(Vulgate, "Sanctum Sanctorum"; Hebr. "Ḳodesh ha-Ḳodashim," or, more fully, "Bet Ḳodesh ha-Ḳodashim," II Chron. iii. 8, 10; R. V. "the most holy house"):
By: Emil G. Hirsch
That part of the Tabernacle and of the Temple which was regarded as possessing the utmost degree of holiness (or inaccessibility), and into which none but the High Priest—and he only once during the year, on the Day of Atonement—was permitted to enter (see Atonement, Day of).
A similarly high degree of holiness was ascribed to the following: the altar (Ex. xxix. 37; A. V. "most holy"); the incense-altar (ib. xxx. 10); all the implements of the sanctuary (ib. xxx. 29; Num. iv. 4, 19); the things reserved for the priests ("minḥah"; Lev. ii. 3, 10; vi. 10; x. 12; Num. xviii. 9; Ezra xlii. 13); the sin-offering (Lev. vi. 18, 22; x. 17); the guilt-offering (Lev. vii. 1, 6; xxxi. 14); the offering of the leper (because it belongs to the priests; Lev. xiv. 13); and the showbread (Lev. xxiv. 9). The designation "most holy" is applied also to the work of Aaron and his sons (I Chron. vi. 49).
In the Tabernacle and the Temple.
The inner room or cell of the sanctuary, termed also the "miḳdash ha-ḳodesh" (Lev. xvi. 33; A. V. "the holy sanctuary"), is known as the "Holy of Holies" par excellence. As such it comprised that smaller western part of the Tabernacle, the "mishkan," which was divided off from the remainder of the meeting-tent by a curtain or veil suspended from four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold and having sockets of silver (Ex. xxvi. 32, xxxvi. 36, R. V.). This curtain was woven in four colors: white, blue, scarlet, and purple, and was made of byssus, i.e., linen. The cell was cubelike in shape, being 10 ells high, 10 ells long, and 10 ells broad. It contained the Ark of the Covenant (Ex. xxvi. 34; comp. Josephus, "Ant." iii. 6, §§ 4, 5).
In Solomon's Temple the Holy of Holies formed a part of the house of Yhwh (I Kings vi. 1 et seq.), which was 60 cubits in length, 20 cubits in breadth, 30 cubits in height, and built of stone (Josephus, "Ant." viii. 3, § 2: "white marble"), and was divided into two sections by a partition of cedar-wood with a door covered by a costly curtain (Josephus, l.c. § 3; II Chron. iii. 14). The section farthest from the entrance, designated also as the "debir" (the "oracle" "the most holy place," I Kings vi. 5, R. V. margin), was 20 cubits high and presented the shape of a cube. The stone of this inner or hinder part, like the outer room, was completely hidden with cedar boards carved with knops or gourds and open flowers and then covered with pure gold. This room must have been without light. In it was placed the Ark (ib. vi. 18, 19).
In the Second Temple, details of the construction of which are not preserved in the Biblical documents (Ezra vi. 3 mentions dimensions), the Holy of Holies was curtained off (I. Macc. i. 22, iv. 51). It was empty, except for a stone three fingers in breadth on which the high priest deposited the censer (Josephus, "B. J." v. 55; Yoma v. 2). In Ezekiel's ideal Temple the Holy of Holies measured 20 cubits in length and the same in breadth (Ezek. xli. 4). Ezekiel (ib. 21, 23) calls this inner section simply 
(R. V. "sanctuary"), in contrast to the "hekal" (= "temple").
In the Herodian Temple.
In the Herodian Temple the Holy of Holies was not divided off from the rest of the hekal by a wall, but two curtains, a cubit apart, partitioned the inner chamber from the outer room. These curtains were richly wrought. (Sheḳ. viii. 5), and were so arranged that in order to enter the high priest had to lift them diagonally at the sides; the outer opening was at the south end, the inner at the north (Yoma v. 1). The length of the Holy of Holies was 20 cubits. Above both the inner and the outer rooms was an upper chamber, constructed to enable builders to make the necessary repairs. A trap-door was above the Holy of Holies, and through this the workmen were lowered in boxes, to guard against profanation (lit. "feasting their eyes"). In this upper chamber the location of the two rooms underneath was marked off (Mid. iv. 5).
According to Maimonides ("Yad," Bet ha-Beḥirah, iv. 1; see Yoma 23a), in the Holy of Holies of theTabernacle was a stone on which the Ark rested; before it was placed the flask of manna and Aaron's staff. Solomon made a depression in order that these objects might, if necessary, be hidden therein, which was done by Josiah (comp. Hor. 12a; Ker. 5b; Yoma 21a, 52a).
