Reply Obj. 2:  Before the coming of Christ, the state of the Old Law was not changed as regards the fulfilment of the Law, which was effected in Christ alone:  but it was changed as regards the condition of the people that were under the Law.  Because, at first, the people were in the desert, having no fixed abode:  afterwards they were engaged in various wars with the neighboring nations; and lastly, at the time of David and Solomon, the state of that people was one of great peace.  And then for the first time the temple was built in the place which Abraham, instructed by God, had chosen for the purpose of sacrifice.  For it is written (Gen. 22:2) that the Lord commanded Abraham to “offer” his son “for a holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will show thee”:  and it is related further on (Gen. 22:14) that “he calleth the name of that place, The Lord seeth,” as though, according to the Divine prevision, that place were chosen for the worship of God.  Hence it is written (Deut. 12:5, 6):  “You shall come to the place which the Lord your God shall choose . . . and you shall offer . . . your holocausts and victims.”

Now it was not meet for that place to be pointed out by the building of the temple before the aforesaid time; for three reasons assigned by Rabbi Moses.  First, lest the Gentiles might seize hold of that place.  Secondly, lest the Gentiles might destroy it.  The third reason is lest each tribe might wish that place to fall to their lot, and strifes and quarrels be the result.  Hence the temple was not built until they had a king who would be able to quell such quarrels.  Until that time a portable tabernacle was employed for divine worship, no place being as yet fixed for the worship of God.  This is the literal reason for the distinction between the tabernacle and the temple.

The figurative reason may be assigned to the fact that they signify a twofold state.  For the tabernacle, which was changeable, signifies the state of the present changeable life:  whereas the temple, which was fixed and stable, signifies the state of future life which is altogether unchangeable.  For this reason it is said that in the building of the temple no sound was heard of hammer or saw, to signify that all movements of disturbance will be far removed from the future state.  Or else the tabernacle signifies the state of the Old Law; while the temple built by Solomon betokens the state of the New Law.  Hence the Jews alone worked at the building of the tabernacle; whereas the temple was built with the cooperation of the Gentiles, viz. the Tyrians and Sidonians.

Reply Obj. 3:  The reason for the unity of the temple or tabernacle may be either literal or figurative.  The literal reason was the exclusion of idolatry.  For the Gentiles put up various temples to various gods:  and so, to strengthen in the minds of men their belief in the unity of the Godhead, God wished sacrifices to be offered to Him in one place only.  Another reason was in order to show that bodily worship is not acceptable of itself:  and so they restrained from offering sacrifices anywhere and everywhere.  But the worship of the New Law, in the sacrifice whereof spiritual grace is contained, is of itself acceptable to God; and consequently the multiplication of altars and temples is permitted in the New Law.