Commentaria in III Regum
4. AND HE MADE IN THE TEMPLE OBLIQUE WINDOWS.—In the Hebrew it is shekuphim atumim, that is looking-closed, that is, as the Chaldee has, open within, closed without, namely wider inward, narrower outward (perhaps also covered with lattices: whence the Septuagint translate latticed or netted), and therefore “oblique,” as our version translates, that is, to admit more light: because, as Opticians or Perspectivists teach, in these oblique windows the sun’s rays coming from outside intersect each other in the outermost surface of the window, where the place is narrower, and then are widened, and spread themselves far and wide through the house (whence Symmachus for oblique translates arrow-like, which emit light like an arrow), for so the light of the sun enters the house in the manner of an inverted pyramid. So St. Jerome on Ezechiel 40, Ribera, book 1 On the Temple, chapter 13, Eucherius, Angelomus and others. Hear St. Jerome on Ezechiel chapter 41: “The windows too were made in the manner of a net, like lattices, so that they were closed not with transparent stone or glass but with carved and vermiculated wood (for which in the Hebrew you have oblique windows), which were on three sides only of the temple, namely to the right, and to the left, and behind, that is to the south and to the north and to the west. But the eastern side had no windows, because the entrance itself let in a bright light within, and all the interior of the temple was filled with the light of the doors, so that through each window and the openings of the lattices one could look in.”
These windows were in the Holy only. For the Holy of holies lacked windows out of reverence for itself: for God dwells in a darkness invisible to us: yet through the door some light was admitted into the Holy of holies. See what was said at Leviticus chapter 16, verse 13.
Allegorically, these oblique windows represent the holy Doctors, through whom God teaches and enlightens the faithful, “who,” says Angelomus, “while they publicly set before the faithful what they see in secret, like windows receiving the light of the sun, fill the inner parts of the temple near them. Whence these windows are rightly said to have been oblique, that is wider within, because it is surely necessary that whoever has received the brightness of contemplation from above, even for a moment, should presently enlarge the bosom of his heart by further chastening, and prepare himself by skilful exercise to take in greater things.” See what was said at Ezechiel 41:17.
5. AND UPON THE WALL OF THE TEMPLE HE BUILT FLOORS ROUND ABOUT, IN THE WALLS OF THE HOUSE ROUND ABOUT THE TEMPLE (that is of the Holy) AND THE ORACLE (that is of the Holy of holies, from which God gave oracles), AND HE MADE SIDES ROUND ABOUT,—He describes here the cells built around the temple: for this is what “he made sides round about” signifies. For these cells were at the sides of the temple, and surrounded it laterally on three sides, or towards three quarters of the world, namely west, south and north. For the quarter toward the east, where were the door and entrance, could not have cells round about. When he says, then, “upon the wall,” it is the same as beside the wall, or around the wall of the temple. For in like manner it is said of Christ in Luke 4:39: “Standing over her,” that is beside “her, he commanded the fever.” And Psalm 136:1: “Upon,” that is beside, “the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept,” etc. The sense, then, is as if to say: Solomon built beside and around the three walls of the temple facing the three quarters of the world a certain order of cells, and raised and divided inner floors round about it, and that both for beauty and for the strength and guarding of the temple. For in these cells the priests could pray and look into the temple itself through the windows. In these same cells the riches of the temple were laid up. Whence they are called storehouses by the Septuagint, and by our version, 1 Paralipomenon 28:11, “storerooms.” It is plain from Josephus, book 8 of the Antiquities, chapter 2.
AND HE MADE SIDES ROUND ABOUT.—“Sides” he calls the floors of the cells, as is plain from the Hebrew and Septuagint. For he explains “sides” when he adds: The floor that was lowest was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. Where for “floor” the Hebrew and Septuagint have side; he calls floors, then, sides, both because they went round the three sides of the temple laterally, and rather because one stood out and projected laterally over another, and the upper was broader than the lower, whence the Chaldee calls them appendages.
