Architecture and Utopia in the Temple Era

This book proposes a new reconstruction of the Temple, which differs from conventional descriptions in Jewish literary sources during the First and Second Temple eras. Individual descriptions of the Temple are examined independently and the influence of earlier descriptions on subsequent ones is considered. Detailed architectural diagrams and three-dimensional models accompany the different reconstructions of the temple. Michael Chyutin examines the descriptions of the Meeting-Tent Tabernacle Temple, the descriptions of Solomon's Temple according to "1 Kings and 2 Chronicles", descriptions of Ezekiel's temple and its courtyards, the Temple and courtyards described in the Temple Scroll, the Second Temple according to Josephus Flavius and other sources, and the Temple as described in the Midoth Tractate. Descriptions of regional planning and the Temple City according to Ezekiel and the New Jerusalem Scroll are also examined. The final chapter examines architectural characteristics common to all of the descriptions, with the aim of identifying a unique architectural theory.