were demoniacal, in the presence of Vespasian, and his sons, and his captains, and the multitude of his soldiers: and the manner of the cure was this; he put a ring that had a root of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out the demon through his nostrils: and when the man fell down, he adjured him to return into him no more; making still mention of Solomon, and reciting the incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar would demonstrate to the spectators, that he had such a power, he set a little way off a cup or bason full of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out of the man, to overturn it: and thereby let the spectators know that he had left the man. And when this was done, the skill and wisdom of Solomon was shown very manifestly. For which reason it is that all men may know the vastness of Solomon's abilities, and how he was beloved of God, and that the extraordinary virtues of every kind with which this king was endowed may not be unknown to any people under the sun; for this reason, I say, it is that we have proceeded to speak so largely of these matters. Now Hiram, king of Tyre, when he heard that Solomon succeeded to his father's kingdom, was very glad, for he was a friend of David's. So he sent ambassadors to him, and congratulated him on the present happy state of affairs. Upon which Solomon sent him an epistle, the contents of which were as follows: SOLOMON TO KING HIRAM. "KNOW* thou that my father would have built a temple to God; but was hindered by wars and * These epistles of Solomon and Hiram are those in 1 Kings v. 3—9, and as enlarged in 2 Chron. ii. 2-16, but here given us by Josephus in his own words. They are also extant in Eusebius's Præparat. Evangel. IX. 33, but greatly disguised by Eupolemus, from whom Eusebius had those copies. Which Eupolemus, for a heathen, knew a considerable deal of Jewish affairs; though in a very imperfect manner. Nor are his other accounts of Jewish history to be compared with the more accurate ones in Josephus. continual expeditions; for he did not leave off to overthrow his enemies, till he made them all subject to tribute. But I give thanks to God for the peace I at present enjoy; and on that account I am at leisure, and design to build a house to God. For God foretold to my father that such a building should be erected by me. Wherefore I desire thee to send some of thy subjects with mine to mount Lebanon, to cut down timber; for the Sidonians are more skilful than our people in cutting of wood. As for wages to the hewers of wood, I will pay whatever price thou shalt determine." When Hiram had read this epistle, he was pleased with it; and wrote back this answer to Solomon: KING HIRAM TO KING SOLOMON. "Ir is fit to bless God, that he hath committed thy father's government to thee, who art a wise man, and endowed with all virtues. As for myself, I rejoice at the condition thou art in; and will be subservient to thee in all that thou sendest to me about. For when my subjects have cut down many and large trees of cedar, and cypress wood, I will send them to sea, and will order my subjects to make floats of them, and to sail to what place soever of thy country thou shalt desire, and leave them there. After which thy subjects may carry them to Jerusalem. But do thou take care to procure us corn for this timber; which we stand in need of, because we inhabit an island."† The copies of these epistles remain at this day, and are preserved not only in our books but among the Tyrians also; insomuch that if any one would know the certainty about them, he may desire of that most ancient smaller fort or city Tyre, situate on the continent, and mentioned Josh. xix. 29, out of which the Canaanite or Phoenician inhabitants were driven into a large island, that lay not far off in the sea, by Joshua; that this island was then joined to the continent at the present remains of Palætyrus, by a neck of land, over against Solomon's cisterns, still so called; and the city's fresh water probably was carried along in pipes by that neck of land, and that this island was therefore, in strictness, no other than a peninsula; having villages in its fields, Ezek. xxvi. 6, and a wall about it, Amos i. 10; and the city was not of so great reputation as Sidon for some ages; that it was attacked both by sea and land by Salmanassar, as Jose What Josephus here puts into his copy of Hiram's epistle to Solomon, and repeats afterwards, chap. v. that Tyre was now an island, is not in any of the three other copies, that in the Kings, that in the Chronicles, or that in Eusebius, out of Eupo-phus informs us out of Menander, IX. 14, and came to be the lemus. Nor is it any other, I suppose, than his own conjectural paraphrase. For when I, many years ago, inquired into this matter, I found the state of this famous city, and of the island whereupon it stood, to have been different at very different times; insomuch that the accurate Mr. Reland, who much laboured at it, was not able to clear the difficulties thereto re-phus, though now lost, X. 11; that seventy years after that delating. See his Palestina, tom. ii. page 1046-1056. The result of my inquiries into this matter is in my Essay on the Old Test. Append. page 226, 227, and, with the addition of some later improvements, stands thus:-that the best testimonies hereto relating, imply that Palatyrus, or oldest Tyre, was no other than metropolis of Phoenicia, and was afterwards taken and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, according to the numerous Scripture proph ecies thereto relating, Isa. xxiii. Jer. xxv. 22.-xxvii. 3.—xlvii. 4. Ezek. