1 Kings — Chapter 6

The Temple begun in the 480th year from the Exodus: Lapide gives a careful chronological discussion. The Temple was begun in the 4th year of Solomon's reign and completed in the 11th year, taking 7 years and 7 months to build. He dates it to year 2933 of the world, 1017 years before the birth of Christ.

Dimensions of the Temple — sixty cubits length, twenty breadth, thirty height: Lapide: Allegorically (following Angelomus), the length signifies the long-suffering of the Church, which patiently bears all adversity in the exile of her pilgrimage. The breadth signifies charity, which loves enemies as well as friends for God's sake. The height signifies hope of future retribution.

The Temple windows oblique: Lapide: Allegorically, these oblique windows represent the holy Doctors, through whom God teaches and illumines the faithful — they admit wide light from a narrow opening, sending it far through the house, as the rays of the sun entering through a pyramid inverted.

The Temple built in silence — no sound of hammer or axe: Lapide notes this miracle of construction: the stones were fitted in silence, signifying the spiritual Temple of souls fitted together without the noise of external coercion, by the interior work of grace.

The walls carved with cherubim, palms, and various figures: Lapide: The entire Temple was a catechism in images — cherubim representing the angelic orders, palms the just, the vine the Church. The allegorical interpretation follows Bede, Eucherius, Angelomus, Rupertus, and Francis Ribera.

The Temple completed in seven years: Lapide: \"Allegorically, the Temple represents the Church Militant; anagogically, the Church Triumphant in heaven; tropologically, the holy soul which through faith in this life, and through sight in the next, contemplates God face to face, and is beatified by this contemplation.\"