1 Kings 6:35 - "On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers; and he overlaid with gold evenly applied upon the carved work."

Carving was one of the very earliest activities, of man. Before primitive man knew anything about agriculture or clothing he had found a way of chipping, rubbing, or scraping many different kinds of materials into the sculptural shapes he desired. Bone, ivory, and horn carvings have been found that were made 50,000 years ago.

It is interesting to note that, apart from allusions, usually sarcastic, to the carvings of idols, all the Old Testament references to the carving of wood, stone, and metal pertain to the Tabernacle, or its successor, the Temple.

The recorder of the biblical record has made especial note of the carving on the bronze stand of the temple layers, and, in speaking of the temple doors, he makes mention of the decoration of these olivewood and cypress doors and the cedar wainscoting with carvings of "cherubims and palm trees and open flowers."

The Hebrew carvers were especially skilled in woodworking, and this is particularly evidenced in what we can picture the cherubim the Holy of Holies to have been. Since these were made from olivewood, each fifteen feet high, it is obvious that a great deal of joinery and carving were necessary.

The interior walls of Solomon’s Temple were completely covered with cedarwood wainscoting; the floor was covered with boards of cypress; nowhere was any stone to be seen. These woods, further, were filled with carved figures of gourds, lotus blossoms, birds, palm trees, and cherubs, and many other symbols.

And, of course, as time went on, they became more and more adept in this art. So much so, that by the time Herod the Great rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem, it’s beauty was proverbial. I mean that quite literally - "He who has not seen Herod’s building has never seen anything beautiful," was a common proverb of that day. Although we have conflicting reports of this building, and we do know vast areas of it were covered with gold, still we may assume that a great deal of carving was also found here.

And, of course, the accomplished carver could make a very good living for himself in ornamenting the homes of the wealthy, in making jewelry, in all the ways in which carving is used today. There are extant magnificent pieces of carved jade and ivory that any woman would give her eye-teeth to have made for her today - and they are many centuries old!