The House · The Symbolism of Scripture
The House
In Hebrew, the words for house, son, daughter and he built come from one root — so a family is a building in the language itself. That is why David offers to build God a house and is told he is being given one instead.
What It Stands For
one root, four words
The Hebrew bayith (H1004) is glossed in the lexicon as a house in the greatest variation of applications, especially family. That is not a translator being loose. Adam Clarke, working on 1 Peter 2:5, sets out why the two senses sit inside one word:
The Church of Christ, it is true, is represented under the figure of a house, or rather household; and as a household or family must have a place of residence, hence, by a metonymy, the house itself, or material building, is put for the household or family which occupies it, the container being put for the contained. This point will receive the fullest illustration if we have recourse to the Hebrew: in this language, בית beith signifies both a house and a family; בן ben a son; בת bath a daughter; and אבן eben a stone. Of all these nouns, בנה banah, he built, is, I believe, the common root.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
1 Peter 2:5
And then the sentence that is really the whole page:
for sons and daughters build up or constitute a family, as stones do a building. Here, then, is the ground of the metaphor: the spiritual house is the holy or Christian family or household
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
1 Peter 2:5
A Hebrew speaker did not have to be taught that a family is a building. He could hear it in the words. Which means that when the Bible calls a people a house, it is not reaching for a poetic figure, it is using the ordinary sense of an ordinary noun.
One Word, Both Ways
2 Samuel 7, followed through the conversation
| Where | Who is speaking | What is said | Which “house” |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Samuel 7:2 | David, to Nathan | “I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.” | A building |
| 2 Samuel 7:5 | The LORD, to David | “Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?” | A building |
| 2 Samuel 7:11 | The LORD, to David | “The LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.” | A family |
| 2 Samuel 7:13 | The LORD, of David’s son | “He shall build an house for my name.” | A building |
| 2 Samuel 7:16 | The LORD, to David | “Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever.” | A family |
| 2 Samuel 7:27 | David, praying it back | “Thou … hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house.” | A family |
he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”The offer. A cedar house for the king, curtains for the ark, David hears that as wrong.
and have done since the day I appointed judges over My people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. The LORD declares to you that He Himself will establish a house for you.The answer, and the hinge of the chapter: 'the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.'
The Lord - will make thee a house - Thou hast in thy heart to make me a house; I have it in my heart to make thee a house: thy family shall be built up, and shall prosper in the throne of Israel; and thy spiritual posterity shall remain for ever.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
2 Samuel 7:11
David had purposed to build God a house, and, in requital, God promises to build him a house
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
2 Samuel 7:11
Clarke’s phrasing catches the symmetry the Hebrew is making — thou hast in thy heart to make me a house; I have it in my heart to make thee a house. The reason David is refused is given elsewhere and is not squeamishness about temples:
He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.A son builds the building; the throne is what lasts for ever.
He shall build - That is, Solomon shall build my temple, not thou, because thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
2 Samuel 7:13
He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever--This declaration referred, in its primary application, to Solomon, and to the temporal kingdom of David's family. But in a larger and sublimer sense, it was meant of David's Son of another nature (Heb 1:8).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
2 Samuel 7:13
JFB are careful in the way this site tries to be: the promise had a primary application to Solomon and a real temporal kingdom, and a larger one beyond him. Both are held. The covenant itself — its terms, its unconditional clauses, and what the prophets do with it — is worked through on The Davidic Covenant.
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain; unless the LORD protects the city, its watchmen stand guard in vain.Written by the son who built it. Of all the men in Israel entitled to be proud of a building, this one.
The word vain is the keynote here, and we hear it ring out clearly three times. Men desiring to build know that they must labour, and accordingly they put forth all their skill and strength; but let them remember that if Jehovah is not with them their designs will prove failures.
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, on Psalm 127, 1885Baptist
Psalm 127:1
What Is Underneath It
Matthew 7, and the only difference between two builders
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.Both men build. Both houses look finished. The storm is what asks the question.
The streams which ran among the hills, whose channels might have been dry during some months of the year, became suddenly swollen with the rain, and would pour down impetuously into the plains below.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1847Presbyterian
Matthew 7:24
which built his house upon a rock--the rock of true discipleship, or genuine subjection to Christ.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Matthew 7:24
Barnes supplies the geography that makes the parable ordinary rather than picturesque. These are wadis, dry channels for most of the year, and flat sandy ground that looks like an excellent building site right up until the rain comes off the hills. Everyone listening had seen it happen.
The House Becomes People
Ephesians 2, Hebrews 3, 1 Peter 2
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.One foundation, and the apostles and prophets are named together on it.
