Prolegomena ad lexici prophetici partem secundam in quibus agitur De forma sanctuarij Iudaici
A Treatise or Remarks on Solomons Temple
Temple of Solomon
Prolegomena to the second part of the Prophetic Lexicon,
in which is treated
the design of the Jewish Sanctuary.
It is universally accepted that future events are foreshadowed by the prescriptions of the law, and the Apostle Paul amply testifies to this in Colossians 2.17 and Hebrews 8.5 and 9.23. That is why those prescriptions are more fitted than the natural World to be a system of things from which the Prophets could derive types; it is also why the Apocalypse is full of these types, and therefore these prescriptions and the Apocalypse explain each other like twin prophecies of the same things, and cannot be properly understood apart from each other. For that book, sealed by the hand of Him who sits upon the throne, is the very book of the law, as will be shown later, and its seals are opened in the Apocalypse. We must now therefore study the world of Israel, and expound the significance of its parts and ceremonies. And above all we must survey the Sanctuary in which the requirements of the law were carried out. This had three phases: the Tabernacle down to the time of Solomon, the first temple down to the Babylonian captivity, and the second temple down to the captivity under the Romans. We must get to know their design, if we want to have a proper grasp of their significance.
In the Tabernacle the holiest place was ten cubits wide and the same in length, the holy place was ten cubits wide and twenty in length, the golden altar was one cubit in both length and breadth, the great altar was five cubits long and the same in breadth, and the court of the tabernacle was fifty cubits wide and a hundred cubits long. Think of this court as divided into two squares by a line across it, with the tabernacle standing in the western square and the altar in the centre of the eastern square. Let the eastern square be called – to give it a name – the court of the priests, and let the other square in which the tabernacle stands be called the separate place. For those were their names in the period of the Temple. Let the Ark be situated in the centre of the most holy place and the golden altar in the centre of the whole Tabernacle, with a veil suspended at the middle point of the distance between the Altar and the ark. In the centre of the holy place on the southern side picture a seven-branched candelabra standing and a golden table directly opposite to it on the northern side, and finally a laver or bronze sea in the court of the priests between the Tabernacle and the altar on the south side. Exod. 30.18, 1 Kings 7.39.
Solomon in the design of his Temple retained the Mosaic proportions of the areas but doubled their dimensions. After that temple had been destroyed, God also showed to Ezekiel the same plan that He had revealed to Solomon through David, 1 Chron. 28.19, and retained all the same dimensions, so far as I know. Thus the most holy place of the first Temple was twenty cubits long and the same width, 1 Kings 6.20, Ezekiel 41.4; the holy place was twenty cubits long and forty wide, 1 Kings 6.2,17, Ezekiel 41.22; the golden altar was two cubits long and the same wide, Ezekiel 41.22, Solomon having evidently covered the Mosaic altar with new materials, 1 Kings 6.20; the great Altar was ten cubits in both length and breadth a
around the outside of the hearth at the top, though below it was twice as long and twice as wide, 2 Chronicles. 4.1, Ezekiel 43. The court of the priests was a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits broad, Ezekiel 40.47. The separate place was likewise a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits broad Ezekiel 41.13, 14, 15. Hence both courts together, or the court of the Temple which corresponded to the court of the tabernacle, was 100 cubits wide and 200 long. Solomon also built a porch[Editorial Note 1] in front of the temple 20 cubits long and about 10 or, more accurately, 11 cubits wide, 1 Kings 6.3, Ezekiel 40. 49. And he surrounded the court with a splendid building, and again, at a greater distance, with another still more splendid building, allowing an interval for an outer court all around about a hundred cubits wide. For he made two courts, an inner one for the priests and an outer one for the people, which was also called the great Court, 1 Kings, 6.36 and 7.12, Ezekiel 10.3 and 40.17, 19, 20, 23 etc., and 44.17, 19. And he surrounded both of them with rooms (1 Chronicles. 28 .12, Ezekiel 40.17, 44). And these courts were concentric, because all the gates of both courts were equal, and were 50 cubits long from the outer face to the inner face, and there was a hundred cubits between each door of the outer court and the facing door of the inner Court (Ezekiel 40), so that each side of the outer court was 50 cubits long on the outside (Ezekiel 42.20). And there is no mention of any other courts but these in the Temple of Solomon, except the little court of the cooks and the suburban court, 50 cubits wide, which surrounded the whole (Ezekiel 45.2).
✝ ✝ Moreover, the priests were located on the perimeter(peribolo) of the inner Court[Editorial Note 2]. The high priest together with his Vicars and the great Sanhedrin occupied the most prestigious eastern side. There followed on the north and south sides the Overseers of the services of the temple and the altar, and then the twenty four Princes of the priests[Editorial Note 3], each one having his own room, and finally on the sides of the separate place the inferior priests who had communal rooms there, where they consumed the sacrificial offerings, and donned their sacred robes. Outside in the great Court all the people congregated, and ate the sacrificial offerings in the rooms which surrounded it.
When the Babylonians this Temple — — — When the Babylonians had destroyed this Temple, after some time Zerubbabel built a Temple on almost the same foundations as was fitting, though with less magnificence, together with the inner Court which was essential for the Temple service. But as the outer court, which had been by far the most magnificent and extensive and had been designed for all the tribes, could not easily be restored at that time and was not needed for the small remnants of the two tribes, in its stead, on the eastern side of the priests’ court, a new court was built which was big enough for the returning population, though the older men who had seen the earlier Temple bitterly lamented its narrow foundations, Ezra 3.12. It was the paltry dimensions of the buildings which they lamented. These had not yet arisen again. This lamentation occurred at the very beginning of laying the foundations. They were grieved that such narrow limits had taken the place of a very spacious court. For when compared in size with the earlier sanctuary, the sanctuary of Zerubbabel seemed to be a negligible thing (Haggai, 2.3). {Certainly} the great Court never arose again for the use of the Jews. And Zerubbabel was hardly able to build in the end the bare minimum necessary for worship by his fellow-Jews, let alone build a court for the use of the Gentiles at greater expense. ☉☉ Cyrus too wanted nothing bigger built. For he decreed that the house of God should be built to a height of sixty{illeg} cubits and a breadth of sixty cubits and that there should be three courses of finished stone and a course of new timber, Ezra, 6.3, 4. Three courses of stones and a course of timber refer to the boundary of the inner court; this is clear from 1 Kings 6.36 where that court is described as being so constructed. Therefore Cyrus ordered that the Temple and the inner Court should be built, and nothing more. For it was scarcely worthy that Cyrus should specify in this very concise edict that a new court be constructed with a single wall. And it survived – – – – would more powerfully attract. It was later therefore that the Jews erected this wall, namely under the high priest Simon, son of Onias, whom they call Simeon the just. For in his days he fortified the Temple, and laid the foundations for the high double [cloister], [those] lofty retaining walls of the perimeter of the temple, Ecclesiasticus, 50.1, 2. And finally Herod and his successors brought this great work to completion with yet more splendid buildings,
In this — This Sanctuary without a large court survived to the time of Alexander the great and beyond, as is clear from Hecataeus[Editorial Note 4], a Gentile writer of those times. For in describing Judea and the city of Jerusalem and the sanctuary of Jerusalem he mentions the enclosure of the inner Court with its gates and everything within it, but says not a single word about the perimeter of the outer court, although once that perimeter was constructed, it was more magnificent [than the other] and more certain to draw all men’s eyes to itself. Therefore it was later when the Jews began to build it, and that was in the time of Simeon
And finally Herod and his successors brought this great work to completion with yet more splendid buildings.
In this temple the men of Israel were admitted to the eastern margin (margo) of the priests’ court, and hence that margin was called the court of Israel. Women as well as men entered the new court which Zerubbabel built in place of the great court and which was called the women’s court. And even Gentiles entered the great court. {Those who} from the time of the captivity had freely trodden the floor of that court, which was situated outside the limits of the new sanctuary and was not barred by any perimeter of buildings, continued to tread that floor as before, after that enclosure was erected under Simeon the Just, or rather under the Maccabean Princes, since long usage and the oblivion of the more ancient custom, gave them a kind of right. Ⓧ Ⓧ It is absurd to imagine that Solomon would have constructed a larger and more magnificent court for the use of Idolaters than for his own people, or that in the sacred edifice he would in any way have promoted the cult of idolaters, the sons of perdition, whose prayers God abominates, whom Jews were forbidden to hold any association with (Acts 10.28 and 11.3, Galatians 2.12), whose numbers in Judaea at that time were also negligible. Without a doubt it was the capture of Judaea and the Gentile domination which opened up entry into the holy place for such people. Hence this court was called the court of the Gentiles and, from an incorrect interpretation of Isaiah, ch. 2.2, the Mountain of the house and it was there that the people carried on trade as if it were a profane place, and they designated the inner sanctuary by the name of holy, as if this outer court were not holy. Foreseeing all of this, God reproves it through the prophet Ezekiel thus. In his delineation of the temple he omits the women’s court; he describes only two courts and says that the wall of the outer one was 500 cubits in length and breadth and that it divides the sanctuary from the profane area, Ezekiel 42.20; and again, this is the law of the house on the top of the mountain; all its boundaries all around are most holy[Editorial Note 5]. This is the law of the house, ch. 43.12. Then he locates the priests in the inner Court and all the people in the outer court, ch. 44.19 and 46.20, 24, and Prince and people — he does not permit Prince and people to enter the eastern margin of the court of the priests but bids them worship standing at the threshold of the inner eastern gate, ch. 46.2, 3. And he reproaches the Jews for admitting Gentiles into the sanctuary, as follows. Thus says the Lord God, enough of all your wrongdoings, O house of Israel, because you have brought sons of foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary and pollute my house, all the while that you are offering my bread, the fat and the blood, and you have broken my covenant with all your abominations. And you have not kept custody of my sanctuary but you have set custodians of my custody in my sanctuary for yourselves. Thus says the Lord Jehovah: no son of a foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter my sanctuary of all the sons of foreigners who are in the midst of the sons of Israel. This ✝[1] is what Ezekiel says fourteen years after the destruction of the first Temple. This is also the meaning of what[Editorial Note 6] Isaiah said in reference not to idolatrous Gentiles but to future Jews and Proselytes together: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Christ applied these words to the outer court, and severely criticises the Jews for its profanation in so far as the times allowed. For he did not expel the idolatrous gentiles whose prayers are an abomination, lest he should appear to be exercising the authority of a King of the Jews in untimely fashion against the Romans. It is there ‡ It is there then that the whole people is to be placed, excluding the Gentiles; it is in no way to be admitted into the inner Court except in going through the northern or southern gates in order to make a sacrifice, or to reach the rooms of the teachers, Jeremiah 36 .10.
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The dimensions of the Gates of both Courts elucidate{d} by the plan of Ezekiel 40[Editorial Note 7].
Verse 5. The Angel measured the width of the outer wall AS, one reed of six cubits, and its height one reed.
v. 6. Then the width of the threshold of the Gate BC, one reed, and the width of the threshold across the other way CT, one reed.
v. 7. Then the lengths (DE, FG, HI) and the breadths (ER etc.) of the three equal little chambers (cubicula) intended for the Porters[Editorial Note 8] on one side and the three on the other side, each one reed; and the intervals between the rooms (EF, GH), each five cubits[Editorial Note 9], and also the threshold of the Gate KL, one reed:
v. 8 And the width of the same threshold across the other way LV, one reed.
v. 9 And the porch[Editorial Note 10] of the Gate MN, eight cubits, and its posts[Editorial Note 11] OP, two cubits.
v. 11 And the breadth of the outer threshold OY, ten cubits and the width of the Gate, thirteen cubits. Thus far the Angel measured them all in order, now retracing his steps he measured also
v. 12 The width of the margin or step in front of the little chambers[Editorial Note 12] rs, one cubit.
v. 13 And the width of the Gateway from the wall of a little chamber to the wall of another little chamber inclusively, along a line stretching from the door of the Gateway ac to the door Rd, i.e., a width aR of twenty five cubits.
v. 15 And from the face of the outmost gate to the face of the inmost gate, i.e., from B to P, was 50 cubits. Namely BC (6) + DI (28) + KL (6) + MN (8) + OP (2). After all these things had been measured, Ezekiel was taken into the Court, and now for the first time he sees 30 rooms all around on the lower Pavement[Editorial Note 13].
[2] v 17,18. On the sides of the gate was the lower Pavement BH: on it were five chambers. And likewise on the other six[Editorial Note 14] similar pavements, so that altogether there were thirty chambers. And all these rested upon pillars[Editorial Note 15] (ch. 42.6), so that the people might take shelter there when it rained.
v 19 And the Angel measured the shortest distance between the two eastern gates of both Courts, a hundred cubits. Here {instead of} and to the north, read with the septuagint, And he led me to the North.
v 20, 21, 22, 23 The northern Gate F of the outer Court is 50 cubits long, 25 wide, and is in all things similar and equal to the eastern gate A. And the shortest distance between the western[Editorial Note 16] gates of both courts FG is a hundred cubits.
v 24, 25, 26, 27 The southern gate is similar and equal to the others, and is a hundred cubits distant from the facing southern gate of the inner Court. And the ascent to these three Gates of the outer Court is by way of seven steps.
v 28 down to v 37 The Southern, Eastern and Northern Gates of the inner Court are similar and equal to the gates of the outer Court, and the ascent to these[Editorial Note 17] is by eight steps. Verse 30 is lacking in the Septuagint, and there is a corrupt repetition of the final clause of the preceding verse, where evidently five is put for twenty.
v 39, 40, 41, 42 In the northern gate and in front of it are eight stone tables for the purpose of the sacrifices, as portrayed in Figure 2.
47. The length kI of the inner Court Iklo is one hundred cubits, the breadth Il is the same. Therefore the two Courts are concentric.
48, 49 pr = 5 cub. pq = 6 cub. st = 11 cub. (or according to the sept.[Editorial Note 18] = 12 cubits) sv = 20 cub. And the ascent to the Porch[Editorial Note 19] of the Temple is by ten steps.
Ch. 41. v 1, 2. wx = 6. xσ= 10. ya = 20 yz = 40 cub.
v 5, 6 The width of the Temple wall as far as the ground floor of the first room (6 cub) together with the further width of the room attached (4 cub) makes a width aB = 10 cub. And there were 30 such rooms or treasure chambers around the Temple on the ground floor, and there were three stories of them, i.e., 90 treasure chambers in all (see Josephus, Antiq. 18, ch. 3[Editorial Note 20]), and the upper 
treasure chambers were wider than the lower ones as the temple wall was stepped back, having three shoulders of one cubit all round (See 1 Kings 6.5, 6), so tha{t} the first room is 5 cubits wide (1 Kings 6) the second six, and the third seven.
v. 8 And throughout the whole height of the house the ground floors of the treasure chambers were six cubits long so that the full length of all thirty treasure chambers was 180 cubits all around, congruent with the outer dimensions of the temple.
v 9 There were also other similar and equal lateral treasure chambers βζ outside all around the temple abutting on the wall δζ which was five cubits wide. And the space left free between the later{a}l storerooms (cellae) of the Temple
v 10 And by a line drawn between the rooms was a width all round of twenty cubits[Editorial Note 21], i.e., the width of the whole structure measured from the temple wall ωh. Ezekiel expresses this measurement rather obscurely, but with an expression very similar to one he had used before (ch. 40.13).
v 11 And the doors of the treasure chambers faced onto the free space hm, facing each other on both sides. One door faced south, the other North. And the free space hmnto was five cubits wide all round.
v 12. As for the building βhkl. which was in front of the separate place βγ its width to its western end, i.e., the width lk, was seventy cubits, and the wall δζl of the building was five cubits thick all round, and its length hk was ninety cubits, congruent with the breadth and the length of the Temple and its buildings, on both sides. For the breadth of the Temple (20) + 2ab (20) + βh (30) = 70. And its internal length 62 + the {>w}al{l} and the building at the west end (25) + the wall on the east which is reduced by the three shoulders of a cubit each (3) = 90. For these shoulders have to be subtra{cted}[Editorial Note 22] so that the upper structure will not protrude beyond the temple. These three cubits {illeg} of shoulders correspond to the wall three cubits thick which divides the inner Court from the separate place.
v. 13 Thus the House was measured as a hundred cubits in length, which I calculate as follows: pr together with the ornament on the face of the door is 6 cub., for such is the thickness of the wall all round. Add sv (20) + wx (6) + yz (40) + ze (20) + ef (20) + fx (6), and the total will be a hundred cubits. In addition, the separate place kψ and the building with its walls, a hundred cubits.
v 14 And the width of the front of the house tω and of the separate place towards the east tp + ωq, i.e., the whole width of the Court pq, a hundred cubits.
v 15, 16 And the length of the building facing the separate place at the ba{c}k of the house lk and the spaces on either side ls + kr, that is the whole breadth of the Court, sr 100 cub. The inside of the Temple and the porches of the Court, the thresholds and the walkways between the small rooms (cellae) all around in three stories facing the threshold of each one were lined with wood all round. etc.
<10r>ch. 42. 1. When he had surveyed and measured everything in the double inner Court, the angel led me out by way of the north gate μG into the outer Court Rλ and he brought me as far as the block of chambers[Editorial Note 23] λ which was opposite the separate place and opposite the building ωhkγ to the north. 2. Along its front its length λω was one hundred cubits, its door facing north, and its width yz was fifty cubits. So in Hebr.
3. Directly opposite to the twenty cubits ωhkγ which were in the inner Court and directly opposite to the pavement which was in the outer Court, was a cloister[Editorial Note 24] πξ facing the cloister λω in three stories. So the Hebrew. The Latin very badly translates it as the cloister attached to the triple cloister.
4 And in front of the chambers there was a walkway[Editorial Note 25], whose width λπ was ten cubits, its way or length λω one hundred cubits. And the doors of those chambers which were set along its whole length faced north.
5 And the upper chambers were narrower in width, because the open cloisters or walkways above (built on to the sides of the upper chambers) took away [Hebr. ate away] from them, from the lower ones, I say, {and} from the middle ones[Editorial Note 26].
