Temples of God - Part 1
The Temple in ancient Judaism was the centrepiece of their religious life. It was the place where God dwelt amongst his chosen people and is therefore of central importance to understanding both the Old and New Testament, and also Christ himself. In fact, the Temple, a place where God dwells amongst His people, is a thread connecting the whole Bible - it is a central theme in the story of God who reveals Himself to human beings, and wishes to share His own life with us.
To understand the Temple, we have to first start from the beginning, in Eden.
Holy Mountains
Ancient peoples, due to their cosmology regarding the heavens as the place where the gods dwelt, considered mountains as places to draw closer to the divine. The stars and the firmament were considered the dwelling place of gods and spiritual beings. In the Old Testament, Moses meets God on Mt Sinai. In the book of Kings, there are recurring issues with the “high places”, elevated open-air shrines to the Baals or Asherot (Semitic goddesses).
In the intertestamental literature of Enoch 6, we hear of Mt Hermon (the Golan Heights) being the place where the Watchers (a class of fallen angels or demons) descended to earth. Mt Hermon was also considered a place where Baal dwelt.
It should be no surprise then, that Eden was also considered a mountain. We can see this implicitly shown in Genesis 2:
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers (Gen 2:10).
For a river to “flow” from Eden, into the world, there is an assumption of elevation - a high place. This is confirmed in Ezekial 28, where the evil spirit of Tyre was once in Eden, the garden and holy mountain of God. Eden as a mountain or high place is also alluded to in other passages in the Bible.
So Eden then, is a “high place” close to, or overlapping with the heavenly realms and therefore a place where God can dwell with humankind. Hence we read of “God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen 3:8). It can therefore be understood that material reality was initially created to be a place where heaven and earth overlapped, with God not envisaged as foreign or stubbornly detached or apart from creation, but intimately present with it and its inhabitants.
Eden then is a temple - the first temple, where the presence of God dwells intimately with humankind and creation.
The four rivers which flow from Eden don’t actually meet in real-world geography, so the imagery is symbolic of Eden being the supplier of life and fertility to the world below. The four rivers also symbolise the four points of the compass, calling to mind all directions and all of creation.
The deeper meaning to this symbology again confirms the originally intended orientation of creation - that Eden is the source of an ever-expanding presence of God and His life throughout materiality, and that humans were to be an integral part of the expansion of His kingdom and presence. This is expressed in the first invitation to humanity - to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth, being co-rulers over creation as divine image-bearers (Gen 1:28).
Humanity as image-bearers
In ancient pagan practice, the final step of the building of a temple was the introduction of an image of the god into the temple precinct. The idol was to embody the god - literally to give the god a body. After the introduction of the idol, a ceremony was performed to open the nostrils and mouth so that the god could enter into it. There is a sense here that the god or spirit must enter a body in order to properly interact in the human world.
In Eden, we see a similar dynamic, but instead of a human building a body out of wood or stone and coaxing a spirit to inhabit it, God Himself creates a body for Adam and Eve and breathes His own Spirit into them. Hence, God’s intention was always to, in some sense, be embodied in humans who could then spread His life-giving presence throughout creation. This is why we can be said to be made in His image and likeness and can understand our first vocation to be something resembling royal representatives of God to creation.
(For further reflection on this theme, see this link).
In summary, we can understand Eden as a Holy Mountain, the first temple of God from which a royal humanity advanced the Kingdom of God’s presence, sustained by fertile rivers of God’s grace and goodness, fed from the Tree of Life.
But as we know, things didn’t go according to plan. Adam and Eve refused God’s invitation to life, and creation fell into death and destruction. The power that was rightly ours was surrendered to evil powers and principalities. Human beings, while mysteriously retaining the image of God, lost their likeness to Him.
