According to the story, initially provided for
the temple were 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver,
in addition to even greater amounts of bronze, iron, wood and stone (1
Chronicles 22:14). A talent = about 34kg, so that's 3,400 tons of gold
and 34,000 tons of silver, plus the
other materials. Gold is 19.3g per cubic cm, and silver is 10.49g per
cubic cm, meaning 176 cubic metres of gold, and 3241 cubic metres of
silver. (If the gold and silver were actually either alloyed or
contained impurities, the density would be lower so the volume would be
even more.) David then supplies an additional 102 tons of gold and 238
tons of silver (1 Chronicles 29:3, 4). The 'princes' supply another 170
tons of gold, 340 tons of silver, 610 tons of bronze and 3,400 tons of
iron (1 Chronicles 29:6-7). The temple was supposedly 60 cubits long, 20
cubits wide and 30 cubits high (1 Kings 6:2, 3). A cubit is about 44cm,
so the volume of the temple (excluding the 'portico') was about 3067
cubic metres. Even if the main part of the temple were a *solid block of
silver*, there would still be silver left over to put 'on top' of the
'portico', which would be a *solid block of gold* over 4.5 metres high.
And there's no room for the copper and iron and stone and wood, which
would have to go somewhere else.