The sense, then, is as if to say: These cells, or orders of cells, had three sides, that is three floors round about, of which the side or lowest floor was five cubits in breadth; the second six, the third seven cubits; that is, there were three orders of cells in their three floors, of which the second order was broader than the first, and the third broader than the second, by reason of the projecting beams, of which he presently adds: “And he set beams,” etc. So Salianus, Ribera, Cajetan and others. The cause of this inequality of the floors was the narrowness of the area on Mount Moria: for this made the lowest cells narrow: wherefore it was necessary to make the upper ones broader by projecting beams. So Ribera.
6. AND HE SET BEAMS IN THE HOUSE ROUND ABOUT ON THE OUTSIDE, THAT THEY SHOULD NOT BE FASTENED TO THE WALLS OF THE TEMPLE.—“Beams,” that is the ends of the beams projecting beyond the walls on which they rested: whence in Hebrew they are called migrot, that is shortenings, because they did not reach to the neighboring wall of the temple, but fell short of it, and were only the projecting ends of the beams. The sense is, as if to say: He made the beams extend beyond their wall and project by their ends, that cross-beams might be laid on them, and thus the upper floors were made larger, and had a greater breadth than the lower floors. For these beams and floors were not fastened to the walls of the temple, but these cells and their floors stood off, though by a small interval, from the walls of the temple. Whence it is necessary that these cells had windows opposite the windows of the temple, to transmit their light into them. Hence it is plain that these cells and floors were not projecting from the temple itself, as Bede, Angelomus, Lyranus and Abulensis hold, but were separate from the wall of the temple, as Scripture here expressly asserts.
Furthermore in the lowest order, or on the pavement, which was covered by its floor, there were 14 cells or chambers, as many in the second order, or in the middle floor, as many in the third or highest, so that altogether there were 42 cells, which were all connected, so that from one one passed without a door into another, and from that into the next, etc.; although Josephus asserts that in each order there were thirty cells or little houses, which had five cubits in length and as many in breadth. But Josephus errs in this, as in many other things, as Salianus shows.
Tropologically, the three orders of cells, or their three floors, denote the three states and degrees of the faithful in the Church, namely the lowest that of the married, the middle or second that of the continent, the third and highest that of virgins. So Bede, Rupert and others. See what was said at Ezechiel 41:7.
7. AND WHEN THE HOUSE (the temple) WAS BUILDING, IT WAS BUILT OF STONES HEWED AND MADE READY (which were already hewed and made ready in Mount Libanus or elsewhere before they were brought to Sion for the building of the temple), AND (that is, therefore) THERE WAS NEITHER HAMMER, NOR AXE, NOR ANY TOOL OF IRON HEARD IN THE HOUSE WHEN IT WAS BUILDING;—because, as he said, the stones were already hewed, so that there was need neither of hammer, nor axe, nor iron to hew and fit them, but only of lime to cement them together, and that out of reverence for the building, and lest the ears of Solomon and the others watching the building be offended by the noise of hammers and iron tools. The Rabbis fable that the hammer was not heard in the temple because the Hebrews cut the stones with the blood of a worm, which they call Janni. Theodoret, questions 21 and 22, Procopius and Glycas think that God so disposing, all the stones were so born or cut out in the mountains that there was no need of iron. More truly Lyranus, Abulensis and Ribera, book 1 On the Temple, chapter 12, answer that hammer or axe was not heard, namely to hew or cut stones, because they were already hewed and cut in the mountain, as I said.
Anagogically, the temple here represents heaven, where there will be no suffering or affliction, because, as Eucherius and Angelomus say, “here we are beaten by adversities, and are exercised by the discipline of truth, that there we may be disposed in places suited to our merit, and, chastisement ceasing, by the glue of love alone, by which we are joined to one another, filled with one spirit, be steeped in it. Here we are beaten from without, that there we may be found without reproach. Here the hammer, here the axe, here all the tools of beating resound: but in the house of God no blows are heard, because in the eternal country all the noise of strokes is now silent.”
This is what the Church sings in the Dedication of a Church: “By blows and pressures the stones are polished, and are fitted to their places; by the hand of the craftsman they are arranged to remain in the sacred buildings.”