Carved Walls & Doors
Cherubim, palms, and open flowers are carved on both rooms’ walls, the inner olive-wood doors, and the folding cypress doors of the main hall. Gold covers the carved work (1 Kings 6:29–35; 2 Chronicles 3:7).
Key points
- The sanctuary’s sacred imagery appears in its architecture as well as its furnishings.
- Look for: Winged figures, palm trees, and flower reliefs repeated on gilded panels and doors.
- Illustrated location: Porch & Holy Place
- 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.
- Sacred imagery and the Incarnation (Christian typology): Solomon’s Temple had carved cherubim, palms, and flowers. Orthodox icons relate sacred imagery to the Incarnation: the Son became visible in human flesh. The iconostasis, icon stand, apse, and dome invite prayer directed to the persons depicted.
- Biblical Temple ornament is a precedent for sacred imagery; it does not by itself establish every later Orthodox practice. Jewish and Christian understandings of religious images differ across communities and periods.
Scripture
- 1 Kings 6 — Cherubim, palms, and open flowers are carved on both rooms’ walls, the inner olive-wood doors, and the folding cypress doors of the main hall. Gold covers the carved work (1 Kings 6:29–35; 2 Chronicles 3:7).
- 2 Chronicles 3 — Cherubim, palms, and open flowers are carved on both rooms’ walls, the inner olive-wood doors, and the folding cypress doors of the main hall. Gold covers the carved work (1 Kings 6:29–35; 2 Chronicles 3:7).
- 1 Kings 6:1–35 — Sacred imagery and the Incarnation: Solomon’s Temple had carved cherubim, palms, and flowers. Orthodox icons relate sacred imagery to the Incarnation: the Son became visible in human flesh. The iconostasis, icon stand, apse, and dome invite prayer directed to the persons depicted.
- John 1:14–18 — Sacred imagery and the Incarnation: Solomon’s Temple had carved cherubim, palms, and flowers. Orthodox icons relate sacred imagery to the Incarnation: the Son became visible in human flesh. The iconostasis, icon stand, apse, and dome invite prayer directed to the persons depicted.