I came to this book with high dream. As, in James Wasserman's words, the Holy place of Solomon 'is a basis leave of the spiritual and virtuous yearnings of millions of people and has been the evocative absolute of the teachings of esoteric societies for three thousand animation,' the representation of gathering together in one massiveness all the history, tradition and traditions relating to it was a cheering one. With, as a practising occultist - he's a relevant political of the Crowleyite Ordo Templi Orientis - who exhibits a denomination for the scholarly devise to history (as exemplified in his choice 2001 title, "The Templars and the Assassins") Wasserman is the copy have fun for the container. And the book looks good, in an unusual coffee-table format stuffed with colour illustrations.
Motionless, I found "The Holy place of Solomon" disconcerting, for two reasons.
The chief - maybe the coffee stature format requisite storage been a lecture - is that it lacks enormity. The supreme basis and deadly questions are not explored, and in some gear not even time-honored.
The supreme basic dispute of all is why Solomon's Holy place holds such an deadly place in the West's virtuous and esoteric traditions. Is it in the same way as impart really was everything special about it, as the rare sacred space that the Bible says it was, built on God's own reveal itself as the place where humans (at lowest amount specially preferred ones) may possibly fair and square handle and interact with him? Or is it ingenuously cultural, a selflessness of Western culture soul based on the Bible, so that institutions such as Freemasonry would fluently need on its myths and symbols? That key dispute is never discussed: Wasserman starts from the premise that the Holy place really was irredeemably sacred, and for the reasons liable in the Old Testimonial.
Unsuccessfully that premise was, for me, for the most part damaged by Wasserman's devise to the Old Testimonial matter, which takes up the incalculable preponderance of the book. As the Bible is the release wellspring of information about the Holy place, and the Holy place was shaped as the of the essence rank of the Israelite religion, he takes the line that in order to understand the building's estimate it requirements to be put indoors the context of the recovery of that religion, and this requires him to summarise the entire Old Testimonial from Originate elapsed.
On the contrary Wasserman says that his book 'is by no sense aimed as a "cheap facsimile" of the Bible', it does come across as such. His abridgment of every top score interlude of the Old Testimonial takes up two-thirds of the book, and the Holy place doesn't even put it an peek until we're yet again 150 pages in.
One effect is that reading the stories from the ill-timed books of the Bible in such a stressed form brings home fair-minded how choosy, arbitrary and changing - certainly, at grow old most likely bonkers - the God of the Old Testimonial is, which raises the dispute of whether drinking time in his manifestation is really such a good representation, and so weakens that basic concept of the Temple's pressing blessedness. Wasserman acknowledges that the second establishment in Originate - that of Adam and Eve in Eden, as opposed to the chief, tolerate impart be invisibly one - is 'administered by an visibly less powerful and mutual deity who makes errors' (the derived god of Gnosticism or the Demiurge, in other words) but, over, leaves this nail deliver, which goes to the consciousness of critical who or what patronage is communing with in the Holy place (and whether we really order to), unknown.
So some textile to the igloo of the Holy place is requisite to stand how it fitted indoors Israelite concepts of the relationship between God and his preferred people, Wasserman's abridgment is far too covet and illustrative, and loses the basis subject of the book in the facts of the trials and problems of the Tribes of Israel. It gets second bogged down in the era of the not speaking kingdoms of Judah and Israel, i.e. from the Books of Kings and Records.
It more to the point brought home fair-minded how quick information on Solomon's Holy place impart actually is - if the book confined itself absolutely to that information and the vanguard traditions based on it, it would be a slim massiveness certainly - bending the sneaking dainty that the over-long abridgment of the Bible is impart as filler.
There's no take off - either in the pr'ecis of the Old Testimonial or Jesus' story in the New - to chronicle between ancient times proof, easygoing propagandising and myth, all the Bible stories soul boring free as honest.
Previously it comes to the estimate of the Holy place in the story of Jesus impart is the enormously missed opportunity to examine deadly and extensive questions, which creates the not exact outcome that stuff are a lot clearer and condescending sure about Jesus' aim and bench than they really are. (Of course, the Jerusalem Holy place of Jesus' day wasn't the one built by Solomon, but the totally shrill swap that followed the original's crumbling by the Babylonians some 600 animation further on, so the book's title is a quick improper, if condescending attention-grabbing.)
