HEROD THE GREAT
The headless corpse of Pompey was tossing in the waves, off the coast
of Egypt, fifteen years after his bloody conquest of Jerusalem, “and
there was none to bury him because he had scorned Him with dishonour:
he remembered not that he was man, and considered not what was to come.
He said, I will be lord of land and sea, and he knew not that God
is great, mighty in His great power.”[226] It is thus that a Jewish
psalmist of Herod’s time draws the moral of vengeance on the desecrator
of the Holy of Holies.
Antipater, the friend of Hyrcanus, helped Julius Cæsar in his advance
on Egypt in the same year, 48 B. C., and was left in charge of
Jewish affairs.[227] His son Herod, who dared the Sanhedrin, and who
distinguished himself by subduing brigands near Tiberias, was set to
govern Galilee. The growing power of this Idumæan family was hateful to
the Hasmonæan party, and when Cæsar was murdered in 44 B. C., Antipater
was poisoned by the butler of Hyrcanus.[228] But they had still to
reckon with Herod, who revenged his father’s death on Malichus, the
Jewish general who had incited the deed. The Idumæans--both father
and son--were singularly astute in taking the right side during all
the troubles that preceded and followed Cæsar’s death. Herod knew how
greedy of money the Romans were, and he bribed in turn Cassius and
Antony, yet succeeded later in holding power under Augustus. For peace,
and strong government in Palestine, were needful to the Roman policy
which made the Mediterranean an Italian lake, and the time was not yet
ripe for direct rule.
[Sidenote: THE PARTHIANS]
The republicans sent Cassius to Syria and Labienus to Parthia before
they met with disaster at Philippi in 42 B. C. The former became the
patron of Antigonus--nephew of Hyrcanus--who thus took the losing side,
while Herod found a friend in Mark Antony. Two years later Labienus
stirred up the Parthians to attack the new triumvir, and they marched
on Palestine under Pacorus, the son of the Parthian king Orodes I.
Herod had expelled Antigonus from Judea, but the latter joined the
invaders and the Idumæan cause seemed hopeless. Herod sent his family
for safety to the great fortress of Masada on the shores of the Dead
Sea, and escaped to Egypt and to Rome, seeking aid from Antony. The
Parthians gave over Hyrcanus to Antigonus as a prisoner, and the
nephew cut off his uncle’s ears, to prevent his ever again officiating
as high-priest, for, when so mutilated, he could not fulfil priestly
offices without breaking the law. Thus for three years Antigonus
reigned in Jerusalem.[229]
Herod in Rome was recognised as king in 40 B. C. by Antony and
Augustus; and Ventidius was sent to drive back the Parthians. These
were the events which led, three years later, to the siege of Jerusalem
by Sosius and Herod, when the hated Idumæan, who was “only a private
man” and only “half a Jew,” was re-established by Roman power.[230] It
would seem clear that Josephus dates the thirty-seven years of Herod’s
reign from the time of his capture of the city in the summer of 37
B. C., his death thus occurring in 1 A. D. For he says that the battle
of Actium--which was fought on September 2, 31 B. C.--took place in
Herod’s seventh year,[231] and that he reigned thirty-four years after
Antony had put Antigonus to death at Antioch.[232] The siege began in
a sabbatic year[233]--consequently in 37 B. C.--and from this year
the reign of Herod should be reckoned. Whiston has been followed by
most modern writers in dating the reign from 40 B. C.; yet, not only
does this conflict with the date of the battle of Actium, but it also
supposes that Antony was in Syria, and about to celebrate his triumph
in Egypt, in 37 B. C., whereas he was then engaged in naval war off the
Italian coast; and, on the other hand, he was in Syria in 34 B. C.,
and held a triumph at Alexandria immediately after. The point is of
great importance because it affects the date of the Nativity, of which
recent writers have treated without any regard to the Gospel statement
that Jesus was about to enter His thirtieth year in the fifteenth year
of Tiberius, or 29 A. D.[234] Matthew and Luke both make the Nativity
precede the death of Herod; and on the “fifteenth of Tiberius” the
Christian era was based by the Roman abbot, Dionysius Exiguus, in 532
A. D. He seems to have considered the evidence more carefully than
Whiston did. An eclipse of the moon happened during the last illness of
Herod, which Whiston identified with a small partial eclipse of March
13, 4 B. C. More probably it was the total eclipse of January 9, 1
B. C., that occurred before Herod’s distemper became serious.[235]
The great army of Sosius and Herod attacked Jerusalem in 37 B. C., and
as usual from the north. Three banks were erected, and engines were
used by the besiegers and also by the besieged, who fought bravely
in spite of famine and of the sabbatic year, mines and countermines
being driven to meet. The north wall fell after forty days, and the
wall of the upper city fifteen days later; but the Temple still held
out till some of the cloisters were set on fire, and the lower city and
outer courts of the sanctuary taken. Antigonus then came down from the
citadel (Antonia), and the siege ended on the same day on which Pompey
had stormed the Temple twenty-six years earlier--that is, on Sivan 27,
which would be early in June.
[Sidenote: HEROD’S BUILDINGS]
Herod’s reign was stained by many cruel crimes, but it cannot be denied
that he was a strong and successful ruler, during whose time Jerusalem
enjoyed prosperity and peace, and was adorned by many new buildings
of great magnificence. His principal works included the new Temple,
and the royal palace in the upper city, defended by the three “royal
towers,” Hippicus, Phasaelus, and Mariamne. Antonia also was rebuilt,
and a theatre was erected in the city. In describing these buildings
we are able to check the accounts given in the works of Josephus and
in the Mishnah by actually existing remains, visible on the surface or
unearthed by explorers. The account of Herod’s Temple in the Mishnah is
so fully detailed as to allow of a plan being made. The statements were
written down at Tiberias in our second century, and in this form are
later than the “Wars of the Jews” composed about 75 A. D., and than the
“Antiquities of the Jews,” written about 93 A. D., both at Rome; but
the Mishnah quotes the words of rabbis who were youths when the Temple
was destroyed in 70 A. D.[236]
As regards Josephus, it is best to found a critical estimate of his
writings on actual facts. Not only have I compared his statements about
Jerusalem with extant remains of the city, but I have measured and
planned other cities and buildings which he describes--at Samaria and
Cæsarea, at the fortress of Masada, and the round castle of Herodium,
and at Jotapata, which he defended. I have carefully studied his
Galilean topography, and his accounts of the palace of Tyrus in Gilead,
and of the spring of Callirrhoe, both of which I visited in 1881. The
impression made by such studies is that the Jewish historian was honest
and well informed; that he had seen the places which he describes, and
gives a generally reliable account. Our present text is often corrupt
in numerals referring to dates and measurements, and Josephus (writing
from memory in Rome, many years after the events described) is not
always accurate in his estimate of dimensions, heights, and distances.