6 For they had been constructed in three stories, and they did not have pillars like the pillars of the thirty chambers in the outer Court. For this reason because of the two lateral galleries, open above, which took away from the middle and the topmost floor of chambers all around, it was necessary for the highest row of chambers to be curtailed and set further back from the ground than the bottom and middle ones.
7 And the length of the wall ST which was outside parallel to the chambers, on the way to the outer Court, in front of the chambers, was fifty cubits
8 Because the length of the chambers Ζρξπ which were next to the outer Court was fifty cubits, and those facing the Temple together were one hundred cubits.
9 And from the place of these chambers there was an entrance λπ from the East for people approaching them from the outer Court,
10 in the thickness of the eastern wall of the Court. And to the south [on the South side] there were chambers (exedrae) opposite the separate place and opposite the building
11, 12. In every way similar to the chambers on the north.
13, 14 And he said to me: The north and south chambers opposite the separate place are sacred; in them the priests dine and shall take off their vestments after they have finished the service before they go into the outer court to the people.
15 etc. When the Angel had measured the house inside, he led me out through the eastern gate of the outer Court A and he measured the four sides of the circuit of the outer wall , each of which, like MV, was 500 cubits. The sanctuary was separated by this wall from the profane area.
ch. 46.19, etc. After I had seen the glory of the lord he led me out into the place where the priests cook the sacrifices, and into the four courts W, X, Y, Z in the corners of the outer court where the sacrifices of the people are cooked. These little Courts Ezekiel had not previously seen and therefore they were hidden by the two sets of five rooms on each side in the lower pavement which met at the corner P, so that the smoke would not be seen in the two Courts. Those rooms therefore, together with the cloisters, occupied the whole breadth of the lower pavement. But they did not occupy its whole length right up to the gates because the Angel measured the width of the external wall there, and in addition, the gates are accessible by means of arches in their sides. But we are not told what exactly is the distance between the rooms on either side of each gate. This is left to be determined from the optimum symmetry of the buildings. And in my opinion the optimum symmetry will be for that distance to correspond with the breadth of the lower court. Let that distance ηκ therefore be a hundred cubits, Pη 150 cub. Ho the area of the rooms, Po the area of the three cloisters facing the three sets of rooms.
Ezek 40.14[Editorial Note 27]. And now the Angel returning made his way along (with benches perhaps set at intervals) the interior of the Gate through a space of sixty cubits within the circuit of the Gate as far as the front of the Court OP, i.e., not proceeding in a straight line but following the twists and turns of the inner Gate which he had already measure{d}. That is, in the circuit CD (3) + DE + ER + dF + FG + Ge + fH + HI (42) + IK + LM (7) + MN (8) + NO (1) = 62; subtract from this the width of the three doors (2) and there will remain 60 cubits. BC, KL, and OP are plainly left as the architectural proportion requires.
Ezek 42.4. a way of one cubit in Hebr. But the Septuagint translates way of a hundred cubits. Therefore their text read מאח a hundred where the modern reading is אחת one. And rightly. For the Angel is measuring here the width of the passage, ten cubits, and its way or course, that is, the length of its way, a hundred cubits. For he puts ררך, the course of the Passage, for its length.
<11r>Ezek 40. v 14, 16[Editorial Note 28]. And now the Angel returning made his way along the interior of the gate for a space of sixty cubits as far as the front of the Court OP measured[Editorial Note 29] in the circuit of the gate, i.e., not proceeding in a straight line but following the twists and turns of the gate BCDIKLMNO[Editorial Note 30]. At all events BC (6) + CD (3) DI (28) + IK (3) + KL (6) + LM (3) + MN (8) + NO (1) = 60.[Editorial Note 31]
Ib. verse 44 The Heb and the Latin version are very corrupt. Ezekiel is now led into the inner Court and when he is led from one place to another he is accustomed to say so. Read therefore with the septuagint: And he led me out into the inner Court and behold, two blocks of Chambers (Exedrae) in the inner Court, one (φ) at the back (or at the side) {at the back} of the northern gate looking south, the other at the back of the southern gate looking north. Just as when Ezekiel first came into the outer Court he spoke of the rooms he saw in it, so too he does in this inner Court. The former block (φ) is designed for the priests who are on watch for guard duty, the latter is for the priests who keep watch for the service of the Altar. The words in the Hebrew text about the singers and the eastern gate do not occur in the septuagint and ruin the sense. Levites certainly do not have rooms in the court of the priests, even less do they have rooms in a more distinguished position than is granted to the priests.
Ezek. 41.6 And the side treasure chambers, one above the other, were thirty times three doubled. So the Septuagint, correctly. That is, there were thirty times three rooms next to the temple and another thirty times three facing them, one opposite the other: namely thirty on the lower level, thirty in the middle and thirty at the top. In Hebrew it is as follows: And the side rooms, one above another, were three, and thirty פעמים (for that is how the word is pointed) in two rows. That is, the side rooms were three in height, one opposite the other, thirty in length in two rows, thirty on this side and thirty on that side, agreeably with the version of the Septuagint. See Ezek 41.16 and 1 Kings 6.6 on the three stories and Joseph. Antiq. bk. 8, ch. 3 for the number of 30.
verse 8 And I saw the height of the house all around (i.e., through its three floors of chambers); the foundations of the side rooms (cellae) measured a reed of six cubits. The Septuagint, instead of ‘foundation’, has διάσημα, the interval between the rooms. The measurement of lengths is given here by means of the total height of the house, because the upper rooms were wider but not longer than the lower ones.
v. 9. The Latin is: and there was an inner house on the sides of the house. But ‘inner house’ does not occur in the Hebr. And the septuagint reads: And there was a space left free between the siderooms of the house. That is, a passage between the siderooms on each side.
This space left free the Latin translates very badly as inner house; in the Hebrew it says מנח בית. מנח does not mean inner but[Editorial Note 32] free and empty, a place not occupied by buildings, an area in between; and later in verse 11 there is an account of the area onto which the doors of the chambers faced on both sides, and which is said to be five cubits wide all around its circuit. And the word בית, house, which in the Hebrew now occurs very close by, the Septuagint translated as ἀναμέσον and therefore read בין. Read therefore בין with the septuagint, and the meaning will be clear. Here is a literal translation: And what [was] empty between the siderooms which are next to the house. That is, What was not occupied by buildings was a street between the side rooms which were situated beside the parts of the wall towards the house. Or, as the septuagint briefly translates it: There was a space left free between the siderooms of the house.
v. 10. And there was a width of twenty cubits between the chambers around the house on all sides. By chambers (exedrae) here he does not mean the priests’ chambers (those were not situated all around the house, nor have they been observed so far or even so much as mentioned) but the small lateral rooms (cellae). And this measurement is not the width of the area between them (that was only five cubits v 12), but the width inclusive of the rooms, the width of the whole space outside the temple which the rooms occupied. That is why later when he is describing the priests’ chambers, he says that they are on one side directly opposite the twenty which are in the inner Court and on the other side directly opposite the pavement which is in the outer court. He does not say directly opposite the pavement which is in the inner Court but directly opposite the twenty, indicating not the street between the rooms but the whole structure of the small rooms which is twenty cubits wide, as if he had said directly opposite the small rooms. Therefore when he says, That there is a width of twenty cubits between the chambers, you must understand between in an inclusive sense, exactly as the width of the Gate in ch. 40.13 is said to be measured from room wall to room wall. For בין designates not the limits of an interval but a position of measurement, and is appropriately translated by the septuagint as ἀναμέσον. Through the middle of the chambers, crosswise, or by a line going between the chambers, he measured twenty cubits.
v 15. אחיקים Here the Walkways (Ambulacra) krqh and tp are meant; and later the three passages or cloisters all around between the three rows of side chambers, verse 16, are also called אחיקים, as also are the walkways at the sides of the chamber block of the priests, ch. 42.3, 5; and as I think, generally signifies a cloister or walkway, whether covered or open.
ch. 42. 3. The Latin {text}, which Villalpandus[Editorial Note 33] follows, translates, the cloister joined to the triple cloister. The Hebrew has, the cloister facing the triple cloister, agreeing with αντιπρόσωποι στοὰὶ τρισσαί[Editorial Note 34]
v 10 I suspect that הקדים דדך To the East has been written instead of הדדום דדך to the South by a mistake on the part of a scri{be. For the Septuagint here}[Editorial Note 35] has South and
Commentary
a. Ezekiel has given here[Editorial Note 36] the dimensions of the altar. At its base it was a cubit ab, and a cubit in width bd, and its rim tco to the edge one span all round. And this was raised at the [edge] of the altar. [Its purpose was to hold the blood of the sacrifices that poured down on to it, until it could run away into the ground through two small apertures, as the Talmudists explain][Editorial Note 37] And from its base on the ground up to the lower ledge is two cubits de and the width is one cubit ef. And from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge is four cubits fg and the width one cubit gh. And the α[3] top (mons) itself is four cubits hk, and from β[4] the hearth cavity there are four horns lq to projecting upward, and the cavity lq is twelve cubits long and[Editorial Note 38] twelve cubits wide, square in its four quarters. And the ledge [of the cavity] klqr is fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits broad in its four quarters. And the rim n or o all around it is half a cubit and its base lm one cubit all around. Thus Ezekiel. From this it is inferred that the length and breadth of the altar at the base az is twenty cubits and its height ym is ten cubits, as in the Temple of Solomon. From the mouth (rictus) lmpq subtract the path for the priests to walk around it, whose width, according to the Talmudists, was one cubit, and there will remain a hearth space, no, ten cubits long and ten cubits wide, i.e., twice as big as the one Moses built in both length and breadth. For the whole of the Mosaic altar was a hearth space surrounded by the priests’ walkway, and thus corresponded to the interior space no. In the second Temple period down to the time of Alexander the great and beyond, the Jews constructed an altar twenty cubits long and twenty wide and ten cubits high, as Hecataeus✝[5], a writer of those times, reported: but later they failed to understand the mathematical expression of bringing length into breadth, and wrongly interpreted the words of Ezekiel, as if the length and breadth of twelve cubits were to be measured from the centre of the altar; and thus they added twelve cubits to the correct dimensions and constructed an altar 32 cubits long and 32 cubits broad at the base. Take away those twelve bogus cubits, and their altar will agree with our description well enough. Furthermore, it is clear that at ch. 48.20 they have interpreted Ezekiel’s words wrongly, where twenty five thousand are brought into twenty five thousand to designate a square whose individual sides are not fifty thousand, as they would be by the Jews’ explanation, but only twenty five thousand. Ezek. 45.3, 5, 6 and 48.9, 13, 15. So too the sanctuary which is five hundred cubits long and 500 cubits wide is said to be five hundred into five hundred, 
Ezek. 45.2.
b. The Temple of Solomon together with its courts is thought to be fully described nowhere but in the visions of Ezekiel, and his exposition is very difficult. But when that temple was destroyed, traces of its foundations survived in the ground right down until the second temple was built, and it is to be expected that buildings erected upon the same foundations will throw light on each other. Let us see therefore what light a study of the second temple will throw on the visions of Ezekiel.
Both temples were built on Mount Sion on a ridge called Moria. And in the beginning, as Josephus[6][Editorial Note 40] tells us, the level area on the summit was scarcely big enough for the temple and the altar, because it is everywhere hilly and steep. But by surrounding the hill to the east and to the south with an immense wall and filling in the depression between the wall and the hill abd by excavating the rock on the north, they eventually took in the whole space that the square perimeter of the whole sanctuary had enclosed. Josephus, who had seen the place, describes this royal work of Solomon a number of times. He affirms that this wall was about three hundred cubits all round α[7] and on the eastern side indeed β[8] four hundred cubits high. ** But both here and in subsequent passages he means Roman cubits or rather quadripalmares[Editorial Note 41], which are very close to Roman cubits, as will be shown later. γ[9][Editorial Note 42] And the Talmudists {say}[Editorial Note 43], benches were attached to this wall on the inside all the way along, on which the people could sit, with a tiled roof built above to keep off the rain and the heat of the sun. And the benches ⊡ ⊡ And the benches bordered a boulevard (deambulatorium) fifty cubits wide all around the perimeter of the Temple. δ[10][Editorial Note 44] On the inside then, continues Josephus, there surrounds the summit itself … δ [11] [Editorial Note 45] Another stone wall surrounds the summit itself, whose eastern side for the whole of its length has a double cloister facing the door of the temple which is situated directly opposite in the centre. That cloister earlier kings] had erected. And this perimeter and everything inside it η[12][Editorial Note 46] is thus briefly described by Philo, who had also seen the place. The outermost perimeter wall of the Temple, visible far and wide, is equipped with four cloisters of most elegant design each of which is twofold, most wonderfully worked in timber and marble by the ingenious labour of craftsmen and the careful design of the architects. But ζ[13][Editorial Note 47] the inner perimeter walls are lower and show more severity in their style. In the middle is the Temple itself which is beyond description, as far as one may judge from what is seen on the outside. For no one is permitted to see the interior, except the High Priest alone, and he is only permitted on one festival day a year. Josephus agrees with Philo in affirming that all the cloisters of that outer perimeter were double both in η[14][Editorial Note 48] the temple of Solomon and in θ[15][Editorial Note 49] the second temple; except that Herod on the south side built a triple cloister instead of a double. κ[16][Editorial Note 50] cloisters, he says, stood four rows of pillars at equal intervals, of which the fourth [which was the outermost] was attached to a wall of stone that ran along with it And the thickness of each pillar was as much as three men could embrace by linking their arms together; their length was twenty seven feet, and a double moulding ran around the base. There were 162 of them in all, and the capitals were sculpted in Corinthian style so beautifully it was marvellous to see. These four rows [of pillars], continues Josephus, make [three] aisles and so form three cloisters, so that on both sides two identical cloisters, thirty feet wide, more than fifty feet high, and a stade long, enclose a middle cloister, one and a half times wider and twice as high, so much did it surpass both. Their ceilings are of wood sculpted with various figures. And the vaulting of the central cloister rose even higher as was lifted up on architraves of highly polished stonework relieved by inserted pillars, which deceived the eyes with the exquisite craftsmanship of their joinery. Thus Josephus. Now take away the central cloister, and put the other two next to each other, and you will have a description of the double cloisters around the perimeter of the court. For Herod displayed his unique magnificence in the central cloister, precisely because the rear cloister, which was visible to people in the court, had to be in conformity with the other cloisters around the perimeter. And Josephus elsewhere λ[17][Editorial Note 51] gives the internal width of the double cloister as thirty cubits, i.e., twenty sacred cubits. We must recognise that chambers were constructed above the cloisters, because that had been done in the inner court (as we shall soon see), though its buildings were lower, as Philo tells. There was one gate on each side of the court, except on the western side where Josephus places four gates. The Jews liked the number seven. But the corners were of a different design from the cloisters, and corresponded, if I am not mistaken, with the gates set in the middle. For μ[18][Editorial Note 52] Josephus speaking of the two cloisters on the north and on the west adds, ὡν ἡ συνάπτουσα γωνία της Κηδρωνος φάραγγοσ ὑπερεδόμητο, whose corner where they joined each other, was built over the valley Cedron, whence its immense and terrifying height. Therefore what Josephus means by the corners of the court is not simply the points where the cloisters met but certain buildings at those points. And that is the reason why, when the Romans under the Emperor[Editorial Note 53] Titus had burned the northern gate and the fire had advanced as far as this corner, it stopped, and did not touch the eastern gate, as Josephus tells us in the same passage. Evidently those corners were four little courts (Ezek 46.22), so that they easily stopped the fire by their emptiness and high walls. Hence also ν[19][Editorial Note 54] one corner of the fortress founded by the Hasmonean kings and built up more magnificently by Herod and named Antonia, stood in the corner of the court toward the city, so that where it joined with the northern and western cloisters, it would have open descents in both directions; To the east stood the cloister which was called the portico[Editorial Note 55] of Solomon, John 10.23. This is why ξ[20][Editorial Note 56] Josephus thought that this was the only portico that had been built by Solomon. And since it was situated in front of the Temple π[21] where the Jews mostly worshipped, it was frequented by the first Christians, the God worshippers, Acts 5.12. ρ[22][Editorial Note 57] The other porticos were built from scratch by Herod and his descendants. ρ[23][Editorial Note 58] This antique structure survived right down until the destruction of the temple, and was so superior to the others that were built by Simeon the Just, it was thought at that time to deserve the name of Solomon. τ[24][Editorial Note 59] The truly remarkable southern cloister of Herod’s was known as the royal portico, and its gate received the name of beautiful, because of its splendid ornamentation. For it was through the beautiful gate that the people entered the Temple, Acts 3.2. Everyone entered through the southern gate and exited through the northern gate, except those who had experienced a bad omen, for they went the opposite way, and entered through the northern gate and exited through the southern gate, as the Talmudists write[Editorial Note 60]. These cloisters Josephus treats as the first shrine or sanctuary. The whole open space, he says [25][Editorial Note 61] was of many colours, being paved with stones of all different kinds: and at the point where the people passed into the second shrine, there was a barrier of stone lattice work as much as three cubits high made with exquisite craftsmanship. This υ[26][Editorial Note 62] barrier was pierced on both south and north sides by three equidistant gates, and on the east there was one great gate through which the ritually clean might enter together with their wives. [And the gentiles came as far as this barrier] [27][Editorial Note 63] at which pillars were placed at equal intervals, with warnings about the law of purification, some in Greek characters, others in Latin, saying that foreigners must not enter the holy place. For the second shrine[Editorial Note 64] was called holy[Editorial Note 65], and was approached from the first by ascending fourteen steps. There was a square area at the top which was surrounded by its own wall, whose exterior height, though it rose 40 cubits [above the surface of the great court], yet was disguised by the steps [along the whole length of the south, east and north], and the interior height was twenty five cubits. For in the area that was raised by the steps the full height was not perceptible from the inside, being masked by the hill. But after fourteen steps there was a level terrace of ten cubits as far as the wall [and it served as the fifteenth step.] From here again five further steps led to the gates, of which there were eight on the north and south sides, i.e. four on each side [of which you have to recognise that the three eastern ones on either side correspond to the three gates in the lattice work barrier]. And there were also two on the eastern side – necessarily. For since a specific place [outside] in this area was set apart for the women’s worship by [throwing] a wall [around it], it became necessary to have a second gate [apart from the first and principal gate situated in the side of the square sanctuary above]. A gate was made directly opposite the first one [on the outside between it and the eastern gate of the lattice work barrier] On the other sides there was one southern gate and one northern one, by which access was gained [to the intramural space which lay between the women’s area and the square sanctuary above and from there] to the women’s area. For it was not allowed to enter through the other gates to the women’s area [because they led into the priests’ areas where it was forbidden for the people to enter freely]. And neither were they allowed to pass that boundary wall through their one [single] gate [by going into the women’s area. For only the King or the High Priest(Princeps)[Editorial Note 66] entered through that gate; others, after entering through the eastern gate of the lattice work barrier, turn from there to the sides, proceeding to the northern and southern gates]. For that area was open equally to natives and to foreign people [both men and women] who came for the sake of religion. But the western side [of the sanctuary at the back of the temple] had no gate, but a continuous wall had been constructed there. And between the gates [on the sides of the upper sanctuary] cloisters facing inward from the wall in front of the Treasure chambers [which were situated between them and the wall] rested upon large and beautiful pillars. And they were [not double like the lower ones in the outer court, but] single, and apart from their size, they were in no way different from [those] lower ones. Nine of the gates [situated in this higher sanctuary] were completely overlaid with silver and gold, and so were the door jambs and lintels, and the tenth gate outside the sanctuary [i.e., the one gate outside in the wall of the women’s court] was clad in Corinthian bronze which much surpassed in value[Editorial Note 67] the gates overlaid with silver and gold. And there were two leaves to each door, each thirty cubits high and also fifteen cubits wide. And widening out beyond the entrance on the inside [i.e., extending from the wall in which the entrance was towards the interior,] they had tower-like chambers thirty cubits in length and breadth on either side [built over the cloisters and the treasure chambers:] and more than forty cubits high. Each one [built between a[28][Editorial Note 68] the two gates] rested on two pillars each of twelve cubits circumference [apart from the two half-pillars on each side of the gates which, together with the full pillars, made three intercolumnar spaces under each of the chambers.] And the size of the [nine] other gates was the same. But the one above the Corinthian gate [i.e., in a higher position] opened from the women’s court from the east, directly opposite the gate of the temple, [of the two eastern gates, the first] was much bigger {than the rest}. For rising fifty cubits, it had doors of forty cubits, and more magnificent decoration, since it was overlaid with thicker silver and gold; Alexander, father of Tiberius, had put this [gold and silver] on them. And fifteen [χ [29] semi-circular] steps led up to [that] greater gate from the wall that segregated the women. For they were shallower than those five ψ[30] half-cubit] steps which led to the [eight] other gates.
