The Temple Revealed in the Garden: Priests and Kings

THE TEMPLE REVEALED

IN THE GARDEN

PRIESTS AND KINGS

DINAH DYE

FOREWORD BY BODIE THOENE

The Temple Revealed in the Garden: Kings and Priests

By Dinah Dye

Foundations in Torah Publishing

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Tree of Life Version (TLV) Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society. Copyright © 2015.

ISBN 978-0-9972410-2-0

ISBN 978-0-9972410-1-3 (e-book)

Copyright © 2017 by Dinah Dye: Foundations in Torah

All rights reserved.

Visit the author’s website at www.FoundationsInTorah.com

IN HONOR OF

Saul Brottman

1923–2016

May His Memory be for a Blessing!

WWII veteran

Husband of Harriette for 65 years

Father of Diane and Janice

Grandfather of Hannah, Sarah, and Kyle

Great-grandfather of Ya’el, Gavriella, Remy, and Hezekiah

And all the precious seed that will follow

CONTENTS

EDEN

THE GARDEN

THE FIELD

KINGS

PRIESTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GLOSSARY

FOREWORD

We often say that everything means something. Through deep study of the Hebrew roots of Torah, we find there is not one small detail in the ancient text that is not significant. In Matthew 5:17–18, Yeshua confirms this when He declares, Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

It is also true that we don’t know what we don’t know. Reading the truth in Scripture can make us feel a lot like a man who has lived in the desert his entire life. He climbs to a mountaintop and sees the ocean for the very first time. The sunlight reflects on the surface, and he cannot tell if he is looking at water or a solid sheet of silver. If it is water, is it two inches deep? Or is it of limitless depth, filled with wonders beyond his imagination? How can we know the depth of scriptural meaning and truth unless we stand beside it, touch it, and find the courage to plunge into it?

Dr. Dinah Dye’s deeply anointed Biblical scholarship takes us on a spiritual journey of ultimate discovery. As I read the text, it was like diving into the clear, deep waters of the sea and being able to breathe! Oh, the wonders in these passages! I began to understand just how much glory there is to be revealed beneath the surface.

When Yeshua spoke to us and said that not even the smallest Hebrew letter would pass away, He was letting us know that in the depths of Torah study there is life and beauty and color and the glory of Paradise revealed! Torah is also like a great tree with branches set like rungs in a ladder. We may climb up and up until we finally enter in. Truth is there in Scripture for us — the significance of all things great and small.

This incredible book helps show us the wonders of God’s great love and plan for us from the very beginning of creation. If you want to glimpse great and holy wonders, I highly recommend this beautiful book. It is for you who want to explore the unknown beauty beneath the surface of the deep waters of Torah. It is for you who long to climb the branches of the tree that reaches from earth, high into heaven’s glories.

Enjoy the journey!

Shalom and blessings!

Bodie Thoene

www.Thoenebooks.com

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Sarah Hawkes Valente: chief among editors

David Farley: layout/designer

Robin Hanley: cover designer

Tyler Dawn Rosenquist: content editor

Margo Doll: proofreader

Hannah Romero: proofreader

A PSALM FOR THE CORONATION OF THE KING

The earth is Adonai’s and all that fills it —

the world, and those dwelling in it.

For He founded it upon the seas,

And established it upon the rivers.

Who may ascend the mountain of Adonai?

Who may stand in His holy place?

One with clean hands and a pure heart,

Who has not lifted his soul in vain,

Nor sworn deceitfully.

He will receive a blessing from Adonai,

Righteousness from God his salvation.

(PSALM 24.1–5)

PROLOGUE

Adonai has set up His throne in the heavens,

And His kingdom rules over all.

(Psalm 103.19)

In the beginning, Elohim built a Temple called the Heavens and the Earth. Through Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding, the master craftsman formed His cosmic House from the dew of the seventh heaven, and He blew the breath of life into His creation. The Ruach (Spirit) of G-d hovered over the face of the waters like a mother bird building her nest.

Elohim cut a covenant, and His word bound Heaven and Earth together in marriage. Unity was sealed forever in the place where blazing tongues of fire radiate from the Throne of Glory — G-d’s Holy Oracle. A sign in the heavens confirmed His eternal oath: water and fire fused to fashion a rainbow-colored arc that connected Heaven to Earth.

