Bronze Altar
The bronze altar is 20 cubits square and 10 cubits high in the Chronicles account (2 Chronicles 4:1). Its illustrated horns, top profile, and base are inferred forms; that verse supplies no such details.
Key points
- Sacrificial service precedes the temple house.
- Look for: A broad bronze altar before the entrance.
- Illustrated location: Courts
- A reconstruction of Solomon’s First Temple from 1 Kings 6–8 and 2 Chronicles 3–4. Ten lampstands and ten tables follow Chronicles; this is a different building from the Second Temple described by Josephus. The house and inner-room proportions follow Kings. Courts, furnishing spacing, vertical details, and the exposed cutaway are schematic. The upper side-chamber stories are omitted. Smaller furnishings, including the Ark, are enlarged or simplified for visibility. The texts do not specify an exact visual blueprint or the forms of the cherubim. Pillar heights and the Sea’s capacity differ between Kings and Chronicles; the relevant landmark notes preserve those differences. Symmetric rows on both physical sides are one reading of the right/left descriptions. Rashi instead places the lampstands together south and the tables together north, interpreting right/left relative to Moses’ original furnishings. The gilding of all ten tables, altar horns, entrance steps, and exact furniture profiles are inferred display choices, not details stated together in Chronicles. Small service vessels, including the hundred golden basins of 2 Chronicles 4:8, are not individually modeled.
- Preparing and offering the gifts (Orthodox reception): Bread and wine are prepared at the prothesis and carried through the nave in the Great Entrance to the Holy Table. Against the background of biblical offerings, Orthodox theology understands the Eucharist as participation in Christ’s once-for-all self-offering.
- The Great Entrance carries gifts still to be consecrated. The Eucharist does not repeat Christ’s death, and the preparation table is not a surviving animal-sacrifice altar.
Scripture
- 2 Chronicles 4 — The bronze altar is 20 cubits square and 10 cubits high in the Chronicles account (2 Chronicles 4:1). Its illustrated horns, top profile, and base are inferred forms; that verse supplies no such details.
- Hebrews 9:1–12, 24–28 — Preparing and offering the gifts: Bread and wine are prepared at the prothesis and carried through the nave in the Great Entrance to the Holy Table. Against the background of biblical offerings, Orthodox theology understands the Eucharist as participation in Christ’s once-for-all self-offering.
- Hebrews 10:10–22 — Preparing and offering the gifts: Bread and wine are prepared at the prothesis and carried through the nave in the Great Entrance to the Holy Table. Against the background of biblical offerings, Orthodox theology understands the Eucharist as participation in Christ’s once-for-all self-offering.