Unfortunately we have no foreign account of the Temple and the Book of Kings which gives a minute deion was written several centuries later.By that time it was commonly believed and said that the Temple had cost 108,000talents of gold and 1,017,000talents of silver,or 2,450million of our modern dollars.But this was about fifty times the total gold-supply of the whole ancient world,and the amount is probably somewhat exaggerated.As hardly a single stone remains of the original building,and as the site of the temple now lies buried underneath one hundred and twenty feet of accumulated rubbish,it will be difficult to form a correct modern estimate.
We know,however,that the old hill of Moriah (originally occupied by the farm of Araunah the Jebusite)was gradually covered with a complex system of buildings the fame of which has come down to us through the centuries.They were begun in the four hundred and eightieth year after the flight from Egypt (the first positive date in the Old Testament)and they were finished in the four hundred and eighty-seventh year.
All the preparatory work of cutting the stones and hewing the wood into the proper shape was done far away from the hill of Moriah so that the actual work of construction should be done with a minimum amount of noise.
The Jews,who even then rarely lived in stone houses,did not like bare walls.Solomon therefore covered all the floors and the walls and the ceilings of the holy edifice with boards of cypress and of cedar and these again he overlaid with a thin layer of gold.
The heart of the temple,the Holy of Holies,was a square little room,thirty feet long and wide and thirty feet high.
Inside there stood the carved figures of two large angels.Underneath their outspread wings rested the Ark,the plain wooden box which had now followed the Jews on their peregrinations for almost six centuries.It contained the two pieces of stone upon which Jehovah had engraved his Holy Laws,when he appeared to Moses amidst the clouds of Mount Sinai.
Inside of the small room there reigned eternal silence.Only once each year the High Priest was allowed to enter into the presence of the Divine Spirit.That was on the Day of Atonement.
Upon that occasion the High Priest laid aside his official garments and dressed himself in pure white linen.
In his hand he held a censer containing some coals for the altar.
In the other he carried a golden bowl with the blood of a sacrificed bullock.This he sprinkled upon the floor as a sign of atonement.
Then he retired.The golden doors,decorated with the pictures of flowers and palm trees,were closed and once more the silent figures stood guard over the Ark which rested underneath their outspread wings.
The Sanctuary,however,which was separated from the Holy of Holies by a partition of cedar boards,was the real,busy part of the Temple.There stood the Altar of Incense and the law required that all those who wished to make an offering should pour the blood of one sacrificial animal before this famous shrine.
From morning till late in the evening,the room was filled with the noise of both men and beasts.
The Jewish law of sacrifice was intricate and complicated.The priests,who made a great deal of money out of these offerings,were forever making changes in the regulations which had originally been laid down by Moses.There was a special form of sacrifice for every sort of sin and crime.
Very poor people were allowed make an offering of unleavened bread or of roasted grain.
But those who could afford to do so were supposed to buy a bullock or a sheep or a goat,and bring these to the temple that they might be surrendered to the priest for further treatment.
For the sake of convenience,such animals were held for sale near the temple entrance and all day long the air was filled with the loud noise of bleating sheep and mooing cows.In the beginning,the person who brought the offering was supposed to kill his own victim.Gradually,however,this work was taken over by the priests and the offering lost much of its personal character.
