How busy was the Temple?
By Elizabeth Prata
Reading through Chronicles in the Bible is eye-opening. In the sections where it is described about the complexity of Temple architecture and the complexity of worship, it’s astounding. But then again, it is all God’s due! He is worthy of the most beautiful Temple and the most precise worship. He wants and should receive exactly the kind of worship He desires.
John MacArthur: Luke gave another significant detail about Anna, who is usually mentioned at Christmas time:
“and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She did not leave the temple grounds, serving night and day with fasts and prayers“. (Luke 2:37).
“That’s an emphatic statement, which suggests that Luke meant it in a literal sense. Evidently, Anna lived right there on the temple grounds. There were some apartments in the outer courts (Nehemiah 13:7–9). These were modest chambers, probably used as temporary dwelling places for priests who lived on the temple grounds while doing their two weeks’ annual service.”
“Perhaps because of her long faithfulness, her obvious spiritual gifts, her steadfast devotion to the Lord, and her constant commitment to her ministry of prayer and fasting, temple officials had given her a small chamber. She was now too old to be employed as a caretaker, but perhaps she had once served in that capacity, and her living quarters had been given to her for life. In any case, it was ultimately the Lord who had graciously provided her a place in His house and sovereignly orchestrated whatever arrangement she might have had with the temple custodians. Source -sermon, Anna, the Aged Evangelist“. –end MacArthur quote
Interesting to think of sleeping cells in the Temple, but it makes sense.
In Alfred Edersheim’s 1898 book, The Temple—Its Ministry and Services, he explains about the apartments inside the Temple. Really, just sleeping chambers. Some were above the Court of the Gentiles, while bigger apartments were for the High Priest to spent the week before the Day of Atonement in study and meditation. Other apartments were for the Levite musicians. (1 Chronicles 9:33)
When we think of the Temple at the time of Jesus in 30AD, we know it was grand and large. Perhaps we think of a European cathedral, or a large church sanctuary in the US, where all is still and quiet. A hushed reverence hangs over the pews, dust motes swirling in the occasional sunbeam angling in through stained class, with people quietly praying or worshiping. Marble halls echo in stillness of shuffled footsteps as priests move about.
Below is a listing of all the Temple Ministries and Duties. Wow, that’s a lot. Source MacArthur Study Bible, Day June 30. Think of all the personnel it took to maintain it, thrive it, and protect it.
The Jerusalem Temple was not like that at all. It was hugely busy, loud, and active. Edersheim again:
In this court tradition places eating and sleeping apartments for the Levites, and a synagogue. But, despite pharisaic punctiliousness, the noise, especially on the eve of the Passover, must have been most disturbing. For there the oxen, sheep, and doves selected as fit for sacrifices were sold as in a market; and here were those tables of the money-changers which the Lord overthrew when He drove from His Father’s house them that bought and sold (Matt 21:12; John 2:14).
If Anna literally did not depart from the Temple, but that she actually lived on premises, she was probably given a sleeping chamber and was taken care of, since she was a widow, especially since her devotion to the LORD was known and noted.
I think of Paul’s admonition for single women, to be selflessly devoted to loving God with all our strength, heart, mind, and soul. The verse in 1 Corinthians about unmarried people being single-mindedly devoted to the Lord was not written yet at Anna’s lifetime, but she certainly fulfilled the spirit of that verse.
Imagine Anna’s life. Living in such a busy and loud place, apostasy all around, yet undeterred, Anna was constantly in devotion to God, vigilantly awaiting Israel’s Consolation. What a blessing the Lord gave her, to see the babe who would be King.
Amid the hustle of Temple business, the men and women coming and going, Priests at their tasks, lowing of the cattle, rattle of the money changers, Anna herself praying, in the crowd she spotted a couple with a baby. It must have been the Spirit that alerted her that this, of all the people entering the majestic Temple, this was the Babe she had been waiting for. What did she do?
And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:38).
We Christians on this side of the cross are no longer waiting for the redemption of our souls. We have been blessed to receive it by the Holy Spirit if we have repented of our sins. We now wait for the return of our Messiah. We long to see Him in person. Perhaps today will be the day He returns. If not, then another day. Meanwhile we can take up Anna’s example and give thanks to God, and speak of Him to all.
