As Companions of the Holy Royal Arch, we perpetuate a part of the legends behind the erection of Solomon's Temple to the Most High, which he built in Jerusalem approximately 1005 BC. The whole of our Craft as Freemasons use this large symbol of Faith and Devotion as a framework on which to graft our lessons in morality and natural justice. But, most of us do not really know very much about the Temple, nor about the several Temples which followed the original on a site which is still regarded as sacred by three of the largest religious groups in the world. So, what is this Temple we commemorate?
Ancient texts tell us that the First Temple was constructed on the threshing floor of a farm owned by Araunah the Jebusite. It must have been close to the outskirts of the City of Jerusalem at the time. 2Samuel XXIV 18-25 tells us that King David erected an altar to the Most High on this spot, and offered burnt sacrifice and peace offerings around 1017 BC. 1Chronicles XXI 18 - 30 confirm the details of the transaction, changing the farmer's name to Ornan, and changing the price paid by King David from fifty shekels to six hundred shekels, but the rest of the tale is essentially identical. (Bro. General Sir Charles Warren, founding Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge #2076, the famous English Lodge of Research, identified the "threshing floor" as being the Holy Place now known as "The Dome of the Rock".)
The Temple sat astride the boundary dividing the lands of the Tribe of Judah from the territories of the Tribe of Benjamin, thus linking the northern and the southern tribes. The famous brazen pillars with which we are familiar did not perform a structural duty in this Temple. They did not support the roof, but only framed the portico or entrance, being placed there as memorials and monuments. This Temple was destroyed by Nebuzaradan, Captain of the Guard to the great Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 588 BC, when he captured the City of Jerusalem and the country of Judah. Nebuzaradan was quite thorough in his work, as the First Temple was thrown down, stone from stone (as was the entire City of Jerusalem) to make it impossible for the remaining Jews to use the City as a rallying point for further acts of rebellion against the Babylonian king and empire.
A relatively short fifty years later, Cyrus, son of Cambyses, King of Persia, had overthrown the Babylonian Empire and become Ruler of the Empire. Two years after his conquest of the Babylonians, he freed the Israelites from their slavery to Babylon, and allowed them to return to their ancestral lands, and not only gave them back the land, but he also contributed heavily to the costs of rebuilding the Temple. (Cyrus held the very enlightened belief (for the time) that it was not a bad thing to be nice to the Gods of other peoples, because you never knew when you might need a hand from somewhere!) This was the Temple of Zerubbabel, who we commemorate in our ritual as Excellent King. Construction of this Temple was no short-term work project. It took from 536 BC till 515 BC, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius, to complete, but with even the best workers and with the rich support of the King of the Persians, the Second Temple was but a pale shadow of the First, so far as the Israelites were concerned. The brazen pillars we know so well had been broken up and melted down in 588, and the precious vessels and furnishings of the First Temple had been taken to Babylon. The Ark of the Covenant was missing. It had been "stolen" according to some sources, and "hidden" according to others, before the Babylonian Captivity. Not only was this symbol of the Israelites' close relationship with their God missing, so were the artifacts which had formerly contained the Sacred Fire (from which the flames for burnt offerings were taken), and the Shekinah or Presence of God, the Spirit of Prophecy and the Urim and Thummim. These objects were at the centre of the worship of the Israelites, from the time of their travels in the deserts of Arabia, and their absence from the new Temple led to changes in their whole way of living their Faith.
In 20 BC, Herod, King of the Jews under the oversight of Rome and Julius Caesar decided that the Temple in his capital city was too old and worn, and proceeded to build the Third Temple, on the same site as the first two Temples. His builders pulled down and destroyed the whole of Zerubbabel's Second Temple, with the exception of the platform used on Holy Days to show the sacrifices and burnt offerings to the people. Herod had a purely secular motive in building the new Temple. He and his family were foreigners in Israel. They were Jews, but of another country, Idumea, and had been brought in by the Romans, who had promised the Jews a King of their own blood.
This Third Temple did not last nearly as long as its predecessors. In 70 AD, the Emperor Titus captured Jerusalem, ending the rebellion of the Maccabees, and the City and Temple were destroyed by fire. The Emperor Titus carried the holy vessels from the Temple to Rome as spoils of war. They were lost at that time, and have not been seen since. Today, only one wall of the Temple remains, that being the area known as "The Wailing Wall", where today's Israelis and pilgrims of all three "Faiths of the Book" can still visit the Holy Ground where Solomon built the Temple to the Most High that his father, King David, was not permitted to build. It has never been rebuilt, and Jewish tradition foretells that the building of the Fourth Temple will usher in the "End of Days", so frankly, I'm not real anxious for that building project to start.
This single building, so often destroyed, so often renewed, is held as a symbol of the world, and thus a symbol for the guidance of Man, that the spiritual Temple we are encouraged to build within ourselves be constantly improved and enlarged, to the betterment of all.
Delivered by:
R.Ex.Comp. J. Douglas Welsh, PHP
Grand Historian
to George S. Wright Chapter #27
Bedford, NS on Dec 4, 2001
Copyright©2001 J. Douglas Welsh. All rights reserved
Note: Anyone wishing to use this lecture has the permission of R.Ex.Comp. J. Douglas Welsh to use it but credit must be given to The Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Nova Scotia for it's use.