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii. and that there were remains of that destruction in heathen authors also, extant in the days of Josestruction by Nebuchadnezzar, this city was in some measure revived and rebuilt, Isa. xxiii. 17, 18, but that, as the prophet Ezekiel had foretold, Ezek. xxvi. 3, 4, 5, 14. xxvii. 34, the sea arose higher than before, till at last it overflowed, not only the neck of land, but the main island or peninsula itself, and de also of the strangers left by David, who were to carry the stones and other materials, seventy thousand; and of those that cut the stones, eighty thousand. Of these, three thousand and three hundred were rulers over the rest. He also enjoined them to cut out large stones for the foundations of the temple, and that they should fit and unite them together in the mountain, and so bring them to the city. This was done, not only by our own workmen, but by those whom Hiram sent also. the keepers of the public records of Tyre to show || Adoram* who was over this tribute. There were him them, and he will find what is there set down to agree with what we have said. I have said so much out of a desire that my readers may know, that we speak nothing but the truth; and do not compose a history out of some plausible relations, which deceive men and please them at the same time; nor attempt to avoid examination; nor desire men to believe us immediately. Nor are we at liberty to depart from speaking the truth, which is the proper commendation of an historian, and yet be blameless. But we insist upon no admission of what we say, unless we be able to maintain its truth by demonstration and the strongest vouchers. Now king Solomon, as soon as this epistle of the king of Tyre was brought him, commended the readiness and good-will he declared therein; and repaid him in what he desired, and sent him annually twenty thousand cori of wheat; and as many baths of oil. Now the bath is equal to seventy-two sextaries. He also sent him the same measure of wine. So the friendship between Hiram and Solomon hereby increased more and more; and they swore to continue it for ever. And the king appointed a tribute to be laid on all the people, of thirty thousand labourers; whose work he rendered easy by prudently dividing it amongst them. For he made ten thousand cut timber in mount Lebanon, for one month, and then come home, and rest two months, until the time when the other twenty thousand had finished their task at the appointed time. And so afterwards it came to pass, that the first ten thousand returned to their work every fourth month. And it was stroyed that old and famous city for ever; that however there It may be asked why Solomon did not begin the building of the temple sooner, and even in the first year of his reign, since his father had left him a plan, and all things necessary for the undertaking? Abarbinel's answer is,-That Solomon would not make use of what his father had prepared, but was resolved to build this temple all at his proper cost and charge. He therefore put into the treasure of the Lord's house all that David had CHAP. III. OF THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. SOLOMON began to build the temple in the fourth year of his reign,† on the second month, which the Macedonians call Artemisius, and the Hebrews, Jar, five hundred and ninety-two years after the Exodus out of Egypt; but one thousand and twenty-two years from Abraham's coming out of Mesopotamia, into Canaan, and after the deluge one thousand four hundred and forty years; and from Adam the first man who was created, until Solomon built the temple, there had passed in all Sthree thousand one hundred and two years. Now that year on which the temple began to be built, was already the twelfth year of the reign of Hiram; but from the building of Tyre, to the building of the temple, there had passed two hundred and forty years. Now, therefore, the king laid the foundation of the temple very deep in the ground, and the materials were strong stones, and such as would dedicated to the work; and, to gather together as much gold and Of the temple of Solomon, here described by Josephus, in this and the following parts of this chapter, see my description of the temples belonging to this work, chap. 13. In which yet, after all my pains, some difficulties still remain not fully ac counted for; especially as to the description and contents of the ten lavers. Of which, somewhat more presently, as also of a few other difficulties not there always taken notice of. ¶ The temple itself was indeed but a small edifice, but the many courts and offices that were about it made the whole a vast pile, and the exquisiteness of the art, and the fewness of the ~ artists that could be employed about it, made a longer time requisite. It must be owned, however, that, considering all resist the force of time; these were to unite themselves with the earth, and become a basis for a sure foundation for that edifice which was to be erected; they were to be so strong, in order to sustain with ease those vast superstructures, and precious ornaments, whose own weight was to be not less than the weight of those high and heavy buildings which the king designed to be very ornamental and magnificent. They erected its entire body quite up to the roof, of white stone. Its height was sixty cubits, its length was the same, and its breadth twenty. There was another building, erected over it, equal to it in its measures. So that the entire altitude of the temple was a hundred and twenty cubits. Its front was to the east. As to the porch, they built it before the temple. Its length was twenty cubits, and it was so ordered that it might agree with the breadth of the house; and it had twelve cubits in latitude, and