Commentaria in III Regum
23. AND HE MADE IN THE ORACLE (in the Holy of holies) TWO CHERUBIMS OF OLIVE TREE.—So the Hebrew, Chaldee and the rest. Wrongly, then, the Royal and Complutensian editions have, of cypress wood: wherefore the Roman Septuagint omits that.
Note that the two Cherubim made by Moses at God’s command, Exodus 25:18, were two statues having the appearance and form of a beardless young man in the flower of age: for they signified angels attending God. The ark of the covenant was as it were a chest, whose cover was the propitiatory: on the propitiatory stood upright the two Cherubim, who, extending and joining their wings, presented with them as it were a throne on which God might sit, so that He had the ark for the footstool of His feet; wherefore they were placed in that position as if two men, with faces turned toward each other, look at one another and hold and embrace each other with their hands as if with wings.
This ark with the propitiatory and Cherubim (for these could not be separated from each other) Solomon placed in the Holy of holies: for God had commanded Moses to place it there. But Solomon, for the majesty of the ark, propitiatory and Mosaic Cherubim, added in his temple two other Cherubim far larger, who with their body and wings covered the ark with its Cherubim (being small and scarcely three cubits high), and covered and shaded it as with an umbrella: wherefore with their faces they looked toward the ark and the east, but with their backs toward the wall of the Holy of holies and the west. They had, moreover, another position, different from that of the Cherubim of Moses: for the Mosaic ones were above the ark, with wings spread on both sides, grasping and embracing each other: but these of Solomon stood on erect feet on the pavement of the Holy of holies, and one stood beside the other on the same side as his companion: each stood with wings stretched out lengthwise, so that one touched with the tip of his wing the tip of the wing of the other Cherub, while the other tip of the other wing touched the wall of the temple: wherefore one touched with the tip of his wing one wall of the temple, and the other with the tip of his wing touched the other wall of the temple, namely of the Holy of holies. For each wing was five cubits, wherefore the two wings of one Cherub were ten cubits, and as many cubits were the two wings of the other Cherub: wherefore both spread were twenty cubits, which was the length as well as the breadth of the Holy of holies: for this was twenty cubits long and as many wide. So Bede, Abulensis, Adrichomius, Ribera and others.
Hence God, answering from the propitiatory the questions of the pontiff and giving oracles, was said to sit upon the Cherubim, that is the wisest spirits, and to far transcend even the Angels called Cherubim in knowledge, and as it were to tread them under foot. Hence also God is here called the Lord of Sabaoth, that is of hosts, namely of Angels, whom He has very many and as it were innumerable, and has them most wise and most powerful.
Anagogically, the Holy of holies represented the empyrean heaven, the ark the blessed Church, or blessed men, the golden propitiatory the glorious humanity of Christ; the two Cherubim the holy Angels, most concordant in the service and praise of God. Above these the Godhead, invisible to us, is eminent and sits; and to the blessed, both Angels and men, burning with the greatest charity among themselves, which is signified by the number two and the faces of the Cherubim turned toward each other, it presents itself to be seen and enjoyed, and by this glorious vision makes them blessed forever. So Bede, Angelomus, and from them Ribera, book 2 On the Temple, chapter 7. See what I said of the Cherubim at Exodus chapter 25, verse 18, Ezechiel chapter 1, verse 5; and the two of Solomon were different from those of Moses and of Ezechiel in form and stature as well as in position and bearing, as is plain from what has been said. From these things what follows up to verse 29 is clear.
TEN CUBITS HIGH,—as if to say: The two Cherubim were fifteen feet high, for a cubit is a foot and a half. They were therefore of gigantic size. For what giant is fifteen feet? And this to represent both the magnitude and the majesty, angelic as well as divine.
24. THAT IS, TEN CUBITS FROM THE END OF ONE WING TO THE END OF THE OTHER.—“End” he calls the extremity, as if to say: The extremity of one wing of the Cherub was ten cubits distant from the extremity of the other wing: for each wing was five cubits, and each was straight stretched out: wherefore under the wings understand the body or back of the Cherub lying between the wings:
otherwise the distance would have been more than ten cubits, as is plain. So Abulensis.
