Building
The usual NT word is = , a building in course of construction, as distinguished from , a finished structure.
1. 1Co 3:9.-Ye are Gods husbandry (Revised Version margin tilled land), Gods building. Without pressing the change of metaphor, it is, however, to be noted, as indicating the intensity of the Apostles thought, how his mind grasps first one method of increase and then another. The Kingdom grows like the organic development in the vegetable world, where outside substances are incorporated and assimilated into the organism itself. Or it grows as a building from the foundation; stone is laid upon stone, according to a preconceived plan, till the whole is complete. Under his metaphor St. Paul describes the Church as Gods, and the leaders of the Church as His instruments (the saints build up the fabric). In this light the factions of Corinth are manifested. They have not grasped the Divine idea of the Church, and therefore they are rebuked: I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal (3:1). With a tender smile of blame he calls them babes in Christ, who have not grown into the height and freedom of their calling as Gods fellow-workers (). Kindled with his metaphor, the Apostle rises to the thought of the gradual upbuilding of the Church (by transformation and accretion) through the ages, by many builders, and with varied material, but all on the once-laid foundation, to the glory not of the builders, but of the hand that guided and the heart that planned (cf. Longfellows poem The Builders, and O. W. Holmes, The Living Temple and The Chambered Nautilus).
2. 2Co 5:1.-We know we have a building () from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. The punctuation in Authorized Version is wrong, and the sense of Revised Version would be more explicit if it read We have in the heavens a building from God, an house not made with hands, eternal (so Alford, do Wette, Meyer, and most Moderns). The house to which St. Paul looks forward is not heaven itself, though it is in the heavens, and comes from God as His gift. The Apostle is here moving among the conceptions of what he calls the spiritual body (1Co 15:42-45), adumbrating in his paradox thoughts which are really unspeakable. Cf. also Php 3:21 the body of our humiliation the body of his glory.
3. Eph 2:21.-Each several building ( ) fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple (Revised Version margin sanctuary). Authorized Version has all the building, and the difference ought to be carefully noted in point both of grammar and of thought. The weight of the best Manuscripts favours the omission of the article, and Meyer translates accordingly every building. Moule (Ephesians [in Cambridge Bible for Schools, 1886]) and Ellicott (Com. in. loc.) contend that the article is implicit; the latter calls its omission a grammatical laxity, and the former is of opinion that the law of the article is in some respects less precise in the NT than in the classics. This does not appear to be made out, and it is safer to abide by the established usage than to allow an ad sensum interpretation (which really assumes the point in dispute). Westcott (Ephesians, 1906) prefers to abide by the classical use (cf. Expository Times xviii. [1906-07] 2 for a note on the similar expression in Eph 3:15). without the article = a various whole, and this is the Apostles thought. The image is that of an extensive pile of buildings, such as the ancient temples commonly were, in process of construction at different points over a wide area (Findlay, Ephesians [Expositors Bible, 1892], 146). Uniformity is not necessary to unity. The true catholicity is found in Jesus Christ Himself, the chief corner-stone, and not in external uniformity. The reading adopted in Revised Version may be claimed as an incidental testimony to the early date of the Epistle. In point of fact, in the 2nd cent. the desire for formal unity would have rendered impossible the text each several building. The Church swallowed up the churches (Findlay). But here in the Apostolic Age, with the variety of circumstance, attainment, and social aspect in the churches, the essential idea of unity is nevertheless preserved, for each several building is destined to be fitly framed together. Each serves to make up the ideal temple of God, which is being built for ever. Each is a true part of that mystical body of Christ, the habitation of God through the Spirit.
4. Heb 9:11.-But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building (Authorized Version ); better Revised Version but Christ having come a high priest of the good things that are come (Revised Version margin), through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation ( ). The tabernacle is immaterial and spiritual as contrasted with the heaven and the earth. F. Field (Notes on the Translation of the NT [= Otium Norvicense, iii.], Cambridge, 1899, p. 142; || Farrar, Hebrews [in Cambridge Bible for schools, 1883], p. 139f.) would translate not of ordinary construction. Human skill had nothing to do with its structure, for mans work finds its expression in the visible order of earth, to which this does not belong (Westcott, Hebrews, 1889, p. 258). For the different meanings assigned to tabernacle and their bearing on the true humanity of our Lord, see Tabernacle.
5. Rev 21:18.-The building () of the wall thereof was jasper. The word is passive and denotes the structure, what was built in. Cf. I will make thy battlements jasper (Isa 54:12 [Septuagint ]). Some clear stone is intended, and not our modern jasper, which is generally red or brown.