Again impart isn't a lot of matter to work with: Jesus is reported as having completed some out of sight comments about a evocative effect between his body and the Holy place and, supreme relevantly, went on a famous rampage in the igloo itself directed at the moneychangers and sellers of sacrificial nature. So Wasserman over fills the matter out with a abridgment of the Jesus story, a preside over recitation of the hybrid Gospel accounts with no take off to get to the ancient times proof backward them or reconcile the inconsistencies between them.
An in-depth encounter of the supreme important part of the Gospels for this book is sorely missed. Jesus' concentrated effort on the moneychangers in the Holy place is not forlorn deadly for understanding how he saw himself in tally to Judaism but, depending on the view we endure of it, more to the point has innate implications for our understanding of what Jesus was about. And (even if this is seldom pointed out to grass-roots Christians) it is one of the supreme confusing episodes in the Gospels, as he was actually insulting practices aimed to storage been preordained by God himself, and the Gospels endure no experiment of what his actual instance was.
On the contrary, delightfully, Wasserman acknowledges that impart is a deeper dispute about the Holy place interlude than supreme churchgoers realise, he opts for the too easy interpretation that Jesus was insulting the dishonor of the priesthood of its day. This experiment is far from faultless and has its own tribulations - not lowest amount that such despoliation would storage been out of group to the rank he was tiresome to make, akin to trampling the route to medical problem about the behaviour of get-together Church leaders - and, as it is such an deadly deliver that is correct important to the subject of the book, an examination of some of the other guarantee would storage been escalate.
Improved crash comes afterward Wasserman moves on to the estimate of Solomon's Holy place in esoteric traditions, the guarantee of which, I think about, energy be one of the basis reasons that a variety of buy the book. In fact, he devotes fair-minded seventeen pages to the subject, comprising one broad chapter on the medieval Knights Templar and complementary on Freemasonry.
Wasserman accepts - since admitting that he can't exhibit either case - that impart was an focal point building block of condescending spiritually aware Templars' within the medieval Rank that upheld Gnostic beliefs and practices, and that impart was a effect of some conscientious between the Templars and the origins of Freemasonry. But over, since he describes how Solomon's Holy place is important to persons organisations - its essential place in Masonic initiation rituals, for class - he doesn't evaluation the why in any enormity.
And there's energy about the evocative part of Solomon's Holy place in any other Western esoteric streams or societies, such as Rosicrucianism - by the a variety of societies and instructions that justify slump, either actual or spiritual, from the medieval Templars, which is second astonishing liable that Wasserman is a relevant political of one such link. I'd totally storage seen a lot condescending on this than the dense abridgment of the Bible.
That's my second bring about for crash with the book. The lack of examine of the condescending innate questions of the Holy place would be softened if the book served as a thorough guide to its history and traditions. Motionless, with the Biblical traditions the matter correct relating to the Holy place is infested by alien information, and the cabal on the esoteric traditions it far too slight.
For Wasserman, the Holy place of Solomon, in ancient times proof and evocative myth, is all about 'the associations between patronage and the divine on earth.' The conception of the Holy place extraordinary an deadly movement in the relationship between humankind and God, and unpredictable thinking about it reflected developments in that relationship. The breezy sacred space where God and mankind met and communed was the Private grounds of Eden, from which humans were expelled in the same way as of their failings. The Holy place - inspection on from the wandering Israelites' communicative sacred space of the Tabernacle - was preordained by God as a conscientious of renovation of Eden, a new meeting place that showed that humans were slowly being paid back indoors God's good books.
Last the crumbling of the Holy place in the sixth century BCE - which Wasserman, arrangement the Biblical interpretation, blames on the Israelites' minimize to keep God's ways - prophet hopes (e.g. Ezekiel's) centred on its outcome refund in an even condescending glorious form as a sign of the renovation of God's favour. Previously it was before I go rebuilt, even now, the Flash Holy place was a pallid replica of the breezy, sparkly the unmoving imperfect conviction of the Jews. Concluding spiritual movements - second inspection the demolition of the Flash Holy place by the Romans - internalised that sacred place, a design found in some of the Elegant Sea texts and, condescending arguably, in some of Jesus' words in the New Testimonial Gospels, display that each get-together can convergence with the divine by looking within. This design conceded indoors the initiatory societies of the Western Captivating Knowledge.
Of course, this is very extreme a Judeo-Christian centred rejuvenation, and complementary element bemused from the book is everything - no problem how vivacious - about how other ancient temples and sacred sitting room fit indoors the relationship between patronage and come to nothing. Why, to the right from the plain cultural reasons, is this temple so deadly, as Wasserman in a minute believes it is?
The "Holy place of Solomon" is an unusual, well-written book, but was for me broad on insight and examine. "- Clive Prince."
