ORIENTAL DISCOYEKIES OX OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 



35 



liistorical information regardin^i; Isi'ael until we reach tlie 

 eightli century B.C. It is at that ])»-rio(I that Kuenen, for 

 example, begins his account of "The lleligion of Israel." 

 Whatever of so-called history goes back to an earlier time is 

 set down as undoubted tradition, and the splendours assigned 

 to the period of Solomon are hirgely due, we are told, to the 

 cakmities which the Israel of the narrator's time was compelled 

 to endure. Now nothing in the history of 1 Kings is invested 

 with such splendouras the construction of Solomon's Temple. But 

 themagnihcenceof that structure has been demonstrated by the 

 researches of Warren and others. The greatest care was exercised, 

 for example, in regard to the foundations of the Temple. The 

 rock at one corner (the south-east) consists of soft stone. This 

 has been cut away, and the foundation stones rest upon the hard 

 rock beneath. That rock was struck at what Mr. King well 

 calls " the enormous depth " of over To feet below the present 

 surface.* Another speaks of the excavations as "astounding 

 us by the stupendous nature and extent of the masonry."! We 

 read in 1 Kings v, 17, that "the king commanded and they 

 brought great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the 

 house." This also has been confiimed. At one portion of the 

 walls, part of the second Temple, Herod's w^ork, rests upon a 

 substructure belonging to the first Temple. Though the upper 

 portion consists of large stones and excellent masonry, these are 

 utterly eclipsed by what lies beneath. Here the stones, says 

 Mr. King, "are magnificent blocks, with clean-cut marginal 

 drafts and finely dressed faces." And again : " The corner 

 stone of the Great Course at the south-east angle is a gigantic 

 block^ twenty-six feet long, over six feet high and seven feet 

 wide. . . . This colossal stone . . . weighs over a 

 hundred tons, and is, therefore, the heaviest, though not the 

 longest, stone visible in the sanctuary wall." The stones were 

 also " costly " both in their material and in their workmanship. 

 " The Temple of Solomon was built," says Warren, " of the 

 beautiful white stone of the country, the hard missae, which 

 will bear a considerable amount of polish." He also speaks of 

 the marvellous joints of the Sanctuary wall stones." These 

 are further described by Mr. King. He says that the joints are 

 so finely worked that they are scarcely discernible. " The 

 blade of a knife," he adds, " can scarcely be thrust in between 

 Ihem." Here, then, 1 Kings has given us an exact description, 



* Recent Discoveries on the Temple Hill. 

 t Recovery of Jerusalem, p. 389. 



