no. 10.— THE INNER COtTRT.
S. Porticoes. 4. Women's court
B. Court of Israelites. 9. Temple porch. 10. Uikdl.
6. Priesta' court. 11. DMt.
existing south wall of the I^arara — one west of the double gate, the other east of the treble gate. Both these show Herodian workmanship. Throu>;h both tliese gates it was possible to ascend from the vaults below to the temple area. On the east, Middoth refers to one gate on which the palace of Shushan was carved. It has been commonly thought to have been the same as the modern Golden Gate, but the latter is undoubtedly a Byzantine structure. Josephus does not say any- thing of any east gate. He speaks quite incident- ally of one gate on the north ;f Midd.r) calls it Tadie(or Tari ?).
The Outer Court. — This is commonly called the Court of the Gentiles, because Gentiles were allowed to enter it ; but in neither Josephus nor in Midd. does it get that name.
The walls of this court were surrounded on the inside by porticoes or cloisters. The north, west, and east sides had double porticoes, with two rows of white marble monolithic colunms. The roofs were of carved cedar. On the south were the roval porticoes, the arod ^acriXuTJ, which had 162 columns, with Corinthian capitals. Tliese columns formed three aisles. The outermost row of columns Were fastened into the wall of the enclosure. The
• DJ V. V. «. /i. a.
I I.OC. cit. &, n Loo. cit.
$ B.I IV. ix. 12 ; aee Pinnacul i AnI. XV. xi. 6. ? V.' II. xix. 5, n Iv. L 6 no (or •no ?).
Open to heathen, and could be used for bujring, selling, etc. e The inner court was a rectangle, whicli included in it the women's court (4), the men's court or court of the Israelites (5),^ the priests' court (6), and the house which stood in the last (10, 11). The inner court was on hij^her ground than the outer, there being five steps from the one to the other. Between the wall of the inner court and the porticoes of the outer court there was a free space of 10 cubits, higher than tlie rest of the outer court, and reailied by a lliglit of fourteen steps. This formeil a terrace all round the inner court except the east, and was called the /u:l (S'n). At the inner edge of this Ac/ there was a stone parapet called fSretj (J-iSo).)) On this tablets were put with inscriptions warning non-Jews against passing beyond this boundary. One such was found in recent years by the French consul, ClermonlGanneau, on which, in Greek, the following words occur : iiriOina. iWorfevi) dairopcviadai ivTb'i Tou TTfpl t6 lepdv TpvcpdKTOu Kal nepifitiXov. Hi 5" B.v X^lfpOii {airrf atrios tarai 5ii t6 iianoXovBeXy Odvarof, i.e. ' jVo stranger is to enter within the balustrade
» Ant. XX. li. 7; &/V. ». 1. » I'T n-3.
« Jn 10-», Ac 8" W«.
y DJ IV. ix. 2.
1 Jn 2»iif-
C Kvil (Bib. Arch. L p. 100) excludes the women's court from the inner court. Now. (il. p. 78) includes it, and rii.'htl.v, becaune It stood on the hi&;her platfonn of tbo courts of Isruelites and pnests and of the house.
« Jos. £y T. r. X ; if idd. U. S.
714
TEMPLE
TEMPLE
and emhrtnkment round the snored place. Whnfvcr is caught will be answerable fur Ids death, which will ensue.' This illustrates Ac 21™"-, wlien St. Paul almost lost his li/e. The inn«r court \v:ia surroximled by a wall 40 cubits bi^'h on the out- side, anil on the inside but 25, owinj; to the raised ground inside. From the lower ground to the liigher there were five stops.
Gates. — This wall had nine gates — four on the north, four on the south, and one on the east. The west had no gate at all. They had all of theni folding doors, covered with gold and silver. o Of the four on the north side three were in the men's court (5), and one in the women's (4). Three of the north gates were called Nitzius, the Gate of Ollering, and the Makad. On tlie south we read of the I'laniing Gate, the Gate of Oli'ering, and the Water Gate. The last opened upon the altar, and appears to have been a continuation of the Huldah Gate. The gate on the east was much more costly than the rest, and it is probably the ' Gate Beauti- ful ' of Ac 'i-, and 'Nicanor's gate ' of the Mishna./3 It \\as made of Corinthian brass. Between the women's court and the men's there was a gate larger than t!ie others, led to by fifteen steps, at the top of which was the level of the men's court. It was thickly overlaid with silver and gold.
Buchler>' art^ues ably that this is the Nicanor gate of the Mislina. SIklil. i. 4, as all a<imit, states that ; but it is argued by Sschiirer.fl Oratz.i Spiess,^ Nowack.tj and most, that it is the gate on the east of tiie women's court that is meant by the above name. Biichler admits that Josephus is against him ; but he charges the Jewish historian with inaccuracy, and calls the Talmud to his aid in proving this. Biichler's view is bound up with another position, which he also defends with ability, 6 viz., that the wall of the inner court shut out the women's court altogether, as being part of the court of the Gentiles ; the Nicanor gate being, then, that one at the east of the men's court through which one passed into the inner gate. Keil also speaks of the inner court as being reached by a gate at the western end of the women's court.* But this is, as Biichler admits, against the common view, which is supported by Schurcr,.^ and Nowack,A and the received text of Josephus.