2. Holiness of the Place. — The injunction of Lev. xix, 3, " Ye shall reverence my sanctnar}-," laid the people under an obligation to maintain a solemn and holj- be- havior when they came to worship in the Temple. We have already seen that such as were ceremonially im- clean were forbidden to enter the sacred court on pain of death ; but in the course of time there were several prohibitions enforced by the Sanhedrim which the law had not named. The following have been collected by Lightfoot out of the Rabbinical writings {Temple Ser- vice, ch. x) :
(1.) "No man might enter the mountain of the house with his staff."
(2.) "None might enter in thither with his shoes on his feet," though he'might with his sandals.
(3.) "Nor might any man enter the mountain of the house with his scrip on."
(4.) "Nor \night he come in with the dust on his feet," but lie must wash or wipe them, "and look to his feet when he entered into the house of God," to remind him, perhaps, that he should then shake offall worldly thoughts and affections.
(5.) "Nor with money in his purse." He might bring it in his hand, however; and in this way it was brought in for various purposes. If this had not been the case, it would seem strange that the cripple should have been placed at tlie gate of the Tem|)le to ask alms of those who entered therebi (see Acts iii, 2).
(6.) "None might spit in the Temple; if he were neces- sitated to spit, it must be done in some corner of his gar- ment."
(7.) "He might not use any irreverent gesture, espe- cially hefore the gate of Nicanor," that being exactly in front of the Temple.
(S.) "He might not make the mountain of the house a thoroughfare," for the purpose of reaching the place by a nearer way; for it was devoted to the purposes of relig- ion.
(9.) "He that went into the court must go leisurely and gravely into his place ; and there he must demean him- self, as ill the presence of the Lord God, in all reverence and fear."
(10.) "He must worship standing, with his feet close to each other, his eyes directed to the gniuiid, his hands upon his breast, with the right one above the left" (see Luke xviii, 13).
(11.) "No one, however weary, might sit down in the court." The only exception was in favor of the kings of the house of David.
(12.) "None might pray with his head uncovered. And the wise men and their scholars never prayed without a veil." This custom is alluded to in 1 Cor. xi, 4, whtre the apostle directs the men to reverse the iiractice adopt- ed in the Jewish Temple.
(13.) Their bodily gesture in bowing before the Lord
was either "bending of the knees," "bowing the head," or "falling prostrate on the ground."
(14.) Having performed the service, and being about to retire, "they might not turn their backs upon the altar." They therefore went backwards till they were out of the court.
Concerning tlie high veneration wliich the Jews cherished for their Temple, Dr. Harwood has collected some interesting particulars from Philo, Josepluis, and the writings of Luke. Their reverence for the sacred edifice was such that rather than witness its defilement they would cheerfully submit to death. They could not bear tlie least disrespectful or dishonorable thing to be said of it. The least injurious slight of it, real or apprehended, instantly awakened all the choler of a Jew, and was an affront never to be forgiven. Our Sav- iour, in the course of his public instructions, haiipening to say, "Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up again" (John ii, 19) — it was construed into a contemptuous disrespect, designedly thrown out against the Temple — his words instantly descended into the heart of a Jew and kept rankling there for several years; for, upon his trial, this declaration, which it was impossible for a Jew ever to forget or to forgive, was alleged against him as big with the most atrocious guilt and impiety (Matt, xxvi, 61). Nor was the rancor and virulence which this e.xpression had occasioned at all softened by all the affecting circumstances of that excruciating and wretched death they saw him die ; even as he hung upon the cross, with infinite triumph, scorn, and exultation, they upbraided him with it, con- temptuously shaking their heads and saying, "O thou who couldst demolish our Temple and rear it np again in all its splendor in the space of three days, now save thyself and descend from the cross" (xxvii, 40). Their superstitious veneration for the Temple further appears from the account of Stephen. When his adversaries were baffled and confounded bj'^ that superior wisdom and those distinguished gifts he possessed, they were so exasperated at the victory he had gained over them that they went and suborned persons to swear that they had heard him speak blasphemy against Moses and against God. These inflaming the populace, the magistrates, and the Jewish clergy, he was seized, drag- ged away, and brought before the Sanhedrim. Here the false witnesses whom they had procured stood up and said, " This person before you is continuall}' utter- ing the most reproachful expressions against this sacred place" (Acts vi, 13), meaning the Temple. This was blasphemv not to be pardoned. A judicature composed of high-priests and scribes would never forgive such impiety. We witness the same thing in the case of Paul when they imagined that he had taken Troplii- mus, an Ephesian,with him into the Temple; for which insult they had determined to imbrue their hands in his blood (xxi, 28, etc.).