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Baroque Visions of the Temple of Jerusalem

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Baroque Visions of the Temple of Jerusalem Oz Volume 17 Article 8 1-1-1995 Baroque Visions of the Temple of Jerusalem Michael Rabens Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/oz Part of the Architecture Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Rabens, Michael (1995) "Baroque Visions of the Temple of Jerusalem," Oz: Vol. 17. https://doi.org/ 10.4148/2378-5853.1274 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Oz by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Baroque Visions of the Temple of Jerusalem Michael Rabens The ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem in two courtyards. While the texts pro­ a man "whose appearance was like the temple. A school of modern Biblical has excited interest among artists, ar­ vide detailed descriptions of the tem­ appearance of brass" (Ezekiel 40:3), critics, which posits the existence of a chitects, and scholars for many cen­ ple building and its interior spaces, the measuring instrum ~ nts in hand, pro­ Pseudo-Ezekiel who wrote many parts turies. There has been a steady stream courtyards of the temple are barely ceeded to give him a guided tour of the of the prophet's book (including the of attempts to reconstruct its appear­ mentioned. There is a passing reference temple. Ezekiel is shown a temple chapters describing the temple) after ance, despite an overwhelming lack of to "the inner court" (I Kings 6:36), which seemingly resembles the Temple the Jews returned from exile, has adopt­ physical evidence. Before 1800, the vast which implies the existence of an outer of Solomon as described in I Kings and ed a variation of this view. According majority of the restorers had never vis­ court; another passage (II Chronicles II Chronicles; it consists of a temple to their thesis, the Pseudo-Ezekiel ited the actual site of the temple; had 4:9) refers to "the court of the priests" building set within two courtyards. would naturally have described the re­ they journeyed to Jerusalem, they and "the great court." Neither text gives Unlike these two texts, Ezekiel's ac­ built temple as it existed at that time. 2 would have found little of any use. The any indication of their shape or size. count devotes much space to describing buildings were razed to the ground in the extensive courtyards. Ezekiel gives Others believe that the Temple of the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 The construction of the Second Tem­ precise dimensions for the plan of every Ezekiel does not correspond to any his­ A.D.; since the seventh century, the ple was undertaken as early as 537 part of the complex, but he gives no in­ torical version of the Temple of platform that housed the Jewish tem­ B.C., and completed by 515 B.C. Very formation on heights or elevations. The Jerusalem; Ezekiel's temple would be ple has been occupied by an ensemble little is known about the temple at this resulting image is one of a temple what he says it is: a prophetic vision. oflslamic structures which includes the stage; much more is known of the ex­ which is rigorously regular and sym­ When considered within the chrono­ Dome of the Rock and the El-Aqsa tensive improvements built under metrical in plan. logical order of Ezekiel's many visions, Mosque. As no graphic representations Herod the Great, beginning about 20 his vision of the temple could not be of the temple survive from the period B.C. Josephus describes Herod's It has never been conclusively deter­ connected to any of the real structures. before its destruction, the restorers have Temple in both of his major histories, mined which version of the historical In the text, Ezekiel's temple vision oc­ had to rely on textual evidence from the \Vtzrs ofthe jews and Antiquities ofthe Temple of Jerusalem (if any) Ezekiel's curs immediately after his prophecy of Hebrew Bible, the histories of Flavius jews. Josephus indicates that Herod en­ vision represents. One view holds that the "War of Gog and Magog," a war Josephus, and a smattering of other larged the temple building and sur­ Ezekiel's vision depicts the Temple of fought against the restored kingdom of sources. Yet these limitations have never rounded it by four courtyards, each Solomon as it appeared on the eve of Israel "in the end of days." These are restrained the imaginations of those ringed by several colonnades. Although its destruction in 586 B.C. Ezekiel is code words for the period which will who would restore the Temple of the Second Temple was considerably believed to have been a priest in the precede the Messianic redemption (for Jerusalem. larger and more magnificent than the temple until he was exiled in 597 B.C.; Jews) or the Second Coming of Christ Temple of Solomon, it is the earlier therefore he would have been familiar (for Christians). Most Jewish inter­ The Temple of Jerusalem was in fact structure that has always received the with its appearance. According to this preters hold that Ezekiel describes the two successive structures which stood lion's share of attention. view, the temple building had not form of the "Third Temple" of the fu­ on the same site. 1 The original struc­ changed since the days of Solomon, but ture, followed by a description of the ture, the Temple of Solomon, was In the midst of this archaeological and the extensive apparatus of symmetrical ritual to be practiced there. 