Early on the 14th Tishri (corresponding to our September or early October), all the festive pilgrims had arrived. Then it was, indeed, a scene of bustle and activity. Hospitality had to be sought and found; guests to be welcomed and entertained; all things required for the feast to be got ready. Above all, booths must be erected everywhere - in court and on housetop, in street and square, for the lodgment and entertainment of that vast multitude; leafy dwellings everywhere, to remind of the wilderness-journey, and now of the goodly land. Only that fierce castle, Antonia, which frowned above the Temple, was undecked by the festive spring into which the land had burst. To the Jew it must have been a hateful sight, that castle, which guarded and dominated his own City and Temple - hateful sight and sounds, that Roman garrison, with its foreign, heathen, ribald speech and manners. Yet, for all this, Israel could not read on the lowering sky the signs of the times, nor yet knew the day of their merciful visitation. And this, although of all festivals, that of Tabernacles should have most clearly pointed them to the future.
Indeed, the whole symbolism of the Feast, beginning with the completed harvest, for which it was a thanksgiving, pointed to the future. The Rabbis themselves admitted this. The strange number of sacrificial bullocks - seventy in all - they regarded as referring to the seventy nations' of heathendom. [3953] The ceremony of the outpouring of water, which was considered of such vital importance as to give to the whole festival the name of House of Outpouring,' [3954] was symbolical of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. [3955] As the brief night of the great Temple-illumination closed, there was solemn testimony made before Jehovah against heathenism. It must have been a stirring scene, when from out of the mass of Levites, with their musical instruments, who crowded the fifteen steps that led from the Court of Israel to that of the Women, stepped two priests with their silver trumpets. As the first cockcrowing intimated the dawn of morn, they blew a threefold blast; another on the tenth step, and yet another threefold blast as they entered the Court of the Women. And still sounding their trumpets, they marched through the Court of the Women to the Beautiful Gate. Here, turning round and facing westwards to the Holy Place, they repeated: Our fathers, who were in this place, they turned their backs on the Sanctuary of Jehovah, and their faces eastward, for they worshipped eastward, the sun; but we, our eyes are towards Jehovah.' We are Jehovah's - our eyes are towards Jehovah.' [3956] [3957] Nay, the whole of this night- and morning-scene was symbolical: the Temple-illumination, of the light which was to shine from out the Temple into the dark night of heathendom; then, at the first dawn of morn the blast of the priests' silver trumpets, of the army of God, as it advanced, with festive trumpet-sound and call, to awaken the sleepers, marching on to quite the utmost bounds of the Sanctuary, to the Beautiful Gate, which opened upon the Court of the Gentiles - and, then again, facing round to utter solemn protest against heathenism, and make solemn confession of Jehovah!
But Jesus did not appear in the Temple during the first two festive days. The pilgrims from all parts of the country - perhaps, they from abroad also - had expected Him there, for everyone would now speak of Him - not openly,' in Jerusalem, for they were afraid of their rulers. It was hardly safe to speak of Him without reserve. But they sought Him, and inquired after Him - and they did speak of Him, though there was only a murmuring - a low, confused discussion of the pro and con, in this great controversy among the multitudes,' [3958] or festive bands from various parts. Some said: He is a good man, while others declared that He only led astray the common, ignorant populace. And now, all at once, in Chol ha Moed, [3959] Jesus Himself appeared in the Temple, and taught. We know that, on a later occasion, [3960] He walked and taught in Solomon's Porch,' and, from the circumstance that the early disciples made this their common meeting-place, [3961] we may draw the inference that it was here the people now found Him. Although neither Josephus nor the Mishnah mention this Porch' by name, [3962] we have every reason for believing that it was the eastern colonnade, which abutted against the Mount of Olives and faced the Beautiful Gate,' that formed the principal entrance into the Court of the Women,' and so into the Sanctuary. For, all along the inside of the great wall which formed the Temple-enclosure ran a double colonnade - each column a monolith of white marble, 25 cubits high, covered with cedar-beams. That on the south side (leading from the western entrance to Solomon's Porch), known as the Royal Porch,' was a threefold colonnade, consisting of four rows of columns, each 27 cubits high, and surmounted by Corinthian capitals. We infer that the eastern was Solomon's Porch,' from the circumstance that it was the only relic left of Solomon's Temple. [3963] These colonnades, which, from their ample space, formed alike places for quiet walk and for larger gatherings, had benches in them - and, from the liberty of speaking and teaching in Israel, Jesus might here address the people in the very face of His enemies.