the Holy Place were the lampstand, the table of show-bread and the altar of incense, all of gold.

The entrance to the Most Holy was a beautifully ornamented thick curtain or veil. At the time of Jesus’ death this curtain was torn in two from top to bottom, exposing the Most Holy as containing no ark of the covenant. In place of the Ark was a stone slab upon which the high priest sprinkled the blood on the day of atonement. (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 6:19; 10:20) This room was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide.

The Jews used the temple area as a citadel or fortress during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. They themselves set fire to the colonnades, but a Roman soldier, contrary to the wishes of the Roman commander Titus, fired the temple itself, thereby fulfilling Jesus’ words regarding the temple buildings: “By no means will a stone be left here upon a stone and not be thrown down.”—Matt. 24:2.

EZEKIEL’S TEMPLE

In 593 B.C.E., in the fourteenth year after the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple therein, the priest-prophet Ezekiel, transported in vision to a high mountaintop, beheld a great temple of Jehovah. (Ezek. 40:1, 2) To humiliate and bring about repentance of the exiled Jews, also doubtless to comfort faithful ones, Ezekiel was instructed to relate everything he saw to the “house of Israel.” (40:4; 43:10, 11) The vision gave careful attention to the details of measurement. The units of measure used were the “reed” (the long reed, c. 10.2 feet; 3.1 meters) and the “cubit” (the long cubit, c. 20.4 inches; 51.8 centimeters). (40:5) This attention to measurement has led some to believe that this visionary temple was to serve as a model for the temple later constructed by Zerubbabel in the postexilic period. There is, however, no conclusive substantiation of this assumption. In fact, the area enclosed by the visionary temple and its courts was some 500 long cubits (c. 850 feet; 259 meters) square, whereas the area of Mount Moriah, on which the actual temple was built, was much too small for the dimensions required by Ezekiel’s temple. A wall one reed (c. 10.2 feet; 3.1 meters) high surrounded the outer courtyard.—40:5.

Gateways and dining rooms

Built into the temple’s outer and inner walls were six huge gateways, three in the outer walls and three in the inner walls. These faced N, E, and S, each inner gate being directly behind (in line with) its corresponding outer gate. (Ezek. 40:6, 8, 10, 11, 20, 22-24, 27, 32, 35) Inside the outer wall was the lower pavement. It was fifty cubits (c. 85 feet; 25.9 meters) wide, the same as the length of the gateways. (40:18, 21) Thirty dining rooms, likely for the people to eat their communion sacrifices, were located there. (40:17) At each of the four corners of this outer courtyard were located places where the peoples’ portions of their sacrifices were cooked by the priests, according to the Law’s requirement; then they were apparently consumed in the provided dining rooms.—46:21-24.

The priests’ dining rooms were separated from the peoples’, being placed closer to the temple, along with two dining rooms for the temple singers, in the inner courtyard beside the massive inner gateways. (Ezek. 40:38, 44-46) The priests had their own dining-room blocks, to the N and S of the sanctuary itself. (42:1-12) These dining rooms, in addition to their most evident purpose, were places for the priests to change the linen garments used in temple service prior to their entering the outer courtyard. (42:13, 14) Also in that area, to the rear of the dining-room blocks, were the boiling and baking places of the priests, intended for the same basic purpose as those in the outer courtyard, but these for only the priests.—46:19, 20.

Outer and inner courtyards

Progressing across the outer courtyard through the inner gateway, one entered the inner courtyard, 150 cubits (c. 255 feet; 77.7 meters) from the edge of the outer courtyard on the E, N and S. This courtyard was 200 cubits (340 feet; 103.6 meters) wide. (It apparently was 100 cubits from the inside of the outer gateway, which was fifty cubits long. This would make the outer courtyard 500 cubits square.) (Ezek. 40:19, 23, 27) Prominent in the inner courtyard was the altar.—43:13-17; see ALTAR (Altar of Ezekiel’s Temple).

The sanctuary building

The sanctuary’s first room, forty cubits (68 feet; 20.7 meters) long and twenty cubits (34 feet; 10.4 meters) wide, was entered by a doorway having two two-leaved doors. (Ezek. 41:23, 24) Therein was the “table that is before Jehovah,” a wooden altar.—41:21, 22.

