Questions From Readers

The porch served as an entranceway to the Holy compartment of the temple. According to editions of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures published before 2023, “the porch in front was 20 cubits long, corresponding to the width of the house, and its height was 120.” (2 Chron. 3:4) Other translations also state that the porch was “120 cubits” high, making it a 53-meter (175-ft) tower!

However, the 2023 printing of the New World Translation says regarding the porch of Solomon’s temple: “Its height was 20 cubits,” or about 9 meters (30 ft) tall.a Consider a few reasons for this adjustment.

The height of the porch is not mentioned at 1 Kings 6:3. In that verse, the writer Jeremiah records the length and the depth of the porch, not its height. Then in the following chapter, he describes in great detail other outstanding features of the temple, including the Sea of cast metal, the ten carriages, and the two copper pillars that stood outside the porch. (1 Ki. 7:15-37) If the porch really was over 50 meters tall and towered over the rest of the temple, why did Jeremiah fail to mention its height? Even centuries later, Jewish writers reported that the porch was no taller than the rest of Solomon’s temple.

Scholars question whether the temple walls could have supported a 120-cubit-tall porch. Towering stone and brick structures in ancient times, such as temple gates in Egypt, had a very wide base and tapered toward the top. But Solomon’s temple was different. Scholars suggest that its walls were no more than 6 cubits, or 2.7 meters (9 ft), thick. Architectural historian Theodor Busink thus concluded: “Based on the wall thickness of the [temple’s entrance], the porch could not have been 120 cubits [tall].”

The text of 2 Chronicles 3:4 may have been miscopied. Although some ancient manuscripts read “120” in this verse, other authoritative texts, such as the fifth-century Codex Alexandrinus and the sixth-century Codex Ambrosianus, read “20 cubits.” Why might a scribe have mistakenly written “120”? The words for “hundred” and “cubits” look similar in Hebrew. So a scribe may have written the word “hundred” instead of “cubits.”

Of course, while we strive to understand these details and to depict Solomon’s temple accurately, we focus especially on what that temple foreshadowed​—the great spiritual temple. How grateful we are that Jehovah has invited all his servants to worship him at that temple!​—Heb. 9:11-14; Rev. 3:12; 7:9-17.