The details of Solomon’s temple have to be supplemented in some cases with details of the tabernacle that Moses erected at the foot of Sinai. This is because the temple was built as a larger, permanent version of the tabernacle. When the second-temple scribes were compiling the Hebrew scriptures, memories of the original temple coloured those of the tabernacle and vice-versa. As a general rule, one picture can help to fill out the other, except for the measurements. The proportions, however, were the same for both structures.
The temple was divided into two areas by a huge curtain, the veil of the temple. Beyond the veil was the holy of holies, which in Solomon’s temple was a 20 cubit [10 yard] cube-shaped room, completely lined with gold. In it were two giant cherubim that spread their wings over the throne where the Melchizedek priest-king used to sit. The ark of the covenant was kept there, and so too was a small golden pitcher that held the perfumed anointing oil.20 The symbolism in the psalms suggests that there was a fountain or spring in the holy of holies, and the temple visionaries described living water flowing from the throne.21 The reality in the original temple had probably been the Gihon spring, which gushed up - its name means gusher - into the temple itself. This implies, of course, that the original temple cannot have been on the Temple Mount, but that is another story!
When the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, or maybe a short while before their invasion, the oil, the ark and the cherubim disappeared from the temple; but in the time of the Messiah and the true temple, it was said, they would return, along with the seven branched lampstand, the Spirit and the fire. The Spirit and the fire returned at Pentecost, and, if you read the Book of Revelation with temple-trained eyes, [opened eyes] you will find all the other missing items restored too. St John saw the true temple restored, and this is the earliest picture we have of Christian worship. This vision shaped even the simplest worship on earth, because the Christians were a part of it.
Let us look in more detail now at the temple building and what it symbolised. The outer part, corresponding to the nave of a western church, was twice as long as the holy of holies: 40 cubits [20 yards], whereas the holy of holies was 20 cubits [10 yards]. These were the temple proportions - 2:1 - and these can be found in many later church buildings, because they were modelled on the temple.
The Woman at the Well
Leaving Judea, Jesus “must go through Samaria.” At Jacob’s well he asks a Samaritan woman for water, and gives her living water in return: an open declaration that he is the Messiah, and a call to worship the Father “in spirit and in truth,” before he says as much to anyone else.
Note. This encounter is preserved in John alone.
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
1When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, they sought more diligently some means that they might put him to death. For many received John as a prophet, but they believed not on Jesus. Now the Lord knew this, 2though he himself baptized not but so many as his disciples, for he suffered them for an example, preferring one another. 3And he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee, 4and he must needs go through Samaria said unto his disciples, I must go through Samaria.
5Then he comes to the city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground which Jacob gave to his son Joseph, 6the place where Jacob’s well was. Now Jesus, being weary with his journey, it being about the sixth hour, sat down on the well. 7And there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink.
8Now his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food Then; wherefore, he being alone, 9the woman of Samaria said unto him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask drink of me, who am a woman of Samaria? The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10Jesus answered and said unto her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give me to drink, you would have asked of him and he would have given you living water. 11The woman said unto him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. From where then do you have that living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13Jesus answered and said unto her, Whoever shall drink of this well shall thirst again, 14but whoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15The woman said unto him, Sir, give me of this water, that I thirst not, neither come here to draw. 16Jesus said unto her, Go, call your husband and come here. 17The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, You have well said, I have no husband, 18for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. In that, said you truly.
19The woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22You worship you know not what. We know what we worship, and salvation is of the Jews. 23And the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks such to worship him, 24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him for unto such has God promised his spirit. And they who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.
25The woman said unto him, I know that Messiah comes, who is called Christ. When he has come, he will tell us all things. Jesus said unto her, 26I that speak unto thee am he I who speak unto you am the Messiah.
27And upon this came his disciples and marveled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said, What do you seek? Or, why do you talk with her? 28The woman then left her waterpot and went her way into the city, and says to the men, 29Come see a man who told me all things that I have ever done. Is not this the Christ? 30Then they went out of the city and came unto him.
31In the meantime, his disciples urged him, saying, Master, eat. 32But he said unto them, I have food to eat that you know not of. 33Therefore said the disciples one to another, Has any man brought him food to eat? 34Jesus said unto them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, There are yet four months, then comes harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. 36And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37And herein is that saying true: One sows and another reaps. 38I have sent you to reap that upon which you have expended no labor. Other men labored The prophets have labored, and you have entered into their labors.
39And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman who testified, saying, He told me all that I have ever done. 40So when the Samaritans had come unto him, they implored him that he would stay with them. And he abided there two days. 41And many more believed because of his own word 42and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of your saying: for we have heard him ourselves,. We have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
Living Water: The Fountain of the True Temple
Barker does not treat this scene directly, but her reading of the temple’s own living-water imagery gives the well conversation its deepest resonance: the water Jesus offers is the water the temple itself was built to give.
Barker’s subject here is the temple’s own throne-fountain imagery (from the Psalms and 1 Enoch), not this passage directly: the connection to Jacob’s well is ours to draw, not hers to state.