans. One opinion of the Rabbi’s was that the Chamber of Hewn Stone was on the north side of the Azarah. But having this chamber on the north side would make the High Priest walk further on Yom Kippur, so that is not very likely. Somehow this opinion got picked up by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah, and many commentaries say it was on the north. However, the Mishnah says it was on the south side (Middot 5.4).

So, these controversies come up, so we need to have some definition as to where these things were located. By taking the evidences from the First Temple, we can accurately locate them in the Second Temple. The “pattern” or “tavnit” of God cannot be changed because they were the “blueprints.” Man does not have the authority to change the way God had set things up in the Temple.

There is a paper written by a man named Yoni Ben Yonah who wrote about the location of Solomon’s palace, the House of the Forest of Lebanon and the Hall of Judgment. This paper is referred to in the Anchor Bible Dictionary many times. However, it is hard to get. It is possible that revisions may be needed after totally studying this paper, if it can be obtained by researchers. But good changes is not a bad thing. There is a ceremony in the Temple where the barley is waved before the Lord. Barley is very coarse and it has to be processed and refined over and over again until it is right. Then it is passed over a flame in a perforated pan until every kernel is singed by the fire. Then it passes through 13 sieves until it is very fine, until the Gabbai Tzedekah (treasurer) can put his hands in the flour until none of the flour sticks to his hands. It is refined from the coarsest flour to the finest, then they bake these huge loaves, and do a “tenufa” (waving) before the Lord. That is what we have to do with the Temple and the information we glean about it. Right now, we are working on the “barley” and “processing and refining” until we can pass it through all the sieves so it can be presented before the Lord. We need to get the information right and pass it through the “intellectual” and “biblical” sieves so that we can know where these structures in the First Temple really were.

Posted in Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, The Temple, Tying into the New Testament

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