Elohim laid immense beams over the upper waters, and He stretched out His chamber from one end of Heaven to the other. Inside the folds of His garment, vaults were filled with Heaven’s fresh waters. He carpeted His tent with thick darkness and hung a crystalline veil at its entrance. Cherubim clasping flaming swords stood like sentries at the opening of the firmament: a dome-shaped lid that covered the earth. Elohim’s chariot throne rested on parti-colored sapphire paving stones where a river of fire burst forth from underneath His earthly footstool. The king was clothed in dazzling light; He was dressed in splendor and majesty.

Soaring above the horizon, Elohim rode His glorious chariot on the wings of a storm. He divided His lower chamber into seven Yamim (days or stages) to mirror the upper. Elohim separated feminine elements from masculine: Earth from Heaven, light from darkness, waters below from waters above, land from sea, night from day. After the seas gathered and dry land appeared, He fastened Earth’s throne to a massive obsidian rock. Atop the foundation stone, He set a pure gold rectangular-shaped box filled with His seed, then He placed a golden lid upon it.

Elohim fashioned His lower House into three courtyards and filled each with His possessions: Heaven, the inner sanctum, contained all the celestial bodies. Earth, the inner courtyard, was filled with seed-producing plants, trees, and grasses. The seas formed the outer courtyard for the fish and great sea monsters that populated the deep. His lower house became the boundary that prevented the waters of chaos from crossing over.

On the seventh day, Elohim inaugurated His completed Temple for service. Creation rested; His royal house was filled with the fire of His glory. Accompanied by one hundred blasts of a ram’s horn, the hosts of Heaven paid homage to the Creator of the universe with shouts of joy and acclamation. The heavenly chorus worshipped, singing, All Praise and Honor, Glory and Majesty, Blessing and Triumph, Dominion and Power to the Sovereign King. Elohim’s throne was firmly established in the heavens; His Kingdom reigned over all.

At the climax of His creation, Elohim installed the human, Adam, as king and high priest to rule over the garden in Eden — located at the center of the cosmos. Adam sprouted up from the dust of the earth to become a mighty tree. His shade would cover the earth’s mountains. As king, he was to maintain order and stability — serving as the mediator between Heaven and Earth. As Elohim’s divine image-bearer, Adam was called to spread G-d’s seed and to expand the garden to Earth’s four corners. He was to rule the world in righteousness, justice, and peace and to preserve the created order through acts of worship so chaos could not destroy the Shalem (peace).

Eden was Elohim’s perfection where He dwelled in the midst of His creation. It was the Temple where His seed was sown to produce a harvest in His image and likeness. His seed was His most treasured possession!

CHAPTER ONE

EDEN

For Adonai will comfort Zion,

He will comfort all her waste places,

He will make her wilderness like Eden,

her desert like the garden of Adonai.

Joy and gladness will be found in her,

thanksgiving and a sound of melody.

(Isaiah 51.3)

From Architecture to Agriculture

The Psalmist’s creation account describes the construction of a cosmic temple using architectural terms: laying the beams, stretching out the tent, erecting the curtains, sinking the pillars in the earth, setting the cornerstone (Ps. 104). John Lundquist describes the temple as the architectural embodiment of the cosmic mountain (1984: 57). Scholars refer to the mountain as the axis mundi or connecting point between Heaven and Earth. It was the source of cosmic order and the barrier against chaos. Mount Zion was seen as the entrance into the celestial world.

Also, in the ANE (ancient Near East), Wisdom was the key architectural expression for temple building. This attribute, bestowed upon a king by his god, gave him the authority to rule rightly.

By employing building terminology in the creation story, the priestly author has done nothing new, but has joined other biblical writers who describe the world as a building, the Creation as an act of building, and the Creator as a wise, knowledgeable and discerning architect.

(HUROWITZ 1992: 242)

By Wisdom is a house built, by understanding it is made secure, and by knowledge its rooms are filled with all kinds of costly and precious, pleasant possessions.

(PROVERBS 24.3,4)

G-d gave wisdom and discernment in great measure and a breath of understanding as vast as the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.

