Pillars of the Porch

General Ahiman Rezon, by Daniel Sickels, [1868], at sacred-texts.com

The Pillars of the Porch.

For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece; and a line of twelve cubits (lid compass either of them about.—I. KINGS Vii. 15.

Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.—II. CHRON. iii. 15.

And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars; the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits.—I. KINGS vii. 16.

The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the chapiter upon it was brass: and the height of the chapiter three cubits; and the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the chapiter round

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about all of brass: and like unto these had the second pillar with wreathen work.—II. Kiwis xxv. 17. ^*

THE TWO BRAZEN PILLARS

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WHICH ornamented the porch of King SOLOMON'S Temple, were fluted, with sixteen flutes each, a hand's breadth (about four inches) in depth. Their shafts were eighteen cubits high (I. KINGS vii. 15; JEREMIAH lii. 21), about thirty feet seven inches; the circumference of the shaft at the base was fourteen cubits, twenty-three feet eleven inches (LXX. version I. KINGS vii. 15), giving a diameter of about seven feet seven inches. At the top, the circumference was twelve cubits, giving a diameter of six feet eight inches (JEREMIAH lii. 21; I. KINGS vii. 15). They were surmounted by chapiters; the chapiters were composed of seven wreaths of twisted brass, set perpendicularly on an abacus of seven sides, crowning the shaft of each pillar. These wreaths were three cubits high (II. KINGS xxv. 17); upon four of these wreaths, in a trapezoidal form was suspended a latticed Net-work of brass and copper, colored yellow and red; around the curved bottom of which was a brass fringe, ornamented with two

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rows of brazen Pomegranates, fifty in a row (I. KINGS vii. 18; II. CHRON. iv. 12; JEREMIAH lii. 23). The pomegranates being arranged ninety-six on a side (JEREMIAH lii. 23), two of the pomegranates hung on each point of suspension; and eight to the cubit for twelve cubits (LXX. version JEREMIAH lii. 22), which was the entire length of the cycloidal arc of the net-work from one point of suspension to the other. Within the net-work was set a hollow Lily of silver, with six pointed leaves; the height of the points of the lily above the abacus was four cubits (I. KINGS vii. 19). This lily circumscribed a SPHERE of brass (II. CHRON. iv. 12), whose diameter was exactly equal to the diameter of the top of the column (LXX. version L KINGS vii. 20), whose superior convex surface reached an elevation of five cubits above the abacus, making the whole height of the chapiter five cubits (I. KINGS vii. 15; IL CHRON. iii. 15; JEREMIAH lii. 21).—Symbols of Freemasonry, esoterically considered, by W. S. ROCKWELL, P. G. M. of Georgia.

Footnotes

128:* The discrepancy as to the height of the pillars, as given in the book of Kings and in Chronicles, is to be reconciled by supposing that in the book of Kings the pillars are spoken of separately, and that in Chronicles their aggregate height is calculated: and the reason that, in this latter book, their united height is placed at thirty-five cubits, instead of thirty-six, which would be the double of eighteen, is because they are there measured as they appear with the chapiters upon them. Now, half a cubit of each pillar was concealed in what Dr. LIGHTFOOT calls "the hole of the chapiter;"—that is, half a cubit's depth of the lower edge of the chapiter covered the top of the pillar, making each pillar apparently only seventeen and a half cubits high, or the two, thirty-five cubits, as laid down in the book of Chronicles.—In a similar way we reconcile the difference as to the height of the chapiters. In I. Kings and II. Chronicles the chapiters are said to be five cubits high, while in II. Kings their height is described as being only three cubits. But it will be noticed that it immediately follows in the same place, that "there was a wreathen work and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about." Now, this expression is conclusive that the height of the chapiters was estimated exclusive and independent of the wreathen work round about them, which was two cubits more, and this, added to the three cubits of the chapiter proper, will make the five cubits spoken of In all other parts of Scripture.—MACKEY'S Manual of the Lodge.