And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.The stated purpose of the building: 'an habitation of God through the Spirit'.
built," saith he, "upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets;" that is, the Apostles and Prophets are a foundation, and he places the Apostles first, though they are in order of time last, doubtless to represent and express this, that both the one and the other are alike a foundation, and that the whole is one building, and that there is one root. Consider, that the Gentiles have the Patriarchs as a foundation.
John Chrysostom· Homily 6 on Ephesians, 392Greek, fourth century
Ephesians 2:20
Chrysostom sees what the architecture is doing in Paul’s argument, and it is the opposite of a replacement: both are alike a foundation, the whole is one building, and there is one root — the Gentiles have the patriarchs underneath them. That is the sense in which this site uses the figure everywhere it appears.
But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.A servant is faithful IN a house; a son is over it. And then: 'whose house are we.'
Someone must be the establisher of every house; Moses was not the establisher of the house, but a portion of it
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Hebrews 3:4
as a son over his own house--rather, "over His (GOD'S, Heb 3:4) house"; and therefore, as the inference from His being one with God, over His own house.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Hebrews 3:6
The argument of Hebrews 3 turns on two small prepositions, and the honour of Moses is not reduced by it: the letter calls him faithful in all God’s house, which is the highest thing said about a servant anywhere in Scripture. What changes is position, not worth.
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.Living stones: a phrase that ought to be impossible, and is the whole point.
Where It Points
the Father's house, and a rare word that appears twice
In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?Said to frightened men on the last night, and 'mansions' is not a word about size.
Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.The same rare noun, twenty-one verses later, pointing the other way.
Are many mansions - The word rendered mansions means either the act of dwelling in any place (Joh 14:23, we will make our abode with him), or it means the place where one dwells. It is taken from the verb to remain, and signifies the place where one dwells or remains. It is applied by the Greek writers to the tents or temporary habitations which soldiers pitch in their marches.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1847Presbyterian
John 14:2
Barnes has done the reader a real service here, and he points at the fact that makes it remarkable: the noun occurs exactly twice in the New Testament, both of them in this one conversation.In verse 2 it is a staying-place in the Father’s house. In verse 23 the Father and the Son come to a man who loves Christ and make their abode with him — the same word, travelling in the opposite direction. The house is prepared for us, and meanwhile we are made into one.
Do the “many mansions” mean different degrees of reward?an old reading, and what the verse actually settles
It is an ancient reading, and two second-century writers are worth hearing on it. Tertulliantakes it as proportional: “How will there be many mansions in our Father's house, if not to match the diversity of what each deserves?” Irenaeus takes it as variety rather than rank: “For there are many mansions in the Father's house, inasmuch as there are also many members in the body.”
What the verse settles is neither of those. Its stated point is room — Jesus is answering men who are afraid of being left behind, and the sentence that follows is “I go to prepare a place for you.” Degrees of reward are argued elsewhere in the New Testament, and belong to that discussion rather than this one.
What Scripture says outright
- 2 Samuel 7:11
“The LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.” The reversal is in the sentence, not in a commentator.
- Ephesians 2:22
Paul states what the building is for: an habitation of God through the Spirit.
- Hebrews 3:6
“Whose house are we”: the letter moves the readers from looking at the house to being it.
What readers have heard in it
Readings, named as such.
- John 14:2
That the many mansions are graded rewards. Tertullian read it that way and Irenaeus did not; the verse itself is about room, and about a place being prepared.
- 2 Samuel 7:13
Every attempt to make the promise refer only to Solomon or only to Christ. JFB give it a primary application and a larger one, and the site keeps both.
- Psalm 127:1
That the psalm is about the temple specifically. The title names Solomon and the psalm goes straight on to children and a full quiver, which, given the root the words share, may be the point rather than a change of subject.
The Voices
with the work named
Adam Clarke carries this page. He does the Hebrew that explains why the symbol exists at all, and his phrasing on 2 Samuel 7 catches the exchange better than a paraphrase could. Albert Barnes does the same service on the Greek of John 14:2 — including the detail that the word was used of soldiers’ marching tents — and supplies the geography behind the two builders. Chrysostom reads Ephesians 2 as one building with one root, apostles and prophets alike a foundation. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown keep both applications of the Davidic promise and both prepositions of Hebrews 3. Spurgeon counts the word vain.
Where to Go Next
Where the house is the whole scene
What it is built of
Where the picture goes on
Its neighbours in the index
The Symbolism of Scripture gathers every picture the Bible thinks in. This one sits with: