3. The windows {dvpi5es). — In the East these now usually look into the courtyard, not into the street, as privacy is of the greatest importance. Such was probably the case in Ac 20^, where Euty- chus, sitting in a window, falls from the third story {cLTrb Tov Tpiariyov) ; as Eastern houses are usually of two stories (for the kitchen see below), we must here have an exception to the general rule. It is not common for Avindows to be in the outside wall
of a town ; yet this must have been the case in Ac 9-^, 2 Co IP^, where St. Paul is let down through the town wall and escapes, in both cases from Damascus, for both passages seem to refer to the same incident (cf. also Rahab, Jos 2'^). Except in the better houses, no glass is used in the windows ; oiled cotton or paper serves instead of glass in the winter, being removed in the summer. Glass (other than that used for mirrors) is mentioned in the NT only in Rev 4^ 15^ 21^**- -^ ; its costliness in ancient times, as in the modern East, is seen by its being coupled with gold in Job 28^'' RV.
i. The house - gate.— The door or gate itself is dvpa (Mk 2-, Jn W^, figuratively in Rev S""), but Trv\d)v is the gateway or entry of a house, especially if large, as well as of a city (Mt 26'^, Lk 162", Ac W 12i3f-; in the last passage the full expression 'door of the gate' (06pa rod ■n-vXwvos) is used, but in v.'^ ■n-vXuv includes Oijpa, for it is ' opened ' by Rhoda ; cf . artt. Door and Gate). For a house-gate tti^Xt; is not ordinarily used ; it is the gate of a city, and so of a public building like the Temple or a prison (Ac 31** 12io, but 3'' has dvpa). The house-gate was naturally kept locked in troublous times, as in Ac 10'^ i2ib-J6^ a,nd was guarded by a porter (Mk 13^'*, 6 dvpwp6$) or a portress (Jn IS^", ^ dvpupds ; cf. Mk 14«9, Ac 12'3f-), just as the figurative sheepfold in Jn 10^ is guarded by 'the porter,' probably the Holy Spirit (H. B. Swete, The Holy Spirit in the NT, 1909, p. 146). The entry (TrvXtbv) is either the same as, or else leads into, the fore-court (TrpoavXiov) of Mk 14**^, where || Mt 26'" has irvKdiv. Outside the gate of the great houses the beggars sit (Lk 16^", Lazarus), as they did at the gate of the Temple (Ac S^-'"). Inside the gate, perhaps in the fore-court, were the water- pots for washing (Jn 2^) ; evidently not in the guest-room.
5. The courtyard (avX-q). — This occupied the centre of the house (Mt 26«9, Mk U^*-^% We read of a charcoal fire in it— a brazier in the open air(Mk Wi.6i^ l]^ 22»5f-, Jn W^-^^), in the middle (Lk 22^^). On this courtyard the rooms opened ; our Lord inside was visible to Peter in the court (Lk 22^'). The rooms, in places where there is little cold weather, might be entirely open to the court, as may be seen at the present day, e.g. at Mosul ; or, in colder places, might open on tiie court witli doors and windows, with or without a covered gallery.
6. The kitchen. — The kitchen itself is not men- tioned in the NT, though the oven (Mt 6=^") and kitchen utensils (Mk 7'*) are referred to. Yet in all but the richer houses it is the most commonly used part of the house, and the family ordinarily live in it ; in some Eastern countries it is emphatically called ' the house ' as opposed to ' the rooms.' The oven is a hole in the floor ; the fire, of dried manure, is kindled at the bottom ; and the sides are made of hardened clay, to which the flaps of dough adhere until they are baked and ready to be hooked out as bread. Other food is cooked over the tire in pots. As there is no chimney (in our sense of the word), the kitchen must necessarily be of one story only, to allow of a hole in the roof for the escape of the smoke.
7. The rooms. — (a) There is not in the East, in the ordinary houses, the distinction usually found in the West between bedrooms and sitting-rooms. The latter are turned into bedrooms by spreading the bedclothes on the floor. Thus the ' bed-chamber ' [KOLTihv, Ac 122") Qf which Blastus was guardian would be unusual except in a great house such as that of Herod.
(b) Most houses, even of the comparatively poor, have a fairly large room or rooms, often, but not always, on the first floor, to entertain guests who come unexpectedly, for Eastern hospitality is great
588
HOUSE
HUMILITY
(see Home). Hence we read that the upper room
(avilyyeov or dvdyyaiov or avoryeihv or ava-yaiop) of Mk 14''"-, Lk 22^1*- was large, and it is expressly called a 'guest-chamber,' KaroKvua, i.e. a place where the guests unpack their baggage ; it may be doubted if KardXv/jM in Lk 2^ is rightly rendered 'inn,' for this in 10** is called iravdoxetov. Probably the KardXvfjM was a guest-chamber in a house where Joseph expected to lodge, but it is a word elastic in meaning (see A. Plummer, St. Luke^\_ICO, 1898], 54). The upper room of the Last Supper was very probably the place where the Ten and the rest Avere assembled on Easter Day, and if so must have been somewhat large, though the word used {r]6poicr- IJiivovi, Lk 24^ RV ; cf. v.*) suggests crowding, just as the compounds avvr^dpoLa/xivoL, ffwadpolaas in Ac 1212 1935 suggest a large assembly. In Acts the word used for such an upper room is virepqioi^, V^ 937. 39 (Dorcas) 20** (at Troas). The room mentioned in 1^^ must have been large, for it held 120 people ; and it was perhaps the same as the coenaculiim of Mk 14^'"-, for it is called 'the upper room' (RV). It has been suggested that as different words are used, the rooms must have been different ; yet this would not account for St. Luke's using dvuyeov in his Gospel, and always virept^ov in Acts. It was no doubt in such a guest-chamber on the first floor that Jesus healed the paralj^tic, for it was under the roof. (With this arrangement for an upper room we may compare the ordinary provision in a caravanserai of a room or rooms over the gateway for the guests, whWe the stables are below, and round the courtj^ard. ) Such an upper room is prob- ably the ^evia in Philem^^, Ac 28'^' — a lodging in a private house. In response to St. Paul's request, Philemon would doubtless otter his own guest- room. Wlien the Apostle arrived in Rome he probably at first lodged, guarded by soldiers, in the guest-room of a friend, though afterwards he hired a private house (fjLicrdo}/j.a, Ac 28^). For the use of these guest-rooms as the first Christian churches, see Family.