Why is it significant for the author to point out that no iron tools were used on the site of Solomon's temple? (1 Kings 6:7)

Question

The temple of Solomon was built in a sort of strange way. Since Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived (according to scripture), there must have been some element of divine wisdom in his decision.

1-Kings 6:7 (NKJV)

And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

1) Why was this relative silence on the site important to Solomon?

2) How does this reduction in normal construction noise improve the sanctified state of the temple?

3) In Exodus 20:25, human tools were said to be a defiling influence in the construction of God's Altars. Does this have any bearing on the way the temple was constructed?

Answer 1

This is because the stone was already honed from the quarry from which it was taken so it did not require to be chizzeled or hammered at the building sight. It only required to be put in position. According to the blueprint each stone had its place and position relative to the other stones.Each stone had its own peculiarity and position In which it fits exactly In the building and therefore did not need any polishing or honing at the building site: In type:

1 Peter 2:4,5

4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 4:16

16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

1 Corinthians 3:9

9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. Solomon was selected to build the first temple and had a messianic inspiration of what the messiah would do in fullness at his coming. Whatever Solomon did laid precedence for the future perfect temple that the messiah would build. When God selects one to do his tasks, he also annoints him to do according to His will and pattern. Solomon was selected by God to do that work, as we read from the words of the prophet Nathan.

2 Samuel 7:4,5,12,13

4 And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying, 5 Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? 12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever

Yet the work of building the true temple belonged to the messiah:

Zechariah 6:12,13

12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: 13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.

Yet the temple that Solomon built foreshadowed the true temple and laid a true precedence because what God does is the canon:

Ecclesiastes 3:14,15

14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. 15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

It was therefore necessary for Solomon to do what he was ordained to do as a mark and precedence for the future work to be accomplished in the Messiah.

The work of constuction had to be done according to the blueprint given him.Any other pattern of doing it would be unacceptable. The requirement was that no chizzelling or cutting was to be done at the building site. That had symbolic significance and a mystery that was hid, sealed but to be revealed in the last days:

Daniel 12:9

9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

Answer 2

We are the church. Each member contribute to it Scripture tells us that we are the body. In the building of the temple all stones were prepared before taken to the site, so too must we be honed, polished, tested on earth to be part of the church above. We must form characters worthy of heaven. As for the iron tools, work on character will not be done in heaven; it must be done while we are here. Remember, the tools were used away from the temple site to perfect the stones. So too our trials are tools to accomplish the same work in us and thus fit us for our place in the church triumphant. It is also symbolic of the great reverence with which we should approach God.

Answer 3

God preferred natural materials.

Exodus 20:

24 You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. 25 Now if you make an altar of stones for Me, you must not build it with stones shaped by tools; for if you use a chisel on it, you will defile it.

Man's chiseling was defilling to the finished product.

Deuteronomy 27:5

Build there [Mount Ebal] an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them.

Joshua obeyed this command precisely in 8:31

just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: "an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used." And on it they offered burnt offerings to the LORD, and they sacrificed peace offerings.

Note that all these commands had to do with building an altar and not the temple in general. In building the temple, out of respect for these commands, Solomon wisely decided not to use iron tools on site.

1-Kings 6:7

And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

This decision was most sensible. Furthermore, even the temple articles were made else where:

1 Kings 7:45b All the articles that Huram made for King Solomon in the house of the LORD were made of burnished bronze. 46The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.

Why was this relative silence on the site important to Solomon?

Because it was important to God as expressed by his commands.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

The temple is called the house of the Lord, because it was directed and modelled by him, and was to be employed in his service. This gave it the beauty of holiness, that it was the house of the Lord, which was far beyond all other beauties. It was to be the temple of the God of peace, therefore no iron tool must be heard; quietness and silence suit and help religious exercises. God's work should be done with much care and little noise. Clamour and violence often hinder, but never further the work of God. Thus the kingdom of God in the heart of man grows up in silence, Mr 5:27.

How does this reduction in normal construction noise improve the sanctified state of the temple?

Even during the building process, there was peace and serenity on the temple site.

In Exodus 20:25, human tools were said to be a defiling influence in the construction of God's Altars. Does this have any bearing on the way the temple was constructed?

Indeed, it had. Hence, Solomon's wise decision not to use iron tools on site.

Answer 4

Now I think there are 2 separate things, both very important. And there is a very strong link between these 2:

1.it is about the sound/silence thing.

2.it is about the use of iron tools.

1. Silence

In fact there is a point in asking about silence and user20490 is not the first one to do so. In Jewish exegesis there is quite an important discussion around this. Some would go as far as to say that the stones were carved somewhere else:

Mishneh Torah, The Chosen Temple 1:8: The Temple is to be built with large stones or bricks if large stones are not available. The stones are not carved on site, rather they are carved and dressed away from the Temple Mount and brought in afterwards, as it says "Large, expensive stones for the foundation of the House, hewn stones" and it [also] says "the sound of the axe, nor any other metal tool was heard in the Temple while it was being built."

