V 1 K 70. » 1 K T». 1 1 K 7».
C Oach. I. 316. fl p. '.'.3B. « p. 20.
, 1 K 71" '»■ » 1 K -8. * 1 K 030.
/M 'They (the children of Israel) shall no more defile my nome . . . In their setting of their thresholds by my thresholds, and their poste by my posts, and the walls between me and them.'
t On A'tn^f ; see his plan, Tafol L
E Schcnkel, ill f. 222 0.
e96
TEMPLE
TEJIPLE
hills the TyropcBon valley is situated. But the references we have are wholly opposed to this, as is also the probabilitj' that the kin^ woulii liiive his palace erected in closer proximity to the royal sanctuary.
In 1 K 6'^*- we read of the biiildint; of the temple. V.^" tells us of an inner court, meaning clearly the court which enclosed the temple area and was itself included in the great court, a which had in it the whole complex of royal huihlings, sacred and secular. The i>:issage in Ezekiel/3 already noted makes this arran!_'ement still more likely.
The eastern hill on which the royal buildings were erected is that which is known in the O T as ZiON and also as MoriaH. Tlie modern fiction, which h.xes Zion on the hill west of the Cheese- mongers' ( = Tyropa;on) valley, has nothing to support it except tradition. It has against it topographical and historical considerations which are overwhelming.7 Had the buildings been ex- tended to a west hill, substructions of a deeper and more expensive character would have been necessary.
Retatii'! positions of th» Royal Buildingt at Jerusalem.— Assuiuini; that the roval buildings were all of thcni on the eastern hill, how were' they relatively situated? Tlie temple must have been either nortii or south of the other buildinjjs, as the distance between the Tyropceon and the eastern dechvities was too small to allow of its being on the east or west. It is exceedingly Ukely that it was on the north, and therefore on higher groiind. "From 2 K 1119, Jer 221 it follows that the way from the temple to the p.alace was a descent. On the other hand, in 1 K 8' 9^, Jer 26") it is equally implied that it was an ascent from the palace to the temple. In these passages it is taken for granted that the temple waa in proximity to the other roval buildings. When Jeremiah was arrested for foretelling the destruction of the temple, the princes were at once upon the scene and constituted themselves into a body of magistrates to deal with the matter 5— an incident illustrating the closeness of their residences to the sanctuary. Probably the southern wall of the temple w.as also the northern \vall of the ' other ' or ' middle ' court, a gate leading from one into the other. 1 , „ .
It we can fix the position of the altar of burntoffenng, we can locate at once the main parts of the temple and also the other roval huildincs. There is good reason for believing that the sak'hra or rock under the dome of the mosque of Omar is the spot where the altar in question stood. A very old tradi- tion connects with this spot the incident in which Abraham prepared to offer Isaac, as also the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. It was on this threshing-tloor that the destroying angel stood when Jehovah stopped him in his work of destroying the people.? Even if these associations with the place are imaginary, yet thev show that it was a sacred spot from very primitive tiines, and in the consen-ative East there i« but little change in roads or towns or sanctuaries. Solomon would be very likely to erect his chapel close to some spot where a Divine martifestation had been made or some altar had been raised.
The form of the stone gives good reason for concluding that it was that on which the sacrifices were offered It is a huge limestone rock, measuring some 6U by 50 ft., standing above the marble pavement about 5 ft. On its top there is an opening, through which the blood of the victims sacrificed could pass. Lower down there is an open cave in the same rock, at the bottom of which the stones make a hollow sound when struck. This, with other indications, makes it very probable that there was an opening at the bottom through which the blood passed, this opening leading into a subterranean passage which con- tinued its way to the Kidron Valley. This agrees with what the Mishna Bays,r that under the alUr of burnt-oflering there was a conduit by means of which the blood of the victmi flowed into the valley of the Kidron.
Close to the mkhra or rock there were formerly two fountains, one of them still sending up fresh and beautiful water. The natives say the water of this hist is ver>- putrid, but Pierotti tasted it and found they were wrong. He was of opinion that the water had the name of being filthy on account of its long- time association with theeacrificial blood which mingled with its Nowacki thinks that, proliably, the sacriflcial blood after passing into the aperture at the bottom of the cave joined the waters of that 'fountain which flowed fast by the oracle ot God,' « and fell with them into the eastern valley. Joining ulti- mately the Kidron. i