—Critical View:
It is generally contended that the Tabernacle represents a later priestly reconstruction patterned after the Solomonic and Ezekiel's ideal Temples (see Graf, "Die Geschichtl. Bücher des Alten Testaments," Leipsic, 1868; Popper, "Der Biblische Bericht über die Stiftshütte"). The account of Solomon's Temple (I Kings vi.) is also very much involved, and probably represents various sources. The legislation in P is based partly on actual practise, partly on theoretical insistences anticipated to a certain extent in Ezekiel, gradually realized in the Second (Zerubbabel's) Temple and fully recognized as authoritative in the Maccabean-Herodian-Mishnaic Temple. According to Büchler ("Die Priester und der Cultus," Vienna, 1895), during the last period of the Temple's existence certain concessions were made with latitude for "laymen." On the one hand, the use of the term "Ḳodesh ha-Ḳodashim" as a synonym for, or a later explanation of, "debir" (="oracle"), and the application of the same designation to all the things that were accessible only to the priests, and, on the other, the uncertainty of the use of the double phrase in Ezekiel (see above; Smend, Commentary on Ezek. lxi.; Bleek, "Einleitung," 4th ed., p. 234), indicate a gradual evolution of the notion that certain places and things partook of a higher degree of holiness than others. The analysis of the various passages shows that "Ḳodesh," originally designating "property of or reserved for Yhwh," only gradually came to admit of different degrees. In distinction from all tithes which are holy those belonging to the priests are further designated as "miḳdash" (Num. xviii. 29; comp. ib. viii. 32).
Applied to locality, this distinction in degrees is noticeable first in Ezekiel. His idea of the ascending scale of holiness is apparent in his designation of the Temple territory as "Holy of Holies" in comparison with the surrounding Levitical land (Ezek. xliii. 12, xlviii. 12). This notion pervades the Priestly Code and is determinative of the later Jewish conception, which ascribes to the land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem, the different courts and buildings of the Temple, in a fixed but ascending scale, different degrees of sanctity (Sanh. 2a, 16a; Sheb. 14a; "Yad," l.c. vi.).
Bibliography:
Saalschütz, Archäologie der Hebräer. ii. 318;
Haneberg, Die Religiösen Altertämer, Munich, 1869;
Bähr, Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultus, 2d ed., i.;
Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur Gesch. Israels;
Josephus, B. J. v. 5;
Winer, B. R. ii.;
Spiess, Das Jerusalem des Josephus, 1881;
De Vogä, Le Temple de Jérusalem, Paris, 1864;
Hildesheimer, Die Beschreibung des Herod, Tempels, etc., Berlin, 1876;
Baudissin, Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgesch. ii., Leipsic, 1878.
The innermost room of the Tabernacle and of the Temple of Jerusalem. The expression is a Hebrew idiom meaning "the most holy" thing or place. In the Tabernacle this inner room measured 10 X 10 cubits (about 15 X 15 feet) and was separated from the outer room, or holy place, by means of a veil, or portiere, of rich woven fabric, hanging from four pillars overlaid with gold and standing on sockets of silver. In Solomon’s, Zorobabel’s, and Herod’s temples, the holy of holies was 20 cubits square and 20 high. No windows admitted light into it; it was entered into, at least in the first temple, by a double folding door of olive wood with cherubim carved upon it. Whether that door remained closed or open, a veil (2 Par 3) maintained the separation of the two places. In the middle of the holy of holies of Solomon’s temple stood the Ark of the Covenant, overshadowed by the wings of the two colossal cherubim. As the Ark disappeared at the time of the ruin of that temple (586 B.C.), the holy of holies of Zorobabel’s and Herod’s temples contained nothing. The high priest entered into this inner recess only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, to offer incense and the blood of the bullock and of the goat destined to atone for himself, his house, and the people.
1. In the Tabernacle
The most holy place of the tabernacle in the wilderness (Exo 26:31-33) was a small cube of 10 cubits (15 ft.) every way. It was divided from the holy Ceiled by curtains which bore cherubic figures embroidered in blue and purple and scarlet (Exo 26:1), it contained no furniture but the Ark of the Covenant, covered by a slab of gold called the MERCY-SEAT (which see), and having within it only the two stone tables of the Law (see TABERNACLE; ARK OF COVENANT). Only the high priest, and he but once a year, on the great @@clothed in penitential garments, amid a cloud of incense, and with blood of sacrifice (Lev 16; compare Heb 9:7).
2. In the Temple of Solomon
The proportions of the most holy place in the first temple were the same as in the tabernacle, but the dimensions were doubled. The sacred chamber was enlarged to 20 cubits (30 ft.) each way. We now meet with the word
3. In Later Times
In Ezekiel’s temple plans, which in many things may have been those of the temple of Zerubbabel, the prophet gives 20 cubits as the length and breadth of the most holy place, showing that these figures were regarded as too sacred to undergo change (Eze 41:4). There was then no Ark of the Covenant, but Jewish tradition relates that the blood of the great Day of Atonement was sprinkled on an unhewn stone that stood in its place. In Herod’s temple, the dimensions of the two holy chambers remained the same - at least in length and breadth (see TEMPLE, HEROD’S). The holiest place continued empty. In the spoils of the temple depicted on the Arch of Titus there is no representation of the Ark of the Covenant; only of the furniture of the outer chamber or holy place.
4. Figurative
In the Epistle to the Hebrews we are taught that the true holy of holies is the heaven into which Jesus has now entered to appear in virtue of His own sacrifice in the presence of God for us (Heb 9:11). Restriction is now removed, and the way into the holiest is made open for all His people (Heb 10:19, Heb 10:20).
(Hebrews 9)
- The Jerusalem Temple had a curtain in front of the holy of holies through which the High Priest passed once a year. When Jesus died on the cross, the Temple curtain was torn in two (Matthew 27:51) symbolising that everyone can now approach God directly through Jesus Christ at any time, and not just through the High Priest once a year.