Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/237

 Plan. 217 pointed to the east, where " the glory of Israel " appeared to the prophet. 1 This was not induced by its being on a narrow ridge, but from a deep-rooted tradition and in imitation of a solar temple, that the first ray of the fiery orb might fall on the statue of the god or on the mercy- » ///MÊ> seat, as the case might be. 2 The sanctuary consisted of two divisions or halls. The first immediately within the door, .«..J -Elements of Width of Temple. naos, hecal, palace, was followed by a smaller hall or holy of holies, dabir, posterior or farthest end. 3 The hecal was a rectangle, 40 cubits in length by 20 in width ; and the dabir, a square 20 cubits each way. A wall, six cubits thick, intervened between the vestibule and the naos ; and a second wall two cubits high divided the latter from the adytum. The door to the larger hall or hecal was ten cubits, and that to the holy of holies five cubits. 4 The greater dimension of the temple was lengthwise, like that of Greek sanctuaries; and, like them, it was divided into a protyron, naos, and opisthodom ; whilst, so far as may be gathered from the meagre information of the text, the building in the after court recalls a _J 1 Ezek. xliii. i, 2 ; Josephus, Ant. Jud., VIII. iii. 2. 2 Stade, GeschicJite, p. 327. 3 St. Jerome translates dabir, oraculum, from dabbar, " to speak ; " but it is more likely to be derived from the Arab word dabar, " to be behind," whence dabir, which has the same signification. 4 Ezek. xli. 1-5.