IF it be of any Consequence to know what was the principal Object of the Jewish Religion, it is no less so to be informed what the Places were wherein it was allowable to worship the true God, their Establishment, Structure, and every thing belonging to them. For this Reason we have allotted this Article for the pointing out such Authors as have more particularly treated of them.
De triplici Tabernaculo Mosis, by Adam the Scotchman. This is the third of the four Books composed by him, and printed at Antwerp, 1659, in fol. It is divided into three Parts: In the first his Description of the Tabernacle is altogether literal, such as is in Scripture: In the second he explains this Description allegorically; and in the third morally, as we find in p. 328, 449, of the Edition above-mentioned by us. There are besides two Letters written by him on this Subject to the Abbot and Monks of the Order of Præmonstratenses. He was a Scotchman, of the same Order, and died in 1180.
What Bede has written on this Subject is in the 4th Tome of his Works; and in the second of the Paris Edition, p. 1554. We shall have an Opportunity to speak of him in the Article of general Catholick Commentators. The Title of his Work is, De Tabernaculo & vasis ejus.
Ben-Ariæ Montani, Beseleel, sive de Tabernaculo. This is a Description of Moses’s Tabernacle, with a Print of it, published in his Apparatus to the Polyglot of Antwerp. We shall speak of him in the Article of Polyglots, Part III. Jacob Juda Delineatio Tabernaculi Mosis. This Description is by Judah Arieb, and was printed in Spanish, at Amsterdam, 1654, in 4to. It had been printed before, in Flemish, 1647, at the same Place, in 4to. His Measure of Solomon’s Temple was translated out of Spanish into French, and printed at Amsterdam in 1643, in 4to. He himself put it into Hebrew, and printed it in 1650, in 4to. ibid. John Saubert translated it into Latin, and had it printed with Cuts, at Helmstadt, 1665, in 4to.
This last Work is divided into four Parts: the first relates to Solomon’s Temple in general; the second is of the Form and Built of it; the third, of the Vessels belonging to it; and the fourth, of the Edifices which were near the Temple. This Jew was a Spaniard, and a Rabbin of the Synagogue at Amsterdam.
Cosmas the Egyptian has given a Description of the Tabernacle in his Geographical System of the World, l. v. translated into Latin, and printed in the new Collection of the Greek Fathers, by Dom Bernard. de Montfaucon. He is called the Egyptian, to distinguish him from Cosmas of Jerusalem, who lived in the seventh Century. He whom we are speaking of lived in the Beginning of the sixth: He was a Monk of Alexandria. See what D. Montfaucon says of him in his Collection, Tom. 2. We shall take notice in another Place of what he has written upon Isaiah.
Alexandri Rossæi, Templum Judaico- Ethnicum. This was printed at London, 1666, in 8vo. and in German, by David Neiretter, with Cuts, at Nuremburg, 1701. in 8vo. Alexander Ross was an Englishman, and Chaplain to Charles I. In the Piece above-mentioned he treats of the true Worship of God, and of Idolatry in particular; of the different Sacrifices of the Jews; of the Temple built upon Mount Gerizim; of the Sabbath, Passover, Jewish Feasts and Solemnities, Urim and Thummum, &c.
Maimonides de Templo, ex Versione Lud. Compiegne de Viel. Paris. 1678. in 4to. F. le Long did not know that this was only a Translation, since he ascribes all the Honour of it to the latter, and says nothing of it in the Article Maimonides. This Work contains, among other Things, an exact Description of the Figure and Form of Solomon’s Temple.
Franc. Riberæ, de Templo, & his quæ ad Templum pertinent, de Sacrificiis, Festis, in five Books, printed at Salamanca, 1591, at Antwerp, 1603. in 4to. Herein he discourses of the building of the Temple, of the Ark, the Altar, Sacrifices, Priest’s- Habits, Feasts, &c. We shall speak of him upon the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Joan. Henrici Coccei, & Campegii Vitringæ, de Templo Ezekielis, printed at Amsterdam, 1692, in 4to. and by Vitringa, at Franekar, 1687, in 8vo. 2 Vols. 1695, in Flemish, with a Dissertation upon the City of Jerusalem, and the Partition of the Land of Canaan. They contend here against the Opinion of Villalpandus. This John Henry Cocceius was Son to the famous Cocceius, and a Calvinist as well as his Father.
