Commentaria in III Regum
THE ONE PILLAR WAS EIGHTEEN CUBITS HIGH.—Understand as to the shaft or stem of the pillar, for in 2 Paralipomenon 3:15 each pillar is said to have been 35 cubits, namely by adding and reckoning also the size of the base, the capital and the crown with which it was adorned at the top. So Abulensis, Lyranus and Cajetan. But in just architectural proportion these cannot rise to so great a height that the pillars would almost be equal to each other. Wherefore others answer better that both pillars joined together were 35 cubits: for though altogether it was 36 cubits (for twice eighteen make 36), yet in each the middle cubit was inserted in its capital, and being hidden in it did not appear. So Vatablus and Ribera, book 2 On the Temple, chapter 13. Third, and most probably, they answer that each pillar with its base was seventeen and a half cubits, the plinth being excluded, which completes the eighteenth. The reason for excluding the plinth was that the rest of the pillar with its base was hollow, and therefore had to rest on a solid plinth, and so the plinth was cast separately from the pillar; for the plinth is the last part of the base, which lies under the coils, so called because by its form it represents a brick (plinthos), whence in French they are called plinthes; for the plinth is a flat breadth like a board. Whence also in Vitruvius, book 3, chapter 3, the plinths of the coils are the plinths of the bases. The plinth, then, that is the lowest part of the bases, is not reckoned here, because the architect prudently wished to cast it solid, to sustain and hold more firmly the whole work of the pillar, which was hollow: both pillars joined together were therefore 35 cubits, the plinth excluded, because each was seventeen and a half cubits high; double these and you will have 35 cubits.
AND A LINE OF TWELVE CUBITS COMPASSED ABOUT EITHER PILLAR.—In the Hebrew, and a thread of twelve cubits went round the second pillar: if the second, then the first: for these two pillars were altogether equal and alike. By line, or, as in the Hebrew, thread, understand a measure: for with a thread we measure the thickness of things, as if to say: These pillars in compass and thickness had the measure of twelve cubits; “line,” then, denotes the periphery or circumference. Now Vilalpandus, and from him Salianus, hold that not one, but “both” pillars joined together had this measure of twelve cubits, so that half the line or thread of 12 cubits went round one pillar, the other half the other: so that one pillar was six cubits thick, and the other as many, and consequently both together were 12 cubits thick: for symmetry and proportion demand this, that since each pillar was 18 cubits high, it should not be thicker than six cubits: for the height is triple the thickness.
But that each pillar was 12 cubits thick Josephus expressly teaches, and Jeremias chapter 52, verse 21, where describing these pillars carried off by the Chaldeans when they laid waste Jerusalem he says: “A line of twelve cubits compassed it about,” namely one pillar. So the Septuagint also here: And the perimeter, they say, a thread of twelve cubits went round it (the first pillar), and so the second pillar, that is it was likewise of 12 cubits, etc., and the Chaldee says, and a thread, he says, of twelve cubits went round it, and so did the second pillar. These were therefore not so much pillars built according to the architectural symmetry and proportion of columns, as masses and towers, or certain vast brazen citadels erected for the magnificence and defense of the temple. So at Rome the column of Trajan (like that of the Emperor Antoninus) is very thick like a tower, so that several men with outstretched arms cannot embrace it round about. Whence also within it contains a winding stair by which one ascends by steps from bottom to top. Finally the ancients looked to other rules and proportions of their own, different from those which Vitruvius and later architects looked to. So Sanchez, Vatablus, Pagninus and others.
Furthermore Jeremias adds that these pillars were hollow within, yet so that the thickness of the brass without was four fingers in circuit. Whence Vilalpandus, book 5, chapter 37, balancing these measures in just proportion in his opinion, thinks that each of these pillars weighed five thousand talents, and both ten thousand talents. Eupolemus in Eusebius adds that Solomon covered the whole pillars with gold to the thickness of one finger. Whence Vilalpandus calculates that 95 millions were spent on overlaying these pillars with gold.
Finally, if the pillar was 12 cubits thick in circuit, then in the diameter of this circle it had 4 cubits: for the diameter is the third part of the periphery or circle: for the circle contains the diameter three times, and moreover a seventh part of it; wherefore between the diameter and the circle the proportion is that which is between seven and twenty-two. So Abulensis, Ribera, Vatablus. Moreover in the proportion and symmetry of thickness to height the thickness of the diameter is considered rather than that of the circle or circuit. Since, then, this pillar was in diameter only 4 cubits thick, but 18 cubits high, the proportion between thickness and height was that which is between 4 and 18, which is fairly equal and fitting. For the proportions of pillars are taken from the measurements and proportions of men. We see, however, that among men some are slender but tall, others stout and short; because what nature gives to thickness she takes from height: to these, then, this pillar, thick and short, was similar. Add that this pillar, besides the 18 cubits of its shaft or stem, had moreover 5 cubits of capital, which joined to the 18 make 23; every pillar was therefore 23 cubits high.
