[1.] The Sejt.von-room ofthe Sniihedrim, with its triple semicircles for seating the members, and its desks. Prom a comparison of tlie number of members with the size of the room, we find that the space in the wall could by no means contain them, and have therefore enlarged it out- wardly.
[2.] A room for the priests to pray and cast their lots in.
(10.) On the south side of the Gate of Nicauor, the
TEMPLE
262
TEMPLE
Pastr;i-mmt\-< Chamber, for baking the salt cakes burned with the diiily gaci-ifice. .
(11.) Ou the iiorili side of the same gate, the Priests Wardrobe, for the pontifical die.<ses.
(12.) In the norih-east corner, the Eartlienioare-room, for the sacred pottery.
(13.1 A Guard-room, adjoining on the east.
(U.) The GaW of t<o>i(i.
(!.•).) Adjoining this, a Wash-room for cleansing the eu- trail!^, etc., of sacriiice.s.
(Iti.) A Tioi/?)! for Ukks of victims, and
(iT.) The Salt-room, for the salt used in preserving them, both in order, adjoining
(IS.) The Gate of Women. Adjoining this,
(lit.) A Treasure-room, for the more permanent deposit of llie money from the Ilonse uf Asuppim.
(■JU.) A Guard-room, and next,
(21.) The otlier Treasure-ruum, for the same purpose as the former. These adjoined
(22.) Tlie Gate of Buriiinfi, the last of ihe six.
(23.) The interval between this gate and the western wall was called the Hovxe of Burning, and was divided into three equal parts. This building projecte<l inwardly into the Court of the Israelites, like one portion of the Ilonse Gazith. These two buildings alone had entrances from the sacred enclosure, all the other rooms being en- tered onlv from the court within:
[1.] Adjoining' the sjate, the Hovse of the Conseerated Stones of'tlic t'ornier aliar (removed after the rededication under the Macctibecs, as having been desecrated by Au- tiochus Epipliaiies), in the northern subdivision; and ou the south tlie Shcw-bread Ilakery.
[2.] In the middle the Pn'exts' IJall, wheie was a fire for the use of the guards at night.
[3.] The western portion was occuiiied, on the north for a friext'i' llathiiip-room, and on the south for keeping the Lambs selected fi>r the daily sacrifice.
0. The principal difticulty counected with this court is the number oi steps, and their height, leading into it on the north and south, and arises from a confusion in the terms by which Josephus mentions them. He says {War, V, 5, '-) that between the sacred ])latform and the interior court "were otlier steps, each of 5 cubits apiece," which we understand to mean that the Court of the Israelites was entered by [two flights of] steps, each [flight] ri.sing 5 cubits, thus making 20 steps, in two sets of half-cubit steps. Again he says {ibid. 5 4) that "there were 15 steps [those of the " degrees"] which led away [i. e. eastward] from the [west] wall of the Court of the Women to [i. e. to- wards] this gieater gate [the Beautiful Gate], ivhereas those that led Ihiiher [i. e. to tlie platform down to which the Beautiful Gate led]/rojji. the other gates [opening towards this platform] ^eere Jive steps shorter," by whicii we can only understand (according to the above interpolations) that the number of the steps leading out of the Court of the Isracliies on the east exceeded by 5 the number [in each flight] of those on the north and south; for if these latter were but 10 in all, each must have been one cubit in the rise {IX cubits at the NicanorGaie + 2^ at the Beauti- ful Gate = 10), an impracticable ascent. Finally, he says {ibid. 5 2) that "the height of its buildings [those of the Women's Court], although it were on the outside 40 cubits, was hidden by the steps, and on the inside that height was hut 25 cubits," which we take to denote that tlie top of the wall enclosing the Court of the Israelites (which was continuous with that of the Court of the Women) was 40 cubits from the level of the floor of the Court of the Gentiles, the intervening steps making the diflference (15 cubits) of its internal .altitude— as would be true with- in a single cubit (— =16J . The gate -turrets
were still higher than this. The steps mentioned by Jo- sephus (H'ar, V, 1,5) as preventing the erection of John's engines on any other spot than "behind the inner court over against the west end of the cloister" seem to be those that ran around the three sides of the Priests' Court, at the railing separating it from the cloistered Court of the Israelites.
7. The thickness of this wall is nowhere stated in the Mishna, but is tjiven by Josephus as being S cubits {War, vi, 5, 1, at the close) ; and the numerous roimis contained within it would seem to justify a greater thickness than in any of the other walls.
(V.) TuE CorRT OF TUE Prikstr, tub Great Altae, and TUE TEMri.K Proper. These are treated of in the Mishna in the fullest detail, and the minutest points— to the thickness of the walls and partitions, the number, size, and position of the doors, the dimensions, order, and situation of the rooms and pas- sasres, with all their peculiarities and contents — are given with the precise explicitness of specifications for a build- er's conttact ; so that as to everything, great or small, contained within these bounds "there is such full and trustworthy auihority that all one has to do is to collect and plot them down on the pl:>n. This the reader will find so carefully and completely done to his hand by Li'jhtfoot, in his Prospects of the Temple^ so ofien referred to, that to detail it here would be but to repeat his btate-