Temple

The following articles related to the Temple are also available.

Temple ♦ (Main Article)
The Temple in Jerusalem
Temple Mount
Royal Stoa
Hulda Gates

The temple—a specific location and structure, within whose space a deity is to be properly worshipped and whose precinct is considered holy—has been a central feature of most world religion. Even Islam has its Ka'aba—which is prohibited to non-Muslims even to visit—has its equivalent.

Many Christian theologians consider the temple to be a central idea within the Bible (see, e.g., Desmond Alexander and Simon Gathercole in below). This, however, is at some odds with the evidence of Scriptures. Of the some three and a half millennium of Judaism's history (beginning with Israel conquest of the land of Canaan to the present), the temple has existed for only a third of that time. Built for the first time by Solomon, the temple was absent for (depending on one's dating of the exodus and conquest) five to three centuries at the beginning of her nationhood. The prophets thought it dispensable and repeatedly prophesied its destruction, which, of course, happened in 586/7 BC under the Babylonian onslaught. It was rebuilt; completed in 515 BC, refurbished and its precinct expanded by Herod the Great in 1st Cent BC, but by 70 AD it was already in ruins.

There are two Hebrew words translated 'temple' in the OT. The first is beth, the word for 'house,' in construct with the the name of the deity to which the temple was dedicated. With the exception of three references in the books of Samuel, all the references to temples in the earlier parts of the OT use this word for temple, and the referents are usually pagan temples. The other Hebrew word for temple is hekal, which occurs about 80x; about 10% of the time the word efers to the palace of some kings or nations. References to the 'temple' in Israel, therefore, did not become frequent until the temple was built by Solomon. The temple in ancient Israel seems, therefore, first un-necessary (the covenant of Sinai knows only of the tabernacle) and then dispensable once David had suggested it and Solomon built it. All this suggests that the question of the place of the temple in bibical theology is still open very much to re-examination.

Further Reading:

T. Desmond Alexander and Simon Gathercole, eds., Heaven on Earth. The Temple in Biblical Theology. Carlisle: Paternoster, 2004.

G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church's Mission. A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God. Studies in Biblical Theology Series; Grand Rapids: IVP, 2004.

G. K. Beale & Mitchell Kim, God Dwells Among Us: Expanding Eden to the Ends of the Earth. Grand Rapids: IVP, 2014.

G. Gorenberg, The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Resources:

G. K. Beale, "The Descent of the Eschatological Temple in the Form of the Spirit at Pentecost: Part 1: The Clearest Evidence," Tyndale Bulletin 56.1 (2005): 73-102.

G. K. Beale, "The Descent of the Eschatological Temple in the Form of the Spirit at Pentecost: Part 2: Corroborating Evidence," Tyndale Bulletin 56.2 (2005): 63-90.

Charles M. Cameron, "The Building and Dedication of the Temple (1 Kings 5-8)," Evangel 11:3 (1993): 66-68.

Philip Church, "The Temple in the Apocalypse of Weeks and in Hebrews" - TynBul 64 (2013) 109-129.

Christopher Davey, "Temples of the Levant and the Buildings of Solomon" - TynBul 31 (1980) 107-146.

Stephen Dempster, "An 'Extraordinary Fact': Torah and Temple and the Contours of the Hebrew Canon, Part 1" - TynBul 48.1 (1997) 23-56.

Stephen Dempster, "An 'Extraordinary Fact': Torah and Temple and the Contours of the Hebrew Canon, Part 2" - TynBul 48.2 (1997) 191-218.

Daniel M. Gurtner, "The Rending of the Veil (Matt. 27:51a par): A Look Back and a Way Forward," Themelios 29.3 (Summer 2004): 4-14.

I. Howard Marshall, "Church and Temple in the New Testament" - TynBul 40.2 (1989) 203-222.