The Second Temple was an architectural miracle of Antiquity. The technical possibilities and the available materials of that time were wisely employed, in order to produce a work which bore witness to God’s honor and glory far beyond Israel’s borders.

In many passages of the NT, the edifice of the Church is described as the house of God. It should be noted, however, that the Holy Scriptures speak about the building of the Church as the house of God in principally two different ways: on the one hand it is spoken of how God builds his Temple and will ultimately bring it as a perfect work to completion. In this aspect the perfect will of God is emphasized which, despite all resistance, will one day reach its goal.

On the other hand, the building of the Temple is also presented as a work of people. From this aspect the responsibility of the builders is emphasized. Whenever people build, blunders and damage can ensue. Ultimately, this requires God’s intervention and judgment so that the irrevocable will of the Eternal One, despite all evil, nevertheless comes to completion.

God as Builder of the Church

The Building of the Church threatened by the Gates of Hades

According to Matthew 16, the Messiah himself is the Builder of his universal Church: “Simon Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build [1st pers. sg., future I of oikodomeô] my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (vv. 16-18, NIV).

The temple to Caesar at Caesarea Philippi

The dialogue conveyed in these verses took place in Caesarea Philippi (Mt 16:13). The scenic background is in close connection with this dialogue.1 There was, at the time, a temple to Caesar in Caesarea Philippi, erected by Herod the Great.2 It lay at the foot of the massif from which the Banias Spring, a main source of the Jordan River, rose.3

The confession of Jesus being the Messiah, i.e. the King over every king, contains extraordinary explosiveness in view of this idolatrous edifice: it was not Caesar in Rome who had the last word over this world, but the Messiah from the people of Israel. The emperor had himself honored by the masses as the son of the gods. These gods were imaginary inventions which did not correspond to reality (cf. Acts 17:29). The gods of Rome were dead.4 Peter, full of faith, testified to the truth that the Messiah Jesus—in contrast to the emperor of Rome—is “the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). From ancient times, the god Pan was honored in the large cave of the Banias Spring.5 Herod the Great built the inner sanctuary of the temple to Caesar into Pan’s Cave.6 This means, however, that a spring rose in that house or the rock floor of the inner sanctuary, whose waters flowed down the Jordan and into the Dead Sea—corresponding to the vision of the eschatological Temple in Ezekiel 47.7 The temple to Caesar was nothing other than a satanic perversion of the divine plans for the Third Temple! Yet the waters from Ezekiel’s Temple will one day waken to life the water of the Dead Sea. The water from Banias, on the other hand, changed nothing concerning the fate of death which characterizes the sea in the Arava Plain to this day.

The victorious Church on the massif

The Lord Jesus pronounced the promise that “the gates of Hades,” i.e. the power of death, would never overpower the Church which he himself would build. This encouragement has proved itself to be true: the Ecclesia has remained in existence according to God’s will despite all the bloody and cruel persecution under the Roman emperors from Nero till Diocletian. Countless actually died as martyrs. Yet the Church never perished. Persecution leading to death was also the portion of the redeemed in later centuries, up to the third millennium. Most Christians were murdered during the 20th century, many especially in persecution by the Communists and Islamists. Yet the gates of Hades could not defeat the Church (Mt 16:18). The Church is still in existence as before. She triumphs in Christ and is spreading the Gospel to all five continents of the world.

These wonderful facts are directly connected to Jesus Christ himself being the Builder of the Church. He gave the promise of Matthew 16:18 and, because he is the invincible rock foundation, his statements can never lapse, “… and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” 

The Building according to 1 Peter 2

In 1 Peter 2:3-5, too, the building of the Church is spoken of. Whoever comes to Jesus Christ, the living stone, will be built on him: “… if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (NKJV).

The growing Temple according to Ephesians 2

In the closing verses of Ephesians 2, it likewise deals with the building of the Temple in the hands of God.

From Ephesians 2:19-22, we learn that redeemed men from Israel and from the Gentile nations are being built up on the doctrinal foundation of the apostles and the New Testament prophets in a continuous—and even after almost 2000 years not yet completed—process, and actually so that Jesus Christ determines the alignment of the entire architectural work: “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built [oikodomeomai] on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together [synarmologeomai], grows8 into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together [epoikodomeomai] for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (NKJV).

Fitly framed together

Here it is expressed that the building stones are built up in a perfect and harmonious way: “fitly framed together.”9 This is wonderfully illustrated by the work done to the Second Temple during the Herodian period: as we have explained earlier, no mortar was used in construction. The stones had, therefore, to be hewn so exactly that they could be laid precisely and fit well together.

