2 Sam 7 depicts David recieving direction to built YHWH a house. In verse 7 YHWH says he has long wanted a house of cedars to dwell in but has not yet gotten one. Cedars are relevant as they were sacred trees associated with Ashera and Baal Hadad. To adorn this temple David contributed over 180,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talent of siver.
In the Poem of Baal fragment e we find Baal expressing desire to have a house like the other gods, "He cries to Ashera and her children To Elath and the band of her kindred: Look no house has Baal like the gods, Nor court like the children of Ashera."
Baal has thus far been worshipped among the trees and open fields. He has also had to seek shelter in EL's (pop's) house.
A collection is taken for the project once El approves. "He'd melt silver silver by the thousands of shekels, Gold by the myriads...a gorgeous dais weighing twice ten thousand shekels, a gorgeous dais cast in silver, coated with a film of gold."
Also the wood chosen was of course sacred cedar of Lebannon. "As for Baal his house is built, as for Hadd(hadad) his palace is raised. They..from Lebanon and it's trees, From Sirion on it's precious cedars."
House of gold
by peacefulpete 7 Replies latest watchtower bible
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peacefulpete
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peacefulpete
The floor plan of holy and most holy given in the OT matches that of dozens of examples in Canaan. The palm and cherubim motifs likewise mirror that in Cananite worship. The entrance was also facing east just as it's counterparts, this leads me to wonder if the Temple stories are merely echos of Baal worship. Just as the temple to Baal was mythological so likewise the one suposedly built by Solomon. The is no archaeological evidence of a temple from that period on mount Zion.
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RunningMan
Do you actually realize how much gold and silver was supposed to be in that house? If you translate the number of talents of gold and silver and then add in the total amount of iron, bronze, and timbers, here is what you get:
? 6,260 cubic feet of gold
? 120,146 cubic feet of silver
? 338,000 cubic feet of iron (minimum estimate)
? 321,000 cubic feet of bronze (minimum estimate)
? 600,000 cubic feet of Lebanese Cedar arrived every year
? untold quantities of stone, brick, and local timbers
? 24,000 staff (not necessarily simultaneous)
? Assorted fixtures, the Ark of the Covenant, etc.
All of this was inside a building with a total volume of only 111,650 cubic feet.
The Bible writers really liked to exagerate.
For an inciteful look at the numbers of the Bible, you might want to read the article by that renowned Bible scholar, me: http://www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/2001/4/014num.html
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Narkissos
Very interesting parallel.
Actually there were probably several temples/sanctuaries in Jerusalem (including on the Mount of Olives as the tradition on "apostate Solomon" suggests), just as in many places in the region (with the same general floor plan as you remarked, which is basically the same even in Syria). Only with Hezekiah's and Josiah's "reforms" did the Jerusalem Yhwh temple associated with the dynasty gain prominence, and eventually exclusivity -- with the side consequences that other sanctuaries were forsaken or destroyed, and their priests recycled as "levites"...
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Leolaia
The most obvious text in connection with all this is Psalm 29, which is as blatantly Baalist as it gets in the OT, and which pretty much has it all -- ceders, the "sacred court," the "palace" enthroned over the Flood (sounds a lot like Baal whose kingship succeeds that of Prince Yam), meterological Baalist language, bull and calf metaphors, Phoenician setting, primitive Canaanite poetic parallelism, etc.
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peacefulpete
I knew it wouldn't be anything new to some here but I just ran across it and thought someoine might benefit. Yhwh eventually assimilated El and Baal as well as a few Ashera godesss elements. The riding on the clouds and storm theophany, the residing on mount Saphon in the "north", the defeating Timiat/lotan/leviathan/rahab, combat with Mot etc. Ps 29 like you said Leolaia was in all likelyhood a poem to Baal Hadad with only the name changed. Other Psalms have similarly been suspected.
Specifically I wonder tho if the Solomonic temple was a fiction entirely. Thomas Thompson and others have called into serious doubt whether there was a Solomon at all. His character with 1000 wives and superhuman wisdom culminating in his haughty defiance of the Yhwh priests all scream myth and polemic. Now even this parallel about the temple details seems to support this mythicist view. -
Leolaia
Yeah the historicity of David and Solomon is another huge matter. My personal opinion is that there was a temple during the Divided Monarchy (it would really surprise me if a state such as Judah did not have one in Iron II), and it could have originated as early as Iron I, but the grandiose descriptions in 2 Samuel are probably as fanciful as the descriptions of Camelot in medieval legend (and there DOES appear to have been a historical figure deep down at the core of the Arthur legend).
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peacefulpete
We use terms like "Divided Monarchy" and "United Kingdom" without any historical basis. All we know about those early periods suggests that there was no United Kingdom, that it was post-Babylon historical revisionism. There seems to be no support for Jerusalem being Israelite at this early stage either. It becomes a word game if we suggest that there was a historical kernal of truth. Of course every Canaanite tribe had a modest temple and leaders. But the OT record of a grand gilded temple envied by the world for the exclusive worship of YHWH made in a time of peace and prosperity by a fabulously rich and wise King whose name means "peace" is simple myth making. So at what point do we say that this is myth and not distorted history? If King Arthur existed but his name was not Arthur and he had no knights of the round table and his wife was named Suzzy, he lived in a country home in Scotland and was killed at 30 years of age, was he really king Arthur?
Im asking rhetorically.