The temple itself, which was called holy, was set in the middle [not in the centre but on a middle line] and was reached by a flight of twelve steps. And at the façade its height and breadth were both one hundred cubits, and behind ω[31][Editorial Note 69] it was forty cubits narrower. For in front its shoulders, as it were, extended twenty cubits on either side [the porch being that much larger] – And since the Temple within [sixty cubits in height] {was} divi{ded} into two stories, [by the construction of an upper room above] only the first hall (aedes) [understand, the porch] was open to its full, uninterrupted height, and it rose ninety cubits high, while it was forty cubits long [inside] and twenty cubits across.[Editorial Note 70] –– And around the sides of the lower part of the temple [rising as far as the dividing floor[Editorial Note 71]] were numerous communicating rooms in three stories, one above the other, and entrances to them were available on either side [of the temple] from the gate [of the temple α[32] in] the middle of its {posts} between the gates of the temple which were hung on each side of the wall]. The upper part did not have the same chambers, and was that much narrower, but was forty cubits higher and not so ornate as the lower one. A total height of a hundred cubits is reached by adding the sixty cubits from the ground.[Editorial Note 72] –– The altar in front of the temple, fifteen cubits high and fifty cubits in length and breadth, being square, was topped by horn-shaped corners, and the ascent from the south sloped up extremely steeply[Editorial Note 73]. It had been constructed without iron, and no iron had ever touched it. And the temple and the altar were surrounded by a graceful parapet of very fine stone which was a cubit high, and separated the people [on the east] from the priests. People with gonorrhea, that is, discharging seed, and lepers were banned from the city altogether, and it was closed to menstruating women. And even women who were ritually clean were not permitted to pass the boundary mentioned above. Men who were not in every way clean were excluded from the inner court [by the interposition of the parapet], as well as those of the priests who were clean[Editorial Note 74]. So Josephus, and elsewhere he repeats these final sentencesβ[33][Editorial Note 75]. The temple had four cloisters [or courts furnished with cloisters] all around and each one of these had its own legal restriction. All people, including foreigners, had the freedom to enter the outer court [hence called the court of the gentiles] only menstruating women were forbidden to enter it. All Jewish men entered the second cloister [that is what he calls the raised area (podium)[Editorial Note 76], which was constructed in the fashion of a cloister] and also their wives when they were free of all pollution. Into the third entered Jewish males who were clean and purified. And into the fourth priests clothed in their priestly vestments. But into the Innermost Shrine only the High Priests.
The Talmudists write things that agree with all this. γ[34] They say that the great Court (which they call the Mount of the house) was a square five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide on the outside and furnished with a cloister in front of a cloister, i.e., surrounded by a double cloister; and the inner courts were surrounded first with a latticework wall two common Jewish cubits high which they call סורג Soreg, and then with a solid inner wall named חיל, Chajil, whose height was ten cubits on the east and greater on the other sides, and then with an intermural space ten cubits wide, and at the inmost point with buildings of gates and chambers. The Talmudists (who had not seen the place) confuse the two Eastern gates with each other, describing only one and ascribing to it the features of both. On the south side they describe three gates[Editorial Note 80], proceeding from the west, the gate of flaming, the gate of the offerings and the gate of waters, and likewise three gates on the north side, the house of fire, the gate of the offerings and the gate of projection[Editorial Note 81]. R. Iose adds two more westerly gates, one on the south side, called the upper gate, and one on the north side called the gate of Jeconiah. The Talmudists also specify six rooms in the inner court. They are each to be placed between two gates, and two more are to be added outside on the west, as was the case for the gates. For it is evident from Josephus that two chambers stood in the corners of the court on the west side. The gate of projection had an upper room above it, and the priests kept their watch above and the Levites below, where there was a door for them opening towards the gate Chajil. So too the House of flaming was large and divided into rooms[Editorial Note 82]; it had four rooms below: two in the holy place, i.e., in the area of the cloisters which were open to the inner court, and two in profane space, that is, on the outside in the area of the treasure chambers which were shut off from the court, and for that reason were set outside the court, i.e., in a comparatively profane area. And these two rooms opened onto a profane place, i.e., onto the intermural space. Similarly the chamber which was called the chamber of squared stone was set partly in a sacred place, i.e., above the cloister, and partly in a profane place, i.e., above a treasure chamber, and opened onto a profane place or the intermural space, and was very grand and spacious, for the great Sanhedrin of the seventy elders held their sittings in it. Imagine that the other gates and chambers were like those that have been described, so that the court was uniform. But in the eastern gate there were only two rooms below, the Wardrobe room of Phinehas[Editorial Note 83] on the right or north side of the gate and the room for those who cook the sartagines[Editorial Note 84] on the left side. Hence it is inferred that this side of the court being narrower, had no treasure chambers. In the corners of the women’s court outside there were four little courts each forty cubits long instead of chambers. No doubt Zerubbabel had constructed them instead of the courts which had been in the corners of the great court. The Talmudists give the width of the women’s court (between these little courts) as 135 sacred cubits, and describe its walls as smooth and plane, and instead of a cloister there was a raised platform (podium) attached to it all round, so that the women could view the worship from above, while the men were below. Under the court of Israel were rooms which opened onto the women’s court. In them the Levites stored their lyres, harps, cymbals and other musical instruments. On the east there was an ascent by twelve steps from the great court to the women’s court, and from that court by fifteen semi-circular steps to the court of Israel, which was 135 sacred cubits long and eleven wide. This court was divided from the priests’ Court by an ascent of one cubit, from which the Talmudists conjecture that the court of Israel was higher, despite the fact that this ascent was Josephus’ parapet one cubit high, separating areas of equal height. In any case the court of Israel was the actual eastern margin of the priests’ Court. On the northern margin between the parapet and the gate of the offerings, directly opposite the altar, was the butchery where the sacrificial victims, suspended from eight pillars, were stripped of their skins, and the flesh was set out on the same number of tables and washed. The sacrificial victims were brought in to be slaughtered through the gate of the offerings on the north side of the altar inside the parapet. At that point 24 rings were set into the pavement in six rows to which they tied the victims to be slaughtered. There were four cubits between the rings and the tables, and it is clear that the parapet went through that space because the rabbis η[35][Editorial Note 85] put the case of someone standing outside the inmost court and stretching his hand inside and either killing a sacrificial victim or scooping up the blood of a victim already slaughtered; also of a beast about to be slaughtered putting a foot outside the court. From this it is clear also that there was an opening in the parapet at this point, because it was also necessary for slaughtered victims to be carried out promptly to the Butchery. But the mouth of the gate ought to correspond to the opening in the parapet, and therefore the gate stood directly opposite the altar. Through the gate of offering opposite, which was also called the gate of the first-offerings, the first-offerings of the animals were brought in to be slaughtered on the southern side of the altar. And the Talmudists give a width of 135 sacred cubits between these gates, and this is how they compute it. The ascent of the altar, 30 cubits. The width of the altar, 32 cub. Between the altar and the area of the rings, 8 cub. The area of the rings, 24 cub. From there to the tables, 4 cub. From the tables to the pillars, 4 cub. From the pillars to the wall of the court, 8 cub. The remaining 25 cubits are partly the space occupied by the pillars, partly the space between the ascent of the altar and the southern wall of the court. These the more recent Rabbis ζ[36] divide into two. But I would divide it so that the altar stands in the middle of the court; and this will be the case if twenty and a half cubits are assigned to the distance between the ascent of the altar and the wall, and the remaining four and a half to the pillars. Furthermore, of these four and a half cubits I would assign one and a half to the width of the tables (Ezek. 40.42) and the remaining three to the bases of the pillars. For the tables being set out in a straight line, an equal number of pillars, also set in a straight line, were ranged opposite them, corresponding one to one, and thus their width did not occupy more space than in proportion to the base of one pillar. Therefore the centre of the altar set in the middle was 67 cubits away from the walls of the gates, and about 50 cubits from the parapet, and therefore the court within the parapet was a hundred cubits wide, exactly as Hecataeus too affirms in Josephusθ[37][Editorial Note 86]. Thus therefore the width of the court was twice the width of the Mosaic tabernacle, and its margins on both sides were 17 cubits. The Talmudists give the length of the court as 187 sacred cubits, and they calculate it as follows. The place for the entrance of the priests who were not on duty, which was situated between the court of Israel and the altar, was eleven cubits. The altar 32 cub. Between the altar and the Temple porch it was 22 cub. The temple was 100 cub. Between the temple and the western wall of the court was 11 cub. Add to all these the eastern margin or court of Israel 11 cub., and a total of 187 cub. will be reached. Here from the centre of the altar to the western boundary of the court is 149 cubits, just about double the Mosaic dimension. But in the other direction from the centre of the altar as far as the one-cubit parapet on the east, where by doubling the Mosaic dimension, there should be 50 cubits, there are only 27; this is because they shortened that court on the eastern side so that more space might be left for the women’s court. That is also why there were no treasure chambers there, and they made the margin of the court there more than a third smaller than on the other sides. I would also reduce the aisles between the pillars of the eastern cloister in the same ratio. Further, the Talmudists define the dimensions of the temple with regard to length as follows. The front wall of the Porch 5 cub. The Porch 11 cub. The front wall of the temple 6 cub. The holy place 40 cub. The veil 1 cub. The innermost shrine 20 cub. The rear wall 6 cub. The breadth of the western chambers 6 cub. The wall of the chambers 5 cub. Total 100 cub. And this is how they calculate the breadth of the temple. The wall of the impluvium 5 cub. The impluvium, or space in which the rainwater from the temple collected, 3 cub. The wall of the chambers 5 cub. The width of the chambers 6 cub. The wall of the temple 6 cub. From there to the middle of the temple 10 cub. The total is 35 cub. Double this, and it gives a total breadth of 70 cubits. But I do not see at all why the wall for collecting rain should be made so thick. I would prefer to make it a slim parapet just two cubits high and two cubits wide, and transfer the remaining three cubits of the breadth to the chambers. For thus the whole breadth of the temple with its chambers will be 60 cubits altogether, as Josephus and Ezra 6.3 affirm. And the Talmudists enumerate 38 chambers around the temple, namely fifteen on the south and fifteen on the north, i.e., five on each floor, and on the west three on the lowest floor and three on the middle floor and two on the top. From the court there was an ascent to the temple porch by twelve steps. The doorway of the Porch was 20 cubits wide and 40 high, the doorway of the temple was 10 cubits wide and 20 high, and there were four doors to it, two within and two without. The exterior doors opened into the Porch, the inner ones into the temple. At the sides of the Porch there were two tiny doors, one on either side. By the north door entered the man who was to open the gates of the temple, and thence by a passage in the actual thickness of the wall, he went as far as another door in the door frame of the temple and through that into the space between the outer and inner doors, and there he released the bolts. By this small passage one could also reach the spiral staircase in the corner of the temple from which a third door led into the lowest range of chambers (thalamus), a fourth into the middle chambers and a fifth into the highest chambers. For the Talmudists put five doors in the north east corner of the temple. And from there the temple could be perambulated on each of the floors by going from room to room through the door in the party-wall. And this is more or less the account that the Talmudists give.
In order to complete our description of this temple we need to compare the measures employed by Josephus and those of the Talmudists. This is not the place to offer a long discussion of them. I will say briefly that the Talmudists employ the sacred cubit of six handbreadths[Editorial Note 87], and that the Jews made use of their own measures, instead of Gentile measures, but under gentile names. Thus they used the sacred cubit for the smaller Roman pace (passus), two sacred cubits for the larger Roman pace (passus), a thousand sacred cubits or Berah for the smaller Roman mile (milliare minus), two thousand sacred cubits or a Sabbath day’s journey for the larger Roman mile (milliare majus), a measure of four sacred handbreadths for the Greek cubit, 400 such cubits for the Greek stade, and the length of the Royal horse track in the valley beside the temple – about 70 reeds or 400 sacred cubits – for the larger stade. It is with this stade that Josephus describes the perimeter of the outer court. The Talmudists mean the other stade ✝[38] when they equate the milliare, i.e., two thousand sacred cubits, with seven and a half stades. Josephus also uses the cubit of this stade throughout in his description of the temple since he is writing for Gentiles, except in certain much discussed dimensions of the temple strictly so-called, which are also mentioned in Holy Scripture, where he felt obliged to retain the sacred cubit. This will become clear if we compare Josephus’ cubits with the sacred cubits of the Talmudists in the following table.
Thus Josephus’ measures, when reduced to sacred measures, either agree completely with those of the Talmudists or come very close. For Josephus writing to the Gentiles, was not as careful as he should have been about exact measurements and loved to sin by excess. But now that we have learned Josephus’ measures, let us return to the Temple.
Between every two gates Josephus puts a chamber of 30 cubits, i.e., 20 sacred cubits. Josephus often uses round numbers. I would rather write 22 cubits. For the two pillars on which each chamber rested cannot be contained in a smaller space. By the consensus of Josephus and the Talmudists, their circumference was eight sacred cubits. Hence the diameter of the shaft is 2 cubits. In the ratio of 3 to 2, the width of the base will be 3 cubits or almost 23 handbreadths. Let it be no more than 22 handbreadths. The intervals between these bases by architectural proportions should not be less than the bases. Suppose they are equal to them (for that proportion is the simplest) and the two pillars, with an equal number of half-pillars and three intercolumniations, will occupy a space of 22 cubits, to be allowed for one chamber between two gates. And the gate of the waters minus the door of the chamber, so that both flanks with a width of 11 cubits each, plus a door with a width of 10 cubits, will make a total width of 32 cubits. For widths of 11 and 22 cubits are quite frequently used in these buildings, and the doorways of all the gates, with the exception of the first eastern gate, were 10 cubits wide and 20 high, by the consensus of Josephus and the Talmudists. And the truth of these dimensions is clearly demonstrated by the agreement of the gates and chambers with parts of the court. The two gates of offering with a width of 32 cubits will exactly correspond to the altar in the middle. And perhaps the width of the altar was increased precisely in order that it would correspond to the gates. The two nearest chambers on the west, with a width of 22 cubits, will correspond to the area of the same breadth between the altar and the temple porch. The two gates of fire and the two chambers next to them and the furthest gates will occupy a total space of 86 cubits directly opposite the porch and the temple rising above its side chambers. And the two furthest chambers with their three-cubit-thick western walls will fill the remaining space of 25 cubits as far as the western wall of the court. And the two furthest chambers to the east with a width of 22 cub. will correspond to the area of the same width between the altar and the eastern cloister, and the western flanks of the two furthest gates with a width of eleven cubits will receive the eastern cloister, and their exits will lead into the space of the same width which lies between the walls, and its two eastern flanks will run further out towards the women’s court. Obviously one of them was called the gate of projection because it projected beyond the wall of the inner court. It stood therefore partly inside and partly outside. Similarly the other gate, which was called the gate of waters, also stood partly outside. For the priests who kept watch in the house Abtinas[Editorial Note 89] which was built above it, are spoken of as keeping watch outside the court. In fact the entrances of these gates were outside the inner court because the women walked through them into their court. However part of these gates stood within the inner court because they were among the nine silver gates from which Josephus distinguishes the bronze gate situated in the women’s court by calling it the gate ἔξω της νέως, ‘outside the temple’, i.e., outside the inner sanctuary. The other nine therefore stood within the precincts of that sanctuary. Rabbi Jose calls the gate of projection the gate of the singers. Presumably the Levites used to sing in two different places, one above the 15 steps, i.e., in the intermural space between this gate and the gate of the waters, the other on the raised area beside the one-cubit parapet towards the altar. Finally because all the people used to come through these gates to go into both the court of Israel and the women’s court, we have to conclude that they occupied an intermediate position, leading as they did into the intermural space that lay between the two courts. We know therefore the position of these gates exactly and therefore also the position and size of the remaining gates and chambers as far as the Western Wall of the court. It was completely appropriate that all of these gates would be equal and spaced at equal intervals from each other, and this is also implied by the portals (janua) in the latticework barrier opposite, whose distances apart Josephus describes as equal. This is the only way in which four equidistant gates can be regularly arranged, given the length of the court.
