CHAPTER 2
 LITERATURE REVIEW

 Ancient historical information about the construction industry is limited. There is no

known document related exactly to ancient writings about construction, and no know documents

describe what the Bible alone reveals about building construction. There are a number of

documents that touch on different aspects of what is in the Bible regarding construction but none

that focuses solely on what the Bible alone reveals about building construction. Included in this

literature review are samplings of different types of books that use the Bible as a reference,

combined with information about buildings or construction.

 Hurowitz (1992) wrote about Temple building in the Bible in light of Mesopotamian and

Northwest Semitic writings. He covers building stories in the Bible such as the tabernacle, the

first temple, and the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple along with its walls. References to the

stories about temples are included in the books of the Bible such as Ezra chapters 1-6, Nehemiah,

and 1 Kings chapters 5-9. The author points out that he has purposefully focused on 1 Kings to

the exclusion of first and second Chronicles due to the repetition of information. The goal of

Hurowitz was to compare and contrast the account of Solomon's construction of the Jerusalem

Temple that appears in 1 Kings 5:15-9:25.

 Schwartz (2002) shared how the temple in Jerusalem may have been built. He relies on

archaeology, the Bible, and extra-Biblical writers, such as Josephus, to derive his conclusions.

The focus is specifically on the Temples rather than other construction issues that are described

in other chapters of the Bible. Most of his conclusions are based on archaeology and extra-

Biblical information. Some of his more pertinent information is in his chapters on construction

equipment, construction materials and the building of the temple mount. He mentions the use of

hand tools such as the handsaw, adze, bow drill, adjustable triangle, plum bob, caliper, square,