17. AND AS IT WERE A NET AND CHAINS, etc.—as if to say: These capitals were girt with certain brazen bands (says Josephus) in the manner of a net or of chains, which had at intervals openings like rings and lattices, through which the elegance of the capitals (for they were lilied, says Josephus, or had the form of lilies) might appear.
SEVEN ROWS OF NETS ON ONE CHAPITER,—as if to say: These bands already mentioned went round each capital seven times, so that they made as it were seven rows or orders and circles of bands; “rows,” then, he calls circles.
18. AND HE MADE THE PILLARS, AND TWO ROWS ROUND ABOUT EACH NET-WORK, TO COVER THE CHAPITERS,—as if to say: Each capital, and consequently each pillar, had two net-works, or a double crown netted and latticed, which in the manner of a net went round the capital, and covered and adorned it. So Sanchez. Ribera better takes by “two rows of nets” two rows of pomegranates hanging from the net-works. This is plain from the Hebrew and Septuagint, which have: Two rows of brazen pomegranates woven with nets, hanging work, row upon row; and from Josephus, who says: “Two series of pomegranates, two hundred in number, hung from them.” The sense, then, is as if to say: Each of the seven rows, or circles, of the net of each pillar had two rows of pomegranates: for a hundred pomegranates were interposed and as it were inserted in the middle of each row or circle, as is plain from 2 Paralipomenon chapter 3, verse 16, but the remaining hundred pomegranates hung alternately suspended from the same rows or circles, “so that two rows of pomegranates were joined to each net-work,”
TO COVER THE CHAPITERS THAT WERE UPON THE TOP WITH POMEGRANATES,—as if to say: He made these two net-works to cover and surround the capital, which net-works were distributed in seven rows, or circles, upon the top of the pomegranates: for the upper row, or part of the circle, was upon the top of the pomegranates hung, or hanging from the circle below. So Ribera, book 12, chapter 14.
It is added in 2 Paralipomenon 3:16: “He made also,” as it were, “little chains in the oracle,” or these chained nets were such as those which were made in the Oracle, or in the Holy of holies. So Ribera, book 2, chapter 14. Cajetan otherwise: “He made,” he says, “chains in the Oracle,” that is for a mystery and signification, namely that those chains might signify, and tacitly speak of, the future captivity of that kingdom or of Israel.
THE SAME HE DID FOR THE SECOND CHAPITER.—Namely, on the capital of the second pillar.
19. AND THE CHAPITERS THAT WERE UPON THE TOP OF THE PILLARS WERE MADE AFTER THE MANNER OF LILIES, IN THE PORCH, OF FOUR CUBITS.—This whole place is very obscure and involved: whence it is expounded variously by various persons, but to explain it briefly and clearly: Note, each of these two pillars had three capitals; the first and lowest was that which was placed immediately upon the stem, or shaft and stalk of the pillar, whence it is properly called the epistyle, 2 Paralipomenon chapter 4, verse 12, and it was three cubits high, as is said in 4 Kings last chapter, verse 17. The second capital was placed upon the lowest, or epistyle, and was covered by the net-work already mentioned, in which were seen two rows of pomegranates; above this second stood the third capital. So Ribera.
In this verse 19, the lowest capital, or epistyle, is described. The sense is, then, as if to say: In these two pillars the lowest capitals, which were upon the tops of the pillars, that is which lay upon the summit of the shaft or stem of the pillars, and are therefore called epistyles, were made in the form of a lily, and that “in the porch of four cubits,” that is so that toward the porch, that is in breadth, not in height, they were four cubits: for in height they were only three cubits, as I said. Whence the Septuagint for “in the porch” translate, near the vestibule. Of the second capital it has already been said in verses 16 and following, for around it was the net-work having two rows of pomegranates. Of the third, or highest, capital, I shall speak at the next verse. So Vitruvius, and after him architects, place a triple capital on columns, namely the epistyle, the zophorus and the cornice. The epistyle is the capital which is set immediately on the shaft, or scape, of the column.