Holy of Holies

The Temple In Jerusalem

The Temple proper was identical in arrangement with the Tabernacle which it supplanted, but on a larger scale, the inside dimensions being exactly twice those of the Tabernacle (30 x 90 feet). Like the Tabernacle, the Temple proper was divided into two chambers, the inner chamber, the Holy of Holies, being a perfect cube 30 feet in each dimension. In the Holy of Holies was placed the Ark of the Covenant, over which were set two mammoth cherubim, 15 feet high, with outstretched wings that touched each other in the center of the room and the side walls on the left arid right. These cherubim were made of olive wood overlaid with pure gold. In the enter larger chamber, separated from the Holy of Holies by a partition of cedar wood with a door of olive wood in the center, were furnishing, like those of the Holy Place of the Tabernacle, but on a grander scale. There was but one altar of incense, made of cedar wood overlaid with gold, but there were ten tables for the loaves of proposition and ten golden candlesticks, or lampstands (2 Chron. 4:7-8, 19; etc.). This Temple proper was really only the inner core of the building, about 75 x 150 feet in size.

…the Tabernacle proper was divided into two rooms, the larger one a double square 15 x 30 feet, towards the entrance, and the smaller a perfect cube 15 feet in each dimension, separated from the other by a curtain of the same material as the inner “tent.” This smaller room was the “Holy of Holies,” the most sacred place in the world, because it was the earthly dwelling place of God Himself. In it the only article of furniture was the Ark of the Covenant (which see). The larger room, called the Sanctuary, or “Holy Place,” contained the altar of incense in front of the center of the dividing curtain, the table for the loaves of proposition (see Table for the Loaves of Proposition) on the north, and the golden candlestick or lamp-stand (see Candlestick) on the south. The essential form and arrangement was preserved in the Temple of Jerusalem.

The Temple House (the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place) was set in a court and was reserved for the priests alone. In the court were the altar of holocausts and the great molten sea, together with ten lavers or basins of brass for cleansing the sacrificial victims and other purifications (1 Kings 7:27-39).

John the Baptist’s father, Zachariah was in this location when the angel of the Lord, Gabriel, came to him to tell him of John’s conception, birth, and purpose:  Luke 1:8-22