its height was raised as high as a hundred and twenty cubits. He also built round about the temple thirty small rooms, which might include the whole temple, by their closeness to each other, and by their number, and outward position round it. He also made passages through them, that they might be come into one through another. Every one of these rooms* had five cubits in breadth, and the same in length, but in height twenty. Above these were other rooms, and others above them equal both in their measures and number; so that these reached to a height equal to the lower part of the house; for the upper part had no buildings about it. The roof that was over the house was of cedar: and each of these rooms had a roof of its own that was not connected with the other rooms: but for the other parts, there was a covered roof common to them all, and built with very long beams that things, Solomon made an extraordinary dispatch; for, if the building of Diana's temple at Ephesus employed all Asia for the space of two hundred years, and no less than three hundred and sixty thousand men, for twenty years together, were taken up in erecting one pyramid, (as Pliny, lib. 36. c. 12, affirms,) no reasonable man can wonder, that this temple was seven years and a half in building. Pool's Annotations, and Calmet's Commentary. B. *These small rooms, or side chambers about the lower sixty cubits of the holy house, seem to have been, by Josephus's description, in the three stories one above another, no less than twenty cubits high apiece. Otherwise there must have been a large interval between one and the other that was over it; and this with double floors, the one of six cubits distance from the floor beneath it, as 1 Kings vi. 5, in the Septuagint, and the other of no less than twenty cubits. † See 1 Kings vi. 7. These several parts of the temple the Greeks are very careful to distinguish by different names. What was properly the temple, they called o vaos; and the courts and other parts of the passed through the rest, and through the whole building; that so the middle walls being strengthened by the same beams of timber, might be thereby made firmer. But as for that part of the roof that was under the beams, it was made of the same materials, and was all made smooth, and had ornaments proper for roofs, and plates of gold nailed upon them. And as he inclosed the walls with boards of cedar, so he fixed on them plates of gold, which had sculptures upon them: so that the whole temple dazzled the eyes of such as entered, by the splendour of the gold that was on every side. Now the whole structure of the temple was made with great skill, of polished stones, and those laid together so very smoothly and harmoniously, that there appeared to the spectators no sign of any hammer, or other instrument of architecture ;† but as if, without any use of them, the entire materials had naturally united themselves together; that the agreement of one part with another seemed rather to have been natural, than to have arisen from the force of tools upon them. The king also had a fine contrivance for an ascent to the upper room over the temple; and that was by steps in the thickness of its wall. For it had no large door on the east end as the lower house had; but the entrances were by the sides, through very small doors. He also overlaid the temple both within and without with boards of cedar, that were kept close together by thick chains; so that this contrivance was in the nature of a support to the building. Now when the king had divided the temple into two parts, he made the inner house of twenty cubits every way, to be the most secret chamber; but he appointed that of fifty cubits to be the sanctuary. And when he had cut a door place out of the wall, he put therein doors of cedar, and temple, To 18pov. Thus when Zacharias is said to have gone into the temple to burn incense, Luke i. 9, (which was done in the sanctum,) the word is vaos; but when it is said, that Anna the prophetess departed not from the temple, Luke i. 37. (i. e. lived in that part of the court of the Israelites which was appropriated to religious women,) the Greek word is 'epov. And this observation holds good all through the New Testament. Lamy, De Tabern. lib. v. c. 5. B. § This temple itself, strictly so called, had two stories. The upper of which was raised quite above these little houses, and their roofs; for their roofs reached no higher than the top of the first story. The second story, which had no building adjoining to its side, made a large room over the sanctuary, and the holy of holies, of equal dimensions with them; and it is no improbable opinion, that this was the upper chamber, in which the Holy Ghost was pleased to descend upon the Apostles in a visible manner. This under room was appropriated to the pious laity as a place for them to come and pay their devotions in; and therefore it seems very likely, that the Apostles were here with other devout persons, while the temple was full of Jews of AN. 1050.] ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. overlaid them with a great deal of gold, that had sculptures upon it. He also had veils of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and the brightest and softest linen, with the most curious flowers wrought upon them, which were to be drawn before those doors. He dedicated for the most secret place, whose breadth was twenty cubits, and its length the same; two cherubims of solid gold;* the height of each of them was five cubits; they had each of them two wings stretched out as far as five cubits; wherefore Solomon set them up not far from each other; that with one wing they might touch the southern wall of the secret place, and with another the northern; their other wings, which joined to each other, were a covering to the ark; which was set between them. But nobody can tell, or even conjecture what was the shape of the cherubims. He also laid the floor of the temple with plates of gold. And he added doors to the gate of the temple agreeable to the measure of the height of the wall, but in breadth twenty cubits; and on them fixed gold plates. And, in a word, he left no part of the temple, neither internal nor external, but what was covered with gold. He also had curtains drawn over these doors; in like manner as they were drawn over the inner doors of the most holy place. But the porch of the temple had nothing of that sort. Now Solomon sent for an artificer out of Tyre, whose name was Hiram. He was by birth of the tribe of Naphthali, on the mother's side; but his father was Ur, of the stock of the Israelites. This man was skilful in all sorts of work; but his chief skill lay in working of gold and silver, and brass; by whom were made all the mechanical all nations, who were come to celebrate the feast of the Pentecost, and that thereupon they below, hearing the noise, which was occasioned by the shaking of the place, ran up to see the cause of it, and, to their great surprise, found the Apostles distinguished from the other Jews about them, both by the cloven tongues which sat upon each of them, and by the several different languages that they spake. Lamy's Introduction, lib. i. c. 4. B. *Josephus says here that the cherubims were of solid gold; and only of five cubits high; while our Hebrew copies, 1 Kings vi. 23, 28, say they were of the olive-tree, and the Septuagint of the cypress-tree; and only overlaid with gold; and both agree they were ten cubits high. I suppose the number is here falsely transcribed, and that Josephus wrote ten cubits also. † Josephus, in almost all his present copies, has Oupis instead of Tupis; i. e. Ur, instead of a Tyrian in our other copies: 1 Kings vii. 14. 2 Chron. ii. 15; which words in the Greek are so alike, that it is not improbable Josephus also wrote Tupis; and that he here agreed with the other copies. As for these two famous pillars, Jachin and Booz, their height could be no more than 18 cubits; as here and 1 Kings vii. 15. 2 Kings xxv. 17. Jer. lii. 21. Those 35 cubits in 2 Chron. iii. 15. being contrary to all rules of architecture. It is supposed that a circumference of 12 cubits, or a diameter of works about the temple, according to the will of Solomon. Moreover, this Hiram made two hollow pillars; whose outsides were of brass, and the thickness of the brass was four fingers' breadth; and the height of the pillars was eighteen cubits, and their circumference twelve cubits. But there was cast with each of their chapiters lily-work that stood upon the pillar, and it was elevated five cubits; round about which there was net-work interwoven with small palms, made of brass, and covered with lily-work. To this also were hung two hundred pomegranates, in two rows; the one of these pillars he set at the entrance of the porch on the right hand, and called it Jachin, and the other at the left hand, and called it Booz. Solomon also cast a brazen sea,§ whose figure was that of a hemisphere; this brazen vessel was called a sea for its largeness; for the laver was ten cubits in diameter, and cast of the thickness of a palm. Its middle part rested on a short pillar, that had ten spirals round it; and that pillar was a cubit in diameter. There stood round about it twelve oxen, that looked to the four winds of heaven; three to each wind; having their hinder parts depressed, that so the vessel might rest upon them; which itself was also depressed round about inwardly. Now this sea contained three thousand baths. He also made ten brazen bases, for so many quadrangular lavers; the length of every one of these bases was five cubits, the breadth four cubits, and the height six cubits. This vessel was partly turned, and was thus contrived. There were four small quadrangular pillars, that stood one at each corner; these had the sides of the base fitted to almost 4 cubits, is also not agreeable to the rules of architecture. But the contrary is shown from Vitruvius; and this proportion of 6 to 1, which is that of the pillars, including the chapiter, was the oldest and strongest of all proportions in architecture. See the description of the temples, chap. xiii. § It is not to be doubted, but that Solomon made all the utensils and ornaments of the temple proportionable, both in number and richness, to that of the edifice; and yet Josephus seems to have carried his account beyond all credibility, when he tells us, that there were 10,000 tables besides those of the showbread; 10,000 candlesticks besides those in the holy place; 80,000 cups for drink-offerings; 100,000 basons of gold, and double that number of silver: when he tells us that Solomon caused to be made 1000 ornaments for the sole use of the highpriest, 10,000 linen robes and girdles for that of the common priests, and 200,000 more for the Levites and musicians, when he tells of 200,000 trumpets made according to Solomon's direction, with 200,000 more, made in the fashion that Moses had appointed, and 400,000 musical instruments of a mixed metal, between gold and silver, called by the ancients electrum. ConUniversal History, lib. cerning all which we can only say, that the text is either silent, or contradicts this prodigious account. i. c. 7. B. Four cubits, Heb. and Septuagint. 