27. AND HE SET THE CHERUBIMS IN THE MIDST OF THE INNER TEMPLE (namely of the oracle, or Holy of holies): AND THE CHERUBIMS STRETCHED FORTH THEIR WINGS, AND THE WING OF THE ONE TOUCHED ONE WALL, AND THE WING OF THE SECOND CHERUB TOUCHED THE OTHER WALL: AND THE OTHER WINGS IN THE MIDST OF THE TEMPLE TOUCHED ONE ANOTHER,—For the Cherubim spread their wings through the whole breadth of the oracle, so that one Cherub touched with the tip of one wing the southern wall of the oracle, the other with the tip of one wing touched the opposite northern wall. For the breadth of the oracle was twenty cubits, and the four wings of the two Cherubim were as many cubits: for each wing was five cubits: wherefore these two Cherubim in the middle of the oracle touched each other by the extremities of two other wings, and with them covered the ark with the propitiatory and the Mosaic Cherubim standing on it, so that the ark was enclosed by the two wings of the Cherubim extended by Moses over the ark, as if under an umbrella, says Josephus, book 8, chapter 3. For Bede, Abulensis, Cajetan and others teach that the Cherubim made of gold by Moses and laid up with the ark in the temple by Solomon were under the wings of the two greater Cherubim made by him. And the very connection of the Cherubim with the ark requires this.
Furthermore 2 Paralipomenon 3:13 adds: “And they (the two Cherubim of Solomon) stood upon their feet, and their faces were turned to the outward house,” that is to the Holy. Whence the position of these Cherubim is clear, namely that they were placed by Solomon at the outermost wall of the Holy of holies, so that with their faces they looked both at the ark, which was before them, and at the Holy facing them, that with a turned countenance they might graciously look upon and as it were greet the pontiff entering through the Holy into the Holy of holies, as well as the people praying before the Holy in the court. With the face, therefore, they looked to the east, with the back to the west. For the Holy was to the east, but the Holy of holies, especially its outermost part, was the outermost wall to the west. So Ribera, book 2, chapter 6, and others.
Finally the Jews, turned toward the Holy of holies, to adore God residing in it, turned to the west: but Christians pray turned to the east: whence their churches also face the east, for reasons which I have said elsewhere. See Bellarmine, book 3 On the Saints, chapter 6. So also Vitruvius, book 4, chapter 5, teaches that the Gentiles built their temples toward the quarter whence the earth is illuminated, that is toward the rising of the sun.
29. AND ALL THE WALLS OF THE TEMPLE ROUND ABOUT HE CARVED WITH DIVERS FIGURES AND CARVINGS,—that is with turned work, by which things are turned and rounded on the lathe into the shape of little rings; yet under “lathe” understand any carving and sculpture. Whence Vatablus translates, with carvings and sculptures. For the lathe sometimes is the same as the chisel or graver, namely the instrument with which things are carved and sculptured. So Virgil, Eclogue 3, says a vine was wrought on the lathe, though it is clear that a vine is not round but of varying shape. And Horace, in the book On the Art of Poetry, asserts that poems are turned on the lathe, that is polished and perfected, when he says:
And to take back to the anvil verses badly turned.
So Sanchez, who, explaining, adds:
walls of the temple the images of the Cherubim already mentioned), AND PALM TREES (figures of palm trees), AND DIVERS PICTURES.—In Hebrew: openings of flowers; in Chaldee: of lilies.
30. THE FLOOR ALSO OF THE HOUSE (of the temple) HE OVERLAID WITH GOLD WITHIN AND WITHOUT,—that is, both in the Holy of holies and in the Holy. For the Holy was the outer, or exterior house; the Holy of holies, however, was the inner, or interior house, as I said. Solomon therefore laid the pavement of the whole temple with boards of fir, which he afterwards covered with gold, just as he faced the walls of the temple with boards of cedar, which he afterwards clothed with gold. So Vatablus, Sanchez and others.
31. AND IN THE ENTRANCE OF THE ORACLE HE MADE LITTLE DOORS OF OLIVE TREE, AND POSTS OF FIVE CORNERS.
32. AND TWO DOORS OF OLIVE TREE, AND HE CARVED UPON THEM THE PICTURE OF CHERUBIMS, AND THE FIGURES OF PALM TREES,—So in the entrance of the oracle, that is of the Holy of holies, he made two “little doors,” that is small doors, of the same wood, and these pentagonal, that is having five corners and as many posts; and on them he carved the images of Cherubim, of palm trees and “anaglypha.” Anaglypha is a Greek word, signifying images and pictures standing out and projecting from the surface of the wall, board or door. This concerning the doors of the Holy of holies; now he adds this concerning the doors of the Holy:
33. AND HE MADE IN THE ENTRANCE OF THE TEMPLE POSTS OF OLIVE TREE SQUARED,