Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/562

 TEMPORAL

504

TEMPTATION

west oil and wine were preserved in vaults; in the south-east those who had fulfilled the vow of Nazarites Ehaved their heads (cf. Num., vi, 13 sqq; Acts, xviii, 18). lii these chambers it was also permitted to wash, cook etc. According to Middoth, II, 5, there were also in this court four chambers in which certain women were lodged.

Gates and Chambers. — Three sides of the inner court were surrounded by buildings forty cubits broad, separated by nine gates in the shape of towers (16), four on the north and four on the south, of which only two opened into the women's court, with the eastern gate. These gateways or rather sumptuous porches were 40 cubits in height, breadth, and length. A large bar divided the entrance into two bays each ten cubits broad and twenty high with wooden leaves covered with plates of gold and silver. The vestibule was thirty cubits square and its six arches were sup- ported by two pillars twelve cubits in circumference. At the sides of the court of Israel five steps led to the gateway whose vestibule was likewise provided with ten steps or an incline. There are stiU three gates within the haram esh sherif, the Golden Gate, the double gate, and the triple gate, constructed accord- ing to the same plan. Between these gates was_a series of chambers devoted to various uses (17). West of the second southern gate was the lishkat gazit, hall of the Sanhedrin (Middoth, II, .5), with a chamber, for the instruction of the people, and in the court of the women was the 7afo0i;XdKiov, hall of the treasury (Ant. Jud., XIX, vi, 1). This vast edifice rested on a foun- dation with a projection of ten cubits forming adeam- bulatory (IS), which was reached by a stairway of twelve or fourteen steps. This was the hcl; it was surrounded by a stone parapet called soreg and in front of the nine gates stood pillars with inscriptions in Greek and Latin notifying visitors that every non- Jew was forbidden under pain of death to approach nearer the Temple. Some years ago one of the pillars with a Greeek inscription was found in the vicinity of the haram esh sherif.

Outer Court. — The remainder of the vast platform formed the outer court of the gentiles. It was paved with large slabs and surrounded on all sides by a double gallery formed of two rows of columns twenty- five cubits high. That overlooking the valley of Cedron was called "Gate of Solomon" (cf. I Par., ix, IS). It was certainly prior to Herod, and Josephus dates its origin from Solomon, himself. He relates that in a. d. 62 or G-1 the 18,000 workmen stiU em- ployed on the adornment of the Temple began to lack work and requested that they might demolish the Gate of Solomon; but this, although ancient, was so beautiful and the cost of replacing it would have been BO great that King Agrippa II decided to preserve it and to employ the workmen in paving the city streets (Ant. Jud., XX, ix, 7). Whether it dates from the kings of Juda or only from Zorobabel it is sufficient to afford an idea of the magnificence of the first two temples of Jerusalem. At the corners of these gal- leries were chambers {pastophoria) for the guards. From the side towards the city the entrance to the sanctuary was made through several gates of sur- passing beauty, four on the west of the esplanade, two on the south, one on the east, and one on the north. On a lower terrace in the centre Herod erected a royal basilica, a sumptuous building divided into three naves by four rows of forty-one Corinthian columns. Each column was more than five feet in diameter. At the north of the esplanade he built two vast courts surrounded by gates which extended to the scarp of the rock of Baris. These courts com- municated with the Antonia only by two stairways (cf. Acts, xxi, 35).

De Voa«E, Le temple de Jerusalem (Paris, 1S64); Perrot and Chipiez. Uisl. de Vart: Judte, IV (Pari.i, 1SS7); BENZiNaER, Hebraiache Archttologie (TQbiDgcn, 1907) ; ScniCK, Die Slt/tshiUte,

Der Tempel in Jerusalem; Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palea- line (Boston, 1S41);

Barnabas Meistermann.

Temporal Power. See Pope, The; States op THE Church.

Temptation (Lat. tentare, to try or test) is here t aken to be an incitement to sin whether by persuasion or by the offer of some good or pleasure. It may be merely external, as was the case of Christ's encounter in the desert after the forty daj-s' fast ; or it may be internal as well, inasmuch as there is a real assault upon a person's will power. It arises sometimes from the propensity to evil inherent in us as a result of orig- inal sin. Sometimes it is directly chargeable to the intervention of the Devil, who can furnish the imagi- nation with its sinful subject-matter and stir up the lower powers of the soul. Not infrequent^ both causes are at work. Temptation is not in itself sin. No matter how vivid the unholy image may be, no matter how strong the inchnation to transgress the law, no matter how vehement the sensation of unlaw- ful satisfaction, as long as there is no consent of the will, there is no sin. The very essence of sin in any grade is that it should be a deliberate act of the hu- man will. Attack is not synonymous with surrender. This, while obvious enough, is important especially for those who are trj'ing to serine God sedulously and yet find themselves beset on all sides by temptations. They are, apt to take the fierceness and repetition of the onset as proof that they have fallen. A wise spiritual guide will point out the error of this con- clusion and thus administer comfort and courage to these harassed souls.

Temptations are to be combated by the avoidance, where possible, of the occasions that give rise to them, by recourse to prayer, and by fostering within one- self a spirit of humble distrust of one's own powers and of unbounded confidence in God. The resistance which a Christian is bound to offer need not always be direct. Sometimes, particularly when there is ques- tion of reiterated evil interior suggestions, it may be useful to employ an indirect method, that is, to sim- ply ignore them and quietly divert the attention into another channel. Temptations as such can never be intended by God. They are permitted by Him to give us an opportunity of practising virtue and self- masterj' and acquiring merit. The fact of tempta- tion, no matter how large it looms in a person's life, is not an indication that such an one is under the ban. Indeed those whom God calls to special heights of sanctity are just those who may expect to have to wrestle bravely with temptations more numerous and fearsome than fall to the lot of the average mortal.

Lehmkuhl, Theologia moralis (Freiburg, 1S87); MtJTZ, Christ- liche .iscclik (Padcrborn, 1907); Hense, Die Versuchungen (Frei- burg, 1884); ScaRAMELU, Directorium ascclicum.

Joseph F. Delany.

Temptation of Christ. — In the Catholic transla- tion of Holy Writ, the word "temptation" is used in various senses, the principal of which are the follow- ing: (1) the act of testing or trying (Deut., iv, 34; Tob., ii, 12; Luke, xxii, 28; etc.); (2) enticement to evil (Matt., xx-vi, 41; I Cor., x, 13; etc.); (3) the state of being tempted (Matt., vi, 13; Luke, iv, 13; etc.); (4) that which tempts or entices to evil (James, i, 12; II Pet., ii, 9; etc.); (5) the name of a place (Ex., xvii, 7; Deut,, vi, 16; etc.). Taken in an unfavourable sense as denoting enticement to evil, temptation cannot be referred directly to God or to Christ, so that when we read in Gen., xxii, 1, for instance, "God tempted Abraham", and in John, vi, 6, "Hoc autem dicebat tentans cum ", literally : "This He [Jesus] said tempting him [Philip]", the expressions must be taken in the sense of testing, trying. According to St. James (i, 12 sqq.), the natural source of man's temptations is concupi.'Jcence, or that proneness to evil whickis the result of the fall of Adam, and which remains in