GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 13-1
Temples and Cathedrals
In a medieval history class, students spent several class periods examining a church—Chartres Cathedral. There are many types of churches—monastic, village, and others—but if a church has a bishop’s seat, it is a cathedral. Because these churches are the centers of ecclesiastical administration, they are usually large and elaborate. Chartres Cathedral took over two decades to complete (1194-1220). The stonework, carpentry, and artwork remain excellent and have been well-preserved. Since its construction, tourists have come to visit, worship, and admire the cathedral’s architecture and art.
Mark writes, “And as he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Teacher, behold what sort of stones and what sort of buildings!’” (Mark 13:1) The disciple was referring to Herod’s temple, begun in 20 B.C. and still unfinished in the time of Jesus.
The Jewish historian Josephus (c. 37-100 A.D.) described the temple: “Now the outward face of the temple in its front wanted nothing that was likely to surprise men’s minds or their eyes, for it was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as they would have done at the sun’s own rays. But this temple appeared to strangers, when they were at a distance, like a mountain covered with snow, for, as to those parts of it which were not gilt, they were exceeding white…. Of its stones, some of them were forty-five cubits in length [67.5’], five in height [7.5’], and six in breadth [9’].” (A cubit equals eighteen inches.)
It is easy to see why the disciple was awed by the temple. The disciples may have been leaving by the temple’s southwest entrance, which historians identify as the most magnificent feature of the structure. To observers such as this disciple, the structure may have seemed the summit of human art and achievement—permanent and eternal—much as Chartres Cathedral left its mark on the students.
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