The accounts of the Temple, by rabbis at Jamnia who were able to visit
the ruins left by Titus, are to be preferred as more exact, but they
do not conflict with the general account given by Josephus, and he
could have had no object in misrepresenting the facts, though--like
other historians--he sometimes exaggerates the size of buildings, the
numbers of enemies, and the value of treasures. These are small and
natural blemishes in narratives which must always remain our chief
source for this history. That he wilfully misrepresented facts to
please the Romans, or to excuse his own nation, there is no reason at
all to suppose. His knowledge of Jerusalem topography was personal and
contemporary, and he is more likely to have known the facts than any
scholar writing in the west of Europe or in America to-day.
[Sidenote: THE HERODIAN CITY]
We may consider, therefore, by the light of exact surveys of the city
and exact plans of its remains, and under the guidance of the rabbis
and of Josephus, first the city in general, then the Temple and the
fortress of Antonia, and finally the palaces and other buildings, and
the alterations made in the water-supply in Herod’s time. Our task
has already been lightened by detailed consideration of the earlier
topography.
“The city stood on two opposite ridges, divided from each other by a
central valley where the respective houses ended: of these ridges that
which had the upper city on it was much the highest and widest. So it
was called the citadel by King David, ... but we call it the Upper
Market-place. But the other, called Akra, and defending the lower city,
was gibbous; and opposite this was a third ridge, naturally lower than
the Akra, and at first divided from it by a flat valley.... But the
valley called Turopoiôn was that we have mentioned, separating the
upper city and the lower ridge; it reached to Siloam.... Outside, the
two ridges of the city were girt with deep valleys, and--on account of
the precipices on both sides--access was impossible.”[237]
It is difficult to see how this description can be understood in any
other way than that described in the preceding chapter. The upper city
was David’s citadel, and that to the north was the citadel of the
Macedonian garrison. The account goes on[238] to tell us that: “The
old wall was hard to be taken, both on account of the valleys, and
of the hill above them on which it was built. But besides the great
advantage of situation, it was also very strongly built, because David
and Solomon and the succeeding kings were very zealous about this work.
Now this wall began at the tower called Hippikos, and reached as far
as a place called Xustos, and adjoining the Council-house ended at
the west cloister of the Temple. But if we go the other way, on the
west side, it extended through a place called Bethso to the Gate of
the Essenes, and then on the south side, it bent above the fountain of
Siloam, and there again bent, facing east over the Pool of Solomon, and
reached as far as a certain place which they called Ophla, where it
was joined to the east cloister of the Temple. But the second [wall]
had its beginning from a gate which they called Gennath, being of the
first wall, and encircling the north quarter only, it went on as far as
Antonia.”
[Sidenote: THE TWO WALLS]
Very few words are necessary to explain this account, which agrees
with that of the city walls as rebuilt by Nehemiah. Hippicus was the
most western of the three “royal towers,” and stood at the north-west
angle of the upper city. It defended the narrow neck which separated
the broad Tyropœon from the head of the _Gai_, or Hinnom gorge. The
Hasmonæan Valley joined the Tyropœon from the north, on the west of the
Temple, and the two together descended rapidly to Siloam, separating
the upper city from the Ophel. The north face of the old wall ran on
a precipitous rock, and the Xystos lay north of the great Tyropœon
bridge. The name of the place on the south-west side of the upper
city “called Bethso” is generally supposed to mean “House of Dung,”
being near the old Dung Gate, which seems here to be called the Gate
of the Essenes. The wall ran “above” Siloam; and “Solomon’s Pool”
was the Kidron spring--the Gihon where he was anointed. Ophla is the
Aramaic form of the Hebrew Ophel, and the course of the wall here
coincides with the line of fortification discovered by Sir Charles
Warren. As to the second wall, the description is brief because the
wall was short in extent. The junction with Antonia must have been at
the north-west angle of that fortress, for the great counterscarp of
the fosse which defended it on the north is known to continue some way
west of the fortress, thus forming the counterscarp of the north wall
as well. No bends or angles are noticed, but, on the contrary, it is
said to “encircle” the north ridge. The name of the Gate Gennath is
usually thought to mean “the Garden Gate,” but not impossibly it may
stand for the “Gehenna Gate,” and it answers to the old “Valley Gate.”
The second wall--as already urged--must have crossed the saddle near
Hippicus, but the junction was not exactly at that tower, where was a
smaller postern.[239] As the Gennath Gate was in the first wall, there
was evidently a re-entering angle, and in later times the third wall
started from Hippicus, but was “not joined on” to the second wall.
It is very doubtful whether any remains of the masonry of the two walls
have as yet been found. The precipices on which the north wall of the
upper city stood are traceable, in places, as far as that from which
the Tyropœon bridge started. The scarps on the south-west of the upper
city, and on the south, and at Siloam, have already been described
as they existed in the time of Nehemiah, and earlier. The Ophel wall
discovered by Sir Charles Warren is, in his opinion, later than the
(Herodian) wall of the east cloister of the Temple, near which it was
also found to be based not on rock but on red earth. The stones, as
he states, appear to have belonged to a former wall, and the first 20
feet from the foundation are of “rough rubble of moderate dimensions.”
Similar rough rubble was found by Mr. Bliss at the base of the south
wall of the upper city.[240] This might represent early work, on which
the later Byzantine wall was built; but the drafted masonry shown to
me by Dr. Guthe, in 1881, on Ophel and at Siloam, was certainly not
older than the fourth century A. D., yet appears to be similar in all
respects to that found by Warren and Bliss. It seems to be certain that
the old wall of Jerusalem has disappeared, and that very little can
exist except the wall that Eudocia built about 450 A. D., which did not
follow the line described in the Book of Nehemiah, and by Josephus, as
crossing the Tyropœon “above” Siloam.
In the same way it is also doubtful if any remains of the “second
wall” on the north side of the upper city still exist. The Rev.
Selah Merrill[241] gives a drawing of a wall found south of the Holy
Sepulchre Church, and about 20 feet below the surface, which he thinks
to have been that built by Jonathan (as already noticed) in the middle
of the city. He also claims[242] to have been the discoverer of another
wall which runs northwards to the west of the “Pool of the Bath,” and
which was uncovered in 1885 and reported by Herr Konrad Schick. Both
these walls have drafted masonry, but neither has, unfortunately, been
described in detail, or photographed, so that it is impossible to say
what their age may be. The latter wall runs approximately where we
might expect to find the second wall, but drafted masonry of much this
kind was used both by Romans and by later Byzantines, and these remains
may possibly belong to the city of Hadrian. There is no doubt that--as
at Rome also--the old masonry was re-used later in other buildings; and
when we consider how entirely the mighty Temple fane has disappeared,
not one stone being left on another of the Holy House itself, we must
conclude that the destruction of the city in 70 A. D. was singularly
complete, and the effacement of its remains afterwards increased by
local pillage of the masonry.
