Importance of tabnit, the ‘plan’

The key to the Temple’s secrets is in the floor plan and layout of its furnishings. The “plan” or “pattern” (Heb., tabnit) of its structure and  furniture is mentioned I Chronicles 28:11, 12, 19. Tabnit is also translated as design, structure, figure, form, likeness, and shape. Thus, in Deuteronomy  4:16-18 the Israelites are forbidden making any likeness, form, or figure of a human or beast for worship. In Ezekiel 8:10 the prophet sees repulsive forms or figures of creeping beasts, but in 8:3 he is lifted up by the form or figure of God’s hand, or an angel’s (see also 10:8); and in Psalms 144:12 sons and daughters are compared to choice cut stones giving shape or form to a palace (see the Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). 

Tabnit generally refers to the form of something. King David received Divine inspiration for the form, i.e., plan or pattern of the Temple. And before him, at Sinai, Moses heard God’s verbal instructions for the form of the Mishkan (tabernacle). Tabnit is also related to banah, which means to build a structure or house ––  or to raise children, since a “house” may also refer to a family. Thus, in Ruth 4:11 Rachel and Leah, the two wives of Jacob (later renamed Israel), are called the “builders” of the House of Israel. This is tabnit’s  link to buildings, ordinary houses, the Temple and humans and the human body form, as shown below.

The High Priest as Temple Man At left is the Temple Floor Plan now transformed into a figure of Levite High Priest; and within the figure are 13 red numbers, briefly explained below. All are in sequence except nine (9).  1. TURBAN and PRIESTS’ CELLS, west side – Gold and silver bullion, I Kgs 7:51, was likely kept here. These western cells form the High Priest’s head cover or turban, Tanach, Stone Edition, Ex. 28:4, 37. The common priest’s cap or bonnet, Ex. 28:40, was more globular, resembling an inverted bowl. 9. PRIESTS’ CELLS, south and north sides – These form the arms.   Only one entrance is given (I Kgs. 6:8) but Ezk. 41:11 includes a second.The entrances correspond to the onyx stones the High Priest wore on his left and right shoulders. Each was engraved with the names of six Israelite tribes, twelve names total, Ex. 28:9 -12. 2. TWO LARGE STARS – These are two 10-cubit tall cherubs of gold plated olive wood (I Kgs. 6:23, 28); they are Temple Man’s eyes.  3. THE ARK of the Covenant – This was a gold plated chest with a  solid gold cover topped by two small cherubs (small stars).The chest is his nose. Its poles, when attached to its long sides and drawn forward, I Kgs. 8:8, form extended nostrils smelling the sweet smoke from the Incense Altar in the Holy Place.

4. STAIRWAY – A  short staircase or ramp led from the Holy Place to a slightly elevated (six cubits) Holy of Holies.The stairway is his neck/throat and its of top is his mouth. 

5. INCENSE ALTAR – This small gold plated altar (I Kings 6:22) is national Israel’s heart; and its sweet-smelling smoke is ideal Israel’s prayers and spiritual life.

6. TABLES OF THE SHOWBREAD – On these gold plated tables (I Kings 7:48) were bread and wine, symbolizing flesh and blood, i.e., the humanity of national Israel.

7. THE LAMP STANDS – (Ref. I Kings 7:48, 49) Their total number was 10 lamps/menorahs x 7 stems each = 70 lights. These relate to the 70 Israelites (Exodus 1:5, Jacob’s offspring) symbolizing national Israel as the light to the world. And the world is the 70 nations of Genesis 10. The lamps/menorahs are shown on their side for visibility, but upright on line 6, above. For a better and larger view see Secrets of the Holy Place

8. THE PORCH, Portico or vestibule – This antechamber, the ulam, (I Kings 6:3, II Chronicles 3:4) corresponds to the human pelvis (hips) and procreation, or more specifically, birthing (parturition) and the male/female genitalia. 

10.  TEN LAVERS – Five bronze water lavers were on the north and five on the south side, by the Porch. These signify the ten fingers of the hands and were for washing off blood off the sacrificial offerings (I Kings 7:38; II Chronicles 4:6). 

11. JACHIN, BOAZ – The large bronze pillars by the Porch were named Jachin and Boaz (II Chronicles.3:17) and form  Temple Man’s legs. These are two hybrid plants depicting Kings Solomon and David. 

12. SEA OF BRONZE, TWELVE BULLS –  This was a huge basin full of water for the priests to wash their hands and feet (II Chronicles 4:2). It depicts the twelve tribes of Israel crossing the Red Sea. Its water symbolizes the God’s spirit (i.e., his seed). 

