Compare & Correlate · Measured
The three sanctuaries
The tabernacle, Solomon's house and the house Ezekiel is shown, drawn at one scale from the dimensions each text gives. Where a number is the text's own it is solid; where it is arithmetic over the text's numbers it is grey with its working printed; where the text gives nothing the plan is dashed and says so.
Measured: Numbers the texts state. Stated, derived and unstated are drawn apart.
The three sanctuaries. Measured — the numbers are the texts' own; stated, derived and unstated are drawn apart.
Where the sources disagree: the height of Solomon's porch. Both are shown; neither is resolved.
- 2 Chronicles 3:4 — a hundred and twenty cubits high
- 1 Kings 6:3 — gives the porch's length and breadth and no height at all
What this drawing chooses, that the text does not:
- the tabernacle's interior width: six frames of a cubit and a half give nine cubits, and the corner frames of Exodus 26:23 are what most reconstructions use to reach the ten drawn here
- the twenty-and-ten division of the tabernacle's interior: Exodus 26:33 hangs the veil under the clasps without naming a measurement
- the depth of Solomon's porch is drawn along the axis; 1 Kings 6:3 gives ten cubits 'in front of the house' and no orientation for it
- the absolute length of a cubit, which none of the three texts gives
Sources:
- Every number here is read off the verse cited beside it; nothing is taken from a reconstruction.
- docs/visual-layer.md §9 — the three statuses, and why derived may not be drawn as stated.
Row by row
| Tabernacle | Solomon's house | Ezekiel's house | |
|---|---|---|---|
| House: length × breadth | 30 × 10 cubits20 frames × 1½ cubits (26:16)Exodus 26:18derived | 60 × 20 cubits1 Kings 6:2stated | 40 × 20 cubitsEzekiel 41:2stated |
| Solomon's house is the tabernacle's stated dimensions doubled. | |||
| House: height | 10 cubitsthe frame's length, stood uprightExodus 26:16derived | 30 cubits1 Kings 6:2stated | no height for the houseunstated |
| Nave, before the inner room | 20 cubits30 less the 10 behind the veilExodus 26:33derived | 40 cubits1 Kings 6:17stated | 40 cubitsEzekiel 41:2stated |
| Inner room | 10 × 10 × 10 cubitsfrom the curtain arithmeticExodus 26:33derived | 20 × 20 × 20 cubits1 Kings 6:20stated | 20 × 20 cubits, no heightEzekiel 41:4stated |
| A cube in Solomon's house; Ezekiel keeps the square and gives no height. | |||
| Porch | none in the plan of the dwellingunstated | 20 × 10 cubits1 Kings 6:3stated | 20 × 11 cubitsEzekiel 40:49stated |
| Porch: height | no porch, no heightunstated | 120 cubits in Chronicles; Kings gives none2 Chronicles 3:4stated | no height givenunstated |
| The one row where the sources disagree outright. | |||
| Which cubit | never specifiedunstated | cubits by the former measure2 Chronicles 3:3stated | a cubit and a handbreadthEzekiel 40:5stated |
Where it appears in the text
- Exodus 26 — the dwelling's frames and the veil are dimensioned here
- Exodus 27 — the court that stands around the dwelling
- 1 Kings 6 — the house, the nave and the inner room, dimensioned
- 2 Chronicles 3 — the same house, with the porch height Kings omits
- Ezekiel 40 — the measuring reed, the porch, and the long cubit
- Ezekiel 41 — the nave and the inner room, measured
- Ezra 6 — the second house, and the only measurement given for it
In the app this comparison opens beneath each of those chapters. Open it in TheophilusBible.