This idea is used quite often in various Christian commentaries too. See one example from many others:

The stones for the temple were prepared at some distance from the construction site. This may be for practical rather than religious reasons, as seen in Assyrian reliefs depicting completed stones and statues being removed from a quarry. The erection of the temple went much faster by utilizing pre-cut and pre-fitted materials moved on rollers to the temple site. [J. H. Walton, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament) Volume 3: 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009, p. 30]

However, the stress of these is, I would say, on the fact that all of the fuss was necessary in order to make sure that no sound of any metal was heard in the Temple. No sound in the Temple seems to be a very important matter. Why is that no sound? I found another old comment on this:

Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:22:2 (I Kings 6:7) "And hammers, chisels, or any iron tools were not heard in the Temple when it was being built"? In the Temple they were not heard, but outside (where they were hewn) they were heard. (Exodus, Ibid.) "For if you lift your sword upon it": R. Shimon b. Elazar was wont to say (Devarim 27:6) "Of whole (shleimoth) stones shall you build the altar of the L rd" — stones which repose peace ("shalom"). Now does this not follow a fortiori, viz.: If the stones of the altar, which do not see or hear or speak — because they repose peace between Israel and their Father in heaven, the Holy One Blessed be He says: Do not lift iron upon them, then one who reposes peace between a man and his wife, between one city and another, between one nation and another, between one government and another, between one family and another — how much more so will he not meet with adversity!

It does make sense, isn't it? After all, in 1-2 Kings God is more like "a soft whisper":

1 Kings 19:11-12 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. Look, the Lord is ready to pass by.”A very powerful wind went before the Lord, digging into the mountain and causing landslides, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the windstorm there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a soft whisper [קֹול דְּמָמָה דַקָּה׃]. (NET)

Silence is a sign of the (future)presence of the Lord.

2. The use of iron tools

First of all, it seems that this was a more general ANE taboo on this respect. See this:

An early Sumerian account of Gudea’s building a temple for his god insisted that there be no noise around the area of the temple during the building project. Masons used large picks (weighing thirty or thirty-five pounds) for quarrying and smaller picks (weighing twelve or fifteen pounds) for the shaping of the stone. Those found in excavations have iron heads of various shapes with wooden handles. Iron-headed sledge hammers and long double-handled saws were also portrayed on Assyrian reliefs. [V. H.Matthews, M. W. Chavalas & J. H. Walton, The IVP Bible background commentary : Old Testament (electronic ed.) (1 Ki 6:7-35). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press., 2000]

Last but not least, I think the full answer should be found in Genesis 4.

After killing Abel, Cain is going in the land of Nod, east of Eden, where he has a son, Enoch. Then, Cain is building a city right there, east of Eden. Now, from Genesis 2:8 we know that it is in the same place, east of Eden, that God planted an orchard and there he placed the man he had formed. There is a paralel here, I think: on one hand there is the orchard made by God and on the other there is Cain's city. Let's return to Genesis 4: one of Cain's descendants is Lamech, who took 2 wifes. The second of Lamech's wifes, gave birth to someone called Tubal-Cain:

Genesis 4:22 Now Zillah also gave birth to Tubal-Cain, who heated metal and shaped all kinds of tools made of bronze and iron. (NET)

Therefore, from a Biblical chronology, it is only with Tubal-Cain that we have metal, bronze, iron. And as the narrative goes on, we learn that this Lamech, father of Tubal-Cain, was not really a gentle kind of person. (see Genesis 4:23-24). He was not peaceful at all.

Then, in Genesis 4:25-26, there is what I would call an antithesis of all that we have seen before:

Genesis 4:25-26: (25) And Adam had marital relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth, saying, “God has given me another child in place of Abel because Cain killed him.” (26) And a son was also born to Seth, whom he named Enosh. At that time people began to worship the Lord. (NET)

That was so brief. Adam > Seth > Enosh > worship the Lord. No buildings, no tools, no metal, no bronze, no iron, no killings, no revenge, no fear, no fury. Just simply, plainly: worship the Lord.

A possible conclusion + answer: David did not manage to build up the Temple, because he was a man of war. Solomon is a man of peace. If you look at Genesis 4:1-14, there is some of "David's style". Whereas if you look at Genesis 4:25-26, there is some of "Solomon's style". I do think there is a paralel between the building of the Temple and these.

And to conclude:

1. silence is a sign of the (future) presence of God

2. no iron tools is about: underlining the link with Enosh and highlighting the distinction from the lineage of Cain. This should be available for Exodus 20:25 (see also Deut 27:5, Joshua 8:31) too. Remember, Cain is the one who built a fortress east of Eden and started to use iron tools, instead of seeking peace with the Lord, in the orchard east of Eden, where no iron tool was necessary. The Garden of Eden and the Temple are linked in the Bible by many shared motifs and by shared imagery. Do find a helpful source for this at the end of this link, please.

Answer 5

Does such a verse have to be something spiritual? What if this verse is about something else? Has anyone considered this? The Holy of Holies was a cube. A cube made of stone would have been a room where you could not hear clearly enough to communicate verbally. As the walls were getting higher, even at 2 feet apart, hear speech in such a room would be next to impossible. Until the walls were covered in wood, the carvings of Cherubs, Palm Trees and Open Flowers were completed and then covered in Gold, it would have been impossible to hear clear speech. Using iron tools would have been deafening inside such a structure. The only form of communication that would have worked while building the temple would have been with hand gestures. The same would be true for the Holy Place. It could have been simply a safety issue to have no iron tools in the assembly of the temple.

