Solomon begins the temple
In the fourth year of his reign, Solomon began building the temple on Mount Moriah, 480 years after the Exodus.
In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build Yahweh’s house.
1 Kings 6:1 (World English Bible)
King Hiram of Tyre supplied cedar and cypress from Lebanon, floated down the coast on rafts. Stone was cut at the quarry so that no hammer or chisel was heard at the building site (1 Kings 6:7). The temple followed the pattern of the tabernacle at twice the size, lined with cedar and overlaid with gold.
Places
JerusalemTyreLebanonGreat SeaMost Holy PlaceHoly PlaceJoppaMount Moriah
Ancient witnesses outside the Bible
Historical sources, not Scripture.
- Antiquities 8.5.3 — Menander and Dius, from the records of Tyre, on Hiram and Solomon
- Against Apion 1.17–18 — the records of Tyre: the temple built in Hiram’s twelfth year
Dating notes
1 Kings 6:1 is the anchor of this whole chronology: Ussher dates the start of the temple to 1012 BC and counts back 479 full years to the Exodus in 1491 BC. Most conservative scholars today date it to 966 BC, which puts the Exodus in 1446 BC.