The outer walls of the sanctuary had side chambers four cubits (6.8 feet; 2 meters) wide incorporated into and against them. Rising three stories, they covered the western, northern, and southern walls, thirty chambers to a story. (Ezek. 41:5, 6) To ascend the three stories, winding passages, seemingly circular staircases, were provided on the N and S. (41:7) To the rear or W of the temple, lying apparently lengthwise N to S, was a structure called bin·yanʹ, a ‘building to the west.’ (41:12) Although some scholars have attempted to identify this building with the temple or sanctuary itself, there appears no basis for such an identification in the book of Ezekiel; the ‘building to the west,’ for one thing, was of different shape and dimensions from those of the sanctuary. This structure doubtless served some function in connection with the services carried on at the sanctuary. There may have been a similar building or buildings W of Solomon’s temple.—Compare 2 Kings 23:11 and 1 Chronicles 26:18.

The Most Holy was of the same shape as that of Solomon’s temple, being twenty cubits square. In the vision Ezekiel saw Jehovah’s glory come from the E, filling the temple. Jehovah described this temple as “the place of my throne.”—Ezek. 43:1-7.

Outside wall

Ezekiel describes a wall 500 reeds (c. 5,100 feet; 1,554 meters) on each side, around the temple. This has been understood by some scholars to be a wall at a distance of about 2,000 feet, or 600 meters, from the courtyard, a space surrounded by the wall “to make a division between what is holy and what is profane.”—Ezek. 42:16-20.

A stream of living water

Ezekiel also beheld a stream of water flowing “from under the threshold of the House eastward” and S of the altar, growing into a deep and mighty torrent as it flowed down through the Arabah into the N end of the Salt Sea. Here it healed the salt waters so that they became filled with fish.—Ezek. 47:1-12.

THE SPIRITUAL TEMPLE

That the literal temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel and Herod were only typical or pictorial was shown by Solomon in his inauguration prayer when he said: “The heavens, yes, the heaven of the heavens, themselves cannot contain you; how much less, then, this house that I have built!” (1 Ki. 8:27) Also, Jehovah, through the prophet Isaiah, as well as the Christian martyr Stephen and the apostle Paul, expressed the same thought.—Isa. 66:1; Acts 7:48; 17:24.

Since the apostle Paul explained that the priests serving in the tabernacle built by Moses were “rendering sacred service in a typical representation and a shadow of the heavenly things,” we look to the Christian Greek Scriptures to find the reality represented by the type.—Heb. 8:5.

Paul writes to the Christians in Ephesus “in union with Christ Jesus,” those who are “sealed with the promised holy spirit,” saying: “You have been built up upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, while Christ Jesus himself is the foundation cornerstone. In union with him the whole building, being harmoniously joined together, is growing into a holy temple for Jehovah. In union with him You, too, are being built up together into a place for God to inhabit by spirit.” (Eph. 1:1, 13; 2:20-22) These “sealed” ones, laid upon Christ as Foundation, are shown in John’s vision recorded in Revelation to number 144,000.—Rev. 7:4; 14:1.

The apostle Peter speaks of these as “living stones” being “built up a spiritual house for the purpose of a holy priesthood.” (1 Pet. 2:5) From this we see that the temple of old, and the services of the priesthood in it, provided a shadow of the reality, the service to God carried on by his “royal priesthood.”—1 Pet. 2:9.

Holiness maintained

God will not let this spiritual temple suffer defilement and consequent disapproval and abandonment, as happened with the earthly temples. Paul emphasizes the holiness of this spiritual temple, and the danger to one who attempts to defile it when he writes: “Do you not know that you people are God’s temple, and that the spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you people are.” (1 Cor. 3:16, 17) He gives the example that one of the members of the Christ who commits fornication is taking a member of Christ away and making himself the member of (one flesh with) a harlot. He then points out that, as a body, these Christians constitute a temple of the holy spirit belonging to God, and do not belong to themselves, being bought with a price for the purpose of glorifying God, as was the purpose of the literal temples. (1 Cor. 6:15-20) Thus Jehovah makes certain that the spiritual temple will always be holy by excluding would-be defilers and allowing only those maintaining righteousness to be a part thereof.

Permanent heavenly places

Jesus Christ promises these spirit-begotten Christians that the conqueror, who endures faithfully to the end, will be made “a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will by no means go out from it any more.” This would mean their permanent place in that spiritual structure in the heavens, for the Chief Cornerstone is in heaven, and he adds, “I will write upon him the name of . . . the new Jerusalem which descends out of heaven from my God.”—Rev. 3:12.