As an expert in Church Acoustics, I have been to many churches during construction. Once the walls are up, the building is closed in and the interior walls are completed, for a few weeks or months, the worship space sounds like an echo chamber and hearing is extremely difficult. When the furnishings, artwork, seating, and other details are added, then the room calms down, so normal hearing becomes possible. The two items that calms down a church the most is carpet on the floor and padded seating. In Solomon's Temple, in the Holy Place or main Sanctuary, there was a curtain or vail over the entrance to the Holy of Holies. It was believed that the curtain was very thick. Thick enough for the Holy Place to have good acoustical conditions for hearing speech, music and for singing.

It is possible that the command for no tools of iron was there for safety? In the past, when large buildings were built, often people died on the job by accident. There would be spilled blood on the site and blood never really washes away. Keeping the place quiet from iron tools would have made the place safer and would have had a greater chance to have avoided the sheeding of blood of any of the workers while the temple was built. They would have used wooden tools to guide and tap items into place. Wooden tools would have been much quieter in such a space as described for Solomon’s Temple. Also, the wooden tools would have left no marks on the stone whereas iron tools would scuff up surfaces of the interior walls of the temple. Wooden tools would have ensured no blemishes or marks on the walls of Solomon's temple, like the sacrfice of the lamb, to have no blemishes or marks. And like the Altar, which was to be perfect, Solomon's Temple was to be the perfect place. A place good enough for God to be in when He communicated with His people.

Answer 6

As a student to spiritual things, first the natural, then teh spiritual. This Paul and Jesus both stated.

The natural... Solomon and the ancient builders understood rightly...how to do things efficiently. This is missing from our discussion. God did everything rightly in constructing the earth and did it efficiently the 1st time in Gen 1:2 and a 2nd time Noah's flood.

Also, the earth is ONE TEMPLE. Something religion omits. The universe is a temple and the Heaven of heavens are temples. God has created these things by His Hands, the knowledge of doing things rightly.

So the Natural answer is simple... it was a very right way to do it regarding MESS, NOISE, and TIME OF ERRECTING STRUCTURE. It was simply more efficient, as God is all wise.

The spiritual implications the rabbis commented concerning the future presence and peace. The Lively stones God puts together according to His will and order.

We know that Paul said, And And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Spiritual fruit the Spirit produces is one also of peace. So we can go circles around what the iron chistles of Enoch, and Jesus teaching and Pauls revelation from Jesus. Yet this is can become a quest for imaginational doctrines if we are not simple. The bible is not complicated, unless your mind makes it complicated as a past attitude or need, as well as spiritual hunger often overlap...and cause a desire to see something deep, when Jesus said, LOOK AT ME, FOLLOW MY LIFE. And we find ourselves looking for treasure under rocks when LIGHT IS WITHIN AND ALL AROUND US.

Lets remember,“I, Wisdom, live together with good judgment. I know where to discover knowledge and discernment."

Its all in Christ teachings and His Person. He is sufficient.

KISS...KEEP IT SIMPLE SAINT.

AS Paul stated, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”

Answer 7

The temple is that of light or Christ consciousness also known as wisdom. Silence symbolically means meditation. Sol(sun or Light) OM(meidtative mantra also Light) On(City of Light) Hence SOL-Om-On. The stones symbolize the pineal gland and the spritual body. Tubal-Cain is 2 balls and a cane which symbolically means genitles or gentiles. The iron or metal transmutes into or becomes gold once man forgoes the desires of the flesh and converts to the practice of charity and meditation or yoga(union). This is the everlastiong war taking place in the mind of man. This is all allegory. Therefore, your spiritual body is the temple in building. It is destroyed thru worldly desires and rebuilt by a new mindset by Christ who dwells within. In khmetic teachings this would be Djhuti(Solomon) and Heru(Christ) the temple is Jesus(Asar). Old testament(Old mind)/New testament(New mind).

Answer 8

The pure woman is the spirit which guides and corrects, she is also the Virgo, Andromeda and Cassiopeia constellation, the whore is emotion represented by the 🌟Algol also known as Aphrodite or Medusa which leads to destruction, darkness and carnal or wordly thinking. Psalm 46:10 "Be still and KNOW that "I AM" God, I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the Earth". Stillness is meditation. Read other texts and you'll notice the connections. I'd suggest you start with the "PRT M Hru" The entire Bible is written in 3rd person which indicates "myth" "Holy Bible" means Light Book. 1 Corinthians 6:19 "Do you not know that your body is the temple" Matt 6:22 "If thine eye be single thy body will be full of LIGHT" The eye referenced here is the pineal, the same face of God that Jacob encountered after he wrestled with Samuel. When your eye is single duality no longer exists and everything becomes whole hence "holy" and no longer are things divided. "The most high doesn't dwell in temples built by the hands of man" Acts 7:48