Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 4-6.

I’ve written about this before, but I don’t think even then I really thought about its implications.  Solomon’s temple was not very big.  The various descriptions later in the Bible about the repairs various kings made to the temple leave us with the impression that it was a massive building.  This is not the intention, or fault, of the writers.  It happens because we read back into our the Bible our perceptions of the world.  So, how big was the temple Solomon had built?  Well, the passage says that it was 60 cubits long by 20 cubits wide by 30 cubits high.  The translation notes say that converts to 90 feet long by 30 feet wide by 45 feet high.  That means it was 2,700 square feet.  For comparison, in 2015 the average home in the United States was 2,687 square feet (the average has dropped some since then).  That means that many American homes are larger than Solomon’s temple.  For another comparison, St Peter’s Basilica, the largest church building in the world, is a little over 69,000 square feet, which is more than thirteen times the size of Solomon’s temple.  I think it is important that we keep this in mind as we read the later accounts about the temple being restored after being allowed to fall into disrepair.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.