And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms.
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Bede
AD 735
Solomon makes cherubim in the temple walls when the Lord grants to his elect to guide their lives according to the rule of the holy Scriptures, which contain a great store of knowledge. He makes cherubim when he teaches them to imitate in this world, according to their limited capacity, the chastity of the life of angels, and this is done particularly by vigils and the divine praises, by sincere love of the Creator and the neighbor. He makes palm trees when he fixes in their minds the thought of their eternal reward so that the more they have the reward of righteousness ever before the eyes of their hearts, the less likely are they to fall from the pinnacle of uprightness. He makes several representations, as it were, standing out in relief from the wall when he assigns to the faithful the manifold functions of the virtues, for instance, “compassion, kindness, lowliness, patience and self-restraint, to show forbearance toward one another and forgive one another and above all these thin...
Here it is indicated that there were four symbols of cherubim, palm trees, narcissus and lilies, which we said represent the saints praying in the temple and contemplating divine things. And these same saints were foreshadowed with a similar sense by Moses, even though he used different symbols, when he distributed the tribes of his people in four groups to the four regions of the world, so that they might all live around the tabernacle. Indeed, the tabernacle represented the person of God, whom he wanted them to contemplate and to observe constantly. - "On the First Book of Kings 6.29"
And divers Hebrew, "and open (full-blown) flowers within and without "the sanctuary. We read also of chains of gold connected together, 2 Paralipomenon iii. 5. The palm-trees might resemble pillars of the Corinthian order. (Calmet)
It is clear that sacred pictures were authorized to be set up in the temple, for God's honour, (Worthington) though the Jews were so prone to idolatry. (Haydock)
