By Dr. Charles Ruark, MD

Why does the Man look left, and the Lion look right? This design is found throughout the Temple structure.

Look at Ezekiel 1:10

10 As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle. 

We assume from this verse that the face of the Lion is on the right and looks to the right from Ezekiel’s perspective. Now we know from 41:19 that the faces of the cherub both look toward the palm tree. One of the faces is the face of the Man. So, the face of the bull which is on the left in v.10 is replaced with the face of the man to satisfy v.19 of Ezekiel 41.

Columns

Next, why are the “side pillars” next to the stairway called columns in 40:49? It is because they are not beside a significant structure but beside the first four steps of the stairway leading to the Porch of the inner Temple..

Carving Rules

Next are the carving rules. The carving rules are simple and can be understood from the first pic (Lyn’s pic). If the length of the wall in question is an even number of tiles, the center is occupied by the face of the cherub with the Lion looking right at the palm tree and the face of the Man looking left at the palm tree. This pattern is continued until both ends of the wall are reached. Look at the horizontal column above the stairway to see this rule.

If the wall in question has an odd number of tiles, insert a palm tree on the center of the wall. On either side of the palm tree, there will be the face of the cherub with the Man looking to the left at the palm tree and the face of the Lion looking to the right at the palm tree. This pattern is continued until both ends of the wall in question are reached. The horizontal side pillar above the Porch demonstrates this rule.

Next, there is never a “half tile” anywhere on the walls of the Temple.