The fact that many temples were oriented to the stars or other heavenly phenomenon shows that the order of the heavens was necessary to the establishment of an order upon the earth.  Rameses II dedicated a temple at Aboo Simbel to the sign “Lubat“, (Greek: Aries), in about 1400-1100 B.C.  The temple was so situated that the sun penetrated the shrine of the temple in conjunction with the first stars of Aries, called “Lord of the Head.”  Eight Grecian temples are known to have been oriented to the alpha star in Aries about 1580-360 B.C.  The great pyramids of Egypt are oriented to many significant time-telling phenomena.  There is a small shaft opening from the burial chamber in one of the tombs that was aimed directly at the pole star of that time.[1]

            It seems that the Tabernacle which Moses built was also oriented in just such a fashion, a method described Biblically as “according to the Pattern of the Heavens.”  We know it was “in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected.” (Exod. 40:17).  “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” (40:34). I certainly would not minimize the miraculous nature of that Glory, for this happened because: “Thus did Moses; according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did.” (40:16). Moses had carefully followed the Pattern shown him in the mount and the result was glorious, both spiritually and naturally.

            Josephus tells us:

As to the tabernacle itself, Moses placed it in the middle of that court, with its front to the east, that, when the sun arose, it might send its first rays upon it” (Ant. 3.6.3).

 

He goes on to say “…this proportion of the measures of the tabernacle proved to be an imitation of the system of the world (i.e. the cosmos)…”(3.6.4)

 

He again stresses this point in speaking of all the furnishings and priestly garments: “…for if any one do without prejudice, and with judgment, look upon these things, he will find they were every one made in way of imitation and representation of the universe (3.7.7).”[2]

 

What Josephus calls “way of imitation and representation of the universe” is Biblically called “the Pattern of the Heavens.

            The Temple also was built in this manner.  When it was time for Solomon to build the temple, David instructed him on “The Plan“:

All this he made clear by the writing from the hand of the Lord concerning it, all the work to be done according to the Plan.” (1 Chronicles 28:19 RSV) 

There was a heavenly Pattern, as there was for Moses.  When the temple was dedicated at the Feast of Tabernacles, at the fall equinox, (1 Kings 8:10-13):

When the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.  Then Solomon said, ‘The Lord has set the sun in the heavens, but has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.  I have built thee an exalted house, a place for thee to dwell in for ever (‘ôlam).‘ (RSV)

 

            The temple was oriented to the time-telling heavens.  Its real “foundations” were the established points in the heavens to which it was oriented: the zenith, the pole star and the equinoctial rising of the sun.  (These were the ’ayim, perhaps a masculine plural form of aleph).

Psalm 78:69: “And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever (‘ôlam).”  Or: “And he built like his holy place which is highest, the earth, established for ‘ôlam.“

 

The sanctuary was made “like the high heavens,” that is, established with reference to the heavens as a reckoning point. (See Commentary at 1:3 “Christ as Time and Light.”)

            Another cluster of words that reveal how the first letter of the alphabet may be related to the mapping and surveying of the earth are ’îyyim, ’îy, ’âvah I., and ’âvah III, (Ges. Lexicon s.v.)

            The word ’îyyim is translated variously as ‘coastlands’, ‘isles’, etc.  The word appears in Genesis 10:5: “From there the ’îyyim spread,” followed by a phrase which is not in the Hebrew, translated by the RSV: “These are the sons of Japheth.”  If this phrase were left out it would read (RSV): “From there the coastland peoples, (’îyyim), spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their families, in their nations.” It seems that the phrase “These are the sons of Japheth” is an intrusion into the logic.

            The KJV translates it:

By these the isles, (’îyyim), of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.

            This is not a logical construction either because the isles here would seem to have tongues, families and nations!  However, if we take the word ’îyyim to mean the travelers, i.e., Bedouins, sea-farers, and/or frontiersmen, this seems to make a logical and even necessary explanation in the context of showing the genealogies of the various nations.

            The singular form ’îy is defined by Gesenius (Lexicon s.v.) as: “(1) Habitable, or inhabited land, (from the root ’âvah No. I, maritime land…esp. (a) the seashore, (b) an island….of transmarine regions…hence of those very far remote…esp….of the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.”

The root ’âvah I “Properly, to bend, to inflect, comp. ’âvah… (1) to turn aside…to lodge, to dwell.”

            The identical word ’âvah is also defined in sense III, “To mark, to designate, to describe…This signification is manifest both in the noun ’owth…a mark, and in the words, Num. 34:10,…‘ye shall mark out for you (the borders);’ comp. verses 7, 8, where in the same context there is found in the future: םכל ּואתּת LXX and Syr. in all three places katametresete,…ye shall bound, limit.”

            The primary meaning common to all of these is that of surveyors and navigators who are going out into uncharted territory and marking out and settling the earth and the islands or foreign countries across the seas.  This original navigating and surveying was done with reference to the stars.  If we understand that the aleph star, or the ‘A’ was the basis for naming all the others, then we can see how that those using the stars might be called ’îyyim, and their markings, ’âvah, would have established their ’îy.  The root ’âvah would show that the earth arcs or bends, inflects, as well as the fact that the ecliptic and celestial equator are circles and parts of those circles are arcs.

            In their strange manner of interpretation the Rabbins thought of the alphabet as representing the complete Torah:

“R. Aha said: ‘If a man marries a godly wife, it is as though he had fulfilled the whole Torah from beginning to end.  To him applies, ‘Thy wife is like a fruitful vine’ (Ps.cxxviii, 3). Therefore the verses of the chapter of the virtuous wife in Proverbs (xxxi) are arranged in complete alphabetical sequence (and no letter is missing, as in other alphabets in the Bible) from Alef to Tau.  It is solely for the merit of the righteous women in each generation that each generation is redeemed, as it is said, ‘He remembers His lovingkindness and faithfulness by reason of [A.V.’towards’] the house of Israel‘ (Ps.xcviii,3). It does not say ‘by reason of the children of Israel‘, but ‘by reason of the house of Israel.’ [‘House’ is the regular Rabbinic equivalent of ‘wife’, not in the sense of domicile, but of home.]” (Ruth Zufa, ed. Buber, IV, II, p.24b.)[3]