Bede, on 1Kgs 6:9

“So he built the house, and finished it: and he covered the house with roofs of cedar.”

“"He also covered the house with cedar ceilings." [1 Kings 6:9] The term "He also covered the house with cedar ceilings" refers to the timber-frame ceilings that, when fastened with nails, display the wondrous beauty of their paintings to those who behold them. There were three ceilings in the temple. The first had thirty cubits from the floor; the second had sixty cubits, aligned with the height of the porticos; the third had one hundred and twenty cubits at the top of the entire house. For in Palestine, as in Egypt, roofs are not raised high but instead built flat, suitable for sitting or walking. Hence, the Lord says in the Gospel: "And what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops." Such a place is most appropriate for proclaiming the word—to those sitting with the speaker or to listeners below. As Solomon says in Proverbs: "It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a contentious woman" (Prov. XXI); for what is called "roof" in Latin is "doma" in Greek. Moreover, the porticos around the temple had three levels of ceilings. The first from the ground had twenty cubits, the second forty, and the third sixty. Their roofs were also flat. There were thirty porticos on the lower level, thirty in the middle, and thirty above, not separated by walls but by wooden planks, so each of the ninety porticos measured five cubits in width and length, and twenty in height. These porticos are frequently mentioned in the book of Chronicles. Josephus explains their arrangement in more detail. "And he built a platform over the whole house five cubits high;" this is what Moses commanded in Deuteronomy: "When you build a new house, make a parapet for your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from it" (Deut. XXII). This platform at the top of the temple walls acted as a parapet to prevent someone ascending to the roof from falling off carelessly. This is mentioned as the cause of King Ahaziah's death, as he fell through the lattice of his upper chamber and suffered fatal injuries. When these panels, walls, or parapets are placed for safety, the common people call them "lattices." "And he covered the house with cedar wood;" signifies the upper covering of the entire structure, that is, the panel added above those beams on which the uppermost ceilings we mentioned earlier were affixed.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.