Endnote 9 – The New ‘Ain Dara Temple: Closest Solomonic Parallel

The association of temple and palace in one building compound has been well attested in Mesopotamia and Egypt. It proved to be a popular layout in the Levant as well, as noted by Ussishkin (“Solomon and the Tayanat Temples,” Israel Exploration Journal (IEJ) 16 (1966), pp. 104–110; “Solomon’s Palace and Building 1723,” IEJ 16 [1966], pp. 174–186). In 1971 Theodor Busink published all known parallels in one monograph: Der Tempel von Jerusalem von Salomo bis Herodes: Eine archäologische-historische Studie unter Berücksichtigung des westsemitischen Tempelhaus, vol. 1, Der Tempel Salomos (Leiden: Brill, 1971). Despite the numerous similarities between the Biblical description and Canaanite and Syrian temples, he considered many of the features in the Jerusalem Temple to be Israelite innovations (p. 617)—a point on which we disagree.