DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0101
78
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
each side probably about two hundred and ten cubits, and surrounded by a wall thirty-seven
and a half feet high on the inside. In this wall there were seven orates : on the north the
Gate Nitzus, the Gate of Offering, and the Gate Mokad ; on the south the Gate of Flaming,
the Gate of Offering, and the Water Gate, which opened directly on the altar, and appears
to have been in continuation of the Huldah Gate ; and on the east was the Beautiful Gate, or
Gate Nicanor of the Talmud. In addition to the above, three gates led into the Court of the
Women, one on the north, another on the south, and a third on the east. On each side of
the gateways there were chambers which were used as stores, &c, in connection with the
Temple service. Nine of these gates "were on every side covered over with gold and silver,
as were the jambs of their doors and their lintels." The Beautiful Gate was of Corinthian
brass, and ornamented in the most costly manner with richer and thicker plates of gold than
the other gates. Within the wall of the Inner Temple enclosure were the Temple with its
altar, the Court of the Men of Israel, and the Court of the Priests. In the Temple, as recon-
structed by Herod, the Holy of Holies "remained a cube of twenty cubits, and occupied the
same place as it had from Solomon's days. The Holy Place was forty cubits east and west
by twenty cubits across, and thirty cubits high, as before." The porch was eleven cubits wide
by " apparently fifty cubits north and south, bounded on the east by a wall five cubits thick,
while one six cubits in thickness separated it from the Holy Place, making twenty-two cubits
in all." The facade of the Temple was one hundred cubits long, and in front of it, at the top
of a flight of steps leading down to the Court of the Priests, stood the Toran, or screen
bearing the golden vine. The Temple was partly surrounded by thirty-eight little chambers,
" fifteen in the north, fifteen in the south, and eight in the west. The northern and southern
ones were (placed) five over five, and five over them ; and in the west three over three and
two over them. To each were three doors : one to the little chamber to the right, one to the
little chamber to the left, and one to the little chamber over it." Internally the Temple was
divided into the Holy Place—in which there were "three things that were very wonderful and
famous among all mankind, the candlestick, the table (of shewbread), and the altar of incense "
—and the Holy of Holies, inaccessible and inviolable, in which nothing was kept. The veil
of the Temple is stated to have been a " Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine
linen, and scarlet, and purple," and of a very fine texture. The colours were symbolical of
the universe : the scarlet and blue represented, by means of their colours, fire and air; the fine
linen, earth, by the flax of which it was made ; and the purple, the sea, from the circumstance
that the dye was obtained from salt-water shell-fish. Upon the curtain was also embroidered
" all that was mystical in the heavens, except the twelve signs of the zodiac representing living
creatures."
There is much divergence in the views of the writers who have attempted to reconstruct
the Temple and fix its position within the Haram enclosure. Mr. Fergusson supposes the
Temple to have occupied a square of about six hundred feet at the south-west angle of the
Haram esh Sherif, and he is followed in this by Messrs. Thrupp, Lewin, and others.
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
each side probably about two hundred and ten cubits, and surrounded by a wall thirty-seven
and a half feet high on the inside. In this wall there were seven orates : on the north the
Gate Nitzus, the Gate of Offering, and the Gate Mokad ; on the south the Gate of Flaming,
the Gate of Offering, and the Water Gate, which opened directly on the altar, and appears
to have been in continuation of the Huldah Gate ; and on the east was the Beautiful Gate, or
Gate Nicanor of the Talmud. In addition to the above, three gates led into the Court of the
Women, one on the north, another on the south, and a third on the east. On each side of
the gateways there were chambers which were used as stores, &c, in connection with the
Temple service. Nine of these gates "were on every side covered over with gold and silver,
as were the jambs of their doors and their lintels." The Beautiful Gate was of Corinthian
brass, and ornamented in the most costly manner with richer and thicker plates of gold than
the other gates. Within the wall of the Inner Temple enclosure were the Temple with its
altar, the Court of the Men of Israel, and the Court of the Priests. In the Temple, as recon-
structed by Herod, the Holy of Holies "remained a cube of twenty cubits, and occupied the
same place as it had from Solomon's days. The Holy Place was forty cubits east and west
by twenty cubits across, and thirty cubits high, as before." The porch was eleven cubits wide
by " apparently fifty cubits north and south, bounded on the east by a wall five cubits thick,
while one six cubits in thickness separated it from the Holy Place, making twenty-two cubits
in all." The facade of the Temple was one hundred cubits long, and in front of it, at the top
of a flight of steps leading down to the Court of the Priests, stood the Toran, or screen
bearing the golden vine. The Temple was partly surrounded by thirty-eight little chambers,
" fifteen in the north, fifteen in the south, and eight in the west. The northern and southern
ones were (placed) five over five, and five over them ; and in the west three over three and
two over them. To each were three doors : one to the little chamber to the right, one to the
little chamber to the left, and one to the little chamber over it." Internally the Temple was
divided into the Holy Place—in which there were "three things that were very wonderful and
famous among all mankind, the candlestick, the table (of shewbread), and the altar of incense "
—and the Holy of Holies, inaccessible and inviolable, in which nothing was kept. The veil
of the Temple is stated to have been a " Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine
linen, and scarlet, and purple," and of a very fine texture. The colours were symbolical of
the universe : the scarlet and blue represented, by means of their colours, fire and air; the fine
linen, earth, by the flax of which it was made ; and the purple, the sea, from the circumstance
that the dye was obtained from salt-water shell-fish. Upon the curtain was also embroidered
" all that was mystical in the heavens, except the twelve signs of the zodiac representing living
creatures."
There is much divergence in the views of the writers who have attempted to reconstruct
the Temple and fix its position within the Haram enclosure. Mr. Fergusson supposes the
Temple to have occupied a square of about six hundred feet at the south-west angle of the
Haram esh Sherif, and he is followed in this by Messrs. Thrupp, Lewin, and others.