[Sidenote: THE TEMPLE STONES]
There are, however, two buildings in which Herodian masonry still
stands _in situ_--namely, first in the great outer walls of the Ḥaram
enclosure, and secondly at the great tower now called “David’s Tower,”
which is probably the Phasaelus tower of Josephus. The Ḥaram walls
claim our special attention.
This magnificent masonry, with stones 3 feet (and in one course 6 feet)
high, and often 20 feet long,[243] beautifully finished with the Greek
draft, and a dressing to the stone[244] which is nowhere else found
except in the sister sanctuary at Hebron, is familiar to visitors. The
joints are exact, and no mortar was used. The wall above the level
of the inner area was adorned (just as at Hebron) by buttresses, at
intervals of 10 cubits. Two of these I discovered in 1873, at the
north-west angle, but elsewhere all the upper rampart was thrown down,
though the lower part resisted all attempts at destruction, and the
strong south-east corner remained--after 70 A. D.--standing up alone
like a “pinnacle.”
There are minor differences in this masonry, according as it was
intended to be visible above ground or hidden under the earth. The
stones have rough bosses, on the east and west walls, where they were
covered over; and spoilt stones were used up in the foundations of the
east wall (near the south-east angle), also below the level of the
red earth outside the wall. The stones were not only finished in the
quarry, but were inspected before they were put in the wall, as Sir
Charles Warren proved, by noticing that the trickle of the red paint
used in the texts written on the stones runs upwards, and not down, on
the stone as it now stands. This masonry is found _in situ_ on three
walls, but not on the north side of the Ḥaram, where a wall of rougher
Roman work runs west to the rocky scarp of Antonia, which bounds the
court on the north-west. Sir Charles Warren also discovered that the
east wall does not stop at the present north-east angle, and that there
was no corner there till the Roman north wall was built--a point of
great importance as regards the study of the Temple area.
[Illustration: HERODIAN GRAFFITI.
From Sir C. Warren’s copies.]
[Sidenote: THE PAINTED TEXTS]
Still more important are the red-paint texts which he found on the
spoilt stones. The two longest of these are on the third stone of
the second course, and on the tenth stone of the fifth course,[245]
respectively, in the east wall, counting from the foundation and from
the south-east angle. They are clearly inscriptions in a Semitic
script, yet they have never been read, partly because they were
supposed to be Phœnician. They, however, present the characters of the
Aramean alphabets used at Jerusalem and among Nabatheans. The first of
these texts probably reads “carelessly chiselled,” and the stone has
no draft at the top but one of double width at the bottom. The second
text may be read, “for covering up, removal of it,” and this stone also
is imperfect, the bottom draft being too narrow. Not only do these
translations agree with the fact that the spoilt stones were covered
over in the foundations, but the characters attest the fact that they
were hewn in the later age of Herod, and not in the earlier time of
Solomon--a conclusion which agrees with the character of the masonry.
Had these texts been written in the clearer alphabet of the Siloam
Inscription or of the Moabite Stone, they would no doubt have been read
long ago; but they are rudely scrawled in the more slovenly script of
the Aramean alphabet used in Herod’s time.[246]
The evidence of the masonry and of the inscriptions thus serves to
confirm the conclusion of de Vogüé that these walls were built by
Herod the Great. The south-west angle of the Ḥaram is identified with
that of Herod’s enclosure by the existence of the Tyropœon bridge,
which led to the south cloister of the Temple in his time. The south
wall is fixed by the existence of the two Ḥuldah (or “Mole”) Gates,
and the south-east corner by the recovery of the line of the Ophel
wall, which joined the east cloister of the Herodian enclosure. The
excavations showed that no ancient city wall existed farther west.
The north-west angle is, in like manner, fixed by the recovery of
the ancient west wall, with its buttresses built against the Antonia
scarp. Only the north wall of the Temple thus remains to be fixed,
and Sir Charles Warren discovered the ancient valley which defended
Antonia on the east, and which runs to the Kidron across the north-east
part of the Ḥaram enclosure. In his recent plan[247] he excludes this
part from the old enclosure, and there can be little doubt that some
5 acres were here added later to the original 30 acres of the outer
courts. The present north wall is Roman or Byzantine, and the cisterns
within it are of modern masonry. Antonia projected as a smaller oblong
quadrangle on the north-west, and thus--as Josephus relates[248]--when
the Antonia cloisters were destroyed the “temple became quadrangular,”
being roughly about 1,000 feet either way. The line of its original
north wall[249] may be best drawn along the line of the north side of
the platform surrounding the Dome of the Rock, where an ancient scarp
with projecting buttresses was found by Sir Charles Warren in 1868; and
the rock outside this scarp is at least 20 feet lower, which makes it
about 40 feet below the level of the Ṣakhrah crest.
[Illustration: DOME AT THE DOUBLE GATE.
From de Vogüé.]
Besides these remains of the walls we have those of the south-west
gatehouse, which is now known as the “Double Gate,” and these are of
peculiar interest as regards the architectural character of Herod’s
Temple; for Fergusson, de Vogüé, and other authorities regard the
interior hall at this gateway as being of the Herodian age. The
original gate was double, with a central pier supporting two great
lintel stones, to which an arched cornice was added above in the
Byzantine age, on the outside. The hall floor is on the level of the
rock outside, and the gate was underground, a passage leading up north
from the back of the gatehouse to the surface of the courts within,
under the royal cloister. The present “Triple Gate,” which was altered
later, seems originally to have had the same plan, and these two gates
were called Ḥuldah (“mole”), because of their subterranean character.
The Double Gate hall has a monolithic pillar in its centre, of such
girth as to agree with the description by Josephus of columns “such
that three men might with their arms extended measure round”[250]--a
fact which I verified by experiment. The hall measures 40 feet (30
cubits) east and west, by 54 feet (40 cubits) north and south. Flat
arches spring from the central pillar on each side, and four flat domes
are thus supported, forming the roof of the hall.[251] The capital of
the pillar is remarkable, with acanthus leaves and lotus leaves in low
relief. One of the domes has also a very interesting ornamentation with
geometrical designs connected by a vine: an outer circle of corn ears
and rosettes, with other details, present just that style which we find
in the Jerusalem tombs of the Herodian age--half Greek, half Jewish.
[Sidenote: THE SI’A TEMPLE]
This interesting hall compares also in general style with another
temple built in the time of Herod the Great. Jehovah was not to him
the One God: at Samaria and Cæsarea he erected shrines to the genius
of the “divine Augustus,” and at Si’a in the east of Bashan he was
honoured in a temple to the Syrian deity Ba’al-shemîn, which still
exists in ruins planned by de Vogüé, with Greek texts and fragments
of others in Nabathean characters (like those just considered), which
were copied by Waddington. This building is of such importance for
comparison that a short description may be given.[252] This temple was
40 cubits (54 feet) square, with steps on the east leading down to a
court of the same size, having a single cloister on each side, except
where the porch of the building opened to the court. The temple gate
(24 cubits wide) was adorned by a vine sculptured above it and on the
sides; a dove perches on the vine, and an eagle spreads its wings under
the soffit of the cornice. The side pillars have semi-Corinthian
capitals with human busts between the volutes, and the design of the
bases is very like that of the capital at the “Double Gate.” The steps
are guarded by small lions. The head of the heaven god (Ba’al-shemin),
surrounded with rays, was over the gate, and flanking pilasters of
Ionic order are surmounted by other busts. Gazelles and a saddled horse
are elsewhere carved, and the whole is clearly a pagan structure,
though in many respects it recalls Herod’s Jerusalem temple. The
masonry is well squared and of good size, but not drafted.