W. M. Grant.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Building
(properly some, form of the verbs , banah’, ). Historical and monumental data do not exist to enable us to trace accurately the gradual improvement and peculiar character of Jewish architecture. (See Bardwell, Temples Ancient and Modern, Lond. 1837.) Its style was probably borrowed in the first instance from the Egyptians, next from the Phoenicians (comp. Michaelis in the Comment. nov. Soc. Goetting. 1, 1771; Stieglitz, Gesch. der Baukunst biden Alten, Leipz. 1792; Mller, Archaeol. p. 289 sq.; Schnaase, Gesch. der bild. Kunste, 1, 248 sq.), and finally from the Greeks. SEE ARCHITECTURE.
Of building tools, besides common implements such as the axe, saw, etc., there are mentioned the compass () and plumb-line (), Amo 7:7 sq., the rule or measuring-line (), the awl (), etc. (see the Mishna, Chelim, 14, 3). See these instruments in their place. (See Schmidt, Bibl. Mathematicus, p. 217 sq.; Bellermann, Handbuch, 1, 189 sq.) SEE HOUSE.
Besides its proper and literal signification, the word build is used with reference to children and a numerous posterity (Exo 1:21; Rth 4:11). The prophet Nathan told David that God would build his house, that is, give him children and successors (2Sa 7:27). Any kind of building implies the settlement of a family, or the acquisition of some new honor, kingdom, or power, and its peaceful enjoyment (Psa 107:4; Psa 107:7; Mic 5:4). God’s Church is called a building, and the architect is the master-builder (1Co 3:9-17). So also the heavenly home of Christians is compared to a building in contrast with the temporary tabernacle of the earthly body (2Co 5:1).
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Building (2)
(properly some, form of the verbs , banah’, ). Historical and monumental data do not exist to enable us to trace accurately the gradual improvement and peculiar character of Jewish architecture. (See Bardwell, Temples Ancient and Modern, Lond. 1837.) Its style was probably borrowed in the first instance from the Egyptians, next from the Phoenicians (comp. Michaelis in the Comment. nov. Soc. Goetting. 1, 1771; Stieglitz, Gesch. der Baukunst biden Alten, Leipz. 1792; Mller, Archaeol. p. 289 sq.; Schnaase, Gesch. der bild. Kunste, 1, 248 sq.), and finally from the Greeks. SEE ARCHITECTURE.
Of building tools, besides common implements such as the axe, saw, etc., there are mentioned the compass () and plumb-line (), Amo 7:7 sq., the rule or measuring-line (), the awl (), etc. (see the Mishna, Chelim, 14, 3). See these instruments in their place. (See Schmidt, Bibl. Mathematicus, p. 217 sq.; Bellermann, Handbuch, 1, 189 sq.) SEE HOUSE.
Besides its proper and literal signification, the word build is used with reference to children and a numerous posterity (Exo 1:21; Rth 4:11). The prophet Nathan told David that God would build his house, that is, give him children and successors (2Sa 7:27). Any kind of building implies the settlement of a family, or the acquisition of some new honor, kingdom, or power, and its peaceful enjoyment (Psa 107:4; Psa 107:7; Mic 5:4). God’s Church is called a building, and the architect is the master-builder (1Co 3:9-17). So also the heavenly home of Christians is compared to a building in contrast with the temporary tabernacle of the earthly body (2Co 5:1).
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Building
among the Jews was suited to the climate and conditions of the country. They probably adopted the kind of architecture for their dwellings which they found already existing when they entered Canaan (Deut. 6:10; Num. 13:19). Phoenician artists (2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Kings 5:6, 18) assisted at the erection of the royal palace and the temple at Jerusalem. Foreigners also assisted at the restoration of the temple after the Exile (Ezra 3:7).
In Gen. 11:3, 9, we have the first recorded instance of the erection of buildings. The cities of the plain of Shinar were founded by the descendants of Shem (10:11, 12, 22).
The Israelites were by occupation shepherds and dwellers in tents (Gen. 47:3); but from the time of their entering Canaan they became dwellers in towns, and in houses built of the native limestone of Palestine. Much building was carried on in Solomon’s time. Besides the buildings he completed at Jerusalem, he also built Baalath and Tadmor (1 Kings 9:15, 24). Many of the kings of Israel and Judah were engaged in erecting various buildings.
Herod and his sons and successors restored the temple, and built fortifications and other structures of great magnificence in Jerusalem (Luke 21:5).
The instruments used in building are mentioned as the plumb-line (Amos 7:7), the measuring-reed (Ezek. 40:3), and the saw (1 Kings 7:9).
Believers are “God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9); and heaven is called “a building of God” (2 Cor. 5:1). Christ is the only foundation of his church (1 Cor. 3:10-12), of which he also is the builder (Matt. 16:18).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Building
BUILDING (, 3 times; , 23 times in the Gospels).