The Tabernacle
God wasn’t finished with humanity, however - He wished to restart His original plan through a chosen race of people, the Israelites. We find more holy mountains involved in this plan. First, the mountain where Abraham made an altar on which to sacrifice his son Isaac - Mount Moriah, the same mountain on which Soloman’s temple was to be built in the future (more on that later). Because of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice all for God, God promises to Abraham a renewal of His original plan through Abraham’s descendants.
“By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only-begotten son, I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Genesis 22:16-18
Here we see an intimation of the blessings of God flowing out again from a holy mountain, and also calling to mind the original invitation for humanity to multiply and fill the earth - in this case, a humanity consisting, at least initially, of the physical descendants of Abraham. It is interesting to note that, whereas the rivers flowed freely from Eden until “stopped up” after the disobedience of Adam and Eve, now we have the promise of the “rivers” of blessing again flowing but only after obedience and sacrifice.
We find another holy mountain when Moses ascends Mount Horeb, the “mountain of God” (Gen 3:1) where he has a theophany of the burning bush. On Mount Sinai, after the Israelites escape from Egypt, Moses again encountered God and received the Ten Commandments. However, while on Mount Sinai Moses also received instruction from God on how to create the tabernacle (Genesis 26).
After the completion of the tabernacle, built according to the divine revelation he received on the mountain, the cloud and glory of God fell upon it and filled it (Gen 40:34). God was again dwelling amongst His people, just as He was in the garden of Eden. However, now He dwells amongst them in a desert, whereas before He dwelt among them in the verdant garden. Through the Israelite people, God had restarted His plan to again fill the earth with His presence and abundant blessings.
The geometry of a mountain
It is worthwhile doing an online search for a diagram of the Israelite camp while they were on their pilgrimage to the Promised Land. The tabernacle was always at the centre of the camp. God clearly intended to be the centre of His people, the fixed point that they revolved around - a centre where His grace could emanate out to the margins of the people.
If we consider the geometry of a mountain, looking down from above, the peak is also the centre. The place closest to the heavens and therefore the divine realm is also the centre of the mountain from another perspective. Therefore, even on the flat, dusty surface of the desert where the Israelites camped, God had re-established a Holy Mountain - with His glory and presence in the centre.
Here we can see God’s new beginning, His recapitulation of the pattern of Eden, but in this case under very different circumstances. Another clue that the tabernacle amidst the people was to recapitulate Eden was the language used to describe the duties of the Levitical priestly class. Humans were to “till” (Hebrew: abad) and “keep” (shamar) in the garden - this combination of verbs is not seen again until Numbers (3:7-8, 8:26, 18:7) where the duties of the Levitical priests in the Tabernacle are described.
The Jerusalem Temple
This theme of God recapitulating Eden amongst his chosen people is even stronger when we look at the design of the temple in Jerusalem. A great book which highlights all of the symbology present in the temple is “The Temple and the Church’s Mission” by G.K. Beale. I’ll draw out only some of the symbols detailed there.
The outer court of the temple featured symbolism representing the earth. It had a large molten washbasin, which was called the “sea” (1 Kings 7:23-26) and an altar which was called an “altar of earth” (Exodus 20:24-25) - clearly these were to represent the earth and the seas. The washbasin was also held up by twelve bulls, facing all points of the compass, and also lion engravings, symbolising animals spread over the earth. Lily blossoms engraved around the brim represented plant life. All of Israel could enter the outer courts, and so they represented humanity-at-large spread over the earth.
The Holy Place featured seven-armed candelabra that were associated with the seven main lights of the night sky - the five visible planets and the sun and moon. Jewish thinkers Philo and Josephus identified the different coloured veils or curtains surrounding the Holy of Holies as representing the four elements of the cosmos - earth, air, water and fire. Also the tapestry hanging over the outer entrance to the temple was said to have a panorama of the heavens.
Philo and Josephus see the same earthly and heavenly symbolism on the high priest’s garments. The twelve stones on the breastplate are said to have represented the twelve constellations, and Philo says that the high priest ‘sacred vesture was designed’ to be ‘a copy of the universe’. Josephus explicitly states that ‘every one of these objects [of the tabernacle] is intended to recall and represent the nature of the universe’.
