Molten Sea

The Molten Sea, illustration from the Holman Bible of 1890

The Molten Sea or Brazen Sea (Hebrew: ים מוצק yām mūṣāq) was, according to the Old Testament account, a round basin cast in bronze by the temple builder Hiram of Tyre (Hiram Abiff) for the forecourt of Solomon's Temple, with a diameter of almost 500 cm and a height of about 250 cm. The basin thus held almost 50,000 litres and rested on a base of 12 bronze oxen. The Bible describes the casting of the basin thus:

„23 Then he made the sea of cast metal. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. 24 Under its brim were gourds, for ten cubits, compassing the sea all around. The gourds were in two rows, cast with it when it was cast. 25 It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set on them, and all their rear parts were inward. 26 Its thickness was a handbreadth, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held two thousand baths.“

– 1 King 7:23–26Template:Bibleverse with invalid book

The casting of the Brazen Sea forms the core of the Temple Legend given by Christian Rosenkreutz:

„The temple was finished to a very definite stage. Only one thing was still missing, which was to be Hiram's masterpiece: namely the Brazen Sea. This masterpiece of Hiram was to represent the ocean, cast in ore, and adorn the temple. All the ore mixtures had been wonderfully prepared by Hiram and everything was ready for casting. But now three journeymen set to work, whom Hiram had found unfit to be appointed masters during the building of the temple. They had therefore sworn revenge against him and wanted to prevent the construction of the Brazen Sea. A friend of Hiram, hearing of this, informed Solomon of this plan of the journeymen so that he would thwart it. But Solomon, out of jealousy against Hiram, let the matter run its course, because he wanted to spoil Hiram. The result was that Hiram had to watch the whole casting dissolve because the three journeymen had added an unseemly substance to the mass. He tried to extinguish the foaming fire by pouring water on it, but it only got worse. While he was close to despairing about the outcome of the work, Tubal-Cain himself, one of his ancestors, appeared to him. He told him to throw himself into the fire, because he was not vulnerable to it. Hiram did so and reached the centre of the Earth. Tubal-Cain led him to Cain, who was there in the state of original divinity. Hiram was now initiated into the secret of fire creation, the secret of ore casting and so on. He also received from Tubal-Cain a hammer and a golden triangle to wear around his neck. Then he returned and was now able to really produce the Brazen Sea, to put the casting in order again.“ (Lit.:GA 93, p. 60f)

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Die Tempellegende und die Goldene Legende , GA 93 (1991), ISBN 3-7274-0930-4 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Zur Geschichte und aus den Inhalten der erkenntniskultischen Abteilung der Esoterischen Schule von 1904 bis 1914, GA 265 (1987), ISBN 3-7274-2650-0 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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