Questions From Readers

How tall was the porch of Solomon temple?

The porch was part of the entrance to the Holy compartment of the temple. The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures that was publish before 2023 say, “the porch in front was 20 cubits long, corresponding to the width of the house, and its height was 120.” (2 Chron. 3:4) Other translations also say that the porch was “120 cubits” high. That mean it was 53-meter (175-ft) high!

But talking about the porch of Solomon temple, the New World Translation they print in 2023 say: “Its height was 20 cubits,” or about 9 meters (30 ft) tall.a Let look at some reasons why they make this change.

1 Kings 6:3 not tell us the height of the porch. In this verse, Jeremiah talk about the length and the depth of the porch, but he not talk about the height. Then in the next chapter, he talk plenty about other important parts of the temple, like the Sea of cast metal, the ten carriages, and the two copper pillars that was outside the porch. (1 Ki. 7:​15-37) If the porch was more than 50 meters tall and it was long pass all the other parts of the temple, then why Jeremiah not talk about the height? Even after some years, Jewish writers say that the porch was not tall pass all the other parts of Solomon temple.

Some big-big book people were not sure whether the temple walls were able to support the porch if it was 120-cubit-tall. The tall-tall structure them the people use to build way back, like the temple gates in Egypt, use to be wide to the down part then the up part be small. But Solomon temple was different. Some big-big book people say that the walls were not more than 6 cubits, or 2.7 meters (9 ft), thick. One man name Theodor Busink who can study the way back building them say: “Looking at how the temple wall was thick, the porch could not be 120 cubits [tall].”

Maybe they make mistake with the number when they were copying 2 Chronicles 3:4. Even though some way back manuscript them say “120” in this verse, but other trusted texts, like the fifth-century Codex Alexandrinus and the sixth-century Codex Ambrosianus, say “20 cubits.” Why you think it was possible for the scribes to make mistake and write “120”? In Hebrew the words for “hundred” and “cubits” looking the same. So maybe the scribe write “hundred” instead of “cubits.”

Even though it good to know this small-small thing them about Solomon temple, but it good to focus on what the temple stand for. It stand for the great spiritual temple. We really happy that Jehovah na invite all his servant them to worship him in that temple!—Heb. 9:​11-14; Rev. 3:12; 7:​9-17.