In order to understand why the guardian pillars of the Temple were known as Bo'az and Yachin, we first need to know who the "historic" Bo'az and Yachin were. For Yachin, click here for my piece, already written.
The story of Bo'az the man, who fell in love with the widow Rut while she was gleaning in his corn-field, is told in the Book of Ruth, chapter 2 ff. Eli-Melech and his wife Na'ami leave their home in Beit Lechem for Mo-Av, escaping from a terrible famine. Eli-Melech dies soon after. Their sons Machlon and Chilyon find wives there, Arpah and Rut, and they stay for another ten years, until both the sons follow their father. Lacking any family support, Na'ami decides to return home, and releases her daughters-in-law from any obligation towards her; Arpah bids them farewell and stays in Mo-Av, but Rut insists on remaining with Na'ami, and comes to Beit Lechem as a convert.
Enter Bo'az, stage left, a wealthy kinsman of Eli-Melech, who owns fields outside the town, and the famine is long past. Impoverished Rut - and everything she does from now on will be in response to Na'ami's advice - goes out to glean at harvest-time; Bo'az notices her, treats her with great kindness, and issues an edict of protection over her, enabling her to live and be fed with his paid female workers, but more importantly charging the men to stay away from her. Bo'az wakes one night to find Rut lying at his feet, an act of humility but also an open statement about her status. He praises her virtue, and promises to take charge of her if her dead husband's next-of-kin should fail to do so, which obviously they already have, or she wouldn't be there now. He lays her case before the next-of-kin, and then redeems the family property himself, purchasing thereby the right to marry Rut. The child born from their marriage will be named Oved, but more importantly, because in the end this is what the parable is intended to convey, he will be the "child of redemption", and from such acts of immaculate human behaviour - Rut's in following Na'ami, Na'ami's in supporting Rut, Bo'az in accepting responsibility - the possibility of a Messianic world can likewise be conceived - the child, Oved, will father Yishai (Jesse), who will father David.
1 Chronicles 2:11, 12 makes Bo'az a descendant of Chetsron, and so probably a chief of that clan in Beit Lechem.
Jewish tradition identifies Bo'az with Ivtsan, (Judges 12:8-10), who was a Judge in Yisra-El after the death of Yiphtach. Why this identification is not obvious, other than their having Beit Lechem in common; the difficulty is that his mention in the Book of Judges tells us absolutely nothing about him, except that he was a Judge, and had followers.
The bulk of the story takes place in and around Beit Lechem (Bethlehem), which was supposedly founded by Bo'az's father Salma, according to 1 Chronicles 2:11 and 2:54, though elsewhere he is Salmon. Either way, the name connects him to Shalem, and later Yeru-Shala'im - a mere six miles apart - though it was Beit-Lechem which he was said to have founded. The two ends of the Tammuz tale, birth and death!
And speaking of Tammuz and interesting corn-field connections, Beit Lechem in full is Beit Lechem Ephratah, "the shrine of the corn-god of the Euphrates", which is to say Tammuz, while the Temple where Bo'az will provide one of the pillars was built on the site of the shrine of Ornah, or Araunah, purchased by King David for the purpose (2 Samuel 24:24), previously a threshing-floor, and therefore identifiable as another shrine to the same corn-god. Ezekiel 8:14 will find the "women wailing for Tammuz at the north gate of the Temple", which is to say at the former shrine of Araunah, and the Temple was on Mount Mor-Yah (the source of the name Mary), where Jesus, likewise born on the threshing-floor in Beit-Lechem, will be scourged and bound to the winnowing-tree. From Rut to David, the two ends of the Tammuz tale, birth and death! And Bo'az a "pillar" of both communities!
Jesus (Yeshu) took his name from Yishai, King David's father; David's grand-father was named Oved, and Oved's father was... yes, Bo'az (see Matthew 1:5 and Luke 3:32). So we can confirm that the Boaz of the Temple pillar was the same Bo'az, and that the annually resurrected Tammuz was the same as the man named Jesus. From David to Jesus, Mashiyach to Moshi'a, the two ends of the Tammuz tale, birth and death!
