What Do We Learn About the Bible from Visiting Egypt? Part 2: Seeing the Temple

What’s the best way to see the ancient temple of Israel? Go to Egypt.

If you go to Israel, you will not see the ancient temple. The only thing that remains is the Western Wall where Jews and others from around the world go to pray.

If you want to see the temple, you will need to go to Egypt. It is not exactly the same, but the structure of the temple is much closer than you might imagine. In addition, there are dozens of temples to visit. You can see great variation on the same themes.

To understand the temple, it might be helpful to read 1 Kings 6:14–28, which describes the temple of Old Testament Israel. There plan of the temple is simple. Room 1: The outer courts, where the people would gather. There, everything was made of bronze. There was a bronze altar and bronze wash basin. Room 2: the holy place. This is where the priests would go. There was the table with the bread on it, the menorah or candle, and the altar of incense. All there was made of gold. Rome 3: inside the holy place, there was the most holy place. Only the high priest could enter and that only once a year. In this most holy place or the holy of holies, there was a box, the ark of the covenant. This was the place where Jehovah’s presence would manifest itself.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the temples of Egypt.

Room 1: The Outer Courts
When you come to the temples of Egypt, you will find an outer court area. This is where the people would gather. This is similar to what you would have found in Israel, though only Jews who were ceremonially clean could enter there. Below are the outer courts at the temple at Edfu in Egypt.

In Egypt, every temple has this sort of structure. You can see this clearly in the Kom Ombo temple. You can see the outer courts in the foreground, and then you can see the holy place in the background.

Psalm 84:1 proclaims, “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!” One thing that you may miss in looking at these ancient structures is how beautiful they were. They were fully painted and decorated. It was not just brown, yellow, or gray stone. There would be a dazzling array of colors.

If you want to see what this might have been like, the best place to visit is the Valley of the Kings. There, you can see the walls that were painted 3,000 years ago that look like they were painted just yesterday. The dryness of the desert has preserved these colors for us.

However, when I went to Egypt the second time, I started thinking, “I don’t remember all these colors.” Well, I didn’t remember them because they weren’t visible. UNESCO has approved a process for restoring these colors, and that work has begun. It is not as vibrant as the colors in the tombs of the kings, but it still gives you some idea of what the temples were like when they were filled with color.

This can help you visualize what the temple was actually like in Israel.

Room 2: The Holy Place
In each temple, you have a holy place. This was a place where access was restricted. Only the priests and nobles could enter there.

These rooms are covered. There are large and impressive pillars. There is usually an ornate entryway.

This is parallel to the holy place in Israel. One difference is that the priests could enter in Israel, but the nobles could not. The political and ecclesiastical world were much more tightly connected in Egypt. We will see this in the holy of holies as well.

The Holy of Holies
The holy of holies was the center of the temple. Only two people could enter the holy of holies, the high priest and the Pharaoh. Again, this contrasts with Israel. In Israel, the king could not enter the holy of holies, only the high priest.

Inside the holy of holies in Egypt there was a box. It was like the ark of the covenant. It was carried around with poles. One striking difference between the arks of Egypt and the ark of Israel was the image of the gods in Egypt. The Egyptian arks would often be the seat or stand for the statues of the gods of Egypt.

Conclusion
If you want to study the temple of Israel, a good place to start would be Egypt. These temples are beautiful and fascinating in themselves. It will give you clear imagery of what the temple in Israel must have been like.

It is not surprising that God would use similar structures to those in Egypt. This was the thought world of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. God took these things and used them for His own purposes. It’s rather amazing that we can get a real clear view of this even today because of the preservation of these ancient temples in the dry climate of Egypt.

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