North
I
Bridge ' \
Outer Court.
M
no. 9. — BBROD'8 TBMPLB : OEKKRAL VIEW.
stleast oonflrmed In It, by a consideration of H.^1J 2«-9. Messiani- cally inter]ireted, the temple erected by Zorubbabel was, they say, to see the Messiah. But the passaf^e is not Messianic, and, if it were, the prediction contained in it is made from the writer's point of view.
It was in the 18th a year of his reign (B.C. 20-19) that Herod the Great set about the rebuilding of the temple. In his day there was among the Romans a great rage for restoring Greek cities and their temples, and Herod probably caught the prevailing .spirit. Josephus reports (Ant. XV. xi.) the speech in which Herod announces his intention, and gives as his reason a desire to promote the religious welfare of the nation ; but the historian says the king's real purpose was to raise for himself an everlasting memorial. The Jews were at first afraid that, if the king pulled down their temple, no other might be for a long time put up in its place. To allay this fear, Herod « According to Jos. BJ i. xxl. 1, the 15tb.
and a large part of the side walls was covered with
gold.
The area of Herod's temple is essentially that of the modem IJaram esh-Sherif, with the exception of the north end, at which, in Herod's day, the fortress Antonia was situated, the temple court being to the south of it. The excavations made beneath the Haram and its surrounding walla show that the lie of the ancient walls on the west, south, and east agrees with those of the walls to be seen to-day (see \iosen. Das Haram, iS.; Kobinson'i BRP iii. 2-22 If.). The house itself would be sure to be erected on the site of the one preceding it.
For his temple Herod used double the space that was covered by Zerubbabel's temple.a and in order to obtain it he erected subterranean vaults in the south of the temple hill, and filled intervening spaces with stones and earth. The bounding line was raised from 4 stadia /3 to 6, the breadth remain- « Jos. BJ :. xxl. 1. /S Jos. Ant. xv. xi. 8.
TEMPLE
TEMPLE
713
inf,' 1 stadium, the length ( N. to S. ) being doubled.a Tlic wliole « as surrounded by a liigh wall, covered with spikes,(3 the better to protect the place. The temple, including its courts, occupied an area of 1 stadium according to Josephus, or 500 cubits according to the Talmud. Assuming the stadium to bo about 600 English feet, and the cubit to be about 18 inches, thereisadillerenceof over 100 feet; but the numbers are round in each case, and the truth lies probably between them. Perhaps, as Fergusson sujjgests, the Talmud copies the dimen- sions of Ezekiel's temple : Fergusson's own dimen- sions, got by careful calculations, a^ree well with what Josephus says, viz. 585 ft. h. to \V., and 610 ft. N. to S. ; see Temples of the Jews, p. 77 tt'.
Oate-1. — The principal entrance to the enclosure was on the western side. Midduth y names one only on that side called ' Kiponos,' but Josephus haa four.5 Probably that named in Midd. is the principal one, as it led to the king's palace and to the city. Two more to the south led to suburbs of the city, one coinciding probably with ' Barclay's' gate, the other with ' Warren's.' Remains of the fourth are to be seen perhaps to the south of ' Wilson's arch.' Josephus e speaks of gates on the south, but he does not say how many there were. Midd. mentions the two Iluldah gates, which are to be ideu tilled with the two gates buried iii the
middle of the three aisles was 45 ft. wide, the two side ones having a width of 30 ft. The inner portico was cm higher ground than the two nearer the wall. 'I lie columns were so thick that three men with tlieir hands stretched out could hardlj' clasij around one. On the east was what is called Solomon's Porch in the NT,a and is said by Josejilius to have survived from the time of Solomon. (3 The east porticoes were, however, the work of Herod, according to the best judges; but it is singular that Josephus should have believed any part of these porticoes to have been the work of Solomon, unless it was much older than Herod'e time. During the feasts the Konian .soldiers usci to walk on the roof of the porticoes in order to see that order was kept. The whole of the outer court was paved with stones. There were for the lower oliicials pastopkoriay or chambers ranged along the outer walls, probably between the walls and the porticoes, unless, indeed, they were be- tween the double porticoes themselves. In close pro.\imity to the west gate and the chambers was the Beth Din,S where the Sanhedrin met.
In the older sources (Josephus and Midduth) the Holy Place is not the hekdl, as in tlie case of the previous Jerusalem temples, but the whole of the mner court, including the women's court, as contrasted with the outer court, which was
L Chambera. 8. Oate-rooras (Exedrce), S. Porticoes. 4
7. Altar of burut-ofFerin^. 8. Place for killing, etc., animula.