TEMPLE, Templum, a public building, erected in honour of some deity, either true or false; and wherein the people meet to pay religious worship to the same. The word is formed from the Latin templum, which some derive from the Greek τινος, signifying the same thing; and others from τιμω, abscindo, "I cut off, I separate," in regard a temple is a place separated from common uses; others with more probability derive it from the old Latin word templare, "to contemplate." It is certain the ancient augurs gave the name templa to those parts of the heavens which were marked out for the observation of the flight of birds. Their formula was this: Templa tesqua sunt. Temples were originally all open, and hence received their name. See Phil. Trans. No 471. sect. 5. where we have an account of an ancient temple in Ireland of the same sort as our famous Stonehenge. The word templum, in its primary sense among the old Romans, signified nothing more than a place set apart and consecrated by the augurs, whether inclosed or open, in the city or in the fields.
Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius refer the origin of temples to the sepulchres built for the dead. This notion has been lately illustrated and confirmed by a variety of testimonies by Mr Farmer in his Treatise on the Worship of Human Spirits, p. 373, &c. Herodotus and Strabo will have the Egyptians to have been the first who built temples to the gods. The first erected in Greece is ascribed to Deucalion, by Apollonius, Argonaut. lib. iii. In antiquity we meet with many people who would not build any temples to their gods for fear of confining them to too narrow bounds. They performed their sacrifices in all places indifferently, from a persuasion that the whole world is the temple of God, and that he required no other. This was the doctrine of the magi, followed by the Persians, the Scythians, the Numidians, and many other nations mentioned by Herodotus, lib. i. Strabo, lib. xv. and Cicero in his second oration against Verres.
The Persians, who worshipped the sun, believed it would wrong his power to inclose him in the walls of a temple, who had the whole world for his habitation; and hence, when Xerxes ravaged Greece, the magi exhorted him to destroy all the temples he met with.
The Sicyonians would build no temple to their goddess Coronis; nor the Athenians, for the like reason,
erect any statue to Clemency, who, they said, was to live in the hearts of men, not within stone walls. Temple.
The Bithynians had no temples but the mountains to worship on; nor had the ancient Germans any other but the woods.
Even some philosophers have blamed the use and building of temples, particularly Diogenes, Zeno, and his followers the Stoics. But it may be said, that if God hath no need of temples, men have need of places to meet in for the public offices of religion: accordingly temples may be traced back even into the remotest antiquity. See Hospinian de Origine Templorum.
The Romans had several kinds of temples; whereof those built by the kings, &c. consecrated by the augurs, and wherein the exercise of religion was regularly performed, were called, by way of eminence, templa, "temples." Those that were not consecrated, were called edes. The little temples, that were covered or roofed, they called ædiculae. Those open, facella. Some other edifices, consecrated to particular mysteries of religion, they called fana and delubra.
All these kinds of temples, Vitruvius tells us, had other particular denominations, according to the form and manner of their construction, as will be hereafter specified.
Indeed the Romans outdid all nations with regard to temples: they not only built temples to their gods, to their virtues, to their diseases, &c. but also to their emperors, and that in their life time; instances whereof we meet with in medals, inscriptions, and other monuments. Horace compliments Augustus hereupon, and sets him above Hercules and all the heroes of fable; because those were admitted into temples only after their death, whereas Augustus had his temples and altars while living.
Præsenti tibi maturos largimur honores;
Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimus aras.
Epist. ad Aug.
Suetonius, on this occasion, gives an instance of the modesty of that emperor, who would allow of no temples being erected to him in the city; and even in the provinces, where he knew it was usual to raise temples to the very proconsuls, refused any but those erected in the name of Rome as well as his own.
The most celebrated temples among the Romans were the Capitol and Pantheon. They had also the temple of Saturn, which served for the public treasury; and the temple of Janus.