(I KINGS 5.9,10)

The work of creation was described as very good, which meant it was fully functional. In Genesis (2,3), the language shifts from architectural to agricultural, that is, the sustenance and maintenance of creation. This change in focus required a different kind of work — now the responsibility of the human, Adam, who was placed in the garden. Adam (mankind) was to serve as a royal priesthood — a Kingdom of priests. NT Wright describes this work as a man’s covenant vocation. He suggests the main task of the vocation is ‘image-bearing,’ reflecting the Creator’s wise stewardship into the world and reflecting the praises of all creation back to its maker (Wright 2016: 76).

The Odes of Solomon (38:17–21) describe the saint as one who is established on foundations that were laid, and, as a cultivation, watered by G-d. GK Beale explains, [T]hese traditions build upon the fact that in the Old Testament, the Garden of Eden, Israel’s garden-like promised land, and Israel’s future restoration in a garden-like land were either equated or associated with a temple (2004: 246). The Apostle Paul suggested something similar when he compared the Corinthian congregation to a field — an idiom that is related to the Temple.

For we are G-d’s co-workers; you are G-d’s field, G-d’s building. According to the grace of G-d who was given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each consider carefully how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other foundation than what is already laid — which is Yeshua the Messiah.

(I CORINTHIANS 3.9–11)

Temple services and ceremonies performed by priests were synonymous with Adam cultivating a garden: plowing, sowing, reaping, fertilizing, pruning, and harvesting. The production of plant life was tied to the eretz (dry land) which allowed the creation process to continue. An agrarian society was dependent on the cycles of nature, and so agricultural imagery was a frequently used metaphor to describe G-d’s nature and His divine power to bring about abundance (Meyers 2003: 135–137). In Jerusalem’s Temple, eating was the highest form of worship; in the garden, food production was how the community survived. "This relationship between humans and the earth and their destiny to practice agriculture becomes important in the epic history of Yahweh’s chosen people" (George and George 2014: 135).

In the ANE, priests worked the fields to provide food for the deity. The king, on the other hand, maintained order and stability through cultivation and built massive garden complexes to create an aesthetically beautiful environment for pure enjoyment. In Mesopotamia, horticulture was the vocation of kings, and thus these rulers were referred to as gardeners. The sovereign’s royal gardens represented his kingdom and were in many ways similar to the famed English country estates with their pools, water courses, and winding paths through tall shrubs and shade trees. The royal garden was a cosmic temple in miniature.

Every king had his garden, and Jerusalem’s King was no exception. On the west bank of the Kidron valley, east of the fortified city was the ‘king’s garden,’ watered by the Gihon spring. The royal garden of Jerusalem, the city of G-d, was in some sense a replication of, or perhaps the basis for, the primordial garden of Eden in Genesis.

(BROWN 2010: 91)

After conquering territories, a suzerain would abscond with the defeated king’s royal shrubbery to replant in his gardens. Assyrian annals indicate that kings were as proud of their horticultural expertise as they were of their prowess on the battlefield. They frequently transplanted the exotic botanical species of conquered territories, boasting that they thrived better under their green thumb than in their natural habitats (Brown). The kingdom was their garden, and their ordained task was to cultivate it.

The First Temple, built by King Solomon, featured many garden elements (I Kings 6). He possessed knowledge of botany and spoke in depth of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grew in the wall, and about beasts, birds, creeping things and fish (4.33). King Solomon paneled the inside walls of the Temple and carved ornamental cedarwood buds, open flowers, cherubim, and palm trees into each panel. The floors were overlaid with planks of cypress. The olivewood doors to the inner sanctuary were also adorned with cherubim, palm trees, and flowers — all overlaid with fine gold. Solomon dedicated time and energy to building the impressive royal gardens.

I increased my possessions. I built myself houses and I planted myself vineyards. I made royal gardens and parks for myself and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I constructed for myself pools of water to irrigate a forest of flourishing trees.

(ECCLESIASTES 2.4–6)

Ancient texts describe lavish gardens built by the Sumerians, Assyrians, and Babylonians in the alluvial plains of southern Mesopotamia. No archaeological evidence has been found for the existence of King Nebuchadnezzar’s Hanging Gardens of Babylon — even though it was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. (ANE scholar Stephanie Mary Dalley has suggested the hanging gardens were built by King Sennacherib in the city of Nineveh). It is thought Nebuchadnezzar built the magnificent gardens for his consort who longed for mountainous environs. The rooftop gardens were said to resemble a large mountain formed by terraces and supported by sunbaked brick columns. Trees rooted in the soil-filled columns gave the garden its hanging appearance.

Persian gardens were