First Glance

Letters to the editor spark lively—and often controversial debates in BR’s Readers Reply column. More recently, however, a letter has generated an article. Ronald F. Watts, after reading Victor Hurowitz’s literary trip “Inside Solomon’s Temple,” BR 10:02, noted that the elaborate decoration of Solomon’s Temple appears to violate the Second Commandment: “You shall not make for yourself any graven image” (Exodus 20:4). But in the Book of Kings we read that Solomon set up two huge cherubim in the Temple shrine. Watts asks, “Did King Solomon Violate the Second Commandment?” Hurowitz’s reply traces the development of the interpretation of this biblical commandment.

Hurowitz is a senior lecturer in the department of Bible and ancient Near Eastern studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva. His interest in ancient temples led to his recent book I Have Built You an Exalted House (JSOT/ASOR, 1992). His first BR article was “When Did God Finish Creation?” BR 03:04.