Temple (Lat. templum; cf. Gr. temenos, from temnein, 'to cut off,' and so 'set apart'), a place or building dedicated to the worship of a god or gods, and amongst most peoples rendered impressive by the noblest architecture and richest adornment available. The history of Greek temple-building is largely the history of Greek Architecture, and is discussed at that head. See also the articles on OLYMPIA, EPHESUS, ATHENS, &c. For other than Greek temples, see ROMAN ARCHITECTURE, PANTHEON, ROME; INDIA (Architecture), PAGODA, ELEPHANTA, ELLORA; EGYPT (Vol. IV. pp. 235, 236), EDFU, ABU-SIMBEL, PHILÆ; CHINA (Vol. III. p. 187), PEKING; BAALBEK, PALMYRA, BORBUDOR, TEOCALLI, &c., where illustrations of many types of temple will be found.
The Temple of Jerusalem has quite exceptional interest for us. When David brought the ark of Jehovah to Jerusalem, he pitched a tent for it within his citadel, and offered sacrifices before it. The Temple of Solomon replaced this temporary sanctuary, and in like manner consisted essentially of a chamber to contain the ark, and a court in front for the worshippers and their sacrifices. This was the common type of ancient temples, especially in Phœnicia, save that in them the place of the ark was taken by a sacred cippus ('pillar') or image. It was therefore natural that the Hebrew king, whose own subjects were unskilled in architecture, should send to Hiram, the great temple-building king of Tyre, for architects and workmen, and that the plan and decoration of the new sanctuary closely followed Phœnician models. The 'house,' as was often the case in greater temples, consisted of two divisions—the adytum, 'oracle,' or chamber of the ark, and an antechamber, in which stood the table of showbread, ten candlesticks of gold, and other articles of sacred furniture. The former was a cube of 20 cubits, or 30 feet; the antechamber had the same breadth, but was 40 cubits long and 20 high. In front of this again was a portico 10 cubits deep. Both the oracle and the outer chamber had folding-doors; the inner walls were lined with cedar and richly overlaid with gold, the motive of the ornament being the Phœnician cherub and palm-tree. Two cherubs with outstretched wings stood in the adytum and formed a sort of baldachin over the ark. The roof was probably high-pitched, and supported on wooden pillars (1 Kings, x. 12). There were windows, either in the gables or in a sort of clerestory that rose above the triple tier of small chambers by which the main building was encased on all sides except the front. Of the façade we have no account, but perhaps we may conclude from the description of Ezekiel's ideal temple that the portico was adorned with slender turrets like those shown on numismatic representations of the temple at Paphos. In front of the porch stood two pillars of bronze, 18 cubits high, with lotus-shaped capitals. Similar free-standing pillars are seen on coins in front of the temple of Paphos, and the same feature reappears in other eastern temples. We read of an inner and an outer court; the former was the proper court of the temple, the latter was the court of the palace as well as of the sanctuary, which thus presented itself as essentially the royal chapel. Later kings of Judah made considerable changes in and about the temple; thus Jer. xxxvi. 10 speaks of a 'new gate' in the 'higher court,' which is perhaps the same with the 'new court' of 2 Chron. xx. 5. Solomon's temple was burned by Nebuzaradan, Nebuchadnezzar's general, in the year 588 B.C.
The Temple of Zerubbabel, completed in 516 B.C., after long efforts and much discouragement, was designed, according to Ezra, vi. 3, to exceed the old in magnitude. But whether the dimensions there specified (a breadth and height of 60 cubits) were actually attained seems doubtful in view of Hag. ii. 3. In this temple, as in that of Herod, the folding-doors of the adytum were replaced by a veil or curtain; the altar in front of the house was a great platform of stone; the furniture was inferior in splendour; the ark was wanting; and there was only one golden candlestick. In the course of time a multitude of subordinate buildings grew up round the 'house,' in accordance with the requirements of a more elaborate priestly ritual. The circuit was fortified; and the approach to it from the higher ground on the north-west was further covered by a citadel, called the Aera or Baris. At the time of Pompey's siege (63 B.C.) the temple complex was an almost impregnable stronghold, strengthened on its weakest side (to the north) by great towers and a deep ditch.