1. Literal.The lifetime of Jesus nearly coincides with the period which was undoubtedly the golden age of building in Palestine. The Herods, with their Napoleonic passion for architecture, eclipsed in this respect even the fame of Solomon, and left their mark in all parts of the country in the shape of palaces, fortresses, theatres, and a variety of splendid structures, some serving a useful purpose (as the great harbour at Caesarea), but many arising merely out of a love of pomp and display. Herod the Great had begun his extensive work of rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem nineteen years before the Christian era, and the work was still in progress at the time of Christs final visit to the city (Mat 24:1-2, Mar 13:1-2, Luk 21:5-6). Herod Antipas began the foundations of his ambitious new city of Tiberias shortly before Jesus emerged from the obscurity of Nazareth; and Pilate was engaged, during the public ministry of Jesus, in constructing an elaborate aqueduct for Jerusalem. It is certain that, wherever Jesus went, He would hear the sound of hammer and chisel; He would observe the frequent construction of a class of building hitherto little favoured in His country, such as hippodromes, baths and gymnasia (Josephus Ant. xv. viii. 1); and would notice the adoption of a style of architecture foreign to Jewish tradition.
It was not only Herodian princes, Roman magnates, and well-to-do proselytes (see Luk 7:5) who lavished large sums on buildings. Wealthy Jews seem to have spent fortunes in erecting luxurious mansions in the Graeco-Roman style. Jesus mentions this eagerness for building as one of the passions which preoccupied His generation, and led Him to compare it with the materialist and pleasure-seeking age in which Lot lived (Luk 17:28). He gives a vivid description of a prosperous farmer designing ampler store-houses on his estate (Luk 12:18). In another passage He probably alludes to some actual instance of the building-mania over-reaching itself, when He describes the tower left half finished for lack of funds (Luk 14:28). In His denunciation of the Pharisees who build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs () of the righteous (Mat 23:29), He refers perhaps to the growing practice, unknown in the pre-Grecian period, begun, it seems, in Maccabaean times, and now become a dilettante cult, of erecting monumental tombs reared aloft to the sight (1Ma 13:27), as distinguished from the simple rock-hewn tombs of former days.* [Note: Furrer (Wanderungen, p. 77) and Fergusson (The Temples of the Jews, p. 142 f.) think that the Tomb of Zecharias in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, a lovely little temple, with pillars of the Ionic order, belongs to the first years of the 1st cent. of our era.] See Tomb.
O. Holtzmann (Life of Jesus, p. 100 f.) suggests a special reason for the frequent references which Jesus makes to building operations. He calls attention to the fact that the handicraft in which He had been brought up was one of the building trades. It is usual, indeed, to describe Him as the carpenter (Mar 6:3), and the passage is often cited in which Justin Martyr (Trypho, 88) represents Him as making ploughs and yokes. But Justin Martyr is quoting nothing more than a popular tradition, and there is no reason for limiting the term to a worker in wood. There was hardly the division of labour at Nazareth that exists among our own mechanics. The epithet has probably not less significance than the term carpenter as used in Hamlet, v. i. 46What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?, where it indicates one who has to do with the construction of buildings. We may say that there is good reason to conclude that Jesus was Himself a builder, and that He understood at least the art of ordinary house-construction, though it can hardly be admitted that the passages which Holtzmann quotes in support of this are sufficient to prove his point. By a similar method it is easy to prove that Shakspeare was a lawyer or a doctor, a Romanist or a Puritan.
On the other hand, it is not to be inferred, from the somewhat disparaging terms in which Jesus appears to have alluded to the building operations of His time, that He was insensible to the beauties of architecture, or that there was an iconoclastic strain in His nature. It would be easy to marshal passages from the Gospels with the object of showing that He was indifferent to, and even evinced contempt for, sacred places and edifices. But such a conclusion would be contrary to all that we know of His many-sided sympathy and genial tolerance. Rather was the case thisthat, like St. Paul amid the temples of Athens, or like St. Francis of Assisi, careless of cathedrals in an age of cathedral-builders, He found His contemporaries so smitten with the love of outward magnificence, so absorbed in the thought of the material edifice, that He bent His whole effort to the task of emphasizing the inward and spiritual structure. It is therefore in this direction that all the great sayings of Christ about building look. On each occasion when He is led to speak of a temple, whether at Jerusalem or in Samaria, He takes the opportunity of insisting that the only true Temple is one not made with hands.
It may be suggested that some of His sayings of this kind are lost, but that the reminiscence or influence of them is to be traced in the remarkably frequent use by the NT writers of the term building in a spiritual sense, whether applied to the individual believer or to the company of the faithful (see, e.g., Act 20:32, 1Co 3:9, Col 2:7; 1Pe 2:5 etc.). And just as Jesus said, Ye are a city set on a hill, He may well have said, Ye are the temple of God.