God places his throne there

In the Revelation vision, John also saw Jehovah God enthroned in a setting like the interior of the temple of Solomon. In Solomon’s temple Jehovah was not enthroned, but a miraculous light hovered above the ark of the covenant. That temple had ten lamp-stands. In his vision John beheld seven. And just as Solomon’s temple had in the courtyard the great copper “molten sea,” John saw before the throne, as it were, a “glassy sea like crystal.”—Rev. 4:2-6; 2 Chron. 4:2, 7.

The temple sanctuary in heaven is mentioned several times in Revelation. God is shown as being present for judgment, along with holy angels. (Rev. 14:17; 15:5-8; 16:1, 17) In one instance the ark of the covenant is seen, revealing that Jehovah God was dealing with that heavenly temple, and had not abandoned it, as he abandoned Herod’s temple. God gave indication of this when the curtain to the Most Holy was torn in two at the time of Jesus’ death, exposing the absence of the Ark in that earthly temple.—Rev. 11:19; Matt. 27:51.

Jehovah God and the Lamb ‘are its temple’

When John sees New Jerusalem come down from heaven, he remarks: “And I did not see a temple in it, for Jehovah God the Almighty is its temple, also the Lamb is.” (Rev. 21:2, 22) Since the New Jerusalem itself is a temple, built upon Christ and the secondary foundations of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Eph. 2:20; Rev. 3:12; 21:14), those in it do not have to go to some building to worship Jehovah God, but do so directly; Jesus Christ, Jehovah’s High Priest, also dwells right there as the symbolic city’s husband. Therefore, Jehovah God and the Lamb, Jesus Christ, are said to be the temple of this heavenly city.

AN IMPOSTOR

The apostle Paul, in warning of the apostasy to come, spoke of the “man of lawlessness” as setting himself up “so that he sits down in the temple of The God, publicly showing himself to be a god.” (2 Thess. 2:3, 4) As this “man of lawlessness” is an apostate, a false teacher, he only makes it appear that he is part of the spiritual temple. (See MAN OF LAWLESSNESS.) Thus “he sits down in the temple of The God.” This shows that, although ‘lawless,’ he makes the claim of being Christian.

AN ILLUSTRATIVE USE

On one occasion, when the Jews demanded a sign from Jesus, he replied: “Break down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews thought he was speaking of the temple building, but the apostle John explains: “He was talking about the temple of his body.” When he was resurrected by his Father Jehovah on the third day of his death, the disciples recalled and understood this saying and believed it. (John 2:18-22; Matt. 27:40) He was resurrected, but not in his fleshly body, which was given as a ransom sacrifice; yet that fleshly body did not go into corruption, but was disposed of by God, just as a sacrifice was consumed on the altar. Jesus, when resurrected, was the same person, the same personality, in a new body made for his new dwelling place, the spiritual heavens.—Luke 24:1-7; 1 Pet. 3:18; Matt. 20:28; Acts 2:31; Heb. 13:8.

TEN

See NUMBER, NUMERAL.

TEN COMMANDMENTS

See TEN WORDS.

TENT

[Heb. ʼoʹhel; Gr. ske·neʹ].

A collapsible shelter made of cloth or skin and supported by poles. Tents were one of the earliest types of man-made dwellings (Gen. 4:20; 9:21) and were commonly used by nomadic peoples in the Middle East.—Gen. 9:27; Ps. 83:6.

Some details of the design and use of tents are available from the Bible. This is supplemented by knowledge of tents used by Arabs in more recent years, since it seems that these do not differ substantially from those of the Biblical period. Many scholars believe that the earliest tents were of animal skins. (Gen. 3:21; Ex. 26:14) Among modern bedouins tents made of blackish goat-hair cloth are customary. (Compare Exodus 36:14; Song of Solomon 1:5.) Strips of this material are sewn together, the overall size of the rectangular tent depending on the wealth of the owner and the number of occupants. The tent is supported by a number of poles about five to seven feet (1.5 to 2.1 meters) long, the highest being near the middle; it is held fast against wind by cords fastened to tent pins. (Judg. 4:21) For privacy and protection from the wind, cloths are hung along the sides of the tent, but these can be raised or removed for ventilation.

It appears that in Bible times larger tents were usually divided into at least two compartments by means of hanging tent cloths. The “tent of Sarah” mentioned at Genesis 24:67 may refer to her compartment or to a tent that she alone occupied, for some wealthy men had a number of tents, and women sometimes