<31r>Now that we have determined these things, we have also arrived at a thickness of 11 cubits for the eastern cloister, which corresponds to the breadth of the western flanks of the gate of projection and of the gate of the waters. I calculate this as follows. Base of the pillar 22 handbreadths. Width of the aisle 4 cub. Half-base 11 handbreadths. The wall attached to the half-pillars 1 cub. Total: 11 cub. Add this, plus the western wall of the court 2 cub., to the aforesaid length of the court, 187 cub. This will give a total length of 200 cub. Thus in the total length of the court including the buildings, the Jews retained double the length of the court of the tabernacle which must have been within the one-cubit parapet. Furthermore, (for the reasons explained above), let the width of the aisle in the northern cloister be calculated from the width of the aisle in the eastern cloister in the ratio of the margins adjacent to the cloisters of the court, i.e., 17 to 11, and the width of the aisle in the northern cloister will be almost exactly double the width of the base of a pillar. Thus there will be eleven cubits between the axes of the pillars of the aisle on both sides; this dimension is frequently used in these buildings, and in my opinion, has its origin in this width of the cloisters. And the total width of the court between the walls of the cloisters will be 160 cubits. On both sides add the Treasure chamber of about 11 cubits, including the walls, and the area of the steps, about 8 cubits including the exterior wall. And the total width of the court including the buildings will be 200 cubits, and this agrees with the description of Ezekiel. Thus the sanctuary will be a square of 200 cub. in both length and breadth, and that shape will be made perceptible and evident to people walking around it because it is surrounded by the ten cubit wide intermural space of the Talmudists. Josephus fully confirms all this by asserting that the sanctuary above was a square and surrounded with its own wall. For he does not mean the whole sanctuary including the women’s court, as Capellus[Editorial Note 90] thought, but the upper level of the sanctuary, to which one ascended from the women’s court by means of fifteen steps and which was called the sanctuary in a stricter sense. His words τητράγωνον δὲ ἄνω square above plainly designate the upper level.
Furthermore I would claim that the wall by which Josephus and the Talmudists insist that the Sanctuary was surrounded, i.e., the wall Chajil, was very thick, both because it was the exterior wall and held the leaves of the gates in it, and because the Romans, as Josephus[39] tells us, had no success at all in pounding it for six continuous days without intermission with the most powerful of all their battering rams, which had had no difficulty in breaching other city walls. Suppose it emulates the external wall of the temple of Ezekiel with a thickness of six cubits, ch. 40.5 – then the total width of the sanctuary, including the intermural space and this wall Chajil, will be 232 cubits. Subtract the internal width of 135 cub. and the length of the gate will be a half of what remains, 48 cub. If you add to this the ornaments on the facades on both sides you will easily arrive at the length of 50 cubits which Ezekiel assigned to the gates. And if the gates are extended that far, the intermural space should pass through the middle of all of them with doors across it ten cubits wide and 20 cubits high.
The dimensions of the women’s court also agree with these dimensions for the widths. The small corner courts which correspond to the little courts in the corners of the great court should match them in both length and breadth. Width 30 cub., that of the outer wall 1 cub., that of the inner wall 1 cub. and[Editorial Note 91] And thus the women’s court with a breadth of 135 cubits and the two little courts with widths ✝[40] of 30 cubits and the walls which together have a width of 5 cubits make up a breadth of 200 cubits within the intermural space, exactly as in the upper court. So completely do all the calculations of the widths confirm each other.
Let now the flanks of the gates be subtracted (retrahantur) from the corners where the Talmudists locate the little courts, and the length of the sanctuary towards the east will be calculated as follows beginning from the eastern cloister. The intermural space 10 cubits. Its wall 1 cub. The little court 40 cub. The passage between the little courts with its walls 9 cub. The other little court 40 cub. Total 100 cubits. Add [the distance] in one direction to the upper sanctuary 200 cubits and in the other direction to the eastern wall of the women’s court 2 cub. and on both sides an intermural space of 10 cub and the wall Chajil 6 cub, and the total length of the sanctuary will be 334 cubits. This length is confirmed by two arguments. The first is that Hecataeus in ✝[41] Josephus says that the stone perimeter wall of this temple was about five plethra long. In the same place Hecataeus gives the width as one hundred cubits, i.e., within the parapet. This is a hundred sacred cubits, and therefore Hecataeus, a gentile who lived in Egypt, had received these measurements from Jews, i.e., in sacred cubits, and did not know how to convert them to the cubits of his fellow-Greeks. Hearing cubits therefore, he thought of common cubits, and, for simplicity of expression, he put plethra. Let the cubits be converted back, and the length of the surrounding wall will be 333 cubits or, to use a whole number, 334 cubits as above. The other argument is that the altar should have stood in the middle of the whole sanctuary. For it did stand at one time in the middle of the great court, and the Jews would not lightly have changed its position. Also the inner sanctuary should have stood in the middle of the great court, and its eastern and western boundaries should have been equally distant from its sides, and the gates in the middle of the other sides should look directly towards their gates of Offerings. Otherwise the site would be irregular and incongruous. The altar therefore stood in the common centre. And so it is in our description. On the one hand, the altar stands in the middle of the inner court, which is bounded on the one side by the porch of the temple and on the other side by the eastern cloister; on the other hand, it stands in the middle of the whole inner sanctuary, being distant from the outer wall Chajil on both sides by 161 cubits, and is therefore also in the middle of the great court. The women's court cannot be increased or diminished by one cubit without destroying the concentricity. Just as the space between the altar and the eastern cloister on the one side, and the space between the altar and the temple Porch on the other, a breadth of 22 cubits, mutually correspond to each other, so the buildings between the inner court and the women's court on the one side and the temple porch between the inner court and the separated space on the other side, with an external width of 22 cubits, mutually correspond to each other, so also the women's court on the one side and the separate space on the other side, with a width of 89 cubits, mutually correspond to each other, and thus the eastern wall of the women's court and the intermural space and the Wall Chajil on the one side, and the Western Wall of the separate space and the intermural space and the wall Chajil on the other side, with widths of two, 10 and six cubits respectively, correspond exactly with each other. Hence it is clear that the Talmudists were wildly mistaken in ascribing 135 cubits to the women's court in a square. We must also include in that measurement the court of Israel together with the place for the entry of the priests and the western wall of the women's court. Otherwise 46 cubits would have to be added towards the east, but the great court will not allow for that as well as the further area of the latticed enclosure.
Under the buildings of the upper court wells, baths and various small cellars had been excavated; just as under the cloisters on the north side there was the Room of the salt in which they placed the salt for the offerings, the Room of Hipparva[Editorial Note 92] in which they treated the skins of the victims with salt, and the Rinsing Room where they washed the intestines of the victims. These were cellars because the roof of the Hipparva is described as level with the ground of the court and from the room of the washers a spiral staircase rose into the roof of the Hipparva. But let us ignore all this, and let us see what purposes the upper parts served.
In the chamber of squared stone sat the great Sanhedrin. This stood to the south in the tribe of Judah, and thus was situated between the gate of offering and the gate of waters. For a line passing through the eastern side of the altar left everything towards the west in the tribe of Benjamin. Hence since the altar stood in the centre of the whole, the greater part of the sanctuary was assigned to the tribe of Benjamin.
Two lodgings were assigned to the High Priest, one on the south and the other on the north. To the south the house of Abtinas, which is described as high and situated above the gate of waters, i.e., above its western flank and its door, since above its eastern flank the priests kept their watches. To the north was the Chamber of the Parhedri or Counsellors, which I would place between the second gate of Offering and the door of projection opposite the Sanhedrin. For that chamber (exhedra) was the most dignified of all. The north side was the more dignified side, and the most dignified position on it was towards the east.
# # With the high priest I include his Vicar and Subvicars. Next in dignity were the Overseers of the temple and altar services. To them therefore are to be assigned the rooms which are next in dignity: namely the chambers on both sides between the gates of Offering and of Fire, together with some rooms of the eastern gates. The Overseer of weaving and preparing the priestly vestments was the lowest of all, and he had his own room in the sanctuary (Majemon. De cultu divino, treatise 2, ch. 7, sect. 20)[Editorial Note 93]. How much more for the other Overseers?
There remain the four final apartments (exhedrae) There remain the last four apartments to be divided equally between the twenty four Princes of the Councils of the priests in such a way that each apartment, each of two floors with three rooms on each floor, would accommodate six Princes. Josephus writes that the apartments, more than forty cubits high, were each supported on two pillars. Let that height be 45 cubits, i.e., 30 sacred cubits, and an apartment will contain a sufficient number of rooms on two floors. To this height is to be added the height of the pillars below which I would put at six times the thickness, in the Doric mode, i.e., 14 cubits; together {with} the bases and the capitals, about 18 cubits. So the total height will be 48 cubits. In width three rooms corresponded to three intercolumniations.
For the lower Priests and Levites there remain the last four gates. For there are no other places where they could consume the sacrifices. Now it is likely that in the distribution of these each company should participate equally. Likewise, three treasure chambers in each of the cloisters, corresponding to the same number of intercolumniations, make a total of twenty four treasure chambers, in accordance with the number of councils. In the first eastern gate there were ✝[42] ninety six chests for storing priestly vestments, i.e., four for each council, and the name of each council was inscribed on its own chests. So Too in the flanks of the temple porchs x[43] there were twenty four small rooms where the priests stored the sacred utensils separately that belonged to each of the twenty four councils. And such was the arrangement of the inner sanctuary. Let us descend now and go out through the latticework barrier into the court of the gentiles.
The Talmudists make each of the sides of this court five hundred cubits on the outside, Josephus makes them one stade between the corners, i.e., four hundred cubits. The difference is due to the corners which are fifty cubit squares. Josephus confirms this tally in another passage by giving the royal cloister as one stade in length and the total perimeter of the temple and the Antonia as six stades. A perimeter of 600 cubits for the Antonia tallies well enough with its description in Josephus. Add a perimeter for the temple of 2000 cubits, and the total will be 2600 cubits, 200 of which are missing where the Antonia runs into the corner of the temple. There remains a perimeter of 2400 cubits, i.e., six stades.
The length of the gates at fifty cubits should correspond to the corners, and their width of 32 cubits should correspond to the gates of the inner court. Thus between the corners of each cloister and the gate which Josephus places in the middle Thus between the angles of each cloister and the gate which Josephus places in the middle there will be left on either side a length of 184 cubits to be distributed among twenty intercolumniations. Josephus gives the number of pillars in the Royal cloister as 162, in Greek PΞB as opposed to PΞ, i.e., 168, a small change of the final letter. For the number should be divisible by 8, because there are eight equal rows of pillars, four on one side and four on the other. In one row therefore there are 21 pillars and therefore 20 intercolumniations. This is confirmed as follows. From the west side of the court of 400 cubits take away the four gates, altogether 128 cubits, and there will remain 272 cubits for the combined length of the cloisters in five sets (intervalla). Let those sets be made equal, as on the sides of the inner court, and one set will be 54 cubits, and there will be room for either five or six or seven intercolumniations, and the Royal cloister will have room for either 17 or 20 or 24. But seventeen will be too far apart by the architectural proportions, and 24 not far enough apart, provided that the pillars are made equal to those of the other court, and both are too far away from Josephus’s numbers, and therefore twenty need to be placed there instead. On this plan the pillars will be a little farther apart than in Vitruvius’s system for the proper spacing of pillars but for that reason more pleasing, and here where the architraves are large blocks of stone which cannot be interrupted, Vitruvius’s objection is irrelevant.
And I would equate the pillars of this court with those of the other court, because they could be encircled by the linked arms of three men, as Josephus says, i.e., three orgia or twelve gentile cubits, i.e., eight sacred cubits. And hence I would also make the cloisters in both courts equal in width, except that the middle cloister, which is twice as high as the others, would also be twice as wide between the bases of the pillars. Thus the width of the base will be twenty two handbreadths, that of the outer aisle between the bases twice as wide, that of the central aisle four times as wide, and that of the whole triple cloister 44 cubits. Half of the space between the outermost pillars would be occupied by the attached wall Let the outermost wall furnished with a continuous bench[Editorial Note 94] be added, which Ezekiel set at six cubits long and six cubits wide, and a width of fifty cubits will be attained, congruently with the dimension of the gate and the corner in which the cloister terminates at either end. Further this calculation is confirmed by the testimony of Josephus who writes that the two equal outside cloisters of a width of thirty feet enclose within them a middle one whose width is one and a half times as great. Thirty Roman feet are about 14 sacred cubits, as will appear from what follows. If the Attic foot is one twenty fourth larger than a Roman foot, as many insist, thirty Attic feet, are about 14 sacred cubits. I am more inclined to suspect that Josephus, in the interests of speedy calculation, used instead of a foot the nearest Hebraic unit, half a cubit; accordingly, 30 feet will be 15 cubits. And congruently with this measurement, the width of the outer cloister in our description is 14 cubits, including the pillars, and the width of the middle cloister, likewise including the pillars, is 22 cubits, and thus exactly one and a half times the former.
Now take away the middle cloister, and there will remain double cloisters along the remaining three sides of the court, 22 cubits wide between the axes of the outer pillars, 18 cubits between their bases and 19 cubits between the pillars. And that this is so is confirmed by Josephus, who gives the width of the double cloister, in a round number, as thirty of his cubits, i.e., twenty sacred cubits. We now have therefore the dimensions of the cloisters with regard to width. From the corners therefore let steps ascend to all the upper parts, and let doors open from each of the aisles (deambulationes) of the cloisters into the corners, and let the doors in the sides of the gates correspond to those opposite.
If we are now to deal with the heights, Josephus writes[Editorial Note 95] that the length of a pillar, made of a single block of stone, is 25 cubits, i.e., 16 sacred cubits, and elsewhere 27 feet, that is, 13 sacred cubits. Hence I infer that the length was six times the thickness in the Doric manner, as in the lower court, which would be 14 sacred cubits, since this measurement falls between the other two. And the bases and the capitals, sculpted in the Corinthian style, will fill a length of about 18 cubits, i.e., double the interval between the axes of the pillars. This therefore was the height up to the architraves. But Josephus puts the internal height of the cloister at more than 50 feet, that is, more than 25 cubits. Let it be 27 cubits, i.e., one and a half times the height of the architraves from the ground, and the double height of the central cloister will be 55 cubits inside. Let a floor two cubits thick be set upon that, and a series of grand rooms whose internal height will equal their width of about fifteen cubits, and a roof of five cubits and a podium[Editorial Note 96] all round above of three cubits, and this will give a total height of eighty cubits. And certainly Josephus does say that the height of this central cloister was remarkable.
The Jews built the roofs of their houses flat so that they could walk upon them. Let the doors therefore of these rooms open onto the roofs of the rooms built at the sides over the two outer cloisters, and the height of those roofs, being level with the floor or base of the central rooms, will be determined as fifty seven cubits. Add a platform podium three cubits high all around and the total height will be sixty cubits. Imagine that the other cloisters around the perimeter of the court had the same height, because the inner faces of all of them had to be in conformity with each other.
Finally, in order to get from the temple we have described to the temple of Solomon, we have to reject everything that Zerubbabel or Herod added or which is irregular, like the women’s court and the gate of projection and the gate of waters which lead into that court, and the matching gates on the other side of the altar to which certainly no gates correspond in the great court, as well as the four gates with the double cloister on the western side of the great court to which nothing corresponds in the inner court, and the same number corresponding to these in the outer court, in the middle of all of which the altar may stand. In place of the demolished gates where the priests used to eat the sacrifices, let rooms be built in the separate place suitable for this purpose. And since Herod and the Jews loved to err on the big side, for example by increasing the internal height of the Temple and the width of Porch, Altar and gates, and by replacing the double cloister on the south side of the great court with a triple cloister, let these enlargements be corrected, and let the two walls Chajil and Soreg, be removed together with their superfluous steps, since Zerubbabel (as I think) originally constructed them as the boundaries of his sanctuary, and since they pointlessly diminish and obstruct the great court which is intended for a very large number of people. And let the gates be extended inwards as far as the one cubit parapet. And since the Temple with its chambers was formerly 70 cubits wide (Ezek. 41.12) and Cyrus reduced the width by 10 cubits (Ezra 6.3), i.e., by removing the passage, five cubits wide, between the chambers and by constructing doors in the middle of the chamber walls instead, by which access could be had through them, and the Jews made up the former width of 70 cubits by adding a kind of wall on both sides to collect the rain water, let that wall be taken out and the former width of the chambers be restored by inserting a passage or gallery, which will divide each of the larger rooms into two smaller ones on each side, so that their width will correspond more closely to their height of five cubits, 1 Kings 6.10. And let the length of each of them be reduced in a similar proportion, so that there may be 30 in each row around the perimeter. For that is the number Josephus gives for the temple of Solomon. And when ✝[44] all these corrections have been made, it will be possible at last to descry in this temple the temple of Ezekiel, whose words we now give and illustrate with diagrams and explanatory comments as follows[Editorial Note 97].
Ch. 40.1. In the 25th year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the 10th of the month in the 14th year after the city was stricken, on this very day the hand of the Lord was laid upon me and brought me thither.
2. In visions of God he brought me into the land of Israel and set me down upon a very high mountain, upon which was [the structure of a temple visible together with its courts] like the structure of a city ⓐ[45] opposite me
3. And he brought me there, and behold a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze, and a line of flax [was] in his hand and a measuring reed, and he was standing in the gate.
4. And [the same] man spoke to me, Son of man, see with your eyes and hear with your ears and give your mind to everything that I will show you, because you have been brought here that they may be shown to you, to declare all that you see to the house of Israel.
