The Temple and 1260 days Bible Prophecy

Basic Overview of Other Bible
 Temples and their Measurements

 

Solomon's Temple (966 BC - 586 BC)

"In the 480th year after Israelites had come out of Egypt,"  (i.e., 12 x 40 years )
Solomon began to build the temple, (1Kgs. 6:1). 
Solomon's temple was 36,000 cubic cubits, 
built by 3,600 foremen, (1Kgs. 6:2; 2Chron. 2:2). 
The Most Holy Place was inlaid with 600 tons of gold,
the weight of 36,000 golden nails, (2Chron. 3:9).

The Most Holy Place was 20 cubits wide; the Holy Place was 40 cubits wide, and the portico was 10 cubits wide, a total of 70 cubits. The temple is arranged in (the doubling of) the "time, times, and a half-time" pattern. [I.e., "one year, two years, and half-a-year."] The fact that it is doubled emphasizes that the portico represents the 7th day or year. [3½ x 2 = 7.] It, thus, is patterned after the creation narrative. 

Most scholars (according to my research) feel that the portico was 20 cubits high. If so, then it had 4000 cubic cubits of space, thus a total of 40,000 cubits since the temple proper was 36,000 cubic cubits. Compare this 36,000 + 4,000 = 40,000 pattern with the basic 36 + 4 = 40-year cycle of the 360 calendar. Notice that the 4-years cycle is the last of 7 cycles thereby patterning itself after the creation also. "God rested on the 7th day and separated/sanctified it."

 

Thus, the 6th cycle of 6 years is followed by a 7th cycle only 4 years long---for a total of 40 years, (a "generation" in the bible). (6 x 6 = 36 years, + 4 years = 40 years.) The effect is to place emphasis upon the 6th and 7th cycle since the 6th cycle of 6 years precedes the special seventh cycle of only 4 years, which in turn concludes the 40-year cycle. (Also, note that Solomon's temple began to be built in the 480th year after the Exodus, that is, 12 x 40 years.)

 

(The other two possibilities for the height of the portico of Solomon are 120 and 30 cubits high: If it were 120 cubits high, then we have a total of 60,000 cubic cubits. If 30 high, then 42,000.)

 

The area of the burning altar that Solomon built was 400 sq. cubits, and its volume was 4000 cubic cubits. (Note the 4000-year cycle of the 360 calendar. Also, they spent 400 years in the "furnace of Egypt.")

 

Ezekiel's Temple: (Never built: Prophecy given to Ezekiel 573 BC)

(We will come to this at a later date.)

 

Zerubabbel's temple: (520 to 19 BC. Herod aggrandized it.)

Zerubabbel's temple was 3600 square cubits! (Or at least this is the area the Persian king gave Judah in their rebuilding program.)

"In the first year of Artaxeres, the king issues a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: "Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be 60 cubits high and 60 cubits wide," (Ezra 6:1).

(Note: Scholars are unsure exactly what these dimensions represent, but the fact that they are the only dimensions given, and that they amount to 3600 squared is significant regardless.)

Moreover, it took three-and-one-half years to build, (Hag. 4:1-15; Ezra 6:15). Other figures for the rebuilding are: 1290 days from the start of building until the celebration at its completion.

 

Herod's Temple: (19 BC to AD 70)

No biblical information is given on this massive temple, though we do know that in the 49th year of its building program, Jesus' body ("His Temple") was destroyed, (John 2:20). 49-years is 7 x 7, which is a jubilee. The literal temple was destroyed 40 years later in AD 70. 

 

New Jerusalem "out of Heaven": (Future)
"No need of a temple..." (Revelation 21-22).

The new Jerusalem in the book of Revelation (21- 22) uses similar numeric patterns. (Note: In a sense, the whole city will become the temple of God.)

The city was a square, (and a cube like the Holy of Holies): "12,000 x 12,000 stadia" (= 400,000 x 360), with a 48,000-stadia perimeter. (One stadia is about a tenth of a mile.)

The walls were 144 cubits-thick, [12 x 12], (Revelation 21:16-17). 

Note also the 144,000 witnesses of the book of Revelation (12,000 x 12), which is 400 x 360, (i.e., symbolic of 400 years). Israel spent 400 years in Egypt,  which is the backdrop for much of  the narrative within the book of Revelation. 

 

Ancient Babylon: (c. 2100 BC to c. AD 100)

The ancient city of Babylon is constantly compared negatively to Jerusalem, especially in the book of Revelation of which we just spoke, (Revelation 17-19). Therefore, it is highly significant that the ancient writer Herodotus declared that the city walls were 480 stadia, that is, 120 x 4 stadia. (Babylon was also built in a square.) Hence, Babylon was exactly 100 times smaller than the New Jerusalem!!! 

Babylon also built the "Tower of Babylon" (similar to the tower of Babel) at 200 x 200 cubits, (40,000 sq. cubits.)

 

Tabernacle:
 Is the Curtain Veil 100 sq. cubit?

 

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