The temple at Jerusalem was similar in its plan to the TABERNACLE. The first temple was begun by Solomon about the year of the world 2992, and before Christ 1012 according to some chronologists, and finished in eight years. Great mistakes have been committed respecting the dimensions of this temple, by confounding the emblematical description of Ezekiel with the plain account of it in the books of Kings and Chronicles. It consisted of the holy of holies, the sanctuary, and a portico. The holy of holies was a square room of 20 cubits; the sanctuary, or holy place, was 40 cubits long and 20 broad, consequently the length of both these together was 60 cubits. The portico, which stood before the sanctuary, was 20 cubits long and 10 cubits broad. Whether the portico was separated by a wall from
Temple. from the rest of the temple or not, is not mentioned in scripture. If it was, the whole length of the temple, computing the cubit at 22 inches, did not exceed 110 feet in length and 36 feet 8 inches in breadth. In the portico stood the two brazen pillars called Jachin and Booz, which, upon comparing and reconciling the seemingly different accounts in different places, appear to have been 40 cubits high and about 4 cubits diameter. The court probably at first extended all round the temple. Now we are told, that the court about the tabernacle was 100 cubits long and 50 broad; and as Solomon made every part of the temple about twice as large as the corresponding part in the tabernacle, we have reason to conclude, that the court around the temple was 200 cubits long and 100 broad. According to this description, which is taken from the scripture history, the temple of Solomon was by no means so large as it is commonly represented. Still, however, it was very magnificent in size and splendid in ornament. It was plundered of its treasures in the reign of Rehoboam, and repaired by Joash; it was again spoiled in the time of Ahaz and of Hezekiah; and after being restored by Josiah, was demolished by Nebuchadnezzar in the year of the world 3416, after it had stood 476 years according to Josephus, and according to Usher 428 years.
The second temple was built by the Jews, after their return from the Babylonish captivity, under the direction and influence of Zerubbabel their governor, and of Joshua the high-priest, with the leave and encouragement of Cyrus the Persian emperor, to whom Judea was now become a tributary kingdom. According to the Jews, this temple was destitute of five remarkable appendages, which were the chief glory of the first temple; viz. the ark and mercy-seat, the Shechinah, the holy fire on the altar, which had been first kindled from heaven, the urim and thummim, and the spirit of prophecy. This temple was plundered and profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, who also caused the public worship in it to cease; and afterwards purified by Judas Maccabæus, who restored the divine worship; and after having stood 500 years, rebuilt by Herod, with a magnificence approaching to that of Solomon's. Tacitus calls it immensæ opulentiæ templum; and Josephus says, it was the most astonishing structure he had ever seen, as well on account of its architecture as its magnitude, and likewise the richness and magnificence of its various parts and the reputation of its sacred appurtenances. This temple, which Herod began to build about 16 years before the birth of Christ, and so far completed in nine years and a half as to be fit for divine service, was at length destroyed by the Romans on the same month and day of the month on which Solomon's temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.
The Indian temples, or pagodas, are sometimes of a prodigious size. They are commonly erected near the banks of the Ganges, Kistna, or other sacred rivers, for the benefit of ablution in the purifying stream. Where no river flows near the foot of the pagoda, there is invariably in the front of it a large tank or reservoir of water. These are, for the most part, of a quadrangular form, are lined with freestone or marble, have steps regularly descending from the margin to the bottom, and Mr Crawford observed many between three and four hundred feet in breadth. At the entrance of all the more considerable pagodas there is a portico, supported
by rows of lofty columns, and ascended by a handsome flight of stone steps; sometimes, as in the instance of Tripetti*, to the number of more than a hundred. Under this portico, and in the courts that generally inclose the whole building, an innumerable multitude assemble at the rising of the sun; and, having bathed in the stream below, and, in conformity to an immemorial custom over all the East, having left their sandals on the border of the tank, impatiently await the unfolding of the gates by the ministering brahmin. The gate of the pagoda universally fronts the east, to admit the ray of the solar orb; and, opening, presents to the view an edifice partitioned out, according to Mr Thevenot in his account of Chitanagar, in the manner of the ancient cave-temples of Elora, having a central nave or body; a gallery ranging on each side; and, at the farther end, a sanctuary, or chapel of the deity adored, surrounded by a stone balustrade to keep off the populace. Those who wish to peruse a more particular account of the Indian temples may consult Maurice's Indian Antiquities. See also PAGODA and SERINGHAM.