5. And behold, there was a wall νστξ on the outside round about the house on every side, and in the hand of the man a measuring reed b[47] of six cubits [each one a great cubit, which consists] of a [lesser] cubit and a handbreadth. And he measured the width of the structure λμ one reed and its height, one reed.
<44r>6 And he came to the gate which looked towards the east and ascended by c[50] its [seven] steps and measured the threshold of the gate, one reed in width BC. ⓐ[51]
And a little chamber [intended for the porters] one reed long DE and one reed wide EV. And the space or e [e[52] Porch] between the little chambers [which led into the cloister] was 5 cubits EF [e[53] and the second chamber one reed wide TF and one reed long FG, and the porch five cubits GH, and the third chamber one reed long HI and one reed wide HQ]
8 And the threshold of the gate next to the porch of the gate f[54] at the inner end, one reed KL.
9 And he measured the porch of the gate, eight cubits MN, and its posts, two cubits OP. And the porch of the gate was g[55] at the inner end, [or towards the court]
10 And there were little chambers on the east [or outside], three on each side, all three of the same size and the posts on either side of the same size
11 [Thus far the angel has proceeded by measuring each thing by its length, now he returns to measure the widths] and he measured the breadth of the door of the gate, ten cubits Cc, and h[56] the breadth of the gate, thirteen cubits Dd
12 And the margin [or step] in front of the little chambers, one cubit [on one side] and a margin of one cubit on the other side[ [ since the surface of the pavement of the cloisters was extended this far.] And the little chamber was six cubits on one side EV and six cubits on the other ev
<45r>13 And he measured the gate from the roof of a chamber [outside] to its roof [Editorial Note 101] [on the outside] a width of twenty five cubits Vv, door VT facing door vt.
14. And he made posts [for the doors] [BC, bc, KL, kl, in height] k[57] twenty cubits. And at l[58] the posts of the court [TS, PQ, pq, ts] there were gates all around all around the circuit VT, SR, Pp, rs, tv.
< text from f 45r resumes >14 And he made the posts [of the door Bb, Kk, in height] k[59] twenty cubits, and at l[60] the posts PQ, pq, ST, {st} there were gates all around the circuit Pp, RS, TV, rs, tv.
15 And from the face of the gate at the entrance to the face of the porch of the inner gate Pp., fifty cubits.
16 And there were windows [barred] by grilles] in the little chambers and in their posts EV, FT, GS, etc., inside the gate all around. And similarly there were windows also in the porches MN, nm round about the inside, and there were palm trees on the posts PQ, pq, one on each side, as is explained in verse 26.
17 And he brought me out into the outer court, and behold, there were chambers and a m[61] pavement with pillars upon it, constructed around the perimeter of the court; there were thirty chambers on the pillared pavement [ten on each side of the court, five on one side of the gate and five on the other, as well as on the western side, not yet in view][Editorial Note 102]
18 And the pillared pavement butted upon the shoulders of the gates XQ, xq. Opposite the length of the gates was the lower pillared pavement, [the upper pavement being in the other court]
19 And he measured the width from the front of the lower gateway to the outer front of the inner court, a hundred cubits to the east
<46r>20. And n[62] he brought me to the north, and there was a gate which looked towards the north in the outer court. He measured its length and its breadth,
21 And its three little chambers on one side and three on the other and its posts and its porch, and it had the same dimensions as the first gate. Its length was fifty cubits and its breadth twenty five cubits. And its windows and its porch and its palm trees had the same dimensions as the gate which faced east.
22 And they ascend by seven steps into it, and its porch was in front of them [i.e., within]
And [there was] a gate of the inner court over against [this] northern gate, o[63] just as [in the case of the gates] on the east. And he measured from gate to gate, a hundred cubits[Editorial Note 103].
<47r>24 And he brought me to the south, and behold, there was a gate looking towards the south, and he measured p[64] its little chambers and its posts and its porch, and they had the same dimensions as the previous ones.
25 And there were windows in it and in its porch round about, just like the other windows. [Its] length [was] fifty cubits and its breadth twenty five cubits
26 And its stairway had seven steps, and its porch was in front of them, and it had palm trees on its posts, one on this side and one on that side.
27 And [facing it was] the gate of the inner court which looks towards the south. And he measured from the gate [of the outer court] to [that] southern gate, one hundred cubits.
<48r>28. And he brought me into the inner court by the south gate, and he measured the south gate, of the same dimensions 29. as well as its little chambers and its posts and its porch. And there were windows in it and in its porch all around. Its length was fifty cubits and its width twenty five cubits
30. q[65] And there were porches round about it VvT and SsrR of a length of twenty five cubits and a width of five cubits
31. And its porch faced the outer court, and there were palm trees on its posts. And its stairway had eight steps
32. And he brought me into r[66] the inner court on the east side, and he measured the [eastern] gate, and it had the same dimensions, 33. as well as its little chambers and its posts and its porch, all of the same dimensions [as the others]. And there were windows round about in it and in its porch. [Its] length was fifty cubits and its breadth twenty five cubits
34. And its porch faced the outer court and there were palm trees on its posts on both sides.
<49r>[67]And he brought me into the north gate and measured [it]; it had the same dimensions as the others, [68]its little chambers and its posts and its porch, and there were windows in it s[69] and in its porches round about. Its length was fifty cubits and its breadth twenty five cubits. [70]And t[71] its porch faced the outer court and there were palm trees on its posts on both sides. And its stairway had eight steps. [72]And there was a room [in the porch, illuminated on both sides by the windows described above] Z,z, and its door Y,y was in the posts of the gates KL, kl. There they are to wash the burnt offering. [73]And in the porch of the gate there were two tables on one side α,α and two tables on the other β,β so that at them the burnt offering might be slaughtered and the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice for guilt. [74]And at the side of the [porch] beyond the step [the top step which is] at the entrance of the north gate there were two tables γ, γ and on the other side of the porch of the gateway two tables δ, δ. [75]Four tables on one side and four tables on the other at the side of the gate, eight tables, on which they are to slaughter the [sacrificial victims]. [76]And there were four tables for the burnt offering, of squared stone, one and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide and one cubit high, on which they are also to place the vessels in which they will slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrificial victim. [77]And v[78] hooks one handbreadth [long] were set up all around inside [for hanging up the flesh,] and on the tables [also there were] flesh offerings. 
[79]And outside the inner gate [there were on the west side] [80] the apartments y[81] of the Princes [of the Councils of the Priests] in the inner court [on both sides. Likewise] z[82] one [z[83] apartment of many rooms] on the [eastern] side of the north gate, and their fronts faced south, and one on the [east] side of the south gate, [and] its front was towards the north. [84]And he said to me, z[85] This apartment [86]And outside the inner door [on its western {side}] werex[87] the apartments y[88] of the Princes [of the Councils of the Priests] in the inner court, z[89] [ ] on the [eastern] side of the north gate z[90] one [apartment of many rooms] on each side [{illeg}], and their fronts towards the south, and one on the [eastern] side of the south a[91] gate and] its front towards the north. [93]And he said to me, x[94]This apartment which faces south will be for the priests who keep a watch on the Temple. [95]And its face is towards the north; it will be for the priests who keep watch on the altar. These are the sons of Zadok who alone of the sons of Levi approach the Lord in order to minister to him. [96]And he measured the [inner] court, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, a square; and the altar in front of the temple.
[97]And he brought me into the porch of the temple[Editorial Note 104] and measured (both) posts of the porch, five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other and the width of the gate, three cubits on one side and three cubits on the other. [98]and the length of the porch twenty cubits and the width b[99] eleven cubits and they will go upc[101] to it by ten steps. And there were [bronze] columns beside the posts, one on each side. [103]And he brought me into the temple and measured the posts. Six cubits was the width of the post on one side and six cubits was the width d[104] of the post on the other side, and the width of the entrance was ten cubits.[106] And the shoulders of the entrance [as far as the sides of the temple] was five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other. And he measured its length, forty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits. [107]And he went within, and measured the posts of the entrance, two cubits, and the entrance, six cubits, and e[108] the shoulders of the entrance, seven cubits f[110] on one side and seven cubits on the other. [112]And he measured its length, twenty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits as far as the faces [or walls] of the temple. And he said to me, This is the most Holy place. [113]And he measured the wall of the house, six cubits [wide] and the [further] width of the treasure chamber, four cubits all round the perimeter of the House. [114]And there were treasure chambers on its side, g[115] three in height one above the other, and thirty [in length] in two rows [so that their total number was twice times ninety]. And h[116] there were projections in the wall of the house for the treasure chambers all round, so that they would be supported [by resting on them], but they were not fastened to the wall of the house [by the insertion of joists]. [117]And there was a walkway or circling gallery [wide enough to walk on] above, and again above, to the rooms. For there was one circle above another all around the house. That is why its width was [wide enough to walk on, or a retraction] to the house above. And thus there was an ascent to the upper floors by way of the middle one. [118]And I saw in k[119] the lowest part all around the foundations of the lateral treasure chambers, a full measure of a reed of six cubits right out to the flank[Editorial Note 106] [just mentioned, or the projection of the wall on which one could walk. And the middle[Editorial Note 107] width of the middle treasure chambers was five cubits, and thus the retractions were one cubit wide, which, added to those further widths, make a total internal width for the lowest storeroom of five cubits, for the middle, six cubits, and for the top range, seven cubits, exactly as described in the temple of Solomon, 1 Kings 6.6.] l[120] [121] And the width of the outside wall of the treasure chambers was five cubits. And there was a space left freem[122] between the lateral [treasure chambers] which were next to the house, and the [other] treasure chambers n[123] [124]And the width was twenty cubits all around the perimeter of the house. And there was a space left free m[125] between the lateral [treasure chambers] which were next to the house [on the one side] and the treasure chambers [the other ones that were on the other side, away from the sides of the house.] n[126]And the Width was twenty cubits all around the perimeter of the house. [127]And the doors of the treasure chambers gave onto the space that had been left free, one door facing north and the other door facing south. And the width of the space that had been left free was five cubits all around. [128]And the building [described earlier] which [on its external front] ✝[129] faced the separate space [situated] on the west side was X[130] seventy cubits wide. And the wall of the building was five cubits wide all around, and its length ninety cubits. [131]And he measured the house, * [132] a length of a hundred cubits [excluding the treasure chambers and including the bronze columns] and the separate space and the building and their wall together, a length of one hundred cubits, [133] and the breadth of the front of the house and of the separate space [on both sides] on the east [together] a hundred cubits. [134]And he measured the length of the building ✝[135] in front of the separate space [on the west] at its back and o[136] its galleries on both sides, a hundred cubits. [137]And the temple interior and the porches of the court [and] the thresholds and the slanting windows and the galleries (paradromides) [between the lateral treasure chambers] all around [the temple] throughout the three stories [of treasure chambers] in front of the threshold [of each treasure chamber] [on both sides] were lined with wood all around[Editorial Note 108]. And p[138] the floor [of the temple] and from the floor up to the windows and the windows [were] covered [with wood].
<53r>[139]And there were panellings (vesturae)[Editorial Note 109] [of wood] as far as [the area] above the door, and as far as the [whole] interior of the house and its outside [as far as the side rooms] and over the whole wall all round inside and out. [140]And they were decorated with Cherubim and palm trees. And there was a Palm tree between Cherub and Cherub. And [every] Cherub had two faces, [141]the face of a man beside the Palm tree on one side and the face of a lion beside the palm tree on the other side, carved throughout the house all around. [142]From the ground up to [the area] above the door Cherubim and Palm trees had been carved q[143] on the wall of the temple. [144]The doorposts of the temple were squared. [145]And in front of the Innermost Shrine was a likeness [of Cherubim and palm trees and squared posts] just like the likeness [in front of the holy place]. There [was] a wooden altar [146]of three cubits height, and its length was two cubits, and its breadth two cubits, and it had horns on it. And r[147] its base and its walls were of wood. And he said to me, This is the table in the presence of the Lord. [148]And there were two doors in the temple and [two] in the innermost shrine [s[149] one on one side of the wall, the other on the other side] [150]And there were two leaves on the two swinging (vertibilibus[Editorial Note 110]) doors, two leaves on one door [this one to the right, the other to the left] and two leaves on the other. [151]And carved upon them, on the doors [I say] of the temple, were Cherubim and palm trees, just like the ones carved on the walls. And t[152] there were beams of wood in the facade of the porch outside [forming a canopy (tabulatum) which rested upon the bronze columns with a cornice]. [153]And there windows enclosed [with grilles] and palm trees on the sides of the porch on both sides and on the treasure chambers on the sides of the house and [on] the beams.
[154]Then he led me out into the outer court by a way going north, and he brought me to v[155] the fifteen chambers that were opposite the separate space and opposite the side building] on the [156]north. Along the face x[157] [their] length was a hundred cubits, the doors looking to the north. And the breadth [of the whole place] was fifty cubits. [158]Across the twenty [cubits] that were in the inner court and facing the pillared pavement which was in the outer court was gallery facing gallery in three stories. [159]And in front of the chambers was a passage on the inner side ten cubits wide y[160] [and] a hundred cubits long. And their doors faced north. [161]And the upper rooms were narrower because the galleries took away from them, from the lowest [I mean] and from the middle rooms of the building. [162]For they had been built in three stories, and they did not have pillars like the pillars of the courts. For this reason there was an retraction[Editorial Note 112] (retractio) of the lowest ones and of the middle ones from the ground. [163]And the length of the wall which was outside facing the rooms towards the outer court was fifty cubits in front of the rooms. [164]For the length of the [other] chambers [which were] on the outer court was fifty cubits, and those facing the temple [both together, were, in length,] fifty cubits. [165]And below the chambers was an entrance from the east for entering them from the outer court [166]in the breadth of the wall z[167] of the [aforesaid] passage on the eastern side. a[168]And there were rooms also on the South opposite the separate place and opposite the [side] building. [169]And there was a passage in front of them, similarly to the chambers on the north side in their length b[170] and breadth, c[171] and in all their exits and in all their arrangements. [172]And as were their doors (ostia), d[173] so were the doors to the chambers on the south side. The door (ostium) was at the head of the passage, the passage [I say which was] in front of the wall situated on the East side at the entrance to them. [174]And he said to me, The North Chambers and the south chambers which are in front of the separate place, these are sacred chambers in which the priests who come before the lord shall eat the holiest things. There they shall put the holiest things and the offering and the sacrifice for sin and for wrongdoing, because the place is sacred. [175]And when the priests have once entered it, they shall not go out from the sanctuary into the outer court, but shall leave there the vestments in which they minister, because they are sacred objects, and they shall clothe themselves in other vestments, and thus go out to the people.
<56r>[176]And when he had completed the measurements of the inner house, he led me out by way of the gate that faces east, and measured e[177] the figure of the house all around its perimeter. [178]He measured the east side, f[179] five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. [180]He turned around to the north, and measured the north side, five hundred g[181] cubits by the measuring reed. [183]He went round to the west and measured the west side, fifty [cubits] by the measuring reed. [184]He went around to the south [185] and measure{d} the side that faced south, fifty [cubits] by the measuring reed. [186]On all four sides he measured its wall all around the perimeter, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide g[187] to make a division between the sanctuary and profane ground. [It was a square plot for the sanctuary of five hundred cubits by five hundred all around, and a breadth of fifty cubits for the area outside the wall (suburbanum) all around it Ezek 45.2].
[188]And he led me to the gate which looked towards the East, and behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the East. [189]And his voice was as the voice of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. [190]And I saw a sight like the appearance which I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and the vision was like the vision which I had had by the river Chobar. And I fell on my face. [191]And the glory of the lord entered the house by way of the gate which faced toward the east. [192]And the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord had filled the house. [193]And I heard one speaking to me from the house, and a man stood by me, [194]and said to me, Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet where I will dwell amidst the sons of Israel for ever, and the house of Israel, themselves and their kings, shall no longer defile my holy name, etc.
[195]And he brought me through the entrance which was at the side of the gate, into the sacred chambers of the priests which looked towards the north, and behold, there was a place there on both sides [both on the other side, the south, and on this side, the north] at the west end. [196]And he said to me. This is the place where the priests will cook [the sacrificial victim] for wrongdoing [in ignorance], and for sin, and where they will cook the offering[Editorial Note 113], so as not to bring them out into outer court, to sanctify the people. [197]And he took me out into the outer court, and made me pass by the four corners of the court and behold, a little court in each corner. [198]In the four corners of the court there were little courts with chimneys (caminata) [fifty cubits square on the outside and] on the inside forty cubits in length and thirty in breadth [ten cubits of the width being taken away where the nearby kitchen steps go up to the cloister rooms set aside for the people to feast. It is appropriate for these steps be next to the kitchens, so that the food would not be carried out into the courtyards. And let them be built in the corners of the little courts facing the temple in such a way that in each of the little courts a flight of four steps should le{ad} into all the rooms. In the same ten cubits of the little courts, rooms can also be constructed for cutting the hair of Nazarenes, for receiving lepers, and for other purposes, and steps may also be constructed going down into the cellars. These four corner courts were of the same dimensions. [199]And there was a row of structures all around, lining the four little courts, and kitchens were constructed under the buildings all around. [200]And he said to me: Those are the places for the cooks where the ministers of the house will cook the people’s sacrificial victims.
Ezekiel also describes the division of Judea[Editorial Note 114] into thirteen parallel parts, of which there are to be six in the south and the same number in the north for the twelve tribes; let the two ends (termini) of the central part, which is to be 25,000 cubits wide, be granted to the Prince. The central part, which is a square of 25,000 cubits on each side, is to be sacred, and is to be divided into three smaller parts, the eastern one for the Levites 25,000 cubits wide, the western one for the city, and the central one for the priests and the sanctuary 10,000 cubits wide, each of them being 25,000 cubits long. But let us leave all this
<58r>But let us leave all this, and complete the description of the temple, comparing all the temples with each other and and[Editorial Note 115] supplying from the temples of Solomon and Herod what Ezekiel omitted.
