The Temple of Solomon

Preface.

...[foundations], in Witsius’s Sacred Miscellany on the Mysteries of the Levites' Tabernacle original: Witsii Analectis Sacris de Tabernaculi Levitici Mysteriis, in Spanheim’s Geographical Description of Jerusalem and the Temple original: Spanheimii Descriptione Geographica Hierosolymæ & Templi, and scattered among other authors original: Autoribus, much has been found that is useful for this purpose; likewise, Dassovius, in his Dissertation on Images of Hebrew Matters original: Dissertatione de imaginibus rerum Hebraicarum, has discovered many errors that others have not noticed original: observiret until now.

XXIV. In particular, Josephus—in his Jewish Antiquities original: Antiquitatibus Judaicis and The Jewish War original: de bello Judaico—provides some very good, though not complete or sufficient, information about the Temple. The Talmudists, however, in the tractate On the Measurements of the Temple original: de mensuris templi, likely referring to the Middot, who were closest in time to when the Temple still stood, provide such an account original: recension of the buildings that it is highly credible and very useful for such an undertaking original: proposito. L'Empereur, who translated original: vertiret this part of the Jewish Talmud, On the Measurements of the Temple, into Latin, added such observations original: animadversiones that give the work great clarity original: Illustration and make the work easy for anyone wishing to design a model of the Temple.

XXV. Next to these, Rabbi Moses Maimonides' treatise On the Chosen House original: de domo electa, translated by Ludovicus de Compiegne de Veil, well deserved to be consulted. Likewise, Rabbi Jacob Judah Leon’s Four Books on the Jerusalem Temple original: Libr. IV. de templo Hierosolymitano provided very good information in many parts; for this learned Rabbi, skilled in many languages, also had a model of the Temple in Holland, two cubits wide and three cubits long, which he worked out over several years with great diligence and significant expense. If any author has written thoroughly about the Temple regarding its essential parts original: partes integrantes, it is he, because he includes all the smallest and largest details original: minima und maxima. Lightfoot, in his Description of the Temple, is very fundamental original: fundamental, and his floor plan has been followed in many respects, yet it was not enough to present original: sistiren a complete model.

XXVI. Lundius, however, in his Jewish Sanctuaries original: Jüdischen Heiligthümern, seems to have labored specifically for the sake of our project to determine original: determiniren every cubit and half-cubit, so that in the construction of this small Temple model, one could proceed with greater certainty everywhere, and lay out all the walls and areas more successfully. He carries the measuring rod and the plumb line in his hand; we follow in his every footstep, and he, above all others, has been our director of construction original: Bau-Director.

XXVII. If we depart from him in a very few instances, he himself—had he been able to know it—would not have disapproved, because visual evidence brings the reason for it into the light of day. For since Lundius the original: το, Greek for "the"

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