There are here seven Greek texts, the first of which was on a statue
of Herod which has been entirely destroyed by some one who hated the
tyrant. Only a foot remains, whereas other busts at the site have
not been injured. The inscription is complete: “I, Malikath, son of
Mo’aîru, put up this statue at my own costs to the Lord Herod the
King.” No other Herod save the son of Antipater reigned in this part of
Bashan, and the text must (from the word _Kurios_) have been written
during his reign. The second inscription is later, but hardly less
interesting, referring to Agrippa II. (48–100 A. D.). “To the great
king Agrippa, friend of Cæsar, the pious, the friend of Rome, born of
the great king Agrippa, the friend of Cæsar, the pious, the friend of
Rome, Aphareus a freedman and Agrippa a son placed this.” The third
text runs: “The people of the Obaisenes [_dwellers in the dry region_]
in honour of Malikath, son of Mo’aîru, on account of justice and piety,
placed this on the temple.” The fourth says: “The people of Si’a in
common put this up to Malikath, son of Ausu, son of Mo’aîru, because he
made the temple and what surrounds it.” The name of the founder occurs
in two other short texts, on a cornice and above the temple gate.
[Illustration: GREEK TEXT OF HEROD’S TEMPLE.
From the Palestine Exploration Fund Photograph.]
[Sidenote: THE GREEK TEXT]
The extent, the masonry, the inscriptions, and the architecture of
Herod’s Temple at Jerusalem have thus been considered without reference
to literary statements, on the evidence of existing remains, and by
comparison with the style, the arrangement, and the Aramaic and Greek
texts, of a contemporary building. That Greek texts also existed in the
Jerusalem Temple is proved by M. Clermont-Ganneau’s discovery of one
of the very stones mentioned by Josephus.[253] It reads, in fine Greek
lettering and in the Greek language:
“No foreigner is to approach within the balustrade [_truphaktos_] round
the temple and the peribolos. Whosoever is caught will be guilty of his
own death which will follow.”
The Jewish historian says that “when you went through these cloisters
to the second temple there was a balustrade [_druphaktos_], made of
stone, all round, the height of which was 3 cubits. Upon it stood
_stelai_ at equal distances from one another declaring the law of
purity, some in Greek and some in Roman letters, that ‘no foreigner may
go within the sanctuary.’”[253] This comparison serves to increase our
confidence in Josephus. He is also evidently correct in saying that the
pillars of the Royal Cloister were of the Corinthian order, and the
great shafts (3 feet in diameter) re-used--as will appear later--in the
Aḳṣa Mosque, by the Byzantines, may once have belonged to this cloister.
Josephus appears to have supposed that the courts of Solomon’s Temple
extended 400 cubits in length. He says that “Herod took away the old
foundations and laid others,” and that “the cloisters were rebuilt by
Herod from the foundations.” He “encompassed a piece of land about
[the Temple] with a wall, which land was twice as large as that before
enclosed.” This increase, however, may refer to the flat ground,
which was largely increased by banking up earth over vaults within
the ramparts; for in these later times “the people added new banks,
and the hill became a larger plain.” The compass of Herod’s enclosure
Josephus estimates at 4 furlongs (or 600 feet each side), and again,
including Antonia, at 6 furlongs. The increase on the north side, where
was taken in an area apparently as large as that of the inner courts
of the Temple, must have occurred when Baris or Antonia was first
built.[254] If Josephus means by the “four furlongs” the space inside
the dividing balustrade he is not far out, though the measurement of
500 cubits square, given in the Mishnah,[255] and representing about
666 feet, may be more exact. The Temple itself did not stand--according
to the rabbis--exactly in the middle of this space. There was most
distance on the south, secondly on the east, thirdly on the north, and
least naturally on the west, where the Priests’ Court was narrow behind
the Holy House, and where the rock slope was most abrupt. A mediæval
Talmudic commentary even gives us the exact measurements, which are
quite possibly correct, but the authority is not stated.[256] It is,
however, in accordance with the position of the Ṣakhrah that the
surrounding balustrade should have been nearest to the Holy House on
the west and north, as it is described in the Mishnah to have been.
[Sidenote: HEROD’S TEMPLE]
The dimensions of the outer enclosure, corresponding to the present
Haram, are nowhere given by ancient writers. The part outside the
balustrade was the Court of the Gentiles, and the walls enclosed a
quadrangle about 1,000 feet side,[257] roughly speaking. Including
the inner courts of Antonia, the total area was about 30 acres. The
position of the Holy House--already explained--with the Ṣakhrah as
the “foundation stone” of the Holy of Holies, agrees exactly with the
levels of the Temple courts as represented by those of the rock; for
the number of steps to various gates is given in the Mishnah, and
these steps were all half a cubit high,[258] or about 8 inches each.
In addition to this, the subterranean passage from the House Moḳed (on
the north) comes exactly in the right place, as does the tank on the
south of the Priests’ Court. These details require special notice, as
confirming the view here advocated as to the exact site of the Temple.
The measurements given in the tract _Middoth_ (“measures”) are
systematic, and leave no doubt as to the relative size, position, or
levels of the Holy House and its courts. A cubit of 16 inches not
only accords with rabbinical statements, but seems also (from the
dimensions of the stones, and the space between buttresses, the size
of the “Double Gate” hall, and the levels of the rock) to have been
very clearly the unit used in the Temple, as well as in the Siloam
aqueduct. The Holy House stood in the Priests’ Court, with the Altar
before it on the east. Its floor was 8 feet above that of this court,
and the level of the latter was thus 2,432 feet above sea-level, or 8
feet below that of the crest of the Ṣakhrah. This is the actual level
of the rock east of the Ṣakhrah where known, and is just under the
platform pavement. The Priests’ Court measured 187 cubits east and
west, and 135 north and south; ten steps led up to the southern gates,
which shows that the surface outside was here nearly 7 feet lower than
the court. The rock is known to have this level in the mouth of the
tank just outside the court on the south side. East of the Priests’
Court was a narrow walk at a lower level which was called the Court
of Israel, but which was only intended for the representative men of
Israel, whose duty it was to attend the daily services. Beyond this
was the Court of the Women (135 cubits square), where the Jews with
their wives assembled, especially at festivals. It had cloisters on the
north, south, and east, and a gallery for women over that on the east.
