5. Jewish. — (1.) Sources of Imitation. — "It was once common to claim for the Hebrews the invention of scientific architecture, and to allege that classical antiquity was indebted to the Temple of Solomon for the principles and many of the details of the art. It may here suffice to remark that temples previously existed in Egypt, Babylon, Syria, and Phoenicia, from which the- classical ancients were far more likely to borrow the ideas which they embodied in new and beautiful combinations of their own. There has never, in fact, been any people for whom a peculiar style of architecture could with less probability be claimed than for the Israelites. On leaving Egypt, they could only be acquainted with Egyptian art. On entering Ca- naan, the)' necessarily occupied the buildings of which they had dispossessed the previous inhabitants ; and the succeeding generations would naturally erect such buildings as the country previously contained. The architecture of Palestine, and, as such, eventually that of the Jews, had doubtless its own characteristics, by which it was suited to the climate and condition of the country, and in the course of time many improve- ments would no doubt arise from the causes which usually operate in producing change in any practical art. From the want of historical data and from the total absence of architectural remains, the degree in which these causes operated in imparting a peculiar character to the Jewish architecture cannot now be determined, for the oldest ruins in the country do not ascend beyond the period of the Roman domination. It does, however, seem probable that among the He- brews architecture was always kept within the limits of a mechanical craft, and never rose to the rank of a fine art. Their usual dwelling-houses differed little from those of other Eastern nations, and we nowhere find any thing indicative of exterior embellishment. See House. Splendid edifices, such as the palace of David and the Temple of Solomon, were completed by the assistance of Phoeni- cian artists (2 Sam. v, 11; 1 Kings v, 6, 18; 1 Chron. xiv, 1). See Palace. After the Babylonish exile the assist- ance of such foreigners was likewise resorted to for the restoration of the Temple (Ezra iii, 7). See Temple. From the time of the Ma'c- cabsean dynasty the Greek taste began to gain ground, especially under the Herodi- an princes (who seem to have been possessed with a sort of mania for building), and was shown in the Structure and embellishment of many towns, baths, colonnades, the- atres, and castles (Josephus, Ant. xv, 8, 1; xv, 19,4; xv, 10, 3 1 War, i, 4, 1). The Phoenician style, which seems to have had some affinity with the Egyptian, was not, however, superseded by the Grecian ; and even as late as the Mishna {Balm Bathra, iii, G), we read of Tyrian win- dows, porches, etc. ( Kitto). See Hirt's Gesch. der Bnu- hmst h. der A/ten, i, 113, 120; Schnaase, Gesch. b. bild. Kiinste, i, 241 sq. ; Ewald, Jsr. Gesch. Ill, i, 27; Per- gusson, Illustrated Handbook of Architecture (London, 1856); Michaelis, DeJudmis architectures parum periti* (Gutt. 1771). See Akcu.
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(2.) History of Biblical Architecture. — The hook of Genesis (iv, 17, 20, 22) appears to divide mankind into great characteristic sections, viz., the "dwellers in tents" and the "dwellers in cities," when it tells us that Cain was the founder of a city ; and that among his descendants, one, Jabal, was "the father of them that dwell in tents," while Tubal-cain was "the in- structor of every artificer in brass and iron." It is probable that the workers in metal were for the most part dwellers in towns ; and thus the arts of architec- ture and metallurgy became from the earliest times leading characteristics of the civilized as distinguished from the nomadic tendencies of the human race. To the race of Shem is attributed (Gen. x, 11, 12, 22 ; xi, 2-9) the foundation of cities in the plain of Shinar, Babylon, Nineveh, and elsewhere ; of one of which, Resen, the epithet "great" sufficiently marks its im- portance in the time of the writer, a period at least as earhy as the 17th century, B.C., if not very much earli- er (Rawlinson, Outline of Ass. Hist. p. 10; Layard, Nin- eveh, ii, 221, 235, 238). From the same book we learn the account of the earliest recorded building, and of the materials employed in its construction (Gen. xi, 3, 9) ; and though a doubt rests on the precise site of the tower of Belus, so long identified with the Birs Nim- roud (Benjamin of Tudela, p. 100, Bohn; Newton, On Prop//, x, 155, 156 ; Vaux, Xin. and Pcrsep. p. 173, ITS : Keith, On Proph. p. 289), yet the nature of the soil, and the bricks found there in such abundance, though bearing mostly the name of Nebuchadnezzar, agree perfectly with the supposition of a city previous- ly existing on the same or a closclv neighboring site (Layard, ii, 249, 278, and Mb. and Bab. p. 531 ; Plin. vii, 56 : Ezra iv, 1). In the book of Esther (i, 2) men- tion is made of the palace at Susa, for three months in the spring the residence of the kings of Persia (Esth. iii, 13 ; Xen. Cyrop. viii, 6, § 22) ; and, in the books of Tobit and Judith, of Ecbatana, to which they retired for two months during the heat of summer (Tob. iii, 7 ; xiv, 14 ; Jud. i, 12 ; Herod, i, 98). A branch of the same Syro-Arabian race as the Assyrians, but the chil- dren of Ham, was the nation, or at least the dominant caste, of the Egyptians, the style of whose architecture agrees so remarkably with the Assyrian (Layard, ii, 206 sq.). It is in connection witli Eirypt that the Is- raelites appear first as builders of cities, compelled, in common with other Egyptian captives, to labor at the buildings of the Egyptian monarchs. Pithom and Eaamses are said to have been built by them (Exod. i, 11 ; Wilkinson, ii, 195). The Israelites were by occu- pation shepherds, and by habit dwellers in tents (Gen. xlvii, 3). The "house" built by Jacob at Succoth is probably no exception to this statement (Gen. xxxiii, 17). They had therefore originally, speaking proper- ly, no architecture. Even Hebron, a city of higher antiquity than the Egyptian Zoan (Tanis), was called originally from its founder, perhaps a Canaanite of the race of Anak, Kirjath-Arba, the house of Arba (Num. xiii, 22; Josh, xiv, 15). From the time of the occu- pation of Canaan they became dwellers in towns and in houses of stone, for which the native limestone of Palestine supplied a ready material (Lev. xiv, 34, 45; 1 Kings vii, 10; Stanley, Palest, p. 116 sq.) ; but the towns which they occupied were not all, nor, indeed, in most cases, built from the first by themselves (Deut. vi, 10 ; Num. xiii, 19).