13. THE SACRIFICIAL ALTAR – This (II Chronicles. 4:1) is Temple Man’s feet, King Messiah’s feet, and a square footstool.

The High Priest’s Garments: White and Gold

The exterior of Solomon's temple was made of the brightest white limestone blocks. Their color corresponding to the High Priest's "Garments of White" worn on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  On the remaining days of the year, however, he wore the "Garments of Gold" and these correspond to the Temple’s gold interior. In his book, Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel (1985), pp. 169- 171, Professor  Menahem Haran of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, provides some details of how the furnishings of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) correspond to the garments of the High Priest. Other scholars have noted this too, and Ezekiel 16:10-14 portrays national Israel as a woman (wife of God) dressed in the furnishings of the Tabernacle, which gradually transforms into the Temple (v.14).

Jacob’s Dream and the Temple

Jewish tradition tells us that Jacob (father of the twelve Israelite tribes) saw the Temple in advance in his dream at Luz.  After seeing angels ascending and descending on a stairway (‘ladder’), he says in Genesis 28:17, "This is none other than the house of God ...," and in v. 19 renames the place Bethel, House of  God, which is also a designation for the Temple. Later he changes it again to El Bethel (God of the house of God) 35:7; and God, in turn, renames him Israel, 35:10.  As shown below, Jacob's raised head corresponds to an elevated Holy of Holies and his ‘pillow stone’ (28:11)  to the Even Shetiyah or "Foundation Stone" where Abraham had earlier bound Isaac (22:9 -11). In other words, as he slept – unbeknownst to him – his head and body became a model for the Temple that was eventually built atop Mount Moriah by King Solomon (2 Chronicles 3:1). Today this site is called Haram al-Sharif by the Arabs, and the Temple Mount by Jews and others.

 Jacob Builds the Temple?

Why was Jacob given the dream at this time? Not solely because he was fleeing the wrath of his brother Esau, but also because he was on his way to Mesopotamia to find a wife and create a family, i.e., a “house”. Isaac practically ordered him to leave and start his own family (Genesis. 28: 1, 2), that he might multiply and become an “assembly of peoples,” v. 3; and later it is said his two wives are the “builders” of the House of Israel, Ruth. 4:11. Jacob, therefore, constructed a human temple, a house of twelve tribes (plus the Levites) and centuries later these twelve, with hired Phoenician craftsmen, raised Solomon’s stone temple, the ‘House of God’. Therefore, the dream concerns the building of  two houses, Israel’s (Jacob’s) and God’s.  

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The Amazing Metallic Messiah                                                                                                                               

The illustration below and at right shows how the metals of the Temple’s interior relate to the High Priest’s outer ‘garments of gold,’ while also revealing the Metallic Messiah. But how do we know the metals have this secondary meaning?

Because their type and order reflect those of King Nebuchadnezzar’s metal statue, below, which itself symbolizes an unholy, secular messianic world ruler. For the interior gold plating of the Temple’s Holy of Holies, Holy Place and Porch, see I Kgs. 6:20 - 22 and II Chr. 3:4 -10. For the bronze furniture outside see I Kgs. 7:15 - 27, 38 and II Chr. 4:1 -7.This gives the Metallic Messiah a head, torso and pelvis of gold, but hands, legs and feet of bronze. His silver shoulders and arms relate to the silver plated walls ‘houses’ or ‘buildings’ (i.e., priestly  cells) of I Chr. 29:4. However, we remove the silver plated cells that form the turban (as shown at right) because we are viewing a nude man who is the counterpart of another nude figure, King Nebuchadnezzar’s metallic statue, below. Hence, we compare one nude figure with another, not a clothed one with a nude one. Also excluded is the Sea of Bronze because it is not part of the natural human anatomy. Nebuchadnezzar’s Metal Statue - The account of this huge metal statue that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon saw in  a dream is found in chapter 2:1 - 35 of the Book of Daniel,  but our focus is primarily on vv. 31 - 33.

This statue of four metals , v. 31, has a head of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, v. 32, legs of iron, v. 33, and feet of iron fused with baked clay, v. 33. The clay counts as one with the iron so that he is made of four metals. However, Temple Man, i.e. the Metallic Messiah, consists of only three metals: bronze (or copper) and silver and gold. These same three were also in the Mishkan (Mosaic tabernacle), Exodus 25:3, 31:4; 35:5.