The great Gate Nicanor led to this court from the level of the Priests’
Court. It had 15 steps, so that the Court of the Women was 10 feet
lower than that of the Priests. The level of the rock is known--east
of the modern platform--to be about 2,420 feet above the sea, or 12
feet below the Priests’ Court. Thus not more than 2 feet of foundation
and pavement are needed. Beyond this court the rock is somewhat lower,
and the natural surface was no doubt allowed to remain outside the
court for some distance, and was banked up near the outer walls, to the
present levels of the enclosure outside the platform.
It appears, however, that on the north-west side of the Priests’
Court the rock had been cut down to form the inner court of Antonia.
It is everywhere visible on the surface in this direction, at the
level 2,432 feet above the sea, which we have seen to have been that
of the Priests’ Court. The House Moḳed, therefore, required no outer
steps. Josephus seems to allude to this when he speaks of there being
no steps towards the west, and in his account of the final siege of
the Temple[259]; for the Romans battered the wall of the inner court
at this point. Moḳed (“hearth”) was the great north-west gatehouse,
projecting from the wall of the Priests’ Court. From its north-west
chamber a winding staircase (perhaps wooden) led down to a gallery,
which extended to the Gate Ṭadi (or Ṭari) in the outer wall of the
Temple enclosure, and which communicated with the “bath-house.” It is
described as being under the _bîrah_, or “fortress,” and under the
_ḥíl_, or “rampart,” outside the Priests’ Court.[260] If the Temple
stood over the Ṣakhrah, this gallery exactly coincides with an existing
rock passage 24 feet wide (18 cubits), and now 130 feet long, the
bottom being 30 feet beneath the surface of the present platform.
Descending into this gallery--now converted into a tank--I found that
the south wall, as well as those at the sides, was of rock, but that
the north end was blocked by a rough masonry wall, so that the passage
does not extend farther south, but may run north to the line of the old
north wall of the outer rampart. To the west of this gallery is another
curious excavation which probably was the “bath-house.” Producing the
directions of these two galleries, they meet just where the old north
wall ran, and this must be the position of the Gate Ṭadi.
[Sidenote: THE TEMPLE GATES]
The Priests’ Court had three gates on the north and three on the
south,[261] and near the “Water Gate,” on the south, was the “Chamber
of the Draw-well,” where apparently a wheel and rope were used to
draw water. There is a great rock-cut tank still in use just outside
the line of the south wall of the Priests’ Court. Taking these two
indications of position with the levels, it appears to me evident that
the exact position of the Temple is fixed by the existing remains of
its subterranean excavations, as I first suggested in 1878.
The general appearance of the Temple and its courts is best understood
by means of the excellent model made by Miss M. A. Duthoit.[262] The
most striking feature is the manner in which the courts are dwarfed
by the huge square pylon of the Holy House, the flat roof being 150
feet above the level of the Priests’ Court. The roof was finished by a
simple cornice, but the effect of the great mass was unbroken by any
other adornment, save the golden vine running above and at the sides of
the high eastern portal with its heavy veil.
[Illustration: HEROD’S TEMPLE.
Block plan with rock levels.]
All the gates were gilded except that of Nicanor, which stood above the
round flight of fifteen steps on which the “songs of degrees” are said
to have been chanted. This gate was plated with electrum--a mixture of
gold and silver. It was presented by Nicanor, a Jew, and the ossuary
containing the bones of his family was found, a few years since, by
Miss Gladys Dixon in a tomb on the Mount of Olives.[263] It bears a
text in Greek: “Bones of those of the Nicanor Alexandreôs who made the
gates,” with the words “Niḳanor Aleksa” beneath, in Hebrew. This great
gate-house faced the Women’s Court on the west. The court had four
roofless enclosures 40 cubits square, divided off by pillars, one at
each corner. In that to the south-east the Nazirites assembled, and
wood for the altar was stacked in that opposite on the north-east. In
the south-west enclosure the oil for the Temple lamps was stored, and
into that to the north-west lepers were brought from outside, in order
that they might show themselves to the priests at the Gate Nicanor.
[Sidenote: THE OUTER GATES]
The “Mountain of the House,” as the outer rampart is called in the
Mishnah, had five gates--or eight, according to Josephus. On the
south were the two Ḥuldah Gates already described. On the east was
the Gate Shushan opposite the Temple; it is said to have been adorned
by a representation of “Shushan the palace.” On the west was Ḳîpunos,
which bore a Greek name signifying “adornment.” This may have been
the “Beautiful Gate,”[264] and was the main entrance--probably at the
end of the bridge leading to the Royal Cloister. Josephus says that
besides this gate two others led to the “suburbs,” and a fourth to the
“other city” (near the Akra) “where the road descended down the valley
by a great number of steps.”[265] These gates are still to be seen,
one near the Tyropœon bridge, now called the “Prophet’s Gate,” with a
subterranean passage like those of the Ḥuldah Gates; the next to the
north at the present “Gate of the Chain,” where an ancient causeway on
arches was discovered by Sir Charles Warren. The fourth gate--farthest
north--has been converted into a tank, but the opening through the
Herodian wall still exists. It was immediately west of the Holy House,
for it lies between the Ṣakhrah and the “Pool of the Bath,” where there
is now an accumulation of 90 feet of rubbish over the rock. The street
must have here descended rapidly southwards, to pass under the arches
of the causeway and of the Tyropœon bridge--which accounts for the
notice of steps in the roadway.
The gate on the north is called Ṭadi in some texts of the Mishnah, and
Tari in others. The first word means “secret,” and the other “new.”
The secret passage from Antonia to the East Gate of the Temple[266]
no doubt started at this gate, and was identical with that already
described as leading to Ṭadi, and to the bath-house, from Moḳed. The
passage between that gate-house and Nicanor, which would enable Herod
to reach the Court of the Women, is unknown, and perhaps only led along
the north cloister of the Priests’ Court, or outside it. There was also
a secret passage from Herod’s palace in the upper city which has been
traced. This led to the gate at the causeway on the west.[267]
The dread of divine displeasure rendered the service of the Temple one
of fear and trembling.[268] In the darkness, before dawn, the “man
of the mountain of the house” went his rounds to visit the priests
and Levites who guarded the sanctuary by night. At cock-crow the huge
altar was first cleansed, by the priest to whom the lot fell. From the
Gate-house Moḳed he went in the dim light of the three great fires
of fig-tree wood, nut, and pine, which glowed under the ashes. His
brethren listened to hear the creaking of the wheel of the draw-well,
as he sanctified his hands and feet. Then they came running to aid him,
taking away the unburnt fragments of sacrifices, heaping up the ashes,
and feeding the undying flame. As the red light spread behind the dark
mountains of Moab, southwards “towards Hebron,” they brought out and
slew the lamb of the “perpetual” sacrifice each morning, and prepared
the incense and the shew-bread.
