Published in the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, Gard Granerød’s article, “How Tall Is the God of the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple? Computing Yahweh’s Stature”, sets out to “compute Yahweh’s perceived stature through three routes.”
Granerød writes: “The article assumes that there is a correspondence between the size of a temple and its divine resident.” He compares the architectural layouts of Solomon’s Temple and the ʿAin Dara temple, as well as the size of the Temple’s cherubim, and the dimensions of the Ark of the Covenant.
The study begins by asking “How tall was the intended divine resident of the tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple, according to the ancient Israelites’ mental image?”
Granerød notes that biblical texts describe Yahweh as “high” and “great”, citing Psalms 113:4, 138:6, and Isaiah 6:1.
The study engages previous scholarship, such as Othmar Keel’s argument that the “size of the cherub throne corresponded to the size of the enthroned one.” Keel calculated that “the enthroned one was approximately double as big as the cherubim, namely, ca. twenty cubits (ca. nine metres) tall.”
Another estimate by Ziony Zevit placed Yahweh’s height at “ca. two hundred and twenty-three centimetres tall,” based on ratios between human and divine figures in Mesopotamian art.
The first comparison in Granerød’s study is with the ʿAin Dara temple, where “four footprints, each approximately one metre long, are chiselled into the thresholds.” He writes, “We can safely assume that the footprints were thought to belong to the temple’s god-in-residence.” Using modern foot-to-height ratios, he calculates that the god would have been “between six metres and sixty centimetres and seven metres tall.”
Turning to Solomon’s Temple, Granerød notes: “The measurements above show congruency in the layout of the two temples. Both are longroom temples with anteroom.” He adds, “Like the deity at the ʿAin Dara temple, Yahweh’s presence in Jerusalem was manifested by his feet.”
Granerød then analyzes the cherubim described in 1 Kings 6:23-28. “Each of the two cherubim was ten cubits high, and each of their wings was five cubits long.” Comparing this with the Megiddo ivory plaque’s depiction of a royal figure seated on a cherub throne, he estimates, “Solomon’s Temple’s cherub throne could be imagined to accommodate a god whose stature was approximately three metres and seventy-five centimetres.”
Finally, the study examines the Ark of the Covenant as a potential footstool. Granerød writes, “In 1 Chr 28,2 (NRSV), David explicitly explains the ark’s role as ‘the footstool of our God’.”
Using measurements from Exodus 37:1 and 1 Kings 6:24, Granerød compares the Ark’s dimensions to the cherub throne: “By combining the Priestly text in Exod 37,1 and the Deuteronomistic text in 1 Kgs 6,24, we can find the ratio of the ark’s top plate to the cherubim’s wing length.”
Summarizing the results, he writes: “The imagined stature was between three and three-quarter metres and seven metres tall.”
Granerød concludes, “The argument that Yahweh was perceived to have a human-shaped, superhuman-sized body fits with other recent discussions about ancient Israelite religion.” He adds, “A god needs a body to inhabit the god’s house.”
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.