The naming of the bronze pillars in the Temple porch can be found in 1 Kings 7:15 and 21, 2 Chronicles 3:15, Jeremiah 52:21 and various other places. They were eighteen cubits (roughly thirty-five feet) high - though 2 Chronicles 3:15 has them at twice that height, almost certainly incorrectly - and twelve cubits around. Bo'az stood on the right - the northern side, as we would expect - Yachin on the left. The pillars were also highly ornate (1 Kings 7:13-22 - but see below for the full text).
Jewish tradition identifies Bo'az with Ivtsan, (Judges 12:8-10), who was a Judge in Yisra-El after the death of Yiphtach. Why this identification is not obvious, other than their having Beit Lechem in common; the difficulty is that his mention in the Book of Judges tells us absolutely nothing about him, except that he was a Judge, and had followers.
The bulk of the story takes place in and around Beit Lechem (Bethlehem), which was supposedly founded by Bo'az's father Salma, according to 1 Chronicles 2:11 and 2:54, though elsewhere he is Salmon. Either way, the name connects him to Shalem, and later Yeru-Shala'im - a mere six miles apart - though it was Beit-Lechem which he was said to have founded. The two ends of the Tammuz tale, birth and death!
And speaking of Tammuz and interesting corn-field connections, Beit Lechem in full is Beit Lechem Ephratah, "the shrine of the corn-god of the Euphrates", which is to say Tammuz, while the Temple where Bo'az will provide one of the pillars was built on the site of the shrine of Ornah, or Araunah, purchased by King David for the purpose (2 Samuel 24:24), previously a threshing-floor, and therefore identifiable as another shrine to the same corn-god. Ezekiel 8:14 will find the "women wailing for Tammuz at the north gate of the Temple", which is to say at the former shrine of Araunah, and the Temple was on Mount Mor-Yah (the source of the name Mary), where Jesus, likewise born on the threshing-floor in Beit-Lechem, will be scourged and bound to the winnowing-tree. From Rut to David, the two ends of the Tammuz tale, birth and death! And Bo'az a "pillar" of both communities!
Jesus (Yeshu) took his name from Yishai, King David's father; David's grand-father was named Oved, and Oved's father was... yes, Bo'az (see Matthew 1:5 and Luke 3:32). So we can confirm that the Boaz of the Temple pillar was the same Bo'az, and that the annually resurrected Tammuz was the same as the man named Jesus. From David to Jesus, Mashiyach to Moshi'a, the two ends of the Tammuz tale, birth and death!
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The naming of the bronze pillars in the Temple porch can be found in 1 Kings 7:15 and 21, 2 Chronicles 3:15, Jeremiah 52:21 and various other places. They were eighteen cubits (roughly thirty-five feet) high - though 2 Chronicles 3:15 has them at twice that height, almost certainly incorrectly - and twelve cubits around. Bo'az stood on the right - the northern side, as we would expect - Yachin on the left. The pillars were also highly ornate (1 Kings 7:13-22 - but see below for the full text).
According to the Book of Kings they were crafted by an expert worker of bronze from Tsur (Tyre), a man named Chiyram (חִירָ֖ם), whose mother was a Bat Yisra-El of the tribe of Naphtali, and whose father was a man of Tsur. This is at best an oddity, because Chiyram, or possibly Hu-Ram, was also the sobriquet of the king of Tsur, and we know from multiple sources that he was the central provisioner of the Solomonic Temple: the wood came from his cedar forest on the Lebanon, most of the lead construction team were his Guild-masters, and even the design was Phoenician. Nevertheless, this is the tale as told in Kings:
"And King Shelomoh sent and brought Chiyram from Tsur. He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tsur, a worker in bronze; and he was full of wisdom, understanding, and skill, for making any work in bronze. He came to King Shelomoh, and did all his work...
"...He cast two pillars of bronze. Eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured its circumference; it was hollow, and its thickness was four fingers; the second pillar was the same. He also made two capitals of molten bronze, to set upon the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits."