The cubic figure of the Shrine (1 Kings 6.20) as the type of the new city of Jerusalem (Apoc. 21) must certainly be retained. On top of it, as well as on the holy place, which is 30 cubits high (1 Kings 6.2), must be set the upper rooms, which together with their floors and the roof will make a height of one hundred and twenty cubits from the pavement (2 Chronicles. 3.4). There is to be an ascent by thirty steps in the eastern wall to all the upper parts, and a cellar is to be constructed below so that the throne of god may not be placed directly on the earth (1 Chronicles. 28.11). As in the Tabernacle of old, so in the later Temple there are to be no windows. For this reason lamps burned perpetually in the holy place, and the Shrine was wrapped in darkness (1 Kings 8.2, Psalm 18.9, 11 and 97.2), except where something had to be repaired and then light was admitted from an upper room. For there were windows in the upper rooms adorning the temple on the outside. Lest the lack of windows below be noticed, the side building was constructed around it. It is proper that the porch should be lower both in width and in height to the rest of the temple, nor should the façade or architrave of wooden beams be much higher. The bronze columns that support that architrave are to stand in front of its posts. Let the width of their bases be set at six cubits all round, and their height at twelve cubits to the highest point of the door, from there the height of the columns eighteen cubits, and that of the capitals five cubits (1 Kings 6.15, 16), so that the height of the bases, columns and capitals altogether will be thirty five cubits (2 Chronicles. 3.15) as far as the architrave which will add another ten or twelve cubits. Because of the height of the bases these columns are shorter in proportion to their thickness than the marble pillars in the courts. Two bases with an interval of nine cubits, one and a halftimes the base, will make an external width for the porch of 21 cubits, and a length for the temple with the porch of one hundred cubits, as follows. Base 6 cub. Rear wall of the Porch 5 cub. Remaining length of the porch 15 cub. Rear wall of the Temple 6 cub. The holy place 40 cub. The Veil 2 cub. The Shrine 20 cub. The western wall of the Shrine 6 cub. Total 100 cub., to which the block of chambers at the west end will add another nineteen cubits. The Jews undoubtedly retained, with scrupulous care, the ancient position of the temple and of the altar. In order for us to retain the same locations, the altar has to stand in the centre of the priests’ court, and the temple with its chambers in the centre of the separate place, in order that there may be a hundred cubits between the Veil and the centre of the altar, since the Porch extends into the priests’ court. And around that court and the separate place and between both of them a stone parapet is to run, a cubit high and a cubit wide and a hundred cubits long on the inside on each of the seven sides. In this way we will have the figure of the innermost sanctuary strictly corresponding to the Tabernacle and its court. ☉ ☉ Solomon surrounded this sanctuary with a double circuit of chambers, on the inside and on the outside, in accordance with the number of the courts, 1 Chronicles. 28.12, and built both perimeters on rows of pillars, 1 Kings 6.36 and 2 Kings 11.8, 15, congruently with Ezekiel’s description.
< text from f 59r resumes >The position and shape of these cloisters is determined by the position and shape of the gates directly opposite the altar, because the doors on the sides of the gates should lead directly into the aisles of the cloisters, and thus the pillars should stand opposite the chambers in both courts, and therefore they should have a distance of eleven cubits altogether between their axes, as in the temple of Herod. Hence too the size and the number and three rows of pillars in the outer court of that temple will remain here too. Nor are any other changes to be made in the outer court except those which are a consequence of the destruction of certain gates. For in the temple of Solomon a perimeter was constructed for this court in three שורים rows or courses of stone and a course of cedar planks, 1 Kings 6.36. And the same was done in the temple of Zerubbabel, Ezra 6.4. There was therefore in both temples a similar boundary to the inner court, provided that certain spurious gates which were in my opinion introduced by Herod are rejected. In the book of Ezra these three courses are said to be of stones of turning, i.e. of pillars. There were two rows of pillars in the cloister under the chambers; let the third be set on the outside surface of the outermost wall of the chambers and correspond to the pillars of the cloisters of the great court. Imagine that the course of cedar beams is arranged in the panelled ceiling of each cloister, each beam spanning two pillars, and that they have been cut by a craftsman so that with the rest of the wooden panelling (vesturae) of the ceiling they may afford a pleasing sight to people looking up from below. From the fact that there was only one row of them, it is inferred that there was only one cloister in this perimeter. The beams which formed the joists of the other chambers were made of some less precious wood, and are not taken account of here. Next to the outermost face of the gates should stand the outer wall of the chambers with its own half-pillars, both because that face is regarded as the boundary of the inner court, Ezek. 40.19, and because the chambers where the priests consume the sacrifices occupy a width of 50 cubits, which corresponds to the total length of the gates. Between the outer and the central row will stand the chambers which Josephus calls Treasure chambers, between the inner and the middle cloister; between the inner cloister and the stone parapet, there will be an open-air walkway or the margin of the priests’ court, with doors at the sides of the gates giving on to this margin and on to the cloister, and other chambers being constructed on two floors above the cloister and the chambers jointly. Thus the widths of the priests’ Court will be the same here as in the temple of Herod precisely enough, namely: within the stone parapet, 100 cub. within the blocks of chambers, 136 cub., within the cloister walls, 162 cub, and including the blocks of chambers, 200 cubits.
Between the north door and the chambers of the lower priests situated opposite the separate place there are 37 cubits. In this space five intercolumnar spaces (as in the temple of Herod) will be too dense, and three too open, but four will afford a pleasing aspect and be exactly the same size as the intercolumnar spaces in the cloisters of the great court. For this is necessary, so that the intercolumnar spaces in the outer wall may correspond to them. There will be six intercolumnar spaces of about the same size between the Gate and the corner of the court on the east. These intercolumnar spaces will indeed be a little bigger, but by an imperceptibe and completely negligible amount. Thus, there are 9 cubits between the axes of the pillars on the west and in the great court, and 9 cubits between those on the east, a difference of only of a part of an intercolumniation. There are therefore seven pillars both on either side of the eastern gate and on the eastern sides of the other two gates in a double row facing the inner court, and also on all sides of the three gates in a single row which face the outer court. Also on the perimeter of the great court there are three times seven pillars on both sides of each gate. Hence Solomon, alluding to the divinely revealed temple, says: Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn seven pillars, Prov. 9.1.
<62r>Let there be steps in the corners of the court going up to the chambers, and from the steps let Galleries go through the middle of the chambers, five or six cubits wide, and lighted by the windows opposite the steps. And let there be chambers on both sides, cubic, about nine cubits on each side. For thus each room will correspond in its length to each of the intercolumniations and a Gallery with wooden walls and rooms on either side, will occupy the whole width of about 24 or 25 cubits between the walls of the building. Let the two rooms opposite each other belong to a single owner, and below, where the cloister reduces the width of the rooms, let one room be placed on another, and let ascent be made from the lower to the higher room by steps in the space four or five cubits wide towards the outer court. For thus a cubic chamber of the same size as the ones above as the ones above[Editorial Note 116], together with the steps and the wooden wall between will occupy a total width of about 14 cubits between the walls of the building, and two similar chambers together with their floors will reach a height of twenty one or twenty two cubits, which was the interior height of the cloister in the temple of Herod. The pillars will rise about seventeen or eighteen cubits up to the architrave (epistylium), and the architrave will easily add another four cubits more or less up to the panelled ceiling of the cloister. These dimensions we may define symmetrically as follows. Use as a common measure the width of the pillar base, 22 handbreadths, and the intervals between the bases will be about one measure and a half in length and two measures in breadth; the intervals between the axes of the pillars will be about two measures and a half in length and three measures in breadth. The height of a pillar will be four measures. The base will add a third part of a measure, and the capital a third or perhaps two thirds, which will be adorned with pomegranates and the other artistry of the bronze pillars. Thus the total height of an intercolumniation from the pavement to the architrave will be five measures, i.e., double its breadth between the axes of the pillars. Let the architrave add a sixth measure up to the cedar beams, and the internal height of the cloister will also be double its breadth between the axes of the pillars. Thus we have the aforesaid height of 22 cubits. Furthermore, the Floor, two cubits thick, and the chamber above it of nine cubits will add another three measures, and will do so twice. Let the roof with its furnishings add as much again, and the total height of the building will be fifteen measures or 55 cubits, i.e., three times the height of the intercolumniations, and equal to its length between the gateway and the corner, so that the rear face of the chamber will show as square. With such simplicity and harmony of all the proportions is this structure blessed. Add the descent from the cloister to the outer court, and the total height will be about sixty cubits, i.e., half the height of the temple, and equal to the height of the perimeter of the outer court. The inner and outer gates of equal height and length and breadth should correspond to each other, and the heights of the adjoining chambers should be related in the same way to the heights of their gates in both cases, and thus they too will be equal. The internal height of the cloisters of the great court in the temple of Herod was a little bit more than 25 cubits, say 26 or 27 cubits, and in such a way that in the temple of Solomon (a specimen of which I think was preserved in the portico of Solomon right down to the time of Herod) the panelled ceilings of the cloisters of both courts were the same height from the ground of the great court, and hence the windows of the chambers on both sides and each of the similar ornaments of the walls in either case corresponded to each other both in equality of height and similarity of form. Thus the length of the chambers of the inner court will appear to those looking at it from the outer court to be about one and a half times the full height of the same chambers, and the length of the chambers of the great court between the gateways and the corners, both towards the space outside the walls and towards the great court, will be about three times the total height. To all the gates and corners of the great court I would also add the height of the floor of chambers, i.e, three measures or eleven cubits, so that the total height from the pavement of the great court would be about 70 or 71 cubits. For the height of the temple Porch is also the same, and that height of the gates of the great court towards the space outside the walls (suburbanum) is three times its width.
The arrangement of the rooms on the sides of the separate place fits very well with the heights given. These have Galleries in front of them on three levels. The purpose of the Galleries is so that, after making the ascent, one may walk along them to all the chambers. There are therefore three stories of chambers apart from the lowest storey, which, instead of a Gallery, has a passage between the middle of the rooms ten cubits wide. Let these chambers be equal to those in the court of the priests, and let the four stories, together with the roof which occupies the space of one storey, rise to a height of 55 cubits, so that these buildings will correspond both in total height and in the heights of the individual stories, exactly to the buildings of the court of the priests. And the length of a hundred cubits facing the temple will nicely accommodate ten such chambers together with their walls on each floor, and the length of fifty cubits adjoining the great court will accommodate five chambers, which, together with the side of the court of the priests, will compose a building two hundred cubits long, in the centre of which a gateway is located. And thus it comes about that three sides of the inner sanctuary, the southern, eastern and northern, will be equal and similar on the outside, except that in two of them courts are added for the cooks at the west end. Let a passage ten cubits wide lying between these buildings be directly in line with the aisle of the cloister, interrupted by a door five cubits wide, and on either side of the passage a width of about 19 cubits will have to be occupied by chambers, apart from the one-cubit width of the stone parapet attached to the wall of the rooms. Subtract the retractions (retractiones) for the three Galleries, and let them be two cubits wide, and there will remain an external breadth for the highest rooms of 13 cubits, which agrees well with an internal breadth of nine cubits. Let the thickness of the rear wall be about two cubits. Add three retractions (retractiones) of two cubits each, and the thickness below will be about eight cubits. In that thickness have to be constructed the rooms (cellae) where the priests’ sacred vestments are to be stored. In the outer rooms on the east and in the middle rooms facing the temple, let steps ascend to the Galleries, so that entrances to the apartments for the Principal Priests of the Councils may open from the middle and upper Gallery.
With this arrangement of the buildings, the distribution of chambers between the Priests also becomes apparent at the same time. For the chambers have four degrees of dignity. Of the first dignity are the two chambers on the eastern side of the court of the priests; of the second are the two chambers on the eastern side of the north and south gates; of the third dignity are the two chambers on the west sides of the same gates. These six chambers are in the priests’ court. There follow the chambers of the lowest dignity at the sides of the separate place; And to these four degrees of dignity correspond the four dignities of priests. The first is the class of those who take precedence of the Curators of the sacred objects (sacralia), the second is that of the Curators, the third is that of the Princes, the fourth is that of the lower Councils. Ezekiel locates the Councils in the chambers on the sides of the separate place. There, he says, the priests are to consume the sacrifices and store the sacred vestments. As during the period of the second temple each of the councils had their own repositories for utensils and vestments, so too in the first temple they are to have their own rooms, since these are the repositories of the vestments here. There they had four chests each for vestments, here they are to have four rooms. And this will be possible, if the shorter Gallery is assigned to One Council, and the longer one to two. The chambers of the third dignity are most suitable for the Princes of the Councils, first because their galleries and the Galleries of the Council chambers are accessible to each other and are reached by the same flight of steps; secondly, because the number of the rooms exactly corresponds: for there are 24 Princes, and in these two blocks of chambers (exhedrae) 24 equal rooms, of which four are on the ground floor, four in the middle and four on the top floor on both sides of the court; and we said above that two chambers each are to be assigned to the magnates; and finally because Ezekiel locates the apartments of the Princes in the inner court beyond the interior gate, i.e., at its side, and Jeremiah likewise locates the apartment of the Prince Gemeriah in the upper court beside the porch of the new gate in the Temple of Solomon, and also the chamber of the sons of Hanun next to the apartment of the Princes above the room (thalamus) of the doorkeeper Maasejah in the same temple, so that that Chamber stood next to the room of the sons of Hanun and that chamber was in the gate above the Doorkeeper’s room. Chambers of the second dignity are to be assigned to priests of the second dignity. These Ezekiel divides into two kinds, viz. custodians of the custody of the temple and custodians of the custody of the altar. The former he locates at the side of the north gate in the suite of rooms that look toward the south, the latter opposite in the suite of rooms facing north. To the former class belong the Overseers of the Temple, 2 Chronicles. 31.13 and 35.8, Acts 4.1 and 5.24, the Overseer for closing the gates, the O. for preparing the shewbread, the O. of the sick, the O. for weaving the Veils, the O. for making ready the sacerdotal vestments, the O. for repairing the buildings, etc. To the latter class belong the Overseer for announcing the times, the O. for the singers, the O. for the Cymbal and other stringed instruments, the O. for the lots, the O. for the chicken coops, the O. of the tickets, the O. for libations, the O. for making the incense, and all the others, together with the Treasurers, on all of whom consult Maimonides, On the Furniture of the Temple, ch. 7[Editorial Note 117]. There are still some chambers to be assigned to magnates of the highest honour, as to the High Priest, or to the One who performed the duty of a high priest who had been polluted by an emission of seed or afflicted with a physical defect, likewise for the Man charged with responsibilities for war, as well as the Vicar of the High Priest and two or more Sub-vicars, to whom we must add the great Sanhedrin and its Prince. I would locate the Apartment of the Counsellors (Parhedri), which is the seat of the principal high priest and the room of the first dignity on the right or north side of the east gate, and the chamber of the great Sanhedrin on the left side. These two should be larger than the other rooms. The former occupy individually the breadth of an intercolumniation, the latter I would make two or three times as wide, extending even as far as the outer court and the roof in length and height{.} For the Levites there remain the gates, the eastern one to the Singers, the rest to the others, unless perhaps the high Priest retains the more dignified part of the eastern gate. And such was the arrangement of the inner court.
Let the chambers on the perimeter of the outer court be made with an internal breadth and height of nine cubits, with a length four times as much, and let them be separated from each other by stone walls which support the upper floor and the roof, and Through the centre of the chambers let there be an open central passage, and let tables for the feasting people be placed on both sides, while steps are installed next to the little courts of the cooks, so that the food will not have to be brought out into the courts. In the reign of David, the posts were assigned to the Doorkeepers as follows. In the great court beside the east gate, six gate keepers were to be stationed every day under Shelemiah; by the North gate four Doorkeepers under Zechariah, and by the south gate four gate keepers under Obed-Edom, i.e., two beside the chamber of the Counsellors (Parhedri) and two beside the chamber of the great Sanhedrin, and six on the west side at the gate Shalecheth at the entrance to the way of the ascent leading to the space outside the walls of the Temple, of whom four were beside the road and two at the Parbar., 1 Chron. 26. By Parbar understand the house of the lower Sanhedrin. For you should know that there were three Sanhedrin in the Temple, the great Sanhedrin of seventy one men, and two others, each of twenty three men. In the second temple period Bartenorius locates the lowest sanhedrin at the entrance to the temple, which is the inner eastern gate, behind the wall Chajil, in front of the women’s court, the chamber of the middle sanhedrin on the right, where, by going through the women’s court, one proceeds to the entrance to the court of Israel, the supreme or great Sanhedrin in the stone chamber. More correctly, the Talmudists and Maimonides place the middle chamber beside the entrance to the court, i.e., at the eastern gate of the women’s court, and the lowest one at the entrance to the mount of the temple, i.e., at the eastern gate of the gentiles’ court. But in the temple of Solomon where the women’s court and its gate were lacking, and there was a third gate outside the mount of the house in the way of ascent, the first Sanhedrin will have to be located beside the eastern entrance of the priests’ court, the second beside the eastern entrance of the great court, the third beside the entrance of the space outside the walls (suburbanum), or the gate Shallecheth. And that is why there were six gatekeepers at the eastern gate of the great court, and six at the gate Shallecheth. There were four to keep watch over each of the gates, and two each for the protection of the Sanhedrin. And the way of ascent {which}[Editorial Note 118] led from the House of the King and was so extremely magnificent that the Queen of Sheba was amazed at it, 1 Kings 10.4, 5, and the gate Shallecheth stood below by the house of the King. For when Jehoiada was attempting to crown Joash King, and to fortify the temple against the insurrection of Athaliah, he stationed a third part of the people at the gate of the guards or of the entrance, a third part also at the gate (סוד more rightly סור) of departure and a third part at the King’s house, 2 Kings 11.2, Chronicles. 23. Where the gatekeepers were normally stationed, there now the people were positioned for the defence of the temple, so that when the eastern gate was shut (according to custom), two thirds of the people, stationed at the other two gates of the great court, would protect the temple (2 Kings 11.7), and a third part at the gate Shallecheth adjacent to the house of the King, would guard the area outside the walls (suburbanum). Hence it is clear that there was only one gate to the area outside the walls (suburbanum), and that was situated on the west, and the western side of the great court lacked a gate. Therefore not long after this, all the people, in going to the king’s house, came out through the gate of the guards, 2 Chron 23.20.
[Editorial Note 1] Cf. Newton, Chronology, pp. 340-1. I used the edition of 1728 (available online).
[Editorial Note 2] Cf. Chronology, 337, 338.