[Sidenote: TEMPLE SERVICES]
On the dread Day of Atonement[269] the high-priest was supported to
the Holy House by two priests, while a third laid hold of one of the
jewels on his shoulder. The sound of the golden bells was heard as he
went alone within the inner veil, but priests and people waited in
awe-stricken silence, till he came out to bless them by the very name
of Iahu, and to send forth the goat bearing the sins of the nation to
the grim precipice of Ṣûḳ--a mountain visible from Olivet--which rises
over the Desert of Judah. Yet more rarely--perhaps only seven times in
the period between Ezra and Herod--he left the Temple by the Shushan
Gate, and passing over a high wooden causeway, ascended Olivet to burn
the red heifer. Its ashes were mingled with water from Siloam, brought
to the Temple, it is said, by innocent boys mounted on oxen, with much
fear lest these should tread on some “grave of the depth,” or hidden
tomb, and so defile the children who rode them, and who had been born
in the outer court of the sanctuary. Without these ashes there was no
purification for Israel from defilement by the dead. They were stored
partly on Olivet and partly in the Temple.
The Feast of Booths was a time of rejoicing rather than of fear. It
was then that the king, once a year, read the law to the people from a
pulpit in the Court of the Women, and it is said that Agrippa I. wept
at the words “Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not of
thy brethren,” touching the hearts of the people, who shouted, “Thou
art our brother--thou art our brother.”[270] For did he not yearly
bear the basket of first fruits, when the bull with gilded horns was
brought to the Temple, and “the pipe played before them till they
came to the mountain of the house”? At “Tabernacles” also the pipes
played at the feast of the “water-drawing,” when four golden lamps
lighted up the Court of the Women, and Levites stood on the fifteen
steps of Nicanor chanting the fifteen “songs of degrees,” while “pious
and prudent men danced with torches in their hands, singing psalms
and hymns before the people.” Two priests blew the rams’ horns in the
court, and when they reached the Nicanor Gate they sang:
“Our fathers who were in this place
Turned their backs on the House,
And their faces were towards the east,
And they worshipped the rising sun.[271]
But we turn to Adonai,
On Adonai are our eyes.”
The paganism of Rome penetrated, however, even into the temple of
Jehovah. The golden eagle--emblem of the empire--“erected over the
great gate of the Temple,” was not cut down till rumour arose that
Herod was dying.[272] It perhaps spread its wings on the soffit of
the lintel, as at Ba’albek and Si’a. The money-changers who--for a
small charge--changed old half-shekels for the new ones, which alone
could be given for the Temple tax,[273] and the sellers of doves, were
established in “shops” in the outer cloisters, and made the Holy House
a “den of thieves.” The great fortress, built to defend the Temple on
the north, and to guard the sacred robes of the high-priest, was held
under Idumæans and Romans by a foreign garrison overawing the people.
This fortress of Antonia requires a special description.
[Sidenote: ANTONIA]
The former citadel, Baris, was rebuilt by Herod, and renamed Antonia
after Mark Antony. The ridge rose naturally about 30 feet higher than
the level of the Priests’ Court, stretching on the north to the hill
of Bezetha, or the new north-east quarter of the city, not as yet
walled in. The citadel was divided off from this hill by a trench with
vertical scarps cut in the rock: it was 60 feet deep and 165 feet wide.
A great block of rock was left standing within this fosse; it measures
140 feet north and south, and 352 feet east and west, thus covering
more than a third of the width of the outer Temple court, and rising at
its highest 30 feet above the Priests’ Court. The block was scarped on
all sides, and thus a flat rock surface exists south of it, extending
on the level of the court as far as the north wall and cloister of the
outer Temple. Steps led up--as they still do--from this flat courtyard
to the block above it.
This castle is very clearly described by Josephus.[274] He applies to
it the terms “Acropolis,” “stronghold” (_phrourion_), and “fortress”
(_purgos_); but he never calls it Akra. There were four towers on the
rocky block, one at each corner, that to the south-east being the
highest. The flat space below on the south was paved, and in it were
rooms, courts, bathing-places, and “broad spaces for parades.” Passages
led below the Temple court--as already described in speaking of the
Gate Ṭadi--but this area was on the level of the inner Temple court,
as we learn from the exploit of the rash centurion Julian, during
the siege by Titus; for, leaping down from the scarp, he charged the
defenders of the Temple up to the gates, where his nailed shoes slipped
on the Temple pavement, and he fell with a great clang of armour. Thus,
the whole area of Antonia formed an oblong quadrangle, projecting on
the north, and adjoining the north and west cloisters of the outer
Temple enclosure. It was a citadel overlooking the whole of the
sanctuary, and to the present day it is a barrack for Turkish troops.
The other Herodian citadel, which is also still a barrack, was at
the north-west side of the upper city, by the upper market.[275] It
defended the neck of land where the upper city was always attacked from
the north, and it adjoined Herod’s palace. The three “royal towers”
here strengthened the old wall.[276] Hippicus was farthest west and
was only 25 cubits square. The present north-west tower of the citadel
may be built on its site. Phasaelus was 40 cubits square, according to
Josephus, with a solid base and a _stoa_ round the tower itself. There
can be little doubt that this refers to the present “Tower of David,”
called the “Castle of the Pisans” in the Middle Ages. Its masonry is
still untouched, being Herodian in style, with stones about 4 feet
high and often 8 or 9 feet long.[277] It measures 56 feet (about 41
cubits) north and south, but is 70 feet long east and west. It has a
narrow walk or “berm” outside, on the solid base. A sloping revetment
was added later by the Crusaders, and the upper part of the tower is
modern. The site of the third tower, Mariamne, is as yet unknown, but
its solid base, 20 cubits high, may exist under the pavement of the
present market-place. It was the smallest of the three, being 20 cubits
square. The bases of these towers are probably of rock, now covered
with masonry. The reason why the original masonry of Phasaelus remains
standing is that Titus left these towers, and a bit of the west wall,
standing to show the strength of the fortress he had taken, and to form
a citadel for the legion he left at Jerusalem. The palace, adjoining
the towers inwardly, appears to have been large and magnificent, but
its extent is not described. It had walls which made it a citadel,
large bed-chambers, and wooden roofs. It was adorned with cloisters
and carvings, and had gardens full of trees, canals, cisterns, and
fountains where the water ran from bronze statues, while the doves
