Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/561

 TEMPLE

503

TEMPLE

trivimphal arches then so common in the East. Upon the immense trellis, or grille, stretchc<l a golden vine, of which the grapes, according to .Toscphus, were of the height of a man. He adils that it extended twenty-five cubits from north to south and that its top was seventy cubits from the groimd. Tacitus (."Vnn., V, v) also speaks of this vine. Above it Herod placed a colossal golden eagle, the Roman eagle, which greatly displeased the Jews (Ant. Jud., XVH, vi, 2-4). The hikal (4) and the dSbir retained their ancient dimensions in length and breadth, but their height was increased to sixty cubits. A door-

Fia. 3. Plan of the Temple of Herod (1) Court of the priests; (2) Stairwav of the Temples; (3) Porch and vestibule; (4) The Holy Place; (5) The Holy of Holies; (6) Side chambers; (7) Entrance to the winding stairway; (8) Altar of holocausts: (9) Abattoir; (10) Court of Israel; (II) Gal- ler\'; (12) Beautiful Gate; (13) Stairway of fifteen steps; (14) Court of the women; (15) H^Tjethral room; (16) Gate; (17) Hall; (18) Bel; (19) Stairway of 14 steps; (20) Court of the gentiles.

way ten cubits wide and twenty high gave access to the Holy Place. The door leaves were of carved wood covered with leaves of gold, and the door was further embellished with a magnificent curtain of Babylonian-dyed linen. The richly-decorated cham- ber contained the altar of perfumes before the en- trance to the flShir, north of the table of proposition and south of the seven-branch candlestick. It was not so well lighted or aired as that of Solomon. The priests alone entered this court to offer incense every night and morning, to trim the lamps, and change the loaves of proposition on the Sabbath-day. It was near the altar of incense that the angel appeared to Zacharia-s (Luke, i, 11).

The entrance to the dSMr had no doors, but, as for- merly, was shielded by a costly curtain. According to the .\Ii.«hna (Yoma, V, i) no partition wall separated the hchdl from the dShir, the latter being formed by two veils hung the distance of a cubit from each other; but .losephus distinguished between the two chambers giving the dimensions of each. Furthermore he speaks only of one veil "at the entrance" of the d&nr, which must signify a doorway. Moreover, the ab- sence of a partition would have necessitated a curtain sixty cubits long by twenty broad, which would never have sealed hermetically the Holy of Holies. The statement of the rabbis on this point is open to sus- picion. They could not have been ignorant that ac- cording to the Gospel (Matt., xxvii, 51; Mark, xv, .38; Luke, xxiii, 45), when Christ died on the cross the veil of the temple was rent in two from top to bottom. The diy/iT was empty. Only the high-priest entered it once a year, .\bove the rlihlr and the hekal was a Btory forty cubits high, so the entire building was the same height as the porch. On the north, south, and

west sides was a building divided into three stories each twenty cubits high. The ground floor and the first floor each h:id thirteen chambers six ciiliits wide (6) and the top floor twelve. A doorwiiy (7) opened northward from the vestibule on a winding-stair three cubits in diameter and located in the corner formed by the wall of the house and the projection of the porch. The two walls which formed the cage of the stairway were five cubits thick. In the opposite cor- ner to the south was a similar cage intended to facili- tate the outflow of water. The total width of the house, including the side chambers^ was fifty-four cubits and near the porch seventy cubits, and its total length, including the porch, was one hundred and six cubits, allowing six cubits thickness for the walls. The base was ten cubits larger than the dimensions given above.

Twenty-two cubits east of the house stood the altar of holocausts, constructed of unhewn stone (8). The rabbis speak of a three-tiered altar, ten cubits high and thirty-two cubits along the sides of the base, and twenty-four in the centre (Maimonides, "Beth Haberasch", II, 16). The figures of Joscphus, fifty cubits on the sides by fifteen high, are obviously in- correct. North of the altar (9) four rows of rings were fastened in the ground and were used while slay- ing the animals. Next came eight marble tables for cutting up and washing the flesh of the victims, and higher up were eight pillars with hooks for suspending and flaying the animals (Middoth III, 5-V, ii; Tal- mud, Shek, VI, 4). Laymen were admitted to this court only when they offered sacrifice, for they had to place their hands on the head of the victims. The four sides of the court were surrounded by a parapet of stones a foot and a half high.

Court of Israel. — Five steps led down from the court of the priests to the court of Israel, which sur- rounded the former on three sides (10). At the north and south it was forty cubits wide and on the east only eleven cubits. A gallery ten cubits wide (11), supported by splendid marble columns, went round this court, probably on the west side also, and afforded a shelter from the sun and rain. Men only were ad- mitted here and only the king was permitted to be seated.

East of this court opposite the house of God (12) rose a superb gateway, the most beautiful of all, which according to Joscphus and the ]Mishna (Middoth, I, 4) was the gift of Nicanor, a wealthy Alexandrian Jew. This was the Gi/pa ufiala, the porta speciosa (Acts, iii, 2), where St. Peter healed the man crippled from birth. It was fifty cubits high and forty wide, and its gates of Corinthian brass, carved and covered with plates of gold and silver, were so heavy that twenty men were required to move it. Joscphus adds that among the signs premonitory of the destruction of the Temple this gate opened of itself at midnight about the year 30 b. c. (Bell. Jud., VI, v, 3).

Court of the Women. — From the Gate of Nicanor a semicircular stairway (13) of fifteen steps led down to the women's court (14), surrounded by a gallery on the north, east, and south. Here the women were ad- mitted and places were reserved for them on the north and .south, but the men also frequented this court and usually crossed it when they went to the Temple. There were benches there, for it was permitted to sit (cf, Mark, xii, 41). Along the sides probably near the Gate of Nicanor, were thirteen boxes, an inscrip- tion indicating the special purpose of each: oil, wood, priestly vestments, doves, etc. There Christ saw the rich men and the poor widow deposit their offering (Luke, xxi, 1). At the four comers were four hype- thral chambers, forty cubits square(15). According to the Talmud the north-west chamber was where the unclean and lepers, who had been healed, bathed and were declared clean by the priests. In the north-east chamber the priests sorted the wood; in the south-