[Editorial Note 3] Chronology 337 and 340. There are 24 Princes of the priests, each one in charge of a ‘course’ (or company of priests).
[Editorial Note 4] Newton refers to Hecataeus of Abdera, c. 360 – 290 BC. Josephus gives a brief account of Hecataeus as the author of a ‘book’ about the Jews in Against Apion 1.186 ff., and quotes a description of the Temple from this work at 1. 197-99. Modern scholarship is sceptical that this work is by Hecataeus. See Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd. ed., s.v. Hecataeus (2).
[Editorial Note 5] Literally, ‘holy of holies’.
[1] ✝ cap. 44.
[1] ✝ cap. 44.
[Editorial Note 6] omitting ‘cum’ in the translation
[Editorial Note 7] A translation of Ezekiel 40 by Newton is printed at the end of Chronology, ch. 5, pp. 343-46 in the edition of 1728.
[Editorial Note 8] ‘little chambers’ and ‘Porters’ from Chron.344. One might also say ‘rooms’ and ‘gatekeepers’.
[Editorial Note 9] Interstitia; cf. Chronology, 344: ‘and the Porters little chamber … one reed long, and one reed broad; and the arched passage between the little chambers … five cubits:’
[Editorial Note 10] ‘porch’ Chronology, 344.
[Editorial Note 11] For this emendation, see Chronology, 344, ll. 17-18.
[Editorial Note 12] ‘and the limit, or margin, or step before the little chambers’ Chronology, p. 344-45.
[Editorial Note 13] ‘pavement’, Chronology, 345.
[2] Fig. 2
[Editorial Note 14] This seems to be a mis-statement. As I understand it from the diagram in the text and its printed version Plate I, p. 346 of Chronology, there were six ‘pavements’ in all.
[Editorial Note 15] Newton’s uses the word ‘pillars’ rather than ‘columns’ in his version of Ezekiel at Chronology, 345, and throughout his description of the temple in Chronology, 332-43.
[Editorial Note 16] I think this should be ‘northern’ rather than ‘western’ (FG on the diagram on p. 9 of the MS; Ezekiel 40.23). See also Chronology, p. 346.
[Editorial Note 17] These’ (‘Has’) probably refers to the gates of the outer Court.
[Editorial Note 18] The ‘Septuagint’.
[Editorial Note 19] For ‘Porch’, see Chronology, p. 340-1, and Plate II, p. 346. This represents vestibulum which Newton applies to the Porch of the Temple as well as to the porches in the various gates.
[Editorial Note 20] This seems to be an incorrect reference. Newton may be referring to Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 8.65-6. I have given what I believe are the correct modern citations for the passages of Josephus to which Newton refers. The edition I use is Josephus, ed. and trans. H. St. J. Thackeray, 10 vols. Loeb Classical Library (London and Cambridge, Mass.). The edition Newton used was clearly numbered differently from this editon. He owned Flavius Josephus, Opera omnia quae extant (Coloniae 1691). Harrison 861. He also owned an English translation of 1693. Harrison 862. The references I give should of course be checked against the edition Newton was using.
[Editorial Note 21] This is a very strange expression. Newton comments in his note [121] on the Hebrew use of ‘between’.
[Editorial Note 22] Supplied text taken from Morano, El Templo de Salomón, p. 82.
[Editorial Note 23] For Newton’s use of exhedra as an English word, see his note [85]; also Chronology, 336 and Plate III. Sometimes it simply means a room, sometimes an apartment or suite of rooms, sometimes a block of chambers one on top of the other, and sometimes, it seems, a block of apartments.
[Editorial Note 24] This is Newton’s usual equivalent for porticus, which one might otherwise be inclined to translate as ‘portico’. See Chronology, p. 332 and Plate I, and passim. Perhaps cf. OED sv. cloister, sense 3, ‘a covered walk or arcade’ (‘The courtyard is surrounded with a cloister, as it is in monasteries’).
[Editorial Note 25] ‘with a walk or alley ten cubits broad between them’, Chronology, 340.
[Editorial Note 26] This seems to say the opposite of what it should say. Could it be that Newton intended to write ‘took away more from them [i.e. the upper chambers] than from the lower ones and the middle ones.’ (plus de iis … quam de infinis et de mediis)?
[Editorial Note 27] This does not seem to be a correct reference.
[Editorial Note 28] This does not seem to be a correct reference.
[Editorial Note 29] The word dimensum is not in the version of this paragraph above.
[Editorial Note 30] These letters are not in the version above.
[Editorial Note 31] The calculation is different in the version above.
[Editorial Note 32] I have moved sed from the beginning of the sentence to a position between interius and liberum. We do not need sed at the beginning, since this sentence is not adversative to the previous sentence, but we do need to mark an opposition between interius and liberum et vacuum.
[Editorial Note 33] Villalpandus 1552-1608, Spanish Jesuit, author with Jerome Prado of a Commentary on Ezekiel published in 3 volumes at Rome, 1596-1604. The third volume is an illustrated description of Jerusalem and the Temple (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, vol. 15, s.v. Juan Battista Villalpandus).
[Editorial Note 34] The Greek seems to mean, ‘the triple cloister opposite’.
[Editorial Note 35] Supplied text taken from Morano, El Templo de Salomón, p. 86.
[Editorial Note 36] Ezekiel 43.13-17.
[Editorial Note 37] Joseph Barclay, The Talmud (London: John Murray 1878) prints what appears to be this passage on p. 260.
[3] α. Hebr. Mountain of God (Mons Dei), i.e. top
[4] β. Hebr. Hunter of God, i.e., greatest, like a Lion. Similarly, the place where something is devoured, like a Pen. Here the great cavity lmpq is meant, where the sacrificial victims are consumed
[Editorial Note 38] Newton explains this unusual expression below (duodecim cubiti longitudinis in duodecim cubitos latitudinis), pp. 13v – 14r.
[5] ✝ In Josephus, Against Apion, bk 1.[Editorial Note 39]
[Editorial Note 39] Josephus, Against Apion, 1.198
[6] Jewish War. bk. 6. ch. 14.
[Editorial Note 40] Josephus, Jewish War, 5.184-89. Newton consistently refers to what in modern editions is Jewish War, bk. 5 as bk. 6. There is clearly a discrepancy of one between the numbering of Newton’s edition of the Jewish War and modern editions.
[7] α. i.e., two hundred sacred cubits..
[8] β. i.e., 266 sacred cubits.
[Editorial Note 41] I have not found this word, but it seems to mean units of four handbreadths.
[9] γ. Misn. on the Sanhedrin, ch. 11.
[Editorial Note 42] Mishnah, tractate Sanhedrin. Could this be Maimonides’ Commentary on the Mishnah, tractate Sanhedrin?
[Editorial Note 43] Supplied text taken from Morano, El Templo de Salomón, p. 88.
[10] δ Josephus, Antiquities, bk. 15. ch. 14.
[Editorial Note 44] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 15.401-2.
[11] δ Josephus, Antiquities, bk. 15. ch. 14.
[Editorial Note 45] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 15.401-2.
[12] ε. bk. 2, on Monarchy.
[Editorial Note 46] Philo, De specialibus legibus, 1.71-2 in the Loeb Philo, vol. VII, p. 141. The Loeb Philo prints the treatise which earlier editors of Philo had called De Monarchia as a section of book I of the treatise De specialibus legibus. (De Monarchia is itself in two books; bk. II of De Monarchia is also called De Templo & de Sacerdotibus.). Newton owned a copy of Philo Judaeus, Omnia quae extant opera (Lutetiae Parisiorum 1640). Harrison 1300.
[13] ζ. So {illeg} gr.
[Editorial Note 47] This must mean ‘So the Greek text’, i.e. presumably the Septuagint.
[14] η. Antiquities, bk. 8, ch. 2.
[Editorial Note 48] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 8.98, perhaps.
[15] θ. Jewish War, bk. 6. ch. 14.
[Editorial Note 49] Josephus, Jewish War, 5.190, perhaps.
[16] κ Antiquities, bk. 15, ch. 14.
[Editorial Note 50] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 15.413-4.
[17] λ Jewish War, bk. 6. ch. 14
[Editorial Note 51] Josephus, Jewish War, 5.192.
[18] μ Jewish War, bk. 7, ch. 19.
[Editorial Note 52] Josephus, Jewish War, 6.192.
[Editorial Note 53] Titus had not yet become emperor at the time of the siege of Jerusalem (70 AD). He was emperor only from 79-81. But Imperator might be intended to mean ‘General’ here.
[19] ν Josephus, Jewish War, bk. 6. ch. 15
[Editorial Note 54] Josephus, Jewish War, 5.238 ff.
[Editorial Note 55] Porticus. In this passage of two pages or so, it seemed eccentric to stick rigidly to Newton’s usual translation of porticus as ‘cloister’ I balked at ‘the cloister of Solomon’!
[20] ξ Jewish War, bk. 16. ch. 14
[Editorial Note 56] Josephus, Jewish War, 5.185, probably.
[21] π Ezekiel, 46.2, 3
[22] ρ Josephus, Antiquities, bk. 15, ch. 14 and bk. 20, ch. 8.
[Editorial Note 57] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 15.395, perhaps, and 20.221, probably.
[23] ρ Josephus, Antiquities, bk. 15, ch. 14 and bk. 20, ch. 8.
[Editorial Note 58] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, l. 15, c. 14 (not located) and 20.221.
[24] τ Josephus, Antiquities, bk. 15, ch. 14
[Editorial Note 59] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, l. 15, c. 4 (15.411 ff.)
[Editorial Note 60] Perhaps Barclay, Talmud, p. 257.
[25] Josephus, Jewish War, bk. 6, ch. 14
[Editorial Note 61] Josephus, Jewish War, 5.192-3.
[26] υ Josephus, Antiquities, bk.15, ch. 14
[Editorial Note 62] Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 15.417 ff.
[27] Josephus, Jewish War, bk. 6, ch. 14
[Editorial Note 63] Josephus, Jewish War, 5.194 ff.
[Editorial Note 64] Alterum fanum translates Greek to deuteron hieron.
[Editorial Note 65] Greek: hagion ekaleito.
[Editorial Note 66] This might simply mean ‘Prince’, but I think that it is shorthand for sacerdotum Princeps.
[Editorial Note 67] Honore here represents the Greek τιμη∗ from Josephus, Jewish War, 5. 201, which there means ‘in value’. This long passage is a translation with interpretation from Josephus’ Jewish War, even though it is not all underlined.
[28] a Josephus, Jewish War, bk. 7, ch. 13
[Editorial Note 68] Josephus, Jewish War, lib. 7, c.13. (I could not locate this passage.)
[29] χ So the Talmudists
[30] ψ So the Talmudists
[31] ω Ezra 6.3
[Editorial Note 69] Among Newton’s many bibles the most used is The Holy Bible London 1660. Harrison 188.
[Editorial Note 70] Josephus, Jewish War, 5.209.
[Editorial Note 71] Contignatio, i.e., the flooring that divided the lower room of the temple from the ‘upper room’, as Newton interprets it above.
[32] α So the Talmudists{.}
[Editorial Note 72] Josephus, Jewish War, 5.220 – 1.
[Editorial Note 73] The Latin translation gives the opposite of the Greek original, which says, ‘it sloped very gently’! Newton possessed a bilingual edition of Josephus’s Opera quae extant omnia, published in Cologne in 1691.
[Editorial Note 74] Josephus, Jewish War, 5.225 – 27. The Latin of the final clause says the opposite of what one would expect, and it does not represent the Greek of Josephus, which says, ‘even priests were excluded when undergoing purification’.
[33] β Against Apion, bk. {6}
[Editorial Note 75] Josephus, Against Apion, 2. 103-4.
[Editorial Note 76] See below, p. 23r ad fin.
[34] γ Consult the codex Middoth translated by Constantine L’Empereur[Editorial Note 77]. Also what Capellus[Editorial Note 78] and Arias Montanus[Editorial Note 79] have published from the Rabbis.
[Editorial Note 77] This looks like Talmudii Babylonici codex Middoth, de Mensuris Templi, ed. C. L’Empereur, Heb. and Lat., (Lugduni Batavorum: Elzevir, 1630). No record of this book in Harrison.
[Editorial Note 78] Newton owned two copies of Ludovicus Cappellus, Historia apostolica 1634 and 1682 Harrison 341 and 342.
[Editorial Note 79] Benedictus Arias Montanus, a prolific scholar of Bible commentaries and Jewish antiquities. Newton owned Antiquitatum Judaicarum libri ix (1593). Harrison 1100. Other books of Arias Montanus at Harriosn, 1101, 1102.
[Editorial Note 80] Cf. Barclay, Talmud, p. 256.
[Editorial Note 81] Newton gives an explanation for this name at the beginning of 30r.
[Editorial Note 82] Camerata. Another possible meaning for this word is ‘vaulted’
[Editorial Note 83] I derive this translation from reading the article ‘Phinehas’ in the Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd. ed., vol. 16, p. 116: ‘The mishnaic list of officials of the Temple (Shek. 5:1) includes a Pinhas al ha-Malbush (“Phinehas, the guardian of the wardrobe”).
[Editorial Note 84] Sartagines means something like ‘frying pans’ or possibly ‘fry-ups’! Perhaps we should read farragines, which would mean a porridge of mixed grains, I think.
[35] η Maimonides, On the Worship of God, Treatise 7. ch. 1.
[Editorial Note 85] Newton owned a 1678 edition. Harrison, 1018.
[36] ζ Maimonides, On the Worship of God, Treatise 1, ch 5.
[37] θ Against Apion, bk. 1.
[Editorial Note 86] Josephus, Against Apion, 1.197-99.
[Editorial Note 87] On the sacred cubit and the handbreadth, cf. Chronology, 333.
[38] ✝ The Jerusalem Talmud on Jonah, ch. 6. See also Buxtorf. Lex. Tal.[Editorial Note 88] on ריס and Arias Montanum, On measures
[Editorial Note 88] Johannes Buxtorf, Lexicon chaldaicum, talmudicum et rabbinicum. Newton owned a copy of the 1621 edition. Harrison 322.
[Editorial Note 89] Cf. Barclay, Talmud, p. 255.
[Editorial Note 90] Ludovicus Capellus. Newton owned his Historia Apostolica, (Harrison 341), though whether it is this book that Newton refers to here, I don’t know.
[39] Josephus, Jewish War, bk. 7, ch. 22.
[Editorial Note 91] There seems to be a lacuna in the text here
[40] ✝ Ezekiel 46.22
[41] ✝ Against Apion, bk. 1.
[Editorial Note 92] Either a Persian word or related to the Hebrew for ‘animal skin’ (Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 19, p. 615.
[Editorial Note 93] Maimonides, On Divine Worship.
[42] ✝ Maimonides, On the Worship of God bk. 1, treatise 2, ch. 8.
[43] x See the notes of Constantine L’Empereur on the Middoth, ch. 4, sec. 7.
[Editorial Note 94] Murus extimus scamniformis; presumably the wall described in 15r.
[Editorial Note 95] Cf. Josephus, Jewish War, 5.190.
[Editorial Note 96] I have not been able to find a suitable architectural equivalent for podium here. It seems to indicate a raised area, like a platform, on the roof or possibly a balcony or ledge.
[44] ✝ Antiquities, bk. 8, ch. 2.
[Editorial Note 97] What follows corresponds quite closely, though not completely, with the translation of chapter 40 of Ezekiel 40.5 which Newton offers at Chronology, 343-46.
[45] Notes. ⓐ[46] In the now vulgate Hebr. version (jam vulgato)[Editorial Note 98] מנגכ to the south but the Septuagint also once read מנגד opposite.
[46] Aquila (in Jerome)
[Editorial Note 98] Newton owned a Hebrew Bible published in Venice in 1517. Harrison 206.
[47] b The unanimous tradition of the Jews is that the common cubit consisted of five handbreadths, the sacred cubit of six. The Angel therefore uses a reed of six sacred cubits. Jerome on the basis of a corrupt manuscript read that the reed was of six cubits and a handbreadth, and the Latin versions mostly follow him. In Hebrew it is that the reed was of six cubits in a cubit and a handbreadth, and that is what Jonathan read. That is also, without a doubt, what the Septuagint read, although now for some time the sense has been distorted and its reading is παλαιστης instead of παλαιστη. But Ezekiel too elsewhere explicitly says that his cubits consisted of a cubit and a handbreadth, ch. 43.13 and that a reed was six cubits precisely, ch. 41.8, and that the rooms of one reed[Editorial Note 99] ch. 40.7, were six cubits precisely, verse 12. ☉[48] ‡[49]
[Editorial Note 99] arundo not the usual calamus.
[48] ☉ And he said that the total width of the gate which consists of the two reeds of the two chambers plus the intervening width of thirteen cubits was twenty five cubits and that the total length of the gate which is made up of the three reeds of the three chambers plus the two reeds of the two doorposts and twice five cubits between the rooms and the ten cubits of the porch and its doorposts, was fifty cubits in all.
[49] ‡ c The number seven is read in the Sept. Version and occurs in the following verses 22, 26.
[50] ‡ c The number seven is read in the Sept. Version and occurs in the following verses 22, 26.
[51] Notes. ⓐ[46] In the now vulgate Hebr. version (jam vulgato)[Editorial Note 98] מנגכ to the south but the Septuagint also once read מנגד opposite.
[52] e So the sept. And later in verse 30 these porches are discussed as if they had been mentioned been previously. Further it is clear that these intervals EVTF, GSRH, etc between the chambers were empty like the cloisters, both because the Angel stood in them when he measured the width of the chambers EV, FT and the width of the gate Vv, and because the priests go through these intervals of the gates of the inner court on the way from their apartments into the inner court and return from there into there apartments and do not en route exit to the outer court, ch. 42.14, and Ezekiel entered the priests’ apartments by way of the entrance at the side of the northern gate, ch. 46.19.
[53] e So the sept. And later in verse 30 these porches are discussed as if they had been mentioned been previously. Further it is clear that these intervals EVTF, GSRH, etc between the chambers were empty like the cloisters, both because the Angel stood in them when he measured the width of the chambers EV, FT and the width of the gate Vv, and because the priests go through these intervals of the gates of the inner court on the way from their apartments into the inner court and return from there into there apartments and do not en route exit to the outer court, ch. 42.14, and Ezekiel entered the priests’ apartments by way of the entrance at the side of the northern gate, ch. 46.19.