1 Kings vii. 27. them on each quarter; and they were parted into three parts; every interval had a border fitted to support the laver; upon which was engraven, in one place a lion, and in another place a bull, and an eagle. The small pillars had the same animals engraven, that were on the sides. The whole work was elevated, and stood upon four cast wheels; which had also naves and felloes, and were a foot and a half in diameter. Any one that saw the spokes of the wheels, how exactly they were turned, and united to the sides of the bases, and with what harmony they agreed to the felloes, would wonder at them. However, their structure was this. Certain shoulders of hands stretched out held the corners above; upon which rested a short spiral pillar, that lay under the hollow part of the laver, resting upon the fore-feet of the eagle, and the lion; which were adapted to them: insomuch that those who viewed them would think that they were of one piece. Between these were engravings of palm-trees. This was the construction of the ten bases. He also made ten large round vessels, which were the lavers themselves; each of which contained *forty baths:† for it had its height four cubits, and its edges were as much distant from each other. He also placed these lavers upon the ten bases that were called Mechonoth; and he set five of the lavers on the left side of the temple, which was that side towards the north wind; and as many on the right side, towards the south, but looking towards the east. The same eastern way he also set the sea. Now he appointed the sea for washing the hands and the feet of the priests, when they entered into the temple, and were to ascend the altar; but the lavers to cleanse the feet and entrails of the beasts that were to be burntofferings. He also made a brazen altar, whose length was twenty cubits, its breadth the same, and its height ten, for the burnt-offerings. He also made all its vessels of brass; the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and besides these, the snuffers, and the tongs; and all its other vessels he made of *The round or cylindrical lavers of 4 cubits in diameter, and 4 in height, both in our copies, 1 Kings vii. 38, 39, and here in Josephus, must have contained a great deal more than the 40 baths, which are always assigned them. Where the error lies is hard to say. If for you, congii, or baths, we take homers, which were but a tenth part of the bath: or if, in Josephus, we take their diameters only one-third of their height, by reading instead οι τόποις, το τρίτον τοσέτων, the measures would pretty well agree. But both these conjectures are uncertain, and unsupported. Perhaps Josephus honestly followed his copies here; though they had been corrupted, and he was not able to restore the true reading. In the mean time these 40 baths are probably the quantity contained in each laver: since they went upon wheels, and were to be drawn by the Levites about the court of the priests, for the washings they were designed for, and had they || such brass as was in splendour and beauty like gold. The king also dedicated a §great number of tables; but one was large and made of gold; upon which they set the loaves of God, and he made ten thousand more that resembled them, but were done after another manner; upon which lay the vials, and the cups; those of gold were twenty thousand, those of silver were forty thousand. He also made ten thousand candlesticks, according to the command of Moses; one of which he dedicated for the temple, that it might burn in the day-time, according to the law, and one table with loaves upon it, on the north side of the temple, over against the candlestick: for this he set on the south side; but the golden altar stood between them. All these vessels were contained in that part of the holy house which was forty cubits long; and were before the veil of that most secret place, wherein the ark was to be set. The king also made eighty thousand pouring vessels, and a hundred thousand golden vials, and twice as many silver vials. Of golden dishes, to offer kneaded fine flour at the altar, there were eighty thousand, and twice as many silver. Of large basons also, wherein they mixed fine flour with oil, sixty thousand of gold, and twice as many of silver. Of the measures like those which Moses called the hin, and the assaron,|| there were twenty thousand of gold, and twice as many of silver. The other censers, in which they carried fire from the great altar, to the little one within the temple, were fifty thousand. The sacerdotal garments, which belonged to the high-priest, with the long robes, the oracle, and the precious stones, were a thousand. But the crown, upon which Moses wrote the name of God, was only one; and hath remained to this day. He also made ten thousand sacerdotal garments of fine linen, with purple girdles, for every priest: and two hundred thousand trumpets, according to the command of Moses. Also two hundred thousand garments of fine linen for the singers, that were Levites. And he made musical instruments, and such as were invented held much more they would have been too heavy to have been so drawn. † Cori, or Congii. Here Josephus gives us a key to his own language, of right and left hand in the tabernacle and temple: that by the right hand he means what is against our left, when we suppose ourselves going up from the east gate of the courts, towards the tabernacle or temple themselves: and so vice versa. Whence it follows that the pillar Jachin, on the right hand of the temple, was on the south, against our left hand, and Booz on the north against our right hand. § Of these prodigious and extravagant numbers, see the description of the temple, chap. 13. || A tenth deal. Of the golden plate on the high-priest's forehead that was in being in the days of Josephus, and a century or two at least later, see the note on III. 7. |