The Temple of Herod, commenced by Herod the Great in his eighteenth year (about January 19 B.C.), was new from the foundations and, with its outer courts and surrounding colonnades, covered double the old area. To form so large a level space on the hill-top of Zion enormous substructures were necessary, except along the east side, where the colonnade rested on old works ascribed to Solomon, and was accordingly known as Solomon's porch (John, x. 23; Acts, iii. 11; v. 12). According to Josephus, the southern and eastern colonnades were each a stadium, or 600 feet, in length, and the whole circuit of the plateau, including the citadel of Antonia, which stood at the north-west corner, and replaced the Baris, was six stadia. The citadel, which was occupied by the garrison, was of course not holy ground; but neither was the adjacent temple enclosure, connected with the Antonia by a flight of stairs, and usually called the outer court, or, by modern writers, the Court of the Gentiles. Besides its porticos or colonnades, the outer court had various buildings connected with the priestly service, and also contained, near one of the western entrances, the council chamber of the Sanhedrim. It was here too that the money-changers and dealers in articles required for sacrifice had their tables and stalls. Towards the centre of this temple enclosure was a quadrangular platform, lying east and west—the 'inner court.' This, according to Josephus, was surrounded on all sides by walls, of which the external height was 40 cubits, and the internal 25 cubits, its floor being thus 15 cubits above the level of the outer court. On three sides it was surrounded by flights of steps; and the whole was cut off from the rest of the enclosure by a stone balustrade, 3 cubits high, with pillars at regular intervals bearing Greek and Latin inscriptions forbidding the alien to pass on pain of death. The eastern wall of this inner court was pierced by one gate; the north and south walls had four each; the west wall was unbroken. The eastern gate was exceptionally splendid, being made of 'Corinthian brass' and not merely overlaid like the others with silver and gold. The eastern and smaller portion of the inner court was walled off from the rest and known as the Court of the Women. The larger western portion, the Court of the Men (of Israel), stood on a somewhat higher level, and, besides having gates of its own on the north and south, was entered from the Court of the Women by the large 'Nicanor' gate; either this or the gate of Corinthian brass already mentioned was the 'Beautiful Gate' of Acts, iii. 2. The inner court was colonnaded all round, and there were chambers or 'treasuries' against the inner wall. In the middle of the Court of the Men stood the temple proper, again on a higher level, reached by a flight of twelve steps. Its ground-plan was the same as that of Solomon's temple, but its height, obviously with a view to harmony with the larger surroundings, was greater (60 cubits?), and the porch was 100 cubits broad and 100 cubits high. The 'holy place' (as it is usually called) contained the candlestick with seven lamps, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense; the 'holy of holies,' separated by an exceedingly thick and heavy veil, was empty. In front of the fane was the stone altar, 50 cubits square and 15 high, according to Josephus. Round temple and altar ran a stone fence, about a cubit in height, which marked off the so-called Court of the Priests from the area accessible to the laity. The fane proper was completed eighteen months after its commencement, but the 'building' of Herod's temple in the larger sense of the word was still in progress when our Lord began His ministry (John, ii. 20) and was not in fact finished till the procuratorship of Albinus (62-64 A.D.). The whole was burned to the ground when Jerusalem was taken by Titus (August 70 A.D.).
Those scholars who accept Josephus' measurements (he wrote from memory and some years after the temple had been destroyed) necessarily hold that the temple enclosure occupied only a portion of the present Haram area, which measures about 1500 feet from north to south, with a breadth of some 922 feet. Others, however, regard Josephus' figures as much too small, and, broadly speaking, consider that the whole of the Haram area was levelled up by Herod. According to the first view, the so-called Sakhra or 'Dome of the Rock' fell outside the temple area, but the supporters of the second view generally accept the tradition according to which the Sakhra marks the site of the holy of holies. It can be shown, however, that this tradition does not go further back than the reign of Abd al-Melik (691 A.D.). It is agreed on all hands that the south-west angle of the Haram area is the south-west angle of Herod's temple, and that the line of the west wall of that area is the west wall of the temple, or of the temple and Antonia. Two of the most important data for the modern topographer seem to be the arch known as Robinson's arch at the south-west corner, and that known as Wilson's arch, 600 feet to the north of it; they seem to correspond to the two more southerly gates on the west mentioned by Josephus, which led respectively to the southern and northern porticos of the temple enclosure. The best judges, such as Petrie, believe that nothing older than Herod is found in the extant western walls and substructures. Of other supposed data it is to be observed that, if Josephus' measurements are correct, the arch substructures on the south, known as 'Solomon's Stables,' are post-Herodian; on this view they are to be identified with the substructures of Justinian's church mentioned by Procopius. The so-called 'Golden Gate' in the eastern wall of the Haram area is certainly post-Herodian.
See De Vogué, Le Temple de Jérusalem (1864); Ferguson, The Temples of the Jews (1878), Thrupp, Antient Jerusalem (1855); the publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund; and the important art. 'Temple' by Robertson Smith in the Ency. Brit.; also Schürer, art. 'Temple' in Riehm's Bibl. Wörterbuch. See also the article JERUSALEM, Vol. VI. p. 303.