Gospel in Art: Jesus was walking in the Temple, in the colonnade of Solomon

St Peter's Baldacchino, by Bernini, cast and installed 1623-1634 © St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 28 April 2026
John 10:22-30

At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the Temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, 'How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.' Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.'

Reflection on the Bronze Baldacchino

In today's Gospel reading we are told that Jesus is walking in the Temple during the "Feast of the Dedication." This feast is what we now know as Hanukkah, the celebration of the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC, after it had been desecrated. The Temple had been desecrated by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greek ruler of the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BC. Around 167 BC, he attempted to force Jewish people to abandon their faith and adopt Greek religious practices. He entered the Temple in Jerusalem, banned Jewish worship, and, (most shockingly) set up a pagan altar inside the Temple itself, offering sacrifices to Zeus. According to tradition, even pigs (animals considered unclean in Jewish law) were sacrificed there. It was a profound violation of everything the Temple stood for. This act of desecration sparked the Maccabean revolt, led by a group of Jewish fighters who eventually reclaimed Jerusalem. When they purified and rededicated the Temple, that moment became the origin of the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), a celebration of worship restored.

Another detail we find in our first verse of today's reading is that Jesus is walking in the "Colonnade of Solomon", which was a covered walkway on the east side of the Temple. And this is where an interesting artistic thread emerges for Christian Art. The famous twisted columns, what we call "Solomonic columns", take their name from the belief that such spiral columns once stood in Solomon's Temple. This idea was carried through centuries and eventually found one of its most magnificent expressions in the great baldacchino by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in St Peter's Basilica.

Bernini's baldacchino, erected between 1624-1633, stands directly over the tomb of St Peter, and is a towering bronze canopy supported by four vast spiral columns, richly decorated with vines, leaves, and bees (the emblem of Pope Urban VIII who commissioned it). These twisting columns deliberately evoke the ancient "Solomonic" form, linking the Temple of Jerusalem with the heart of the Christian Church. The Old Testament meets the New Testament in this baldacchino. Rising nearly 30 metres high, it is as if Bernini is saying: what once stood in shadow in Solomon's Temple now finds its fulfilment here on the altar beneath, in Christ, present in the Eucharist. The movement of the columns, twisting upward and upwards, draws the eye heavenward.

The bronze Bernini used largely came from ancient Roman pagan temple doors, most famously from the portico of the Pantheon. Under Pope Urban VIII, significant quantities of bronze were removed from the Pantheon's structure and melted down to be reused. This led to the famous saying: "What the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did", a witty jab at the pope's family. Material once used in honour of the gods of Rome was transformed and recast at the very heart of the Christian Church.

LINKS

Christian Art: https://christian.art/
Today's reading: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/john-10-22-30-2026/