p. 4 | J. O. CORLISS by J. O. CORLISS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 21, 1910

J. O. CORLISS

By J. O. CORLISS

The History of the Hebrew Sanctuary—No. 13

J. O. CORLISS

Its Beautification by Herod

In the century preceding the birth of Christ, Palestine suffered the hardships of almost continuous war. In the midst of these troubles, the Asmonean dynasty was overthrown, and the temple built by Zerubbabel and his associates suffered much damage. Out of the ruin of the old government arose the crafty Idumean, Antipater, who soon became the most powerful man in Judea. His son Herod, surnamed the Great, was appointed governor of Galilee by his father, in the year 47 B. C., being then twenty-five years of age. His course, while in this position, was marked by brutality, and was trailed in blood.

In the year 43 B. C. Antipater died, leaving the throne of Judea vacant. Herod endeavored to spring into his father’s place, but was then prevented by the jealousies of his own family. His ambition, however, once aroused, he entered upon a most obstinate and sanguine campaign, which landed him in the coveted position in the year 37 B. C., by his capture of Jerusalem. Herod thus became “king of the Jews,” a title to which he held fast with jealous tenacity, as is evinced by his conduct toward Christ when informed that the Messiah was about to appear with that same title, as his birthright. Matt. 2:2.

One of Herod’s first acts on the throne of Judea was to appoint Aristobulus, the brother of his Maccabean wife, to the high priesthood of the temple service, in the place of Hananel, whom he found in that office upon his accession to the Judean throne. Aristobulus, but seventeen years of age upon assuming office, was so noble, and his features so revealed the image of his regal grandfather, whom the people loved and lamented, that popular enthusiasm for him at once became so outspoken as to give evidence of an attempt to restore him to the throne of his ancestor. As soon as the festivities of the occasion ended, Herod invited him to a palace near Jericho, and there brought about his murder.

After this, one and another of the family were sacrificed to the king’s inordinate frenzy. Other murders followed, until Herod was induced by intrigue to put to death his beautiful wife Mariamme. History records that this human monster also put to death the entire Sanhedrin except two members. His remorse at last began to goad him so that it is said he consulted a famous rabbi, who had in some way escaped the general massacre, as to how he might still his inward avenger. The rabbi answered: “As thou hast extinguished the light of the world,—the interpreters of the law,—work for the light of the world by restoring the splendor of the temple.”

So the new temple was to be a monument of Herod’s repentance. True, the closing chapters of Ezekiel’s prophecy seem to predict the building of this greater temple, as do some of the minor prophets. But these did not reveal the process by which the work was to be done. The circumstances attending the work are of secondary consideration, so far as the prophecy is concerned. The facts of the building are those with which we have to do in this paper. These must be taken largely from Josephus, Derenbourg, and others.

By such authors we are informed that the rebuilding of the temple under Herod began in the year 17 B. C., and continued for ten years, leaving it then in an unfinished state. It was left for Herod Agrippa, many years afterward, to complete the building. This may seem in conflict with the statement of the Jews, in John 2:20: “Forty and six years was this temple in building.” Some have regarded this specification as covering the time the temple had stood since the inception of its rebuilding; namely, from B. C. 17 to A. D. 29, about the time the words were spoken. But Surenhusius, in the Mishnah, that great document of Jewish traditions, thought that the forty-six years related to the time of the building of Zerubbabel’s temple, from B. C. 536 to 459, counting out the intermissions: this was on the theory that Herod’s temple was not to be recognized.

Be this as it may, the work was attempted in a way not to interrupt the regular services carried on in the old building. A thousand priests were employed as masons and carpenters. These were dressed, not as ordinary workmen, but as priests in sacerdotal garments, that the work done might be considered hallowed work. This was done on the ground that the sacred prestige of the former temple ought not to be disturbed. The precaution thus observed gave rise to the Talmudic tradition that Providence specially intervened, so that no rain fell, except in the night, during the entire time of the building of the temple.