Leonardi Christoph. Sturmii Sciographia Templi Jerusolymorum, printed in 1694, at Lipsick, in 4to. He was a German Lutheran, Professor of Mathematicks.
Samuel Lee Orbis Miraculum de Templo Hierosolymitano. This Work was printed in English, at London, 1665, in fol. The Author was himself an Englishman, and of the Church of England.
Joan. Villalpandi, & Hieronymi Pradi, descriptio Templi Jerosol. ex mente Hebræorum, t. 1. operum. See Lightfoot, in the Alphabetical Catalogue.
Ludovici Capelli, Templi Jerosolym. Descriptio triplex; initio t. 1. Bibliorum Polyglot. Londinens.
Joan. Jacobi Crameri, de Templi secundi area exteriori. This Work contains Philological Exercitations, printed at Leyden, 1702. in 4to. He was of Zurich, a Calvinist, and died in 1702.
F. Lamy, Priest of the Oratory, has written a Treatise particularly on the Tabernacle, the Temple of Solomon, and the City of Jerusalem, in Latin, printed at Paris, 1720, in fol. This Work is divided into seven Books; the two first whereof are as it were Preliminaries; in the third we find the Description of the Tabernacle; the three last treat of the Temple, and every thing relating to it.
Besides the Work of Maimonides already taken notice of by us, there is a Description of the Temple, wherein he treats of the Furniture or Ornaments of it, of the Manner of entring into it; of the things which were forbidden to be placed upon the Altar, and the Manner of offering Sacrifices. This is in Latin, and to be met with in Crenius’s sixth Fasciculus.
Solomon Vantill has likewise treated of the Tabernacle, in explaining the 25th and 30th Chapters of Exodus. This was printed in Latin at Amsterdam, 1714. See Vantill, in the Alphabetical Catalogue.
Moses Amyraut, in one of his Sermon’s upon the Epistle to the Hebrews, gives us an Explanation of the Tabernacle; it is the fifth on Ch. ix. ver. 1.---- 5. They were printed in French at Saumur, in 1661, in 8vo. He was a Calvinist, and Minister of Saumur.
Bernard Conrad wrote a general Description of the Structure and Figure of the Temple, printed in Latin, at Hanover, in 1621, in 4to. He was a Lutheran Protestant of Germany.
Frederick Muller wrote a Disputation, de Tabernaculi Mosaici vecte mediano, at Giessen, in 4to. 1664. See the Title of it, in the Alphabetical Catalogue.
Augustus Pfeiffer, in his Doubts, printed at Dresden, 1679, in 4to. treats of the Sacred Places; that is to say, of the Tabernacle, Temple, and Synagogues of the Hebrews, in Latin. See the Title of it, ibid.
John Rusbrock, a Catholick, has likewise spoken of the Tabernacle and its Dependances, in a Work printed at Cologn, 1552, in fol. and 1609. the second Edition, with his other Works of Devotion, composed by him in Flemish, but translated into Latin by Surius. He was a Fleming, a Canon-Regular, and died in 1381, at 88 Years of Age.
Michael Christian Lewis, a Protestant, wrote two Disputations upon Solomon’s Temple, printed in Latin, at Jene, 1658, in 4to.
Altare exterius ad mentem Hebræorum delineatum by Thomas Dassovius, or rather Theodore. See his Title. He has also published, de Imaginibus rerum Hebræorum quæ nostrâ ætate circumferuntur.
As to others who have treated the same Matter, see Fabricius’s Bibliographia Antiquaria, ch. 9. numb. 4, 5, 6, --- 9. Lipenius’s Bibliotheca Theologica, under the Titles Tabernacle and Temple. You may likewise consult the Commentators upon Exodus xxv. and following Chapters, where they have discoursed of this Matter. We have also treated of it ourselves, in our Dissertation upon the Temples of the Ancients, wherein we have given the Description of Solo- Solomon’s Temple, before the first Book of Kings, and our Dissertation concerning the Riches left by David to Solomon. See likewise the Article Temple in this Dictionary of the Bible.