As for the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.
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Bede
AD 735
The temple was built of Parian marble, a white stone, to represent the brilliance of chastity in the church, concerning which the Lord says in the canticle of love: “Like a lily among thorns, so is my love among maidens.” [The temple] “was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.” The length of the temple designates the faith of the holy church, through which it bears with long-suffering patience, in the midst of its good works, the adversities brought against it by the wicked. The width designates the charity by which [the church] expands inwardly through the essential working of piety. The height designates the hope with which it awaits the rewards of the heavenly life, [which it will receive] as a result of the good deeds it performs through charity. - "Homilies on the Gospels 2.25"
House. Hebrew Habayith, "the palace "of the God of Israel, where the priests alone had access. It was surrounded by various courts and apartments, as the ancient temples were very different from ours. All these appendages sometimes go under the common name of the temple. (Calmet)
Cubits. The common one contained half a yard. The sacred cubit amounted to 21,888 inches. (Arbuthnot) (Ezechiel xliii. 13.)
Calmet makes the cubit consist of 24 fingers' breadth, or little less than 20 inches of the French measure, which is greater than ours. (Haydock)
Hence the temple would be 102½ feet long, 34 feet 2 inches broad, 51 feet 3 inches high to the ceiling. (Calmet)
The walls are not included; else the breadth would be almost 60 cubits, the length 100, and the height 50. (Vallalpand ii. 5, 14.) (Menochius)
