Chapiter
Summary
The ornamental capital or upper portion of a pillar, elaborately decorated in Solomon's temple with lily work and pomegranates.
☩Definition
A chapiter (from Latin caput, 'head') is the capital or ornamental top portion of a column or pillar. In the tabernacle, the chapiters of the pillars were overlaid with gold. In Solomon's temple, the great bronze pillars Jachin and Boaz were crowned with elaborate chapiters of brass, five cubits high.
☩Temple Decoration
The chapiters on the pillars of Solomon's temple were adorned with 'lily work' and festooned with nets of checker-work and wreaths of chain-work. Two hundred pomegranates in rows surrounded each chapiter. The prevalent Hebrew term kothereth suggests roundness, like a coronet or turban-shaped bowl. Egyptian columns provide helpful comparisons, featuring lotus-bud capitals similar to the biblical 'lily work.'
Related Verses17 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Chapiter," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. II (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.F. N. Peloubet & M. A. Peloubet (ed.), "Chapiter," in Smith's Bible Dictionary (Porter & Coates, 1884).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Chapiter," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).