2. Figurative.The actual passages in which Jesus spiritualizes the term building may be grouped under three heads.
(1) In two remarkable passages Christ speaks of Himself as a Builder. (a) The first of these (Mat 26:61, Mar 14:58, Joh 2:19), while it is certainly a genuine saying of Christs, has come down to us in a form which leaves us doubtful as to the exact connexion in which it was first uttered. The general sense, however, is clear enough. The buildings of the Temple might be razed to the ground, but Christ, by His presence among His people, would perpetuate the true sanctuary (cf. Mat 18:20, Joh 4:24). Had the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews this saying in his mind when he referred to Christ (Heb 3:3) as the builder of the house? (b) The second passage is that in which Christ contemplates Himself as the Builder of His Church (Mat 16:18). That with which He is concerned is not the material edifice reared on the rocky summit of Mount Moriah, but the spiritual buildingthe body of believersfounded on a common faith in Himself.
(2) In one passage, cited from the OT, Jesus varies the metaphor. In the germ-parable of the Rejected Stone (Mat 21:42, Mar 12:10, Luk 20:17) He is no longer the Builder, but the Foundation. In the original passage (Psa 118:22) the Rejected Stone is Israel, but Christ appropriates the image to Himself, and once more draws attention to the fact that the work of God proceeds on lines not to be anticipated by a type of mind which is governed by worldly considerations.
(3) In two minor parables Jesus uses the art of building to illustrate the principles which must animate His followers. (a) In Mat 7:24, Luk 6:48 He shows that, as the stability of a house depends on the nature of its foundation, so stability of character can be attained only when a man uniformly makes the word of truth which he has received the basis of his behaviour. Doing is the condition of progress. Christian attainment is broad-based upon obedience (cf. Joh 7:17). (b) In Luk 14:28 He checks a shallow enthusiasm, apt quickly to evaporate, by reminding impulsive disciples that for great works great pains are required. The parable is the Gospel equivalent of our saying, Rome was not built in a day, with special reference, however, to the necessity of the individual giving himself up, in absolute devotion, to his task (cf. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV. i. iii. 41).
The foregoing passages exhaust the sayings, as reported in the Evangelic tradition, in which our Lord employed the image of building. But, we may ask, whence did St. Paul derive his favourite expression, applied both to the Church and to the individual, of edifying? (see Rom 15:2, 1Co 14:5, Eph 4:12 etc.). It does not appear that was ever used by classical writers in this sense. Fritzsche (Ep. ad Rom. iii. p. 205) thinks that St. Paul derived it from the OT usage, being sometimes used, with the accusative of the person, in the signification of blessing (see Psa 28:5, Jer 24:6). But is it not at least as likely that St. Paul derived the metaphorical use from the custom of Christ, who so often and with such emphasis applied building terms to the spiritual condition alike of the individual and of the company of believers? If Christ did not Himself use the expression edify, all His teaching pointed that way.
Literature.Hausrath, Hist. of NT Times, 5, 10, 11; articles Baukunst in PRE [Note: RE Real-Encyklopdie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] and Architecture in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible ; Josephus, Ant. xv. viii. 1, ix. 46, x. 3, xvi. v. 2, BJ i. xiii. 8, xxi. 111, vii. viii. 3; Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des Jdischen Volkes.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ii. 176, 430, 446, etc.; O. Holtzmann, Life of Jesus, p. 100 f. etc.
J. Ross Murray.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Building
Figurative
2Co 5:1
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Building
Building. Ezr 5:4. See Dwellings.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Building
2Ch 3:3 (c) This is probably a type of the Lord JESUS CHRIST who was the most magnificent and the most glorious person ever to dwell on earth.
1Co 3:9 (a) This is plainly a type of the church of GOD, which is the dwelling place of GOD on the earth. It does not refer to any denomination, nor any building of wood or stone. It refers to the gathering together of those who are saved by grace, washed in the blood of the Lamb, redeemed by power, and are actually and truly the children of GOD.
2Co 51:1 (a) This type is used to describe the new body which each believer will have after the resurrection.
Eph 2:20-21 (a) In this place the building is used as a type of the church which the Lord is constructing by saving souls, bringing them into His family, and attaching them to each other by invisible bonds. CHRIST is constructing for Himself a dwelling place on earth among His own children. This is called “the church” of which He Himself is the cornerstone, He is the architect and the contractor.
Heb 9:11 (a) The type here evidently refers to the personal body of the Lord JESUS. He calls it a temple which men would seek to destroy, but which He would raise up in three days. (See also Joh 2:19).