In the so-called “Rabbinic Tunnel” on the west side of the Temple Mount, many building stones have been maintained in extraordinarily good condition, since they were protected from erosion by the Islamic building over them on this site over many centuries.10 There we can see how the building stones were laid upon each other with the greatest of care. Furthermore, visitors can also tell how each position of the building stones was moved back by c. 2cm in contrast to the ones lying below (cf. Fig. 157). Why so? A street led along the wall on the west side of the Temple precinct (Fig. 156). If a massive wall were built absolutely straight, it would convey the impression to the observers below it that the construction was overhanging. By this Temple wall being built deliberately aslope to a minor degree, it came across as quite straight, reassuringly to the pedestrians.

A play of shadows

Thanks to the margin and boss, a beautiful exchange of light and shadow occurred depending on how the sunlight fell. Thus, this avoided the Temple walls being seen from a distance as if they had been clumsy concrete walls. This aesthetically pleasing interplay gave the walls a less monotonous appearance.

Lead between the building stones

Through archaeological work on the Temple Mount, it has been ascertained that lead was placed between the building blocks. This confirms the relevant reference by Josephus.12 What should that mean? No mortar was actually used, but lead instead?

Since the building blocks of the Temple weighed 1-580 tons, or even more, according to size, the danger arose continually in construction that stones in a certain position would be damaged or even destroyed by the deadweight of the new ones laid on top. In order to avoid this, lead was placed on the building block. Whenever the next row was laid, the individual building blocks at first had to press the lead flat slowly, in slow motion so to speak, before they reached the desired position. Much damage was avoided by this painstaking work!13

From quarry to Temple precinct

To transport the building materials from the quarry to the Temple precinct, great numbers of teams of oxen were employed, which pulled the hewn stones over rolling blocks.14 To some extent giant wooden wheels were installed around the building blocks so that they could be rolled to their destination.15 Furthermore, cranes were used which worked with the tried and tested principle of block and tackle.16

What people were in a position to achieve with all these means, produces wonderment and astonishment in modern observers, despite all the technical possibilities which are available in the 21st century. The weight of the building blocks at the Pyramids of Giza generally amounts to some 2.8 tons, yet in Jerusalem quite different measurements were used to some extent! In order to be able to attach the stones to towing ropes, they were hewn so that a jutting out projection remained on the sides. As soon as these building blocks were taken to their destination, these projections were knocked off and beautifully prepared the boss at this point. Sometimes, however, the knocking off of the projection was forgotten. Even today such forgotten projections can be discovered time and again amongst the remains of the surrounding walls.

Constructing the surrounding wall

In constructing the surrounding wall, the free space between the natural mountain slope and the wall was filled in with earth on the inside after the placement of each stone. By doing this, each layer of stones could be laid once more at zero level.17 This proceeded up to the point where the height of the Court of the Gentiles was reached.

In the west, the surrounding wall reached a height of some 32m in the area of Robinson’s Arch. Up to the level of the Court of the Gentiles there were roughly 19m. On top of this came a further c. 13m which together resulted in a total of 32m.18 Up to the height of the Court of the Gentiles the surrounding walls were called “supporting walls,” since they had to withstand the pressure of the filling behind them.

The thickness of the supporting wall was built up with up to three rows of stones lying next to each other so that they came to a width of c. 5m in total.19 This gave the construction an uncommonly high stability. A further secret of the wall’s stability was in laying the foundation building blocks always directly onto the rock floor.20 According to the modern standard of knowledge, the ratio between the height and breadth should amount to 4:1 in supporting walls.21 The builders of the Temple in those days had no access to modern text books. Nevertheless, they built them exactly according to physical requirements.

“Liberation” of the stones from being attached to the bedrock

The building blocks were hewn from the massif in a quarry located to the north of Mount Zion. The building blocks were firstly preformed with hammer and chisel, and only partially released from the attachment to the rock. Afterwards, beams of wood were inserted into the gaps. Water was poured over the wood, so that it expanded and powerfully cracked apart the building blocks from their attachment to the bedrock (cf. Fig. 160). The stones “liberated” in this way were hewn in perfect beauty on the spot in the quarry with margin and boss.22

Building the Church today

Lessons for the building of the Church can be illustrated vividly and plausibly by means of the way in which the Temple was constructed:

Evangelism in the quarry

The work in the quarry corresponds to the evangelistic work of proclaiming the word of God.23 In this way people are released from their connection to sin and the world. By instruction in the faith, some things can be “cut correctly” afterwards in light of the Holy Scriptures, so that the “stones” can be integrated into the Church in a way that honors God.

