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Bible Dictionaries
Architecture
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or ARCHITECTURE . The Hebrews never developed a native style of architecture. The genius of the people lay elsewhere. Alike in civil, religious, and funerary architecture, they were content to follow alien models. David’s palace in his new capital was probably the first building since the conquest which gave scope for architectural display, and in this case workmen, plans, and decorative materials were all PhÅ“nician ( 2 Samuel 5:11 ). The palace and temple of Solomon were likewise the work of PhÅ“nician architects, and the former doubtless supplied the model for the more ambitious private buildings under the monarchy. Late Egyptian influence has been traced in the tombs of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, but the prevailing influence from the beginning of the 3rd cent. onwards was undoubtedly Greek (cf. Malachi 1:14 Malachi 1:14 , 2Ma 4:12 ). The many magnificent buildings of Herod, for example, including the colonnades and gates of the Temple, were entirely built in the prevailing Græco-Roman style. When the excavations at Gezer, where Mr. Macalister claims to have discovered, with much else of architectural interest, the palace of Simon Maccabæus ( 1Ma 13:48 ), Taanach, and Megiddo are finished and the results published in final form, and still more when other historical sites, such as Samaria (cf. Amos 3:15 , 1 Kings 22:39 ), shall have been similarly laid bare, it may be possible to write a history of Palestinian, including pre-Israelite or Amorite architecture, but that day is not yet. See, further, Fortification, Palace, Temple, Tomb.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Architecture'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/a/architecture.html. 1909.
