The Hebrews, Egyptians, Babylonians and the residents of Mesopotamia used a measurement called a cubit. One royal Hebrew cubit is about equal to 20.76 inches which is about 52.7 cm. Scholars of the cubit measurements of Solomon’s Temple found in the Bible know for the past few thousand years no one has been able to get all the cubits of the Bible to fit correctly. This means a correct model of Solomon’s Temple has never existed even though all of the clues are recorded in the Bible.
The big question is; Can the cubits of Ezekiel correctly dovetail into the cubits of I Kings and II Chronicles? This difficult puzzle of correctly placing the cubits so that all fit has been an extremely complex mystery. This model of Solomon’s Temple uses every verse found in I Kings, II Chronicles and Ezekiel which apply to the 500 x 500 cubit square Temple Mount area. It is the opinion of this patent owner that Ezekiel contains the remaining measurements of Solomon’s Temple.
Many temple scholars think Solomon’s Temple was only 30 cubits high. The 30 cubits or 52′ height was an inside measurement of the ceiling. The Temple that King Solomon built was actually 120 cubits tall as shown here (II Chronicles 3:4). Architects and builders might scoff that no one could build a 20 story tall building 3,000 years ago. But the Bible states that it did occur and so do a few other ancient historians.
The Temple of Solomon is shown here in a modern downtown setting of Jerusalem where it originally stood on the Temple Mount. Some temple scholars over look the fact that the main Tower in Solomon’s Temple had two sets of winding staircases. So this brings forth a dilemma. Could Solomon’s Temple have been vertical instead of horizontal? If it is horizontal as most believe where do the two sets of winding staircases fit?
According to the prophet Ezekiel, the First Temple as built by King Solomon will someday be rebuilt. The style used here for rendering purposes uses the pylon design which fits in with the original Phoenician and Egyptian era. The gates & main Temple structure might have had straight walls rather than pylon shaped walls. For this particular architectural rendering the older Egyptian and Mesopotamian style was used rather than straight walls of later temples. Many of the gigantic buildings and gates built in the middle east prior to the Greek & Persian Empire’s were built with sloping walls inward such as the ziggurat towers, pyramids, Egyptian temples and most probably Phoenician temples were probably designed after their contemporary temples and buildings. The blueprints of the Temple were drafted by King David. The Temple door faced East. However the inside Temple entrances were from the south. So that the priests first entered into the lower chamber from east to west and then ascended into the upper chambers from the south. The Temple was engineered by a Phoenician King Hiram who sent a mason who was half Hebrew and half Phoenician to execute the principal works of the interior including casting, masonry, arch stone angles and the logistics of raising the arch stones 20 stories in the sky. The mason’s name was also Hiram.
ORIGINAL TEMPLE OF SOLOMON WAS 500 CUBITS SQUARE
Along the Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount near the Northern end of the wall there is an underlying layer of pre-Herodian stone which displays a corner of a very old wall protruding out. Archeologist Leen Ritmeyer has called this unique corner spot the “offset”. It is clearly an older protrusion of an existing wall and corner upon which King Herod had his masons built a new wall. Could this “offset” have been the original NE corner of the outer courtyard of Solomon’s Temple?
The original outer courtyard of Solomon’s Temple measured 500 cubits square as is documented by the exhiles in the Mishna. The Jewish exhiles who were freed by the Persians returned to Israel to rebuild a Second Temple. When the exhiles returned they measured the outer courtyard as being 500 cubits square. They did not build the outer courtyard the 500 cubit square was the remains of the First Temple. 