Integration of the stones

The route from the quarry to the Temple Mount is therefore very important.24 People should not simply come to faith. The converted must be integrated into the local Church. This is, perhaps, a sensitive phase of continuation which often demands great spiritual skill. Just as the Temple was built of stones of varying size, so the Church consists of quite different people according to God’s plan.25 The Church, according to God’s plan, is never an interest group for e.g. believing police officers, students or housewives, etc. No, in the Church it should be demonstrated that God’s power can unite an unmanageable variety of people in Christ, and that the “preprogrammed” difficulties arising from this can be overcome by subjection to the authority of the Bible and the guidance of the Holy Spirit and resolved in a God-honoring way. In this way, every single person should take their place and task in the Church, “fitly joined together,” as an individual within the collective.

By the redeemed standing together, the light of the Temple should be a testimony to the world: the One God and the One Sacrifice should be so effectively testified about for the salvation of as many people as possible from every nation, tribe and language.

The light of the Temple

We have seen that the Temple testifies of Jesus Christ, the Light of the world (Jn 8:12). Yet Jesus Christ himself taught his disciples: “You are the light of the world” (Mt 5:14, NIV).

Today, the Son of God is the glorified Man in heaven (Mk 16:19). From then on the redeemed have the task, as the Temple of God, to spread the divine light in a morally dark world. Through the Church the One true God and his Good News of the atonement through the Sacrifice of Golgotha should be proclaimed credibly.

We continue with Part II in the next issue, on “The Construction of the Temple as Man’s Responsibility.”

From The Messiah in the Temple: The Symbolism and Significance of the Second Temple in Light of the New Testament (497)




ENDNOTES

1 THIEDE: Funde, Fakten, Fährten, Suche, Spuren des frühen Christentums in Europa, pp. 2-5.

2 JOSEPHUS: War I.21.3.

3 Today the water no longer rises in the Banias Cave in the massif. During the course of millennia the spring has moved to the south (SHKOLNIK: Banias and Tel Dan, p. 10).

4 It is a fact that the gods of Rome were pure invention. These mythological persons never existed. We should keep clearly in mind, however, that behind these dead concepts and figures of the gods there lay hidden real powers of darkness—demons, fallen angels (cf. 1 Cor 10:20). The gods of Rome served as masks for Satan’s demonic host.

5 The Arabic word form “Banias” is derived from the Greek name for the god “Pan.” 

6 SHKOLNIK: Banias and Tel Dan, p. 10.

7 The river from Ezekiel’s Temple will rise out of the rock of the Holy of Holies (cf. Ezek 47). The history of Israel began with water from the rock (Ex 17:1ff.) and will end with water from the rock.

8 Gk auxanô. Here, surprisingly, we find a term in an architectural context which belongs to the field of biology. But we should not be surprised at all: shortly before, Paul spoke of the Church as the “body of Christ” (Eph 2:15-16). The various aspects of the Church (body of Christ, house of God, bride of Christ, etc.) belong so closely together that repeatedly in the treatment of one aspect nevertheless other aspects are mixed into the same context (cf. e.g. Eph 4:16; 5:25, 30).

9 Gk synarmologeomai; cf. the same word in Eph 4:16 and Col 2:19 where it does not deal with the house of God, but about the body of Christ.

10 After the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem in 638 the Temple Mount became an important sanctuary to the Muslims. This led to many wanting to live as close as possible to the rock in the Dome. So the west side was built over chaotically with many houses (cf. the model of the Temple in the Western Wall Tunnel, by which this overbuilding can be reproduced effectively). It was through this that large parts of the Temple Mount’s supporting walls were removed from sight until the Israeli Antiquities Authority brought them to light again through excavations under these houses (after 1967). 

11 BEN-DOV: In the Shadow of the Temple, p. 107.

12 JOSEPHUS: Ant. 15.11.3.

13 BEN-DOV/NAOR/ANER: Die Westmauer, pp. 218-220.

14 BEN-DOV: Herod’s Mighty Temple Mount, p. 45.

15 Ibid., p. 45.

16 RITMEYER: Quarrying Stones for Herod’s Temple Mount, p. 47.

17 Ibid., p. 48.

18 BEN-DOV: In the Shadow of the Temple, p. 92.

19 Ibid., p. 84 and 90-91.

20 Ibid., p. 87.

21 Ibid., p. 90.

22 BEN-DOV: Herod’s Mighty Temple Mount, p. 45. 

23 cf. also: 1 Kgs 5:15-18; 2 Chr 2:2; Ezra 3:7.

24 cf. 1 Kgs 5:17.

25 cf. Acts 6:1 (“Hebrews” and “Hellenists”); 8:4-25 (“Samaritans”); 1 Cor 12:13 (“Jews” and “Greeks,” “slaves” and “freemen,” “man” and “woman”); Col 3:11 (“Greek” and “Jew,” “Circumcision” and “foreskin,” “Barbarian,” “Scythian,” “slave,” “freeman”).