A Trained Professional II: A Cornerstone the Builders Accepted

Public buildings are the ornaments of a nation. They establish a nation as solid or non-transient. Buildings denote permanency and a visual bedrock of residency that is hard to ignore. They draw people for commerce. In a way, architecture aims at eternality yet still falls short. Early Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans could be identified by the architecture and some of their artifices, temples and buildings exist until today. The fact that they still stand is a testament to the skills of the ancient architectural builders. In truth some architecture is copied by modern builders.

There are Biblical references to palaces, temples, houses, fortifications and tombs. Many structures have been uncovered in modern times in places the Bible said they would be reaffirming and validating the accuracy and veracity of the bible. The Bible was so accurate that 20th century archeologist William F. Albright who wrote many books on the topic was noted as having stated that…

"Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details of the Bible as a source of history." ~W. F. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine, 1954 edition, p. 128

Architecture was so central to some narratives that Herod the Great is shown in the Bible to have prided himself on the buildings he had erected throughout the country that carried his name. This included the restoration and expansion of the Second Temple. King Herod no doubt wanted to be remembered forever as the builder of the greatest temple of the Jews.

Farther back when Solomon had built the original Temple it dominated the landscape. So great was the structure that the Temple became synonymous with grandeur. So much so that when the Second Temple is built it is lamented that it is nothing compared to Solomon's first.

Haggai 2:3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison?

Regardless, it was clear in the Temple at least that the men that built it had an eye on permanence or eternity. God did also but not on the physical building itself. The irony is that the architecture God had in mind would be a temple in the flesh and the the spirit flesh/body. Man would confuse God’s purpose but the physical stone temple would serve God’s purpose anyway as a shadow of what would come in Christ.

Mark 14:58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days will build another, not made with hands.’”

John 2:19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

When King David planned to build his palace he sent for Phoenician architects who were clever builders of stone as noted in 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel 5:11-12 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David. Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

When Solomon was tasked to build, in all his wisdom, he too turned to the Phoenician architects for the building of his more ambitious palace and temple. He reaches out to Hiram, the Phoenician king of Tyre who supplied Solomon with the supplies and skilled laborers to build both.

1 Kings 5:7 When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was greatly pleased and said, “Praise be to the Lord today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.” So Hiram sent word to Solomon: “I have received the message you sent me and will do all you want in providing the cedar and juniper logs. My men will haul them down from Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea, and I will float them as rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate them and you can take them away. And you are to grant my wish by providing food for my royal household.”

When we move to the New Testament we see Paul comparing himself to a builder also. He builds via God’s grace. Here we see him point to Jesus Christ rather than himself. He is merely a stone built upon the Cornerstone that is Christ and he acknowledges as much.

1 Corinthians 3:11“...I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

Moving forward we see The Great Architect in Hebrews. It tells us that the patriarch Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was God.  The word for builder in Hebrews 11:10 is τεχνίτης/technites means more than just a architect or craftsman. It is an artificer who also created the blueprint and laid the ground plan. Not just for the Temple of Solomon’s time but of the Kingdom of Heaven and all of reality. The word builder is also used or δημιουργος/demiourgos. Its proper meaning, the word builder here is the ‘one whose works stand forth to the public gaze’.

Hebrews 11:8-10 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

When the words are used together there is an idea that not only do these things get built by God but they are at first divine intention before the divine realization of the same. The fact that the writer of Hebrews chooses to use the word δημιουργος/demiourgos means he is striving to use a word that is so finally crafted for the purpose of illustration that the author himself is an artificer of words about the artificer of all of reality. The one that inspires that text is the very same one that builds the Temple and the Kingdom of Heaven. The One that the texts go into explicit holy detail about. The detailer of the text is the also the detail of the architecture of heaven and earth, the Maker and Sustainer of all things...including we as humans.

Hebrews 1:1-3 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

In truth, we must never forget that Jesus is the Cornerstone for the believer and the Kingdom of Heaven. In him we are to be aligned. We are all the bricks that the Kingdom is constructed of. You and I, one upon another in perfect harmony and in like mindedness of Jesus Christ being both their underlying cornerstone and overall archetype of us all as new creations. 

The cornerstone being the main stone of an architectural structure upon which all other stones are straightened and made plumb.

Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.