The sacred interior parts of the structure were completed in a year and a half. Eight more years were consumed on outward parts, to prepare the building for its dedication, which was celebrated by Herod with all the display of that age. Three hundred oxen were sacrificed by the king himself, and others offered up many more. The time chosen was the anniversary of Herod’s inauguration, instead of the period of an annual feast, as was the case of the first temple.

The temple itself was surrounded by three courts. The first, or outer one, enclosed all else connected with the structure. This was entered from the east through a cloister, or covered arcade, known as “the cloister of Solomon.” On the face of this, and also of the other porches, were fastened the shields, swords, and other trappings of conquered tribes. Inscriptions were conspicuously placed, forbidding the approach of Gentiles. The court itself was paved with variegated material as with mosaics. Its walls were of the whitest marble.

Within this court rose a high wall with turrets and battlements. This was pierced by nine gateways, surmounted with high towers. The principal entrance through this to the inner court was from the east by the gate Beautiful, sometimes called Nicanor’s gate. This gate was of beautiful bronze, but the others were covered with sheets of gold or silver. Just inside the gate Beautiful, was a slightly elevated station for “the women.” By the side of this were thirteen receptacles for money offerings. Above the women’s platform, reached by a flight of fifteen steps, was the “court of the priests.” At one side of this a standing-place was separated off by a rail, behind which people might view the sacrifices that were offered upon an altar set in the center of the enclosure.

Beyond the altar was the temple proper, with its holy vessels. In the dark recesses of the most holy place, however, there was, according to the Mishnah, nothing but a stone on which the high priest rested his censer. This temple was indeed a striking contrast to the simple tented sanctuary of the wilderness, as fashioned by the direction of Jehovah. It doubtless was very beautiful, as architecture was then considered, with its outer court standing on its pretty terraces, its inner court walls capped by embattled towers and gateways, and the snow-white sides of the temple itself rising above the whole, in bold contrast to the deep, dark chasm of the valley which lay below.

But one prominent feature was permitted to mar the entire effect of the temple’s attractions. By the side of the main entrance sat cattle sellers, and money-changers, the din of whose voices must have annoyed greatly the more devout

worshipers. It was this desecration of God’s house that the Lord Jesus frowned upon when he entered the place with his scourge of small cords. John 2:14. On the other hand, the Master saw and smiled upon one thing which he beheld in the sacred court. A poor widow, in her consecration, timidly advanced to the treasury box, and cast into it all her living. This act of genuine self-denial called forth his words of commendation and praise: “Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: for all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.”

But with all its splendor, its complex rites and ceremonies, this Idumean-Hebrew temple was destined to give way to another “temple,” which, when “destroyed,” was to be raised up in three days. John 2:19. Its prodigious towers and its piles of marble were to be thrown down so that not one stone would be left upon another. Matt. 24:2. Its earthly priesthood (sometimes of the lowest people) was to merge into a heavenly, even a royal priesthood. Its sordid rabbis, or “great ones,”—the people’s “masters,”—were to be lost in the self-renouncing Son of man, who gives his life for the world. Its Beth-Din, or judicial body wearing the title of Sanhedrin, was to give way before him to whom judgment rightly belongs.

The superstition, infidelity, casuistry, ambition, and misery of that time were to find a remedy, not in some worldly conqueror or philosopher, not in some austere hermit, but in a humble, innocent “Man of sorrows,” who, knowing what was in man, could be gracious to the sincere, but stern to the hypocrite. He was to be One whose transcendent goodness in everything, and at all times, would reveal the true image of the divine nature,—the way, the truth, and the life of God. In him the ancient factions of Pharisee and Sadducee, the irrational frenzy of the Zealots, the strange freaks of the Essenes, the wicked formalities of priest and scribe,—all of these were leveled under the influence of the God-Man, to whom the priesthood and sacrificial services of the Hebrew sanctuary were designed to direct attention. By his uplift to Calvary’s cross, as the sacrifice of divine provision, the attention of all the world is now drawn to him, and he is become the all in all to every devoutly hopeful soul in the provident care of Jehovah.

Mountain View, Cal.