Jachin and Boaz

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Jachin and Boaz are the names given to the two pillars at the gate of the entrance to the temple in Jerusalem . According to biblical tradition, King Solomon had them made by Hiram, a bronze smith from Tire . The text describing the columns and their decorations can be found in the 1st Book of Kings ( 1 Kings 7,13-22  EU ) in the context of the building description of the temple and a parallel passage in Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 52,21-23  EU ). The Hebrew text in the book of Kings is corrupt and difficult to understand.

description

The pillars were cast from bronze and hollow inside. According to the biblical description, the height was 18 cubits , about 9 meters, the circumference 12 cubits, about 6 meters. The wall thickness is given as 4 finger widths (= approx. 7.5 cm). At the top they were crowned by double capitals . The decorations were floral, the upper capital in the form of a lotus flower , the lower with braid and pomegranates .

The pillars in an exegetical view

Two flanking columns as a decorative element on a Torah shield from Lviv , 19th century ( Yeshiva University Museum )

Names

That columns have names is also otherwise attested from the Middle East. However, the exact meaning of the names remains controversial. Both appear as personal names in the Old Testament ( Jachin e.g. in Gen 46,10  EU ; Boaz in Ruth 2–4  EU ). One thesis suspects god names behind the names of the columns and interprets Jachin as a Phoenician equivalent to the tetragram YHWH (Yahweh) and Boaz as a prescription of Ba'al , which would name the main gods of both peoples. Other researchers consider that there are two epithets of YHWH, or (with reference to some Psalms) sentence quotations, that the columns got their names after the first word of the inscription on this column. Busink suspects that the Boaz column was originally called Baal ("Lord") as an appellative for YHWH. Thus the inscription meant "YHWH (Ba'al-Boaz) [will protect this house] (Jachin)". Mulder, on the other hand, sees relics of Canaanite religion in the pillars with an affinity for the cult of the king.

According to the current state of research, the origins are largely accepted

  • Jachin, יָכִין from כון kûn , German ' to found / fasten / erect ' : "He founded"
  • Boas, בּוֹעַז from עז 'az ( minor form : ' oz ) ('power / strength') combined with the prepositionב b , German 'in' : "With power" or "In him is power"

Possibly these names are intended to emphasize that the pillars are intended to express the duration and existence of the temple and / or kingship. Both terms come from the broader word field of creation statements. Zwickel writes: "YHWH, who firmly founded the earth and conquered chaos, is the guarantor for continued life and fertility." Keel asks for the interpretation of the names about the location of the pillars. If they are intended as a supporting element, “mooring” and “strength” refer to the pillars themselves; If they stand in front of the temple, the names indicate the qualities of God or the king as sustainer.

Symbolism (according to Zwickel)

The two pillars, the capitals of which were hung with symbols of flowers and fruits, were meant to represent trees. Together with the Iron Sea and the ten tank wagons, they symbolized the cosmos and celebrated YHWH as the creator and sustainer of the world.

Bible passage

“ 13 And king Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tire. 14 He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naftali , but his father was a tyrian, a bronze smith. He was full of wisdom and insight and knowledge to do any work in bronze. And he came to king Solomon and did all his work. 15 And he made the two pillars of bronze: the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a thread of twelve cubits was about it; its [wall] was four fingers [wide, and inside it] hollow; so was the other pillar […] 21 And he set up the pillars in the vestibule of the temple. He set up the right pillar and named it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. 22 And on top of the pillars was lily work. So the work of the pillars was completed. "

- 1. Kings 7  ELB ( Elberfeld translation)

reception

Interior of the Worms synagogue with the two central columns. On the back column is the donor's inscription, which shows the year of construction 1174/1175 and plays with quotations from 1 Kings 7: "He made the pearl jewelry on the two columns without casual hands, including the spherical knobs on which he hung the lamps."

Synagogue architecture

The motif of the columns Jachin and Boaz was used more often in synagogues; it can also be found as a decorative element on liturgical objects.

Jachin and Boas in the synagogue in Worms

Inscriptions have been placed on the two central pillars of the interior identifying these columns as Jachin and Boas. The Romanesque synagogue was built by a Christian builder. How this identification of the pillars was agreed between the builder, the synagogue community, and the craftsmen is not known. But the two free-standing pillars on the north portal of Worms Cathedral also seem to allude to Jachin and Boas.

Cymbalista Synagogue, Tel Aviv University Campus .

