The Cities That Built the Bible by Dr. Robert Cargill

Author:Dr. Robert Cargill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-02-03T05:00:00+00:00

THE TEMPLE

The ark would ultimately be housed within and replaced by the Temple in Jerusalem. The tale of the building of the Temple was discussed in Chapter 1. There is some debate about whether a temple already existed in Jerusalem prior to David’s arrival. Given the references to the Jebusite city and given that most cities had functioning temples, this is highly likely. So we must ask whether David, following his conquest of Jerusalem, took control of an established temple and Solomon perhaps refurbished and rededicated it,12 or whether Solomon did in fact construct the “house of the LORD” in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6).

Either way, we know that the floor plan of the Temple described in 1 Kings 6–7 closely resembles the floor plans of other regional temples, such as the tenth-century BCE temple in ‘Ain Dāra in the northwest corner of modern Syria, the nearby ninth-century BCE temple in Tel Ta‘yinat in southernmost modern Turkey, and the mid-seventh-century BCE “House of YHWH” at Tel ‘Arad south of Jerusalem in southern Judah. This suggests that regardless of who built the Temple, it was built according to plans that characterized many of the temples of Iron Age Cana‘an.

And once the ark of the covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies inside the Jerusalem Temple (cf. 1 Kings 8:21), all of the power that was once attributed to the portable ark of the covenant while the Hebrews were nomads in the desert was transferred to the stationary Temple, now that Israel was a people with a land. From this point on, the ark of the covenant is rarely mentioned in the Bible. In fact, Jeremiah 3:16–17 states:

They shall no longer say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; nor shall another one be made. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no longer stubbornly follow their own evil will.

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