[Golgotha, p. 54; cf. T. Zalin, Introduction to the NT', ii. 447 f . ).
[b) The Temple and its precincts. — Although tradition has fixed on one spot as being the special meeting-place of the first Christians, there can be no doubt they still continued to frequent the Temple. While thej^ had indeed become Chris- tians they did not cease to be Jews, at least not that section which remained in Jerusalem during the years preceding the F'all of the city. Accord- ingly we find in the Book of Acts a considerable body of evidence regarding the presence of Chris- tians in and about the Temple. A detailed notice of all these references properly belongs to another article (Temple), but a brief mention of those con- cerning the environs may here be made.
(a) ' Peter and John Avere going up into the temple at the hour of prayer' (Ac 3'). This is topographically exact, whether we take the outer court or the sanctuary proper, which only Jews could enter (Ac 21-*''^'). There were ramps and stairs and steps at many points. An exception would have to be made if we accepted Conder's identification of the Beautiful Door or Gate (Ac 3-" ^^) as being the main entrance on the W., ' probably at the end of the bridge leading to the Royal Cloister' [The City of Jerusalem, p. 129). But for several reasons this cannot be entertained. A. R. S. Kennedy has shown [ExpT xx. 270 Ii'. ; cf. Schurer, HJP II. i. [1885] 280) tnat the Beauti- ful Door is to be sought in the inner cotirts, and preferably on the E. side of the Court of the Women. Little value can be attached to the tradition that the Golden Gate above the Kidron Valley is the gate referred to in Ac 3-.
(/3) The porch or portico along the E. side of the Temple area is the Solomon's Porch of Ac 3'^ 5^-. Its appearance may be realized from the frontis- piece (by P. Waterhouse) of Sacred Sites of the Gospels, where a full view is given of the so-called Royal Porch on the S. side. This is generallj' supposed to have had an exit on the W. by a bridge crossing the Tyropoeon (see Conder, above) at Robinson's Arch, but Kennedy has shown that nearly all moderns are in error about this [ExpT XX. 67 ; cf. Jos. Ant. XV. xi. 5). On the W. and N. sides there were also porches or cloisters which met at the entrance to Antonia.
(c) Antonia. — This fortress is about the most certainly defined spot within the walls of Jeru- salem. To-day it is occupied in part by the Turk- ish barracks, on the N.W. of the yaram area. In Herod the Great's time the castle was re-built on a grand scale and strongly fortified. Later it was occupied as a barracks (7rape/i/3oX^, Ac 2P-'- ^^, etc.) by the Romans, who liere maintained a legion [rdyfia [BJ V. v. 8], understood by Schiirer [HJP I. ii. (1890) 55] as=' cohort'; this is not accepted by Merrill [Ajic. Jerus. 216 f.]). As shown above, it is probable that some slight re-adjustment of the forecourt of Antonia and of the 2s. side of the Tenijile area had taken place in the interval follow- ing Herod the Great's rei<;n. From the vivid narrative of Ac 21 '"''^- it is evident that the Temple area was at a lower level than the Castle, for stairs led down to the court. According to Josephus [BJ V. V. 8), on the corner where Antonia joined the N. and W. cloisters of the Temple it had gang- ways down to them both for the passage of the guard at the JeMish festivals. While the exact plan of the ground can hardly be determined, there seems to be no justification for ' a valley ' and ' a double bridge,' as supposed by Sanday and Water- house [Sacred Sites, p. 108 and plan [p. 116]; cf. Smith, Jcrnscdem, ii. 499 n.). By cutting down the cloisters a barricade could be erected to prevent entrance to the Temple courts from the Castle, as was done by the Jews in the time of FTorus (A.D. 66
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[BJ U. XV. 6; cf. VI. ii. 9, iii. 1]). Opinion is divided as to whether the Roman procurator made his headquarters in Antonia or in Herods Palace on the S. W. Hill, but the evidence seems to be in favour of the latter. This appears most clearly from the proceedings in the time of Florus (BJ ii. xiv. 8, 9 ; see Wilson, Golgotha, p. 41 f. ; Smith, Jerusalem, ii. 573 ff. ). Antonia was certainly used as a place of detention, as is plain from Ac 22^*. This leads us to remark on the position of —
(d) The Council House. — The meeting-place of the Sanhedrin in apostolic times is of some import- ance in view of the experience of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Paul. From data provided by Josephus we judge that it lay between the Xystus and the W. porch of the Temple, i.e. near the point where the bridge crossed the Tyropceon. From Josephus [BJ VI. vi. 3) we also infer that it was in the * Lower City,' for it perished together with Akra and the place called Ophlas. It is reasonable to seek in proximity to the Council House the prison of Ac 4* 5^^ ; that of Ac 12^ was probably in connexion with the Palace of Herod, where presumably Agrippa I. lived and maintained his own guard (see Ant. XIX. vii, 3). The tradi- tional spot was shown in the 12th cent. E. of where this palace stood, in the heart of the ' Upper City,' while the present Zion Gate upon the S. was taken to be the iron gate of Ac 12'o (Conder, The City of Jerusalem, p. 16).