But the four metals of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue depict four successive world empires, symbolizing Man’s ungodly earthly rule until the Last Days, Daniel 2: 34, 35. And just as Man’s rule is summed in one man of metal, so too God’s forthcoming reign is depicted through a single Metallic Messiah figure. See also Solomon’s Cyborg Messiah?

‘Messiah’ is a transliteration of mashiach, which means the anointed or anointed one. Jewish kings were anointed by having olive oil – symbolizing illumination – poured on their heads so that they might know how to rule their nation. Solomon himself was anointed in this manner, I Kings 1:39, and had prayed for an “understanding mind” to know how to rule, 3:9, and it was granted him, 3:12. Jewish kings were seen as sitting on the Divine throne and ruling on God’s behalf according to I Chronicles 29:23: “Then Solomon sat on the Lord’s throne ... ,”  and also 28:5 where King David says that God “has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord,” and that kingdom was national Israel. But King Messiah – the Metallic Messiah – is or will be anointed with the Divine spirit (otherwise symbolized by olive oil) that he may know how to rule the entire world, not the nation of Israel only.

The Priestly Cells as King Messiah’s Arms of Silver

Concerning the information directly above, someone wrote to another web site claiming there was no proof that Solomon  overlaid any walls with silver, totally ignoring I Chronicles 29:4. Yet all the bible translations I’ve consulted, both Jewish and non-Jewish, include this verse with its silver walls. Let us ask and answer, rather, Is it likely that the “houses” (i.e., cells) in 29:4 were silver plated? Yes, and here is why.

First, as shown in the figures above, both the Nebuchadnezzar statue and King Messiah have arms and shoulders of silver. And many bible students contend that the silver portion of the statue (Daniel 2:32) symbolizes the Medo-Persian kingdom (Persia is Iran today) which overthrew Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian empire, and that the Persian conqueror was King Cyrus who in Isaiah 45:1 is said to be God’s “anointed,” meaning God’s messiah, a term always applied to Israelite kings, high priests, and prophets, but here applied to the non-Israelite Cyrus. If  both messiahs have silver arms and shoulders, why should not the cells that depict the arms and shoulders of Temple Man have silver plated walls? 

However there is a more potent reason for the existence of these silver walls: the construction of the Mosaic Tabernacle at the foot of Mount Sinai centuries before Solomon’s time. 

Keep in mind that everything about the Tabernacle (Figure B) was portable, including its foundation. So what, then, was the Tabernacle’s ‘foundation’ ? One - hundred (100) sockets (i.e., bases) of silver; and these were placed on only three sides: On the south, 40 sockets, Exodus 36:23, 24, and on the opposite side (north) another 40, vv. 25, 26. But on the west side, v. 27, the short side of the rectangular foundation, only 16 sockets were needed. This totals 96 silver sockets. What about the other four? Ah! now it gets more interesting: They were placed between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place, v. 36. For what purpose? To sustain the poles for the paroket, the “veil,” a very special Dividing Curtain separating the two holy rooms. A description of the curtain is given in 36:35. The sockets for Tabernacle’s foundation were made from 100 talents of silver, one socket from each talent,  (38:27). To complete the rectangular foundation, another five sockets were placed on the eastern side, the entrance, but these were of bronze or copper (36:38), not silver, as shown above (Figure B).

The silver sockets on the south, north and west side formed a horseshoe like foundation on three sides of the Tabernacle – as did the priestly cells of the Temple. Compare Figures A and B above. Also compare Figures B and C and note how the four silver sockets of the Dividing Curtain  (blue line, Fig. B) correlate with the priestly cells that form the shoulders of Temple Man, Figure C. The whole Tabernacle is shown at right.

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The Temple had 90 priestly cells; the Tabernacle had none. But the number of cells or silver sockets is not too important here; what matters is their arrangement or pattern and that such a pattern is repeated in the layout of the Temple’s priestly cells (‘houses’) with silver plated walls, I Chronicles 29:4. This also implies that the Tabernacle’s gold plated wooden frame (shown above at right), Exodus 26:29, relates to the Temple’s gold plated walls. The Tabernacle and Temple had certain similarities  and the repetition of some patterns should surprise no one. Finally, I have shown that the Temple was also in the hidden form of the Levite High Priest; and by law all priests were of the tribe of Levi. In Malachi 3:3 the Lord rebukes the priesthood saying that he “will purge the sons of Levi (of corruption) and they shall come forth as gold and silver”.  Since the central portion of the Temple’s interior was gold plated, it is perfectly fitting that the cells walls should be silver plated, symbolizing the priests themselves becoming as ‘gold and silver’ by attaining inward attributes of righteousness after being purged.

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