Talk:Temple

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"a Jewish temple is called a synagogue"

That's a highly offensive statement to the Orthodox and Conservative Jewish; it is written only from the Reform Jewish POV. To the Orthodox, the Temple was ONLY the Temple in Jerusalem. Synagogues are places of worship and learning the Torah, but are not comparable to and do not replace "the" Temple. If I understand correctly, only the Reform Jewish (and possibly some of the very small branches of Judaism, like Reconstructionist Judaism) would refer to a synagogue as a Temple.

"a Christian temple is called a church or cathedral"

That offends me (Christian, member of the Church of Christ) for a similar reason. We do not believe there is anything holy about our church building, and that it should not be called a temple. Most branches of Christianity do not usually equate their church buildings with temples, although a number do.

I agree. I think it's insensitively worded. The Wednesday Island 17:26, 1 July 2006 (UTC) (Anglican)
Me too. As for the current quote "In Judaism, from the Bible, the hebrew term for temple is "sanctuary", "palace" or "hall"", I don't know what to do with this. Firstly, the words are not Hebrew. Secondly and possibly due to semantics I don't know what to make of the editor's use of a lowercase "temple" versus the universal referral to the two Temples in Jerusalem with a capital "T". I'm probably going to do something to this, but I'm not quite sure how to handle it. I'll figure it out. Valley2city 22:32, 16 November 2006 (UTC) (Conservative Jew)

Contents

[edit] Egyptian temple

The Antares page refers to an Egyptian temple, but as of 13 Dec 2005, there isn't an appropriate page to disambig it to. Hopefully, someone will build one. D-Rock 11:37, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Buddhist temples

The Shaolin article seems to be talking about a specific subset of Buddhist temples, should that be used when disambiging them or perhaps the List of Buddhist temples? Neither solution seems pleasant to me. D-Rock 12:04, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Is this a disambig?

Is this a {{disambig}}? Looks like an article discussing the spiritual buildings to me. If there is no objection, I'll remove the {{disambig}} and create Temple (disambiguation) soon.--Commander Keane 21:38, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

This makes sense to me. D-Rock 01:18, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
Done.--Commander Keane 13:16, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Images: Temple's architectures & world regions

I've added the aerial view image of a Western Temple located at a high mesa in Mount Ecclesia (1920). Although all images are really beautifull; the article could be restricted to a sample, one temple, per world region or type of architecture. As it its now, it has too images of Eastern/Oriental temples and a duplicated images of Greek architecture. Thanks, Regards. --GalaazV 22:17, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Took the initiave of editing the article with a sample of the main known religious/spiritual Temples around the World, in a chronological way and representative also of different architectures and religious practices (the other erlier also beautifull images changed to "See also" section): hope it can be consensual, as it was brought with a pacific and honest thought. Thank you, Regards. --GalaazV 23:42, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] St Peter's basilica

Why is this captioned "Christian temple" when the text alongside it goes to great lengths to point out that Christians almost never (and Catholics certainly never) call their buildings "temples"? The Wednesday Island 17:25, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tangerines?

This last paragraph in the intro seems badly out of place. Shouldn't it be on the disambiguation page instead? Surely most people who type in temple would want to get to this page. It's just distracting. I'll just remove it or move it to the disambiguation page.

For reference, the text removed was
"The word temple can also be used to refer to a cross between an orange and a tangerine. It used to be called a temple tangor but from 1919 the variety was renamed temple. Its derivatives include clementine, tangor and mandarine."

[edit] This Article Needs Work

The lists and bullets in this article are embarassing. It needs a lot of work. Glenn4pr 04:06, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] a bit soft

The discussion of the temple is a bit soft and only gets better toward the end. I seems to assume that temples existed since the beginning of time. It whould be better grounded in history. I made some small changes, but that shouuld be only the beginning. In other words the is is not accurate to say that the Hebrew word for temple is palace etc etc. The ancient Hebrew word palace was in play Long before the Roman temple came into being.Brosi 22:46, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] terminological paradoxes abound

The problem with this section is that it can't decide if it is about religious spaces or about temples. The assumption is that ALL religious spaces are first temples and then other things. For example "A Jain temple is called derasar." This is wrong or rather backwards. A derasar is Jain temple. In other words a Jain worshiper does not say My temple is called a derasar. A bit nit-picky, but 'Jain temple' is an ENGLISH (latin-based) concept that is applied TO the Jain (by English speakers). In other words, again, a derasar is, technically NOT a temple. But like a temple, it IS a religious space. But because we English speakers refuse to make the distinction and want to reduce all religious and cultures to ours, we would like to think that temple - conceptually speaking - came first. I think that this article should, therefore, be split. into 1). temple (templum) and its various uses; and 2. religious spaces and terminology.Brosi 15:33, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] rewrite

I reorganized this page to focus in a more scholarly way on the word temple, its uses and history.Brosi 20:20, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] moved text

I moved the sentences that were recently added about metaphor to a separate category, since they bring up a topic that is a sub-topic of temple and not appropriate I would think in its main definition. I think there might be better examples.Brosi 01:32, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Eastern Orthodox

The portion under the heading "The Christian Tradition" that deals with Eastern Orthodox usage of the word temple has been very much improved. Whoever made these most recent changes has dealt with it sensitively. Thanks. MishaPan 22:22, 17 February 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Masonic Temples

I've removed the Masonic temples from this list. Although they use the word "Temple" in their nomenclature, they are not used for religious purposes and I'm worried that their inclusion on this list would mislead people into thinking that Masonry is a religion, which it is not.

Freemasons meet as Lodges. Lodges meet in Temples, or Centers or Halls. I've updated the entry. Jmitchell4466 17:54, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology

Where does the word "Temple" come from?


[edit] "Heather"

I changed the Greek section to speak of pagans rather than heather, which plant isn't known for erecting temples.

[edit] Merge from List of ancient temple structures

Very old tag on List of ancient temple structures that doesn't appear to have been tagged or discussed here. Pairadox 17:35, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Support


Oppose

I cannot understand why a page on temples doesnt give importance to the oldest free standing temples in the world! The prehistoric temples of malta should be included in this article. this is an extract from one of the Maltese temple pages:

Ġgantija (also Ggantia) is a megalithic temple complex on the Mediterranean island of Gozo (part of Malta). The two temples of Ġgantija on the island of Gozo are notable for their gigantic Neolithic structures, which were erected during the Neolithic Age (c. 3600-2500 BC). At more than 5500 years old, the Ġgantija temples are the world's oldest free-standing structures, and the world's oldest religious structures, pre-dating the Pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge. The temples were possibly the site of an Earth Mother Goddess Fertility Cult, with numerous figurines and statues found on site believed to be connected with that cult.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ggantija

please lets update this page!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Paulattardb (talk • contribs) 01:21, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Egyptian Temples Again

The usual term is Hwt-nTr, lit. "god's enclosure" or "enclosure of god", according to James Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, p.42. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.253.134.192 (talk) 01:52, 2 May 2008 (UTC)