Gate (prop. "1" w3, sha'ar, ttvXi] ; which are also used [espec. the Heb. word] for door [q. v.], although this latter is more properh' designated by nPE, pie'thach, an opening, of which rp'l, de'leih, was the valve, Gr. Srupa ; there also occur TO, saph, 1 Chron. ix, 19, 21, a vestibule or "threshold," as usually elsewhere render- ed; and the Chald. "^P, tera', an entrance, only in Ezra and Dan.), the entrance to inclosed grounds, buildings, dwelling-houses, towns, etc. (see Thomson, Land and Book, i, 29 sq.). Thus we find mentioned — 1. Gates of Cities, as of Jerusalem, its sheep-gate, iish- gate, etc. (Jer. xxxvii, 13; Neh. i, 3; ii, 3; v, 3) ; of Sodom (Gen. xix, 1); of Gaza (Judges xvi, 3). 2. Gates of royal palaces (Neh. iii, 8). 3. Gales of the Temple. The temple of Ezekiel had two gates, one towards the north, the other towards the east ; the lat- ter closed (Ezek. xliv, 1, 2), the other must have been open. The gates of Solomon's Temple were very massive and costly, being overlaid with gold and carv- ings (1 Kings vi, 34, 35 ; 2 Kings xviii, 16). Those of the Holy Place were of olive-wood, two-leaved, and overlaid with, gold ; those of the Temple of fir (1 Kings vi, 31, 32, 34 ; Ezek. xli, 23, 24). Of the gates of the outer courts of Herod's temple, nine were covered with gold and silver, as well as the posts and lintels; but the middle one, the Beautiful Gate (Acts iii, 2), was made entirely of Corinthian brass, and was considered to surpass the others far in costliness (Joseph. War, v, 5, 3). This gate, which was so heav}' as to require twen- ty men to close it, was unexpectedl3' found open on one occasion shortly before the close of the siege (Joseph. War, vi, 5, 3 ; A p. ii, 9). 4. Gates of tombs (Matt, xxvii, 00). 5. Gates of pnsons. In Acts xii, 10, mention is made of the iron gate of Peter's prison (xvi, 27). Pru- dentius ( Peristephaiwn, v, 346) speaks of gate-keep- ers of prisons. 0. Gates of caverns (1 Kings xix, 13). 7. Gates of camps (Exod. xxxii, 26,27; see Heb. xiii, 12). The camps of tlie Romans generally had four gates, of which the first was caWed porta 2]r(etor{a, the second decuniana, the ihivdi principalis, the fourth rpdn- tana (Rosin. Antiq. Pom. x, 12). The camp of the Tro- jans is also descriliedas having had gates (Virgil, ^'?j. ix, 724X The camp of the Israelites in the desert ap- pears to have been closed bj' gates (Exod. xxxii, 27). We do not know of what materials the inclosures and gates of the teniporarj' camps of the Hebrews were formed. In Egyptian monuments such inclosures are indicated by lines of upright shields, with gates appa- rently of wicker, defended by a strong guard. In later Egyptian times, the gates of the temples seem to have
Ancient Egj-ptian C.amp-giite gu.arded.
GATE
750
GATE
been intended as places of defence, if not the principal fortitications (Wilkinson, Anc. Efj. i, 409, abridgm.).
Lfcjpti^'l t ate \ V it M hoLt VI i
The gatewaj'S of Assyrian cities were arched or square- headed entrances in the wall, sometimes flanked by towers (Laj'ard, Nineveh, ii, 388, 395 ; Nin. and Bah. p. 231 ; Moil, of Nin. pt. ii, pi. 49 ; see also Assj'rian bas- relief* in Brit. Mus. Nos. 49, 25, 26). The entrances
Ancient A^.-yriiUis tictting tire to an enemy's gates.
to their own ro^'al mansions were a simple passage be- tween two colossal human-headed bulls or lions. See Palace.
Portal of Ancient Assyrian Palace.
As the gates of towns served the ancients as places of security [see Fohtification], a durable material was required for them, and accordingly we find men- tioned— 1. (kites of iron and brass (Psa. cvii, 18 ; Isa. xlv, 2; Acts xii, 10). It is probalile that gates thus described were, in fact, only sheeted with plates of copper or iron (Faber, Archanl. p. 297) , and it is jirob- ably in this sense that we are to interpret the hundred brazen gates ascribed to the ancient Baliylon. "Theve- not (^Voyage, p. 283) describes J;he six gateg of Jerusa- lem as covered with iron, which is probably still the case with the four gates now open. Other iron-cover-
ed gates are mentioned b}' travelers, such as some or the town gates of Algiers (Pitt's Letter, viii, 10), and of the towers of the so-called iron bridge at Antioch (Pococke, vol. ii, pt. i, ]>. 172). Gates of iron are al.'o mentioned by Hesiod {Theog. 732), by Virgil (^^Eneid, i, 482 ; vii, C09), and by Ovid (Metamorphoses, vii, 12G). 2. Gates of stone, and of pearls, are mentioned in Isa. liv, 12, and Ilev. xxi, 12, which, it has justly been sup- posed, refer to such doors, cut out of a single slab, as are occasionallj' discovered in ancient countries (Shaw, p. 210; Burckhardt, <S//na, p. 58,74; Porter, Z>((masc. ii, 22, 192 ; Kay, Coll. ofTrav. ii, 429). At Esswan (Sy- ene), in Upper Egypt, there is a granite gateway bear- ing the name of Alexander, the son of Alexander the Great (Wilkinson, iii, 403). The doors leading to the several chambers of the so-called "Tombs of theKings," near Jerusalem, were each formed of a single stone seven inches thick, sculptured so as to resemble four panels : the stiles, muntins, and other parts were cut with great art, and exactl}' resembled those of a door made L>j' a carpenter at the present daA^ — the whole be- ing completel}' smooth and polished, and most accurate in its proportions. The doors turned on pivots, of the same stone of which the rest of them were com- posed, which were inserted in corresponding sockets above and lielow, the lower tenon being of course short. This is one of the modes in which heavy doors of wood arc now hung in the East. One of these doors was still hanging in IMaundrell's time, and " did not touch its lintel by at least three inches." But all these doors are now thrown down and broken (Monconj's, p. 308; Thevenot, p. 2C1 ; Pococke, ii, 21 ; Maundrell, sub Mar. 28; Wilde, ii, 299; Robinson, i, 530). Similar doors are described by Dr. Chirke {Travels, pt. ii, vol. i, p. 252) in the remarkable excavated sepulchres at Tel- messus, on the southern coast of Asia Minor; and oth- ers were noticed bj' Irby and Mangles {Travels, p. S02) in the sepulchres near Bysan (Bethshan). There are stone doors to the houses in the Hanran beyond the Jordan (Burckhardt, p. 58) ; and in the north of Persia the street doors of superior houses are often composed of a single slab of a kind of slate. In the ancient sep- ulchre recently discovered, as described by Dr. AVilde (^Narrative, ii, 343), the outtr door is formed bj' a single slab, and moves on horizontal pivots that run into sock- ets cut in the pilasters at the top, in the manner of a swinging hinge. 3. Gates of wood. Of this kind were probably the gates of Ga- za (Judg. xvi, 3). They had generally two valves, which, according to Fa- ber's description {Arch. p. 300), had sometimes small- er doors, or wickets, to af- ford a passage when the principal gate was closed — a fact which he applies to the illustration of Matt, vii, 13.