"Then he made two nets of checker work with wreaths of chain work for the capitals upon the tops of the pillars; a net for the one capital, and a net for the other capital. Likewise he made pomegranates; in two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the capital that was upon the top of the pillar; and he did the same with the other capital. Now the capitals that were upon the tops of the pillars in the vestibule were of lily-work, four cubits. The capitals were upon the two pillars and also above the rounded projection which was beside the network; there were two hundred pomegranates, in two rows round about; and so with the other capital. He set up the pillars at the vestibule of the Temple; he set up the pillar on the south and called its name Jachin; and he set up the pillar on the north and called its name Bo'az. And upon the tops of the pillars was lily-work. Thus the work of the pillars was finished." (1 Kings 7:13-22 RSV)
The Temple took seven years to build, and was completed in the eleventh year of Shelomoh's reign, which was probably 950 BC. Pomegranetes in Yehudit are Rimmonim, and today's Torah scrolls are likewise mounted with what are called Rimmonim, in memorial of Chiyram's pillars; there is huge irony in this of course, because Rimmon was a deity to the Phoenicians, a version of the storm-god Ba'al Hadad.
When Nebuchadnezzar conquered Yeru-Shala'im in 586 BCE the pillars were broken up and their bronze taken back to Babylon for other uses:.
"The king of Bavel (Babylon) slew the sons of Tsidki-Yahu (Zedekiah) before his eyes, and also slew all the princes of Yehudah at Rivlah. He put out the eyes of Tsidki-Yahu, and bound him in bronze fetters, and brought him to Bavel, and put him in prison till the day of his death... In the fifth month , on the tenth day of the month - which was the nineteenth year of King Nevuchadne'tsar (נְבֻכַדְנֶאצַּ֣ר - Nebuchadnezzar), king of Bavel - Nevuzar'adan, the captain of the bodyguard who served the king of Bavel, entered Yeru-Shala'im. And he burned the house of YHVH, and the king's house, and all the houses of Yeru-Shala'im; every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Kasdim (Chaldeans), who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls round about Yeru-Shala'im. And Nevuzar'adan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive some of the poorest of the people, and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Bavel, together with the rest of the artisans. But Nevuzar'adan, the captain of the guard, left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and ploughmen." (2 Kings 25)
"And the pillars of bronze that were in the House of YHVH, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the House of YHVH, the Kasdim broke in pieces, and carried all the bronze to Bavel." (Jeremiah 52:10-17)
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| The Masonic pillars |
Which leaves only the unanswered questions: what was the symbolic purpose of the pillars, and why those names?
Freemasonry has adopted them, believing that it understands that symbolism - I am not a Freemason, so I cannot explain this on their behalf; I have however hyperlinked the caption above, and there is some detailed explanation there.
Among the secular, and especially the Greek scholars, analysing the Phoenician sources of the Temple, the Bo'az and Yachin of the Temple pillars equate with the two pillars consecrated to the fire and the wind by Upsouranios and Osuous, the Phoenician progenitors of the human race (Upsouranios became Greek Ouranos, Roman Uranus; Osuous was probably a dialect variation of Esav = Esau). As such, the pillars represented Adonis of the waxing year and the new-born sun (another version of Tammuz), and Typhon of the waning year and the destructive winds (another version of Ba'al Hadad).
In the Temple, then, Bo'az on the right represents the waxing sun and fertility; Yachin on the left represents the waning sun and atrophy. The same pattern can be detected in the northern kingdom after the civil war that followed the death of Shelomoh, with Bo'az linked to Mount Gerizim, Yachin to Mount Eyval, these being the two mountains over the Ephrayimite shrine of Shechem, functioning exactly as the hills of Safa and Marwa do at Makkah (Mecca). Deuteronomy 11:29 has Mosheh cursing Mount Eyval (decay and atrophy) and blessing Mount Gerizim (fertility).
In Yechezke-El's ideal temple the two pillars are represented by pillars of wood (Ezekiel 40:49).
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