fluttered round its pools as they now flutter in the Ḥaram courts. The
pagan character of its adornment must have been sorely repugnant to
Israel in the holy city. Two of its chambers were named after Cæsar and
Marcus Agrippa, the pagan patrons of Herod.[278]
[Sidenote: THE PALACES]
Other palaces were built later in Jerusalem, and Agrippa II. rebuilt
the palace of the Hasmonæans,[279] which was in the north-east part
of the upper city, near the great Tyropœon bridge and the Xystos. The
latter Greek word signifies a covered gymnasium, and there is no reason
to doubt that this building was the same as the gymnasium built by
the high-priest Jason before 170 B. C., which is described as being
“under the Acropolis” or upper city. It lay north of the bridge,[280]
but its remains, and those of the neighbouring council-house, have not
been identified with certainty. There were gates in the west wall of
the Temple above it; and as these seem clearly to be the two central
gates on that side, it must have been south of the ancient causeway,
and down in the Tyropœon Valley. An “ancient hall” discovered by Sir
Charles Warren, which he considers to be “one of the oldest buildings
in Jerusalem,” may have some connection with either the Xystos or the
council-house. It lies partly under the street leading to the Gate of
the Chain, and measured about 23 feet by 20 feet; its floor is about
on the level of the Herodian street pavement; its roof is less ancient
than its walls; at each corner inside there are rude pilaster capitals
of semi-Ionic character. The outer masonry is drafted and resembles
that of Herod’s age. Herod assembled wrestlers and other athletes at
his games every five years, but it is doubtful if his “theatre” was
the same as the gymnasium; a “hippodrome” which lay towards the south
of the Temple may, however, have been connected with the Xystos. It
has been sought farther south by Mr. Bliss, but no remains of such a
building were there found.[281]
Some alterations seem to have occurred in the water-supply in
consequence of the building of the west outer wall of Herod’s Temple,
and these indicate that the wall is later than two rock-cut aqueducts
which it cuts across. The southern one of these ran from the Pool of
the Bath to Siloam, and has been traced in parts by Sir Charles Warren
and Mr. Bliss. The second led from north-west to the Antonia fosse,
where possibly the “Pool Strouthios”[282] was made by Herod when he
rebuilt Antonia. This aqueduct merely served to collect the rain-water
north of the city, and carried it originally to a rock tank which is
included within Herod’s west sanctuary wall. The supply being thus
cut off, the water of the aqueduct would serve to fill the Antonia
fosse, or the Pool Strouthios in that fosse--known later as the “Twin
Pools”--supposing that these were cut as early as Herod’s time. The
great tunnel of this aqueduct under the Antonia rock stops dead at the
Temple wall, and the only use that could afterwards be made of it
would be as a secret exit, through the window which I discovered in
this wall just south of the Antonia scarp.
[Sidenote: THE TEMPLE BRIDGE]
The description of Herod’s Jerusalem may be concluded by notice of the
Tyropœon bridge. The spring of the arch from the west wall of the outer
Temple is still visible. The voussoirs are dressed with the peculiar
criss-cross dressing already described as distinguishing Herodian
masonry. The position and the breadth of the bridge closely agree with
the dimensions given by Josephus (in Greek feet) for the three walks of
the “Royal Cloister,” which ran east and west inside the south wall of
the Temple enclosure[283]: since the south wall is about 9 feet thick,
and the side aisles of the cloister were 30 feet wide, the central
one 45 feet wide, and the pillars about 6 feet in diameter. This
bridge replaced the older one, which was broken down at the time of
Pompey’s siege in 63 B. C. The older voussoirs are under the Herodian
pavement. The fallen voussoirs of Herod’s bridge lie on that pavement.
The bridge, as explored by Sir Charles Warren, consisted of two great
arches (about 42-feet span), with a pier 12 feet thick rising from a
rock foundation in the Tyropœon Valley. The roadway was 95 feet above
the valley bed, or 75 feet above the pavement. This is now buried to a
depth of no less than 40 feet. The cloister within was the finest of
those surrounding the Temple, and its pillars were of the Corinthian
order. All other cloisters of the outer Temple were double, but this
was triple. Those of the inner Temple were single.
Such generally was Jerusalem as Herod built its Temple and palaces,
shortly before the birth of our Lord. The Temple was probably begun
in 22 B. C. and finished eight years later. The fifteenth of Herod is
preferable to the eighteenth,[284] because Herod’s meeting with Marcus
Agrippa appears to have occurred after the completion of the Holy
House, and Agrippa died at Rome in 12 B. C. But additions continued
to be made to the Temple down to 64 A. D.[285] Thus, as we read in
the fourth Gospel, the building had been continued for “forty-and-six
years” before the time when the Jews were speaking to our Lord.
FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER VI
[226] Lucan, “Pharsalia,” viii. 698–9, x. 380–1; “Psalms of Solomon,”
ii. 30–3; see Drummond, “Jewish Messiah,” 1877, pp. 140–1.
[227] “Ant.,” XIV. viii. 1.
[228] _Ibid._, XIV. xi. 4.
[229] “Ant.,” XIV. xiii. 3–10.
[230] _Ibid._, XIV. xiv. 5, xv. 2, xvi. 1–4.
[231] “Ant.,” XV. v. 2.
[232] _Ibid._, XV. i. 1.
[233] _Ibid._, XIV. xvi. 2. That is eighteen sabbatic cycles after 163
B. C., which was a sabbatic year.
[234] Matt. ii. 1; Luke i. 5, iii. 1, 23. The date of the Crucifixion
depends on whether the Ministry covered one or four years.
[235] “Ant.,” XVII. vi. 4.
[236] Eleazar, son of Jacob, died about 130 A. D., and is quoted in
_Middoth_, i. 9; Rabbi _Meier_ was about the same age (quoted _Midd._,
ii. 2); Rabbi Eleazar, son of Zadok (_Midd._, iii. 8) died about 120
A. D. See Chiarini, “Talmud de Babylone,” 1831, pp. 105–7. Nothing is
said above of the pretended description by Aristeas, as the work is
well known to be a forgery.
[237] “Wars,” V. iv. 1, translated from the Greek.
[238] _Ibid._, iv. 2.
[239] “Wars,” V. vi. 5, vii. 3. This postern may have been the Corner
Gate; see back, chap. iv. p. 82. Distinguishing this from the Valley
Gate, the city had twelve gates in all.
[240] “Recovery of Jer.,” 1871, pp. 149, 299, 300; Bliss, “Excav. at
Jer.,” 1898, p. 29, and plate iv.
[241] “Ancient Jerusalem,” 1908, p. 297.
[242] _Ibid._, p. 23. The remains of an old wall outside the Damascus
Gate date only from the twelfth century, and will be noticed later.
[243] One at south-west angle is 38 feet 9 inches; another at
north-east angle 23 feet 8 inches long.
[244] The drafts, and a border 3 inches wide on the block, are worked
with a comb of eight teeth to the inch in two directions, making a
criss-cross pattern. The remainder is finely finished with a point.
[245] See Sir C. Warren’s plates accompanying the “Memoir” (Jerusalem
vol.).
[246] Text No. 1, _K’a ḳ’aḳ’at_, “carelessness of brand” (Lev. xix.
28). Text No. 2, _Le-’aṭṭ ṣ’an le-u_, “for covering, removal to it.”
