The first Temple, built by Solomon is anything but the effort of a single man or single people. Rather, the temple planning and construction was a hugely collaborative effort. People who were not Hebrews were employed to do the designing and work required to build such a temple. Without much knowledge of such conditions one would rather easily assume that the first temple, the Temple of Solomon would be a highly Hebrew production. But in this paper I will show you that is not the case and the efforts of many non-Hebrew people determined the outcome of this temple’s finished product.
David lived in a magnificent house, while the ark stayed in a old, ratty tent. For this reason he felt a temple must be built to house God. But this was not the only inspiration for building the temple. Many of the surrounding nations had temples, yet Israel did not. So to combat this, a temple would be built to show the power of YHWH over the idol gods of surrounding nations. In response to King David’s request for a census of the land, Gad told David to go to Mount Moriah and he built an altar on the threshing floor of Aurauna the Jebusite to make peace offerings. This is the site of where YHWH told Abraham to kill his son. And it would be the site of the temple.
Originally Jerusalem was a Phoenician city, and David attacked it he gained control of part of the city. When he wanted a site to build the temple on he had to by it from Aurauna for 50 pieces of silver. Unfortunately for David YHWH did not want him to build the temple. He had waged too much war and had too much blood on his hands to be the builder of YHWH’s temple. Instead YHWH told David that he would have a son named Solomon and he would be the builder of the temple. Knowing that his future son would not have great skill in building David made preparations ahead of time by gathering supplies for the temple, so at the time of its construction it could be built without too much planning or gathering of raw materials. Some of these supplies included 3,000 tons of gold and 30,000 tons of silver. His collaboration with King Hiram of Tyre to acquire some of these materials would prove to be an important one.
Solomon like his father David, was known as a good king. Part of this was due to the fact that YHWH told David he would give his son peace as a ruler. One of the greatest aspects of Solomon was his dictatorship skill. He even married a pharaoh’s daughter to keep the peace. This was of course a mutual agreement between the two parties but never the less it speaks to his peace keeping skills. One of these men that Solomon kept the peace with was King Hiram of Tyre. So when Solomon’s father David died, the peace and partnership they had was carried over to Hiram and Solomon allowing the building of the temple.
The temple construction itself was a massive undertaking. Construction started in the fourth year of Solomon’ reign. Beyond the Phoenician craftsman and the Hebrew workers there were also 30,000 unskilled workers. These unskilled workers were recognized in the bible as “foreigners” but in fact that is completely false. These foreigners were often the Phoenician residents of Israel and Judah. They’re described as such in the bible to separate the Hebrew people from the rest in the land. Solomon would make these workers forcibly work for one month on and two months off and at least 10,000 at a time. Many often cite the idea that Solomon treated these workers much in the same way that the Hebrews were treated in Egypt. Many Phoenician sagas even talk about the building of the temple. Most time sagas would speak of wars and battles. But in Solomon’s time their was only peace, but this forced labor was endured none the less.
The temple itself was almost a exact replica of the Phoenician temple at Tyre. It had and outer hallway or an “ulam.” It also had an open courtyard called a “heikal” and an inner holy of holies called a “debir.” The two main pillars also replicated the Phoenician design. The pillars origins in Phoenician come from honoring the gods, Astarte and Baal, one pillar for each.
Wood was a much needed material. And Hiram offered to send as much as Solomon needed. So cedars and pines were taken from Chouf mountain region in Lebanon and floated down the sea to Joppa where they were then dragged to Jerusalem. This wood was much needed as the whole interior of the temple was paneled with cedar, along with the roofs. The floors were made of pine and everything was intricately carved with gourds, fruits and other designs like palm trees and cherubims which was as strictly Phoenician design.. Another large material given to by the Phoenicians were their purple cloth. Purple, blue and red cloth was used to decorate the temple. Once again these were Phoenician exports used to build/decorate the temple. Often designs were put into these cloths to make them even more spectacular then they already were.
The temple itself was built of stone. This had to be quarried of course and the Phoenicians were the right people to do it. These masons were from the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Jbail. They would use large stones because the Levant was located in the great rift valley and this gave some earthquake protection. The Levant being a large area that included Israel and Pheonicia along Northern Egypt and other areas. Apparently the masons cuts from the quarry were so precise that when they were put together on site they fit without any chiseling. These masons that cut the stone for the temple are the beginning of what is now the secretive free mason society which as I said dates back to the Phoenicians.
Metal was also used in the temple construction. Not in the typical sense that we would think like steel or iron, but rather gold and bronze. The gold was used on everything from the inner temple chamber to covering doors and walkways. Bronze however was the most popular metal in the temple construction, it was used in making everything from basins to bowls. To aquire these metals Solomon created a foundry in Sukkoth and Zeredah in the Jordan Valley. Almost all functional metal in the temple was bronze and attributed to Huram. The gold was used just as bronze was also. Not only did it decorate doors but altars and basins were made out of gold too. Among other things made from these metals were pots, carts, shovels etc. There was also a bit of silver used, but not nearly as much as gold or bronze. Again a Phoenician craftsman was hired to do this work, his name was Huram as previously stated. All of these items were supposedly taken from the temple when Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians took over control.
The size of the first temple is something that is still disputed to this day. Since the remains of the temple have not been found we can only go by scripture as to how big the temple was. In one account the temple is not very big at all. One claim says it was 27 meters long and 9 meters wide and 14 meters high. But there is another account that puts the temple at nearly twenty stores high. This of course could be a mistake because that would have been unheard of back in those days. The problem is that the scribes who wrote this information down did not have a background in engineering or architecture.

As you can see I haven’t talked much about Israel’s workers or craftsmen. And there are two reasons for that. One, Solomon’s people the Hebrews were not skilled craftsmen. They had never been a kingdom long enough to allow their arts and crafts to flourish or even develop. As it often is with warring tribes or kingdoms, the focus seems to be more on necessity rather than vanity. King David was smart to befriend Hiram in that without Hiram and Phoenician help the temple would have never been built. Almost all design, materials, and workers came from Phoenicia. It is a bit ironic that something as important as the first temple to the Jewish people was created really in part no thanks to themselves. And when people often think of the temple they do not think of Phoenicia. Hiram is the big loser in this deal. One would think that with all the help and materials he provided for Solomon that Solomon would be very gracious and give him a large gift in return. But the story goes that Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the region of Galilee. But when Hiram saw the cities he was greatly disappointed and today the region is still called “cabul” meaning worthless.
The temple was completed in the autumn of Solomon’s eleventh year of reign. So in all it took seven years to complete the temple. What we do not know is why but Solomon let the temple sit empty on the mountain top for thirteen years after its completion. But finally the temple was dedicated in the month of Tishri and two festivals, the feast of dedication and the feast of tabernacles were held. Finally on the eighth day of the feast of tabernacles the people were dismissed and the temple was finally complete.