Temple

"palace; temple." This word is indirectly derived from the Sumerian egal, "large house, palace," and more directly from the Akkadian ekallu, "large house." The influence of the Akkadian ekallu spread to the Northwest Semitic languages. In post-biblical Hebrew the meaning became limited to "temple." The Hekhal Shlomo ("Temple of Solomon") in modern Jerusalem signifies the building of Israel's chief rabbinate, in absence of the temple. The word occurs 78 times from First Samuel to Malachi, most frequently in Ezekiel. The first usage pertains to the tabernacle at Shiloh (1Sam 1:9).

The word "palace" in English versions may have one of three Hebrew words behind it: hêkal, bayit, or ’armôn. The Sumero-Akkadian meaning "palace" for hêkal is still to be found in biblical Hebrew. The hêkal with its 15 usages as "palace" refers to the palaces of Ahab (1Kings 21:1), of the king of Babylon (2Kings 20:18), and of Nineveh (Nah 2:6). The "palace" was luxuriously decorated and the residents enjoyed the fulfillment of their pleasures; cf.: "And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged" (Isa 13:22). The psalmist compared beautiful girls to fine pillars in an ornate "palace": "…That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace" (Psa 144:12). Amos prophesied that the "songs of the palace" (kjv, "temple") were to turn to wailing at the destruction of the northern kingdom (Amos 8:3, nasb).

Hêkal with the meaning "temple" is generally clarified in the context by two markers that follow. The first marker is the addition "of the Lord": "And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel" (Ezra 3:10). The second marker is a form of the word qodesh, "holy": "O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps" (Psa 79:1). Sometimes the definite article suffices to identify the "temple in Jerusalem": "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple" (Isa 6:1), especially in a section dealing with the "temple" (Ezek 41).

The Old Testament also speaks about the heavenly hêkal, the hêkal of God. It is difficult to decide on a translation, whether "palace" or "temple." Most versions opt in favor of the "temple" idea: "Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple" (Mic 1:2; cf. Psa 5:7; Psa 11:4; Hab 2:20). "In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears" (2Sam 22:7). However, since Scripture portrays the presence of the royal judgment throne in heaven, it is not altogether impossible that the original authors had a royal "palace" in mind. The imagery of the throne, the "palace," and judgment seems to lie behind Psa 11:4-5. "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth."

The Septuagint has the words naos ("temple") and oikos ("house; palace; dwelling; household").

the neuter of the adjective hieros, "sacred," is used as a noun denoting "a sacred place, a temple," that of Artemis (Diana), Act 19:27; that in Jerusalem, Mar 11:11, signifying the entire building with its precincts, or some part thereof, as distinct from the naos, "the inner sanctuary" (see No. 2); apart from the Gospels and Acts, it is mentioned only in 1Co 9:13. Christ taught in one of the courts, to which all the people had access. Hieron is never used figuratively. The Temple mentioned in the Gospels and Acts was begun by Herod in 20 B.C., and destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.

"a shrine or sanctuary," was used (a) among the heathen, to denote the shrine containing the idol, Act 17:24, Act 19:24 (in the latter, miniatures); (b) among the Jews, the sanctuary in the "Temple," into which only the priests could lawfully enter, e.g., Luk 1:9, Luk 1:1-22; Christ, as being of the tribe of Judah, and thus not being a priest while upon the earth (Heb 1:7-14, Heb 8:4), did not enter the naos; for 2Th 2:4 see Note (below); (c) by Christ metaphorically, of His own physical body, Joh 2:19, Joh 2:21; (d) in apostolic teaching, metaphorically, (1) of the Church, the mystical Body of Christ, Eph 2:21; (2) of a local church, 1Co 1:3-17, 2Co 6:16; (3) of the present body of the individual believer, 1Co 6:19; (4) of the "Temple" seen in visions in the Apocalypse, Rev 3:12, Rev 7:15, Rev 11:19, Rev 14:15, Rev 14:17, Rev 1:15-6, Rev 15:8, Rev 16:1, Rev 16:17; (5) of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, as the "Temple" of the new and heavenly Jerusalem, Rev 21:22. See SANCTUARY and HOLY, B (b), par. 4.

Notes: (1) The "temple" mentioned in 2Th 2:4 (naos), as the seat of the Man of Sin, has been regarded in different ways. The weight of Scripture evidence is in favor of the view that it refers to a literal "temple" in Jerusalem, to be reconstructed in the future (cp. Dan 11:31, Dan 12:11, with Mat 24:15). For a fuller examination of the passage, see Notes on Thessalonians, by Hogg and Vine, pp. 250-252. (2) For oikos, rendered "temple," Luk 11:51, AV, see HOUSE, No. 1.