From these considerations, it is clear that the temple was to be a recapitulation of the garden of Eden amidst the whole universe, with God’s presence dwelling in creation (in the Holy of Holies), surrounded by his image-bearers (in this case, his chosen people, the Israelites). Also recall that the temple was on a mountain, Mount Moriah, with the tradition being that this is the place where Abraham was willing to give up his only son as a sacrifice to God.
Ezekiel’s prophecy of a future temple
After Israel’s defeat and exile, and the destruction of Solomon’s temple, we hear a prophecy from Ezekiel of a new temple. It may initially be thought that this refers to the second temple built by Herod the Great, however, when we hear the descriptions of this new temple prophesied by Ezekiel, we can understand that the temple of Herod cannot be what Ezekiel foresaw.
Ezekiel’s vision of this new temple follows his visions of a new exodus, a new pouring out of the Spirit, a new kingdom and also a new creation (Ezekiel 33-39). The temple that he sees is larger than the original temple of Solomon and is so great that even the Temple Mount could not contain it. The salient feature that is interesting to our purposes in this reflection is the mysterious river that flows from the “right side of the threshold of the temple” (Ezekiel 47:1). This miraculous river of the vision becomes deeper as it flows from the temple, and it brings life and vitality to wherever it goes.
Even the Dead Sea is brought back to life when the waters from this river flow into it. It is difficult to miss the allusions to Eden, a mountain temple with life-giving waters flowing into creation and watering it, making it fertile. The authors of “A Catholic Introduction to the Bible - The Old Testament” make the point that the new temple, according to Ezekiel, is a fulcrum or centre point for the holy people of God. Just like the Tabernacle in the desert, with the tribes of Israel encamped around it, so we have the new Israel in the new creation organised around a new temple, out of which flows their life and hope.
Again we see in the Old Testament an allusion to the desire of God to re-establish Eden, His presence amongst the people, from which will radiate His life across the new cosmos.
A summary
So what points can be drawn together about the meaning of the temple in ancient Judaism? I’d suggest the following:
Eden was the first temple, a mountain that overlapped with the heavens, in which God’s presence powerfully and intimately dwelt. This life-giving presence was communicated through creation by the rivers which cascaded down its slopes, and also by its inhabitants, the image-bearers who were to fill the earth and keep it.
After the fall, Eden, the first paradise-temple, was shut off from humanity, who had failed in their vocation to be image-bearers - God’s embodiment in the world and communicants of His blessings.
God restarted His original plan through Abraham, who, in obedience to God, was willing to sacrifice his own son on Mount Moriah. From this mountain, God promises to again pour out His blessings on humanity through Abraham’s family. However, there is now the hint that this must be effected through sacrifice - the subjection of the rebellious and injured human will.
Moses learns God’s name on another holy mountain and receives instructions for the tabernacle on Mount Sinai. The tabernacle was a place where God’s powerful presence again “overlapped” with earth, amidst His people. The tribes of Israel encamped around it, suggesting the geometry of a mountain with God’s presence at the peak - reminiscent of Eden.
Solomon builds the temple in Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount which was considered to be Mount Moriah, the place where Abraham was to sacrifice his son. The imagery in the temple represents the earth and the heavens, which “surround” the sanctuary where God’s presence presided.
After the Jewish people’s continual disobedience, the temple is destroyed. However Ezekiel, in the context of his visions of a new creation and a new, Spirit-filled people, sees a new eschatological temple. This new temple is again in the midst of God’s holy people, it is the centre of their life, and from the “right side” of the temple there again gushes a river whose life-giving waters transforms the dead creation.
In Part 2 of this story, I’ll be discussing Christ as the new temple and the new role of the holy people of God. I’ll also be trying to reflect on what this role means practically for our spiritual life.