3 Christian begun in 960 B.C., the fourth year of textual profusion another text stands courtyards was the work of later kings interpretations have also focused on the Solomon's reign, and destroyed in 586 somewhat apart. Chapters 40-43 of the of Judah. visionary nature of the description.4 B.C. This structure is best known from Book of Ezekiel contain a lengthy de­ parallel descriptions in the First Book of scription of the temple, which was im­ Other views hold that Ezekiel's vision Perhaps this is the reason why Ezekiel's Kings (Ch. 6-7) and the Second Book parted to the prophet in a vision. describes the earliest state of the Second description was rarely used in attempts of Chronicles (Ch. 3-4). It consisted Ezekiel states that in the year 572 B.C. Temple. In this case, Ezekiel could be to reconstruct the Temple of Jerusalem of the temple building proper, set with- he was transported to Jerusalem, where preparing a blueprint for rebuilding the made before 1600.5 Shortly thereafter 39 his text became very prominent, due to the Doric entablature. His only evi­ the efforts of a Spanish Jesuit, Juan dence for this came from his question­ Bautista Villalpando. Together with able interpretation of a passage in Hieronimo Prado he published an ex­ Josephus, who stated that the eastern haustive three-volume commentary on gate of the Second Temple was the Book of Ezekiel. Villalpando wrote sheathed in Corinthian bronze (Wars the second volume (1604) himself; it is 5.201). Villalpando's assertion that the devoted exclusively to Ezekiel's descrip­ temple's form was constant through ten tfon of the temple.6 Villalpando provid­ centuries allowed him to interpolate ed a more vivid and detailed presenta­ other details taken from Josephus, pre­ tion of the temple than any attempted sumably when Ezekiel neglected to earlier, and he had it sumptuously illus­ mention them. trated. Villalpando's version of Ezekiel's vision was conceived wholly within the Villalpando also played fast and loose formal language of Renaissance architec­ with Ezekiel's text. Where Ezekiel de­ ture; in certain respects it resembles the scribes two concentric square court­ Escorial, the most notable Renaissance yards adjacent to the temple building, monument in Spain_? The decision to Villalpando drew a grid of nine identi­ represent the temple in the architectural cal square courtyards. This decision style of the day was not unusual; this had was based on Ezekiel46:21: "Then he been done before. It was the unprece­ [Ezekiel's guide] brought me forth into dented claims he made for his recon­ the outer court, and caused me to pass struction which made Villalpando's pro­ by the four corners of the court; and johannes Coccejus, Temple ofEzekie~ 1669, Plan ject remarkable. behold, in every corner of the court there was a court." But Villalpando The most astonishing of Villalpando's simply ignored the modest dimensions these chambers to the upper floors and German-born theologian at the Univer­ claims was his declaration that Ezekiel's of these corner courts, given in the very provided many more than thirty. To sity of Leiden named Koch, who pub­ description represented the temple as next verse, and blew them up to a size top it all off, Villalpando placed the lished under the Latinized name of it had always existed in an unchanging that suited his designs. To this gridiron temple on a stupendous platform Johannes Coccejus. In 1669 he pub­ form from Solomon to Herod; he flat­ plan he added a further concentric whose retaining walls are lined with lished his own commentary on Ezekiel ly rejected the historical record, which courtyard ringed with a triple colon­ enormous flared buttresses. with nineteen plates depicting a tem­ included the inconvenient fact that nade. This last feature is the Court of ple pruned of Villalpando's interpola­ Herod had enlarged the temple. the Gentiles as described by Josephus Villalpando's reconstruction was ac­ tions.10 Coccejus restored the temple Villalpando also asserted that the tem­ (Wars 5.190); Ezekiel does not men­ cepted and imitated by many; Fischer with two large courts, one inside the ple had been designed by God, and he tion it.
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