Cymbalista Synagogue, Tel Aviv University Campus

The synagogue building (1988) by the Ticino architect Mario Botta makes clear reference to the architecture of the Temple of Solomon and became a model for other new synagogues. "This monument with its cubes and cylinders appear to cosmic symbol unifying twin towers as a modern crusader castle or - thanks both to Boaz and Jachin reminiscent entrance pillars - as an idiosyncratic interpretation of Solomon's Temple and must as the quintessence of Jewish religious architecture from Prague Altneuschul up apply to Louis Kahn's unrealized Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem. "

Pair of columns Jachin and Boas, Würzburg Cathedral, originally in the vestibule, around 1230.

Church architecture

In Romanesque churches there are non-load-bearing pairs of pillars, e.g. T. are labeled as Jachin and Boas. The triumphal columns in front of the Karlskirche in Vienna are a famous revival of this motif .

Jachin and Boas in the Würzburg Cathedral

According to the majority opinion of the experts, the two Romanesque columns were made for the vestibule of the cathedral around 1230 and established a symbolic connection between the church and the Temple of Solomon. In 1644 the vestibule was torn down and the two columns were erected in the south aisle of the cathedral.

Karlheinz Müller , who recorded the Jewish gravestones that were walled up in Würzburg after the destruction of the Jewish community, takes a different thesis . He puts the pair of columns in this context and sees in them a portal decoration of the destroyed Romanesque synagogue.

Freemasonry

Tapestry with the columns Jachin and Boaz inside the German Freemasons Museum .

The two pillars Jachin (right) and Boaz (left) are symbols of Freemasonry and represent the basic pillars of humanity . They are set up as actual pillars in the assembly room during ritual temple work by Freemasons. Boaz was the great-grandfather of David the king of Israel.

Jachin was a high priest who dedicated part of the temple . The two pillars are intended to remind of the pillars in the forecourt of the biblical Temple of Solomon , which is important in the ritual of the Freemasons.

Others

The following biblical people also had these names:

Jachin

  • Son of Simeon, Genesis 46:10
  • A priest in 1 Chronicles 9:10 (possibly same person?)

Boas

literature

Web links

Commons : Boaz and Jachin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the names see Wolfgang Zwickel: The world of the Old and New Testaments. A non-fiction and work book . Calwer, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-7668-3412-6 , p. 82 .
  2. ↑ a b c R. BY Scott: The Pillars Jachin and Boaz . In: Journal of Biblical Literature . tape 58 , no. 2 , 1939, pp. 143-149 , doi : 10.2307 / 3259857 .
  3. ↑ Theodor A. Busink: The Temple of Solomon . In: The Temple of Jerusalem from Solomon to Herod. An archaeological-historical study taking into account the West Semitic temple construction (=  Studia Francisci Scholten memoriae dicata . Volume 3 ). tape 1 . Brill, Leiden 1970, DNB  540233625 , p. 312 .
  4. ↑ MJ Mulder: The meaning of Jachin and Boaz in 1 Kings. 7.21 (2 Chr. 3.17) . Essays in Honor of Jürgen C. H. Lebram. In: J. W. van Henten (Ed.): Tradition and Re-interpretation in Jewish and Early Christian Literature (=  Studia post-biblica . Volume 36 ). Brill, Leiden 1986, ISBN 90-04-07752-9 , pp. 23 ff .
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Zwickel: The Solomon Temple (=  cultural history of the ancient world . Volume 83 ). von Zabern, Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2466-9 , p. 124 (Reprint: Hartmut Spenner, Kamen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89991-115-2 ).
  6. ↑ Othmar Keel: The history of Jerusalem and the emergence of monotheism (=  places and landscapes of the Bible . Volume 4.1 ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-50177-1 , p. 316 f .
  7. ↑ Simon Paulus: Built togetherness? Medieval synagogue architecture between Civitas and Eruw . In: Ludger Lieb, Klaus Oschema, Johannes Heil (Eds.): Abrahams Erbe: Competition, Conflict and Coexistence of Religions in the European Middle Ages (=  The Middle Ages / Supplements . Volume 2 ). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-040567-5 , pp. 273 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-2016052522735 (conference publication , 2013, Heidelberg).
  8. ^ Ilia Rodov: The Development of Medieval and Renaissance Sculptural Decoration in Ashkenazi Synagogues from Worms to the Cracow Area . 2003, OCLC 234193268 , pp. 35 (Diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem).
  9. ^ Roman Hollenstein: Self-confident monuments . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 21, 2005 (Revised version of a lecture given on April 14, 2005 in the Jewish Museum in Berlin).
  10. ↑ Hans Steidle: The positioning of the two cathedral columns Jachin and Boas. (PDF; 157 kB) In: wuerzburg.de. December 3, 2011, accessed May 4, 2018 (SHP 2011-31).