The Temple of Solomon

Preface.

The Chel Chel: A Hebrew term for the fortified rampart or space between the outer "Soreg" barrier and the inner Temple walls, or the intermural space which lies between the partition wall and the wall of the Temple, is placed by Lundius Johann Lund (1638–1686), a German Lutheran pastor and author of a famous work on Jewish antiquities sixteen cubits deep down upon the Temple Mount. However, the Jewish tractate On the Measurements of the Temple original: de Mensuris Templi, referring to the Mishnah tractate Middot Chapter 1, § 9 states, on the contrary, that any priest who wished to leave the Temple from the subterranean portico original: crypto-porticu which was beneath the inner court, would have passed under the intermural space toward the gate called Teri likely the Tadi Gate. "He exits through the portico which passes beneath the intermural space and proceeds through the Gate of Teri" original: Per porticum, quæ sub intermurali permeat, egressus, pervadit Portam Teri. Visual evidence also shows that the intermural space must have been elevated and close to the inner court; for the Israelites who wished to offer sacrifices waited for one another in the intermural space, so that as soon as the first group was finished with their sacrifice, others were immediately present to succeed them. This could not have happened so quickly if the intermural space were sixteen cubits deep and every Israelite first had to climb thirty-two steps with their sacrificial animal.

Similarly, in Lundius's work, the Table of Showbread original: Schaubrodt-Tische is shown with a golden crown around the top. Here too, in the figure of the Table of Showbread—which has been represented somewhat larger in our model—we have had to depart from Lundius. Although there was a golden crown around the surface of the Table of Showbread pointing downwards, it could not have been around the top edge, because the two bottom-most loaves of showbread lay upon the table itself and, due to their length, projected beyond the table.

Lundius had the Cherubim fashioned according to the illustration of Rabbi Leon Jacob Judah Leon Templo (1602–1675), a Jewish scholar famous for his model of Solomon's Temple in such a way that the two lowest wings are positioned at their loins. However, the Prophet of the Lord, Ezekiel, describes them such that the four wings stood side by side, and their hands were covered by these wings. Ezekiel 1:8: "They had human hands under their wings." Verse 9: "And those wings were joined one to another." original: Ezech. I, 8. ... vers. 9. For this reason, we preferred to follow Holy Scripture in this matter and fashion the Cherubim as they are described therein.

In his copperplate engraving, Lundius places the frontal plate Frontale: The Tzitz, a golden plate inscribed with "Holiness to the Lord" worn by the High Priest not so much on the forehead as above the head of the High Priest; however, it undoubtedly sat lower. Even Maimonides A preeminent medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar asserts that the hair of the High Priest's head still emerged above it; therefore, in our model, it has been placed lower on the High Priest.

Regarding the pinnacle of the Temple where Satan tempted Christ, Lundius is of the opinion that this refers to the outermost wall of the Temple, because a truly extraordinary depth existed there from which Christ was to cast himself down, as a valley lay beside it which was some four hundred cubits deep. But because