THE DESTRUCTION OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM

Russian icon of King Solomon

Destiny has wanted that she finished the novel one day before the 229th anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille, the event which occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789 and meant the beginning of the French Revolution, an event that appears in this novel.

The Grandma has also studied two new chapters, 16 and 17, of her English grammar book Intermediate Language Practice. When she has finished, she has started to organize all the souvenirs and photos that she bought and took in Malta during her travel with Claire Fontaine, Tina Picotes and Joseph de Ca'th Lon. She went to the Mediterranean island to search Corto Maltese, her old lover, but she didn't find him.

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Today, she has been thinking in him strongly because of the commemoration of ending of Babylon's siege of Jerusalem that followed the destruction of Solomon's Temple.

The Grandma and Corto Maltese spent several weeks in Venice searching for the Key of Solomon, a pseudepigraphical grimoire attributed to King Solomon that probably dates back to the 14th- or 15th-century Italian Renaissance and presents a typical example of Renaissance magic. 

Drawing of King Solomon's Temple

In 589 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II laid siege to Jerusalem, culminating in the destruction of the city and its temple in the summer of 587 or 586 BC. Following the siege of 597 BC, the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar installed Zedekiah as tributary king of Judah, at the age of 21. 

However, Zedekiah revolted against Babylon, and entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt.  

Nebuchadnezzar responded by invading Judah nd began a siege of Jerusalem in December 589 BC. During this siege, the duration of which was either 18 or 30 months, every worst woe befell the city, which drank the cup of God's fury to the dregs. 

More information: Jewish Virtual Library

In 586 BC, after completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, Nebuchadnezzar broke through Jerusalem's walls, conquering the city. Zedekiah and his followers attempted to escape but were captured on the plains of Jericho and taken to Riblah. There, after seeing his sons killed, Zedekiah was blinded, bound, and taken captive to Babylon, where he remained a prisoner until his death.

Inside Solomon's Temple

After the fall of Jerusalem, the Babylonian general, Nebuzaraddan, was sent to complete its destruction. Jerusalem was plundered, and Solomon's Temple was destroyed. 

Most of the elite were taken into captivity in Babylon. The city was razed to the ground. Only a few people were permitted to remain to tend to the land. The Jew Gedaliah was made governor of the remnant of Judah, the Yehud Province, with a Chaldean guard stationed at Mizpah. The Bible reports that, on hearing this news, Jews who had fled to Moab, Ammon, Edom, and in other countries returned to Judah.

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Gedaliah was assassinated by Ishmael son of Nethaniah two months later, and the population that had remained and those who had returned then fled to Egypt for safety. In Egypt, they settled in Migdol, it is uncertain where the Bible is referring to here, probably somewhere in the Nile Delta, Tahpanhes, Memphis -called Noph-, and Pathros, the vicinity of Thebes.

There has been some debate as to when the second siege of Jerusalem took place. There is no dispute that Jerusalem fell the second time in the summer month of Tammuz, Jeremiah 52:6.

King Solomon and his temple

The Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle (BM 21946), published in 1956, indicates that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem the first time putting an end to the reign of Jehoaichin, on 2 Adar (16 March) 597 BC, in Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year.  

Jeremiah 52:28–29 gives the relative periods for the end of the two sieges as Nebuchadnezzar's seventh and eighteenth years, respectively. The same periods are elsewhere described at 2 Kings 24:12 and 2 Kings 25:8 as Nebuchadnezzar's eighth and nineteenth years, including his accession year. Identification of Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year for the end of the siege places the event in the summer of 587 BC. According to the Hebrew Bible, Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the Holy Temple, in Hebrew: בֵּית־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ‬: Beit HaMikdash, in ancient Jerusalem before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE and its subsequent replacement with the Second Temple in the 6th century BCE.

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The Hebrew Bible states that the temple was constructed under Solomon, king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah and that during the Kingdom of Judah, the temple was dedicated to Yahweh, and is said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant.

King Solomon and his servants

Because of the religious sensitivities involved, and the politically volatile situation in Jerusalem, only limited archaeological surveys of the Temple Mount have been conducted. 

No archaeological excavations have been allowed on the Temple Mount during modern times. Therefore, there are very few pieces of archaeological evidence for the existence of Solomon's Temple. An Ivory pomegranate which mentions priests in the house of ---h, and an inscription recording the Temple's restoration under Jehoash have both appeared on the antiquities market, but their authenticity has been challenged and they are the subject of controversy. 

The only source of information on the First Temple is the Tanakh. ccording to the biblical sources, the temple was constructed under Solomon, during the united monarchy of Israel and Judah. The Bible describes Hiram I of Tyre who furnished architects, workmen and cedar timbers for the temple of his ally Solomon at Jerusalem. He also co-operated with Solomon in mounting an expedition on the Red Sea. 

More information: Smithsonian

1 Kings 6:1 puts the date of the beginning of building the temple in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel. The conventional dates of Solomon's reign are circa 970 to 931 BCE. This puts the date of its construction in the mid-10th century BCE. Rabbinic sources tate that the First Temple stood for 410 years and, based on the 2nd-century work Seder Olam Rabbah, place construction in 832 BCE and destruction in 422 BCE (3338 AM), 165 years later than secular estimates. The exact location of the Temple is unknown: it is believed to have been situated upon the hill which forms the site of the 1st century Second Temple and present-day Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock is situated.

Modern 3D reproduction of Solomon's Temple

Rituals in Freemasonry refer to King Solomon and the building of his Temple. Masonic buildings, where Lodge members meet, are sometimes called temples; an allegoric reference to King Solomon's Temple.

Kabbalah views the design of the Temple of Solomon as representative of the metaphysical world and the descending light of the creator through Sephirot of the Tree of Life. The levels of the outer, inner and priest's courts represent three lower worlds of Kabbalah. The Boaz and Jachin pillars at the entrance of the temple represent the active and passive elements of the world of Atziluth. The original menorah and its seven branches represent the seven lower Sephirot of the Tree of Life. The veil of the Holy of Holies and the inner part of the temple represent the Veil of the Abyss on the Tree of Life, behind which the Shekhina or Divine presence hovers.

The Temple in Jerusalem is mentioned in verse 7 of the surah Al-Isra in the Quran; commentators of Quran such as Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur postulate that this verse refers specifically to the Temple of Solomon. 

More information: Universal Freemasonry

Kindness and faithfulness keep a king safe, 

through kindness his throne is made secure.

King Solomon