The other markings seem to be initials of words--_e.g._ _K_ twice for
_K’a_ (“carelessness”); _Ṣ_ twice for _Ṣ’an_ (“removal”); and _Ḥ_
twice incised, perhaps for _ḥaṭa_ (“error”), or for _ḥaba_ (“hide”).
Altogether ten out of twenty-two letters of the alphabet occur in these
texts.
[247] “Murray’s Bible Dict,” 1908, _s.v._ “Temple,” p. 876.
[248] “Wars,” VI. v. 4.
[249] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., 1883, p. 223; “Recov.
Jer.,” p. 219.
[250] “Ant.,” XV. xi. 5, referring to the royal cloister.
[251] “Ord. Survey Notes,” plate xvi. figs. 1, 2.
[252] For plan, elevation, and details, see plates ii. and iii., de
Vogüé, “Syrie Centrale.” For Greek texts, Waddington, “Inscrip. de
la Syrie,” 1870, pp. 540, 541, Nos. 2364–2369. No. 2366 is specially
valuable as having a bilingual in Aramaic on the base. This gives
_’Abisheth_ (“dry region ”) as the local name--Greek Obeisa--and
_M’aîru_ (“_God_-fearing”) for the Greek Moairos, with _Malikoth_
(“royal”) for Maleichathos. Waddington supposes that the temple may
have been raised by Idumæans (“Ant.,” XVI. ix. 2, 3). We have already
seen that a Malichus lived in the time of Herod.
[253] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jersualem vol., p. 423; Josephus,
“Wars,” V. v. 2. He means that some of the warnings were in Latin,
some in Greek. The expression in the inscription _mêthena allogenê_ is
the same practically as the _médena allophulon_ (“no foreigner”) of
Josephus.
[254] “Ant.,” VIII. iii. 9; “Wars,” V. v. 1, 2; “Ant.,” XV. xi. 3;
“Wars,” I. xxi. 1. Josephus exaggerates the height of the walls, unless
he means the command above the Kidron Valley.
[255] Mishnah, _Middoth_, ii. 1. Abarbanel on this passage says, “The
mountain was indeed much larger than 500 cubits would contain either
way, but the sanctity did not extend outside this.”
[256] See my “Handbook to Bible,” p. 371. _Tosephoth Yom Tob._
[257] The exact measures are: south wall of Ḥaram, 922 feet outside;
east wall, 1,530 to the Roman north-east corner; west wall to Antonia,
1,601 feet; north wall, 1,042 feet. The north-east and south-west
angles are right angles; the south-east angle measures 92½°. The old
scarp on north side of the platform is about 1,180 feet north of the
south wall.
[258] Mishnah, _Middoth_, ii. 3: “All steps were half a cubit high.”
[259] Josephus, “Wars,” V. ii. 5, VI. i. 8, ii. 7, iv. 1. The
south-east part of the platform of the Dome of the Rock is supported
probably by vaults. The entrance to these, on the east, was visible in
1881, though built up.
[260] Mishnah, _Middoth_, i. 6–9.
[261] _Ibid._, i. 4. On north the gates _Niṣúṣ_ (“projecting”), _Ḳorban_
(“gift”), and _Môḳed_ (“hearth”), enumerated from east to west; on the
south _Dalaḳ_ (“burning”), _Ḳorban_ (“gift”), and _Mim_ (“waters”). The
chamber of the draw-well (_gulah_) was on south near the last (v. 4).
See _Tamid_, i. 4.
[262] For plan and details, see Constantine l’Empereur, _Codex
Middoth_, 1630; and Conder’s “Handbook to the Bible” (3rd edit. 1882),
pp. 359–86. For model (Religious Tract Society), see Frontispiece.
[263] _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, April 1903, p. 126, Oct. 1903, p.
326.
[264] Acts iii. 2.
[265] _Middoth_, i. 3; “Ant.,” XV. xi. 5. The Bible mentions the
_Parbharîm_ or “suburbs” (2 Kings xxiii. 11), close to the Temple.
Standard records of the greater and lesser cubit were kept at the Gate
Shushan (Mishnah, _Tohoroth_, xvii. 9).
[266] “Ant.,” XV. xi. 7.
[267] Sir C. Wilson, “Ord. Survey Notes,” 1864, p. 60; “Mem. West Pal.
Survey,” Jerusalem vol., pp. 203–6, 270.
[268] Mishnah, _Middoth_, i. 2; _Yoma_, i. 8, ii. 2; _Tamid_, i. 2-iii.
8, vii. 1.
[269] _Yoma_, iv. 1, v. 2; _Sukkah_, v. 1–3; _Parah_, iii. 2–5, 11;
_Sotah_, i. 5.
[270] Mishnah, _Sotah_, vii. 8.
[271] Ezek. viii. 16.
[272] “Ant.,” XVII. vi. 2; “Wars,” I. xxxiii. 3.
[273] Mishnah, _Sheḳalîm_, i. 3, 6, 7, iii. 2, vi. 4, 5.
[274] “Ant.,” XV. viii. 5, xi. 3, 4, 7, XVIII. iv. 3; “Wars,” I. iii.
3, v. 4, xxi. 1, II. xvi. 5, V. iv. 2, v. 8, ix. 2, VI. i. 5, 8, ii. 5,
9.
[275] “Ant.,” XIII. v. 11; “Wars,” V. iv. 1. The Rabbis (Tosiphta,
_Sanhed._, chap. xiv.) mention an “upper” and a “lower” market.
[276] “Ant.,” XVII. x. 2, 3; “Wars,” II. iii. 1, xvii. 6, 8, V. iv. 3,
v. 8, VI. viii. 1, VII. i. 1; Tacitus, “Hist.,” v. 11.
[277] Sir C. Wilson, “Ord. Survey Notes,” p. 46; “Mem. Survey West
Pal.,” Jerusalem vol., pp. 267–70.
[278] “Wars,” I. xxi. 1.
[279] “Ant.,” XX. viii. 11; “Wars,” II. xvi. 3.
[280] 1 Macc. i. 14; 2 Macc. iv. 9, 12; “Wars,” II. xvi. 3, VI. iii.
2, vi. 2, viii. 1, V. iv. 2; “Mem. Survey West Pal.,” pp. 201, 202;
“Wars,” VI. vi. 3.
[281] “Ant.,” XV. viii. 1, 2, XVII. x. 2; “Wars,” II. iii. 1.
[282] “Wars,” V. xi. 4; “Mem. Survey West Pal.,” Jerusalem vol., pp.
263, 264.
[283] “Ant.,” XV. xi. 5. For the bridge see “Ant.,” XIV. iv. 2; “Wars,”
I. vii. 2, VI. vi. 2, viii. 1. The bridge was 51 feet wide, and at 38
feet 9 inches from its south side was the outside of the south wall at
south-west angle of the Ḥaram.
[284] “Ant.,” XV. xi. 1; “Wars” I. xxi. 1.
[285] “Ant.,” XX. ix. 7; John ii. 20. This date would be 24 or 27
A. D., reckoning from foundation.