[54] f. Here in the Hebrew the scribe in a moment of weariness has twice written the words, within at one reed, and he measured the porch of the gate –and with the same number of syllables. In the manuscripts of Jerome and the Syriac translator they occurred only once. In the Sept version (the Roman edition)[Editorial Note 100] by a contrary inadvertence on the scribe’s part, they are completely omitted, but in the Alexandrine codex and in the Arabic translation they occur once.
[Editorial Note 100] Newton possessed a Vetus Testamentum Graecum ex versione Septuaginta interpretum, juxta exemplar Vaticanum Romae editum, published at London in 1653. Harrison 195.
[55] g Here is the position of the porch and of the rooms in relation to each other is described differently from the way it is described later in verse 31 in the gates of the inner court.
[56] h Here breadth was once read in the sept version on the evidence of Jerome. However it was his opinion that this reading is not correct. For scripture would not have said, he says, in one and the same passage that the width and again the width was thirteen cubits. Others who think the same have rashly corrected the passage so that now for the rear width length is read both in the Sept. version and in the Hebr. text. But the facts themselves show that width should be read, because the internal width of the gate was thirteen cubits (as is evident if you subtract the widths of the two rooms from the total width Vv 25 cubits), and no measure of the internal width s is given anywhere else.
[Editorial Note 101] A tecto thalami ad tectum ejus: I think this is interpreted as ‘from the roof of one chamber to the roof of the room opposite’, i.e. the width of the gateway. Newton’s translation in Chronology, 345, is clearer, using ‘wall’ rather than tectum (‘roof’): ‘and he measured the whole breadth of the gate, from the further wall of one little chamber to the further wall of another little chamber: the breadth, Gg, or Kk, or Nn, was twenty and five cubits through; door, FH, against door, fh’. (The letters used in the plan printed in the Chronology differ from those Newton used in his diagram in the notebook.)
[57] k Where now is read ששים sixty, the Septuagint read עשרים, twenty. And rightly. For Jonathan and the Syriac version here mean the heights of the fronts or posts of the gate. And certainly that height had to be given somewhere, and it is not given anywhere else. And the width of the door was ten cubits and the height according to the rules of the architects should be twice the width. For thus the gates of this temple will square with the gates of the second temple in size.
[58] l. In the Hebr., the gate at the post of the court, the singular being put for plural. Similarly, at the post in verse 16 and at the shoulder in verse 18, instead of at the posts and at the shoulders. And gates here is put for the open gates VT, SR, Pp etc., exactly as in the next verse.
[59] k Where now is read ששים sixty, the Septuagint read עשרים, twenty. And rightly. For Jonathan and the Syriac version here mean the heights of the fronts or posts of the gate. And certainly that height had to be given somewhere, and it is not given anywhere else. And the width of the door was ten cubits and the height according to the rules of the architects should be twice the width. For thus the gates of this temple will square with the gates of the second temple in size.
[60] l. In the Hebr., the gate at the post of the court, the singular being put for plural. Similarly, at the post in verse 16 and at the shoulder in verse 18, instead of at the posts and at the shoulders. And gates here is put for the open gates VT, SR, Pp etc., exactly as in the next verse.
[61] m רצף signifies the pavement paved with stone, 2 Chronicles 7.3 and live coals, Isaiah 6.6, 1 Kings 19.6. And hence like a furnace is used for the shape of the vaulted area. So in the Song of Solomon 3.10 in the description of Solomon’s bed we hear of its posts of silver, its back of gold, its ceiling purple and its centre, ריוף אחבה the underlying space or the space between the pillars or the portico of love. So too in Esther 1.5,5, where the royal Court is described as furnished with marble pillars, a pillared pavement where there were couches laid out for the guests, it is called רצפה. And so in this passage of Ezekiel the Septuagint translates רצפה as πηριστυλα, which the Latin translation of the septuagint given in Jerome renders intercolumnium, while Jerome says it is a pavement between pillars, and we say it is a pillared place or place surrounded by pillars. And Ezekiel confirms this interpretation himself ch. 42.6, where he speaks of the pillars of the court.
[Editorial Note 102] ‘every gate having five chambers or exhedrae on either side,’ Chronology, p. 345.
[62] n. So the septuagint read. In the Hebr. now there is only And to the north; connecting these words with the previous sentence Villalpandus wrongly imagined that the Angel measured both the length of the court from the south to the north and the breadth between the gates, both at 100 cubits, and hence he had the incredible idea that the whole court was divided into nine little courts each 100 cubits long and 100 cubits broad, and were separated from each other by buildings which were 50 cubits wide. But from verses 23 and 27, where the same measurements are given, it is clear that the Angel measured only the distance between the gates, and that the words and to the north belong to the next phrase. Furthermore the Prophet says that as soon as he was brought out of the eastern gate into the outer court, he saw thirty chambers above a pillared pavement in a courtyard all around. If here with Villalpandus you understand by outer court some little courtyard, there would have to be seven outer courts, despite the fact that the Angel only speaks of one at all times. And besides there would have to be 30 rooms around the perimeter of the little court: which Villalpandus himself acknowledges is impossible unless the little rooms in the gates are counted in with the chambers; contrary to the express words of the Prophet, who places the pavement with all its thirty chambers at the shoulders of the gates and directly opposite the length of the gates. But if therefore by outer court here we do not understand some little court but the great court and we situate the pillared pavement with its chambers on its perimeter (for that is how they were placed in the second temple), all these intervening little courts will have to done away with so that the Prophet could see and count the chambers as soon as he emerged from the gate into the court. But why do I argue against an opinion which is founded only in a very unlikely interpretation of the words and to the north. If there had been so many little courts, surely the Angel would have followed them up at greater length. Surely too in clearer words. Certainly we cannot understand those words as Villalpandus does, unless we interpolate some words and complete the sense as: and [the breadth of the court from the south] to the north. But why should we not equally complete them as: and [he brought me] to the north? Especially as this was the reading of the Septuagint at one time. And although the words he brought me are not in the Heb Text, still they can and should be supplied from analogous passages, verses 24, 27, 32, 35, 48 etc. can and should be supplied. For the Angel is here passing with the Prophet from gate to gate and whenever he does so, it is said, he led me. But if you think that we should stick rigidly to the modern (hodierno) Hebrew text, it is all the same. For that text without the words he brought me will be translated as follows: And there was also a gate on the north which looked in the direction of the north in the outer court etc. or as follows if we omit the second ו as redundant, And there was a gate to the north which, etc. So little need is there for us to follow that very strained interpretation of Villalpandus, which has no rational basis. ‡ ‡ And in fact we cannot follow it, unless, with regard to the dimensions of the court which immediately surrounds the temple and the altar, we are ready to depart from the Mosaic proportion and make the length more than double the width, as Villalpandus does.
[63] o For ו and, the Septuagint read here כ as.
[Editorial Note 103] Newton’s version in Chronology, 343-46 ends here.
[64] p So the Septuagint read. And that is their reading in verses 21, 29, 33, 36.
[65] q. Verse 30 is lacking in the Septuagint (Roman edition). It does however occur in the Aldine edition and in the Alexandrian MS and in the Arabic version, while the Hebrew text agrees with its Syriac and Chaldean versions.
[66] r. The Septuagint reads gate instead of court, and rightly, since the prophet had already been bought into the inner court before.
[67] 35
[68] 36
[69] s So the Septuagint and the Latin, and analogous passages in verses 22, 25, 29, 33 confirm the reading
[70] 37
[71] t In Hebrew now the reading is ואילו and its doorpost. But the Septuagint and Jerome once read ואילמו its porch. And rightly, as is evident from analogous passages, verses 31, 34 as well as 9, 22 and 26.
[72] 38
[73] 39
[74] 40
[75] 41
[76] 42
[77] 43
[78] v. So Jonathan in the Targum interprets the word שפתים.
[79] 44
[80] x. לשכה exhedra often signifies a cubiculum Here and in what follows, understand it as a structure of many rooms, exactly as Josephus calls an entire building between two gates an exhedra.
[81] y שרים sometimes signifies singers, most often Princes. The most dignified apartments in the court of the priests may not be assigned to singers. We have translated it as Princes, as the Syriac does, because in the temple of Solomon there was an apartment of Princes, Jeremiah 35.4, and an apartment or room for the Prince Gemariah in the upper court, Jeremiah 36.10.12.
[82] z. In Hebr now it is אשר which. The Septuagint read אחר one.
[83] z. In Hebr now it is אשר which. The Septuagint read אחר one.
[84] 45
[85] z. In Hebr now it is אשר which. The Septuagint read אחר one.
[86] 44
[87] Editorial Note: This Note Empty
[88] Editorial Note: This Note Empty
[89] z. In Hebr now it is אשר which. The Septuagint read אחר one.
[90] z. In Hebr now it is אשר which. The Septuagint read אחר one.
[91] [92]a In Hebr now the reading is חקדים of the East: but the Septuagint read חדרים of the South, and the same reading recurs in the following phrase both in Hebr. and in the translations. Also, the opposition between the southern gates and the northern gates, which is the point here, confirms that reading.
[92] a
[93] 45
[94] Editorial Note: This Note Empty
[95] 46
[96] 47
[97] 48
[Editorial Note 104] ‘They went up from the Priests’ Court to the Porch of the Temple’ by ten steps’, Chronology, 340.
[98] 49
[99] [100]b b The position of the Porch may be disputed, namely, Whether its length is to be placed across the width of the temple, as seems at first sight to be asserted in 1 Kings 6.3. But the fronts of buildings should be wider than their porches, and the fact that the door of the porch is smaller than the door of the temple strongly suggests that the front wall of the porch was narrower than that of the temple, and likewise the porch in the position described by us corresponds better with the figures of the three gates in the other three sides of the inner court, and together with the bronze columns makes a length for the temple of a hundred cubits, as it should be.
[100] b
[101] [102]Vulg.[Editorial Note 105] אשר to which Sept. עשר ten, with which the Theodotian sense agrees ✝ ✝ Theodotius and Aquila in their second edition (according to Jerome) read צשת צשר eleven.
[102] c
[Editorial Note 105] Presumably, the vulgate version of the Hebrew Bible.
[103] Cap. 41.1
[104] [105]Vulg. חאהל tent, Septuagint האיל post, and the sense requires it.
[105] d
[106] 2
[107] 3
[108] [109]e Vulg. ורחב and breadth. Septuagint וכתפ, gives better sense and agrees with analogous measurements in verse 2.
[109] e.
[110] [111]f So once the Septuagint read, and the sense agrees.
[111] f.
[112] 4
[113] 5
[114] 6
[115] g In Hebr. were three and thirty פעמ ים (for that is how the word has to be pointed) in two rows. Just so, the Septuagint translates it as τριάκοντα τρὶς δίς, thirty thrice twice. That is, thirty in length, triple in height double in breadth. ☉☉ but they were wrong to change the order of the words, for τρὶς or (as some copies have it) τρία belongs to the preceding words storeroom above storeroom, and signifies three floors, as is also evident from what follows, verse 16.
[116] h Hebr. coming things, i.e., features which by projecting from the wall approach nearer and still nearer. In a contrary expression which nevertheless has the same sense, the Latin versions call the receding parts or recesses of the walls retractiones (retractions).
[117] 7
[118] 8.
[119] k Hebr. in the place of the height, i.e. highest
[Editorial Note 106] ala
[Editorial Note 107] media
[120] l In the current Hebr. ו And: is lacking; but the Septuagint, the Latin and Jonathan read it.
[121] 9
[122] m. Further we must emphasise here a distinction between the rooms situated on either side of the space left free. Those on one side are called צלעוח lateral or side rooms, those on the other side are called לשכוח chambers (exhedrae) or simply rooms (cubicula). This is so that you may clearly understand that the temple was surrounded by two rows of treasure chambers on separate foundations (in singulis tabulatis), one right next to it, the other further away, and down the middle of them there ran a passage or gallery, which is here called the space left free. The different names and different positions clearly indicate different sets of rooms.
[123] n The Septuagint here read the word And according to the Alexandrian MS and the Arabic translation. Further, the width of twenty cubits was not the width of the left space or of the space between the rooms (as some have imagined), for that space is later said to be five cubits wide. But neither was it the width of the separate place that ran between the side building and the priests’ rooms, where the sacrifices were eaten. For those rooms are not being discussed yet; the description of them begins later at ch. 42 and Besides, if we subtract from the 100 cubits of the width of the court between those rooms, the 70 cubits of the width of the temple and the side building together (Ezekiel 41.12, 14, 15), there will be 30 cubits left, fifteen cubits on this side and fifteen cubits on the other as the width of the separate place, which therefore is not twenty cubits. But where do those twenty cubits belong? I will tell you. The Prophet writes that those priests’ rooms stood across from the twenty cubits of the inner court and across from the pillared pavement of the outer court, ch. 42.2, 3, and therefore, just as the pillared pavement on one side designates the cloister of the outer court opposite, so the twenty cubits on the other side designate the building in the inner court opposite, and are therefore simply the measurement of its width. This is also clear by calculation. For if from the whole of the aforesaid width of seventy cubits you subtract the width of the temple at twenty cubits and the width of its wall at five cubits on this side and five cubits on the other as far as the first retraction (retractio), forty cubits will remain, twenty on this side and twenty on the other as the width of the structure that lies all around the temple. Or as follows: The width of the side chamber is five cubits as above. That of the area left free is five cubits (Ezekiel 41.11). That of the outer room is the same as that of the inner room, and that of the outer wall is also five cubits (Ezekiel 41.9, 12), that is, a total of twenty cubits as above. I have explained all this at some length in order to counter the errors of some of the translations which I will not take the time to explain in detail. # # Finally this same building was designated by the term twenty cubits {high} at the time of the temple of Solomon. Solomon built twenty cubits [that is, a building of twenty cubits] on the sides of the house with boards of cedar from the pavement to the roof, 1 Reg 6.16.
[124] 10
[125] m בית צלעות אשר לכית ובין חלשכוח. Instead of בית read בין with the septuagint, which translates these words αναμησον των πλευρων του ὄικου καὶ ἀναμέσον των ἐξεδρων between the sides whi{ch} are next to the house and between the chambers, that is, between the sides and the chambers. For the Hebrews express by a double between what we express by a single one.
[126] n The Septuagint here read the word And according to the Alexandrian MS and the Arabic translation. Further, the width of twenty cubits was not the width of the left space or of the space between the rooms (as some have imagined), for that space is later said to be five cubits wide. But neither was it the width of the separate place that ran between the side building and the priests’ rooms, where the sacrifices were eaten. For those rooms are not being discussed yet; the description of them begins later at ch. 42 and Besides, if we subtract from the 100 cubits of the width of the court between those rooms, the 70 cubits of the width of the temple and the side building together (Ezekiel 41.12, 14, 15), there will be 30 cubits left, fifteen cubits on this side and fifteen cubits on the other as the width of the separate place, which therefore is not twenty cubits. But where do those twenty cubits belong? I will tell you. The Prophet writes that those priests’ rooms stood across from the twenty cubits of the inner court and across from the pillared pavement of the outer court, ch. 42.2, 3, and therefore, just as the pillared pavement on one side designates the cloister of the outer court opposite, so the twenty cubits on the other side designate the building in the inner court opposite, and are therefore simply the measurement of its width. This is also clear by calculation. For if from the whole of the aforesaid width of seventy cubits you subtract the width of the temple at twenty cubits and the width of its wall at five cubits on this side and five cubits on the other as far as the first retraction (retractio), forty cubits will remain, twenty on this side and twenty on the other as the width of the structure that lies all around the temple. Or as follows: The width of the side chamber is five cubits as above. That of the area left free is five cubits (Ezekiel 41.11). That of the outer room is the same as that of the inner room, and that of the outer wall is also five cubits (Ezekiel 41.9, 12), that is, a total of twenty cubits as above. I have explained all this at some length in order to counter the errors of some of the translations which I will not take the time to explain in detail. # # Finally this same building was designated by the term twenty cubits {high} at the time of the temple of Solomon. Solomon built twenty cubits [that is, a building of twenty cubits] on the sides of the house with boards of cedar from the pavement to the roof, 1 Reg 6.16.
[127] 11
[128] 12
[129] Editorial Note: This Note Empty
[130] Editorial Note: This Note Empty
[131] 13
[132] Editorial Note: This Note Empty
[133] 14
[134] 15
[135] Editorial Note: This Note Empty
[136] o אתיק signifies a walkway separate from but adjoining a building, and here it is applied to the walkway all around the temple 15 cubits wide, which is otherwise called the separate place, and in the following verse it is applied to the walkways between the rooms built three floors high all around the temple, and in ch. 42.3, 5 to the walkways on the retractions of the walls on each of the floors of the priests’ rooms.
[137] 16
[Editorial Note 108] This sentence seems to lose its structure.
[138] p. Ita Septuaginta.
[139] 17
[Editorial Note 109] ‘panellings’ is a guess; I have not been able to find this word in a dictionary. It seems to be equivalent to the Greek word phatnomasin, one meaning of which is ‘coffered work’ in a ceiling (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 8.98 or 20.221?)
[140] 18
[141] 19
[142] 20
[143] q. In Jerome’s copy the reading was בקיר on the wall and חחיכל temple only occurred once.
[144] 21
[145] Editorial Note: This Note Empty
[146] 22
[147] r Hebrew: ארכו, its length. Septuagint: ארנו its base or stylobate: and the sense agrees.
[148] 23
[149] s. The doors in the porch of the second temple were also like this, as the Talmudists describe them.
[150] 24
[Editorial Note 110] I have not found this word in a dictionary, but it has to have something to do with turning.
[151] 25
[152] t There were also beams in the porch of the second temple but because of a lack of pillars[Editorial Note 111]
[Editorial Note 111] Or perhaps ‘smaller number of pillars’
[153] 26
[154] Cap 42.1.
[155] v. x. So the Septuagint according to the Alexandrine MS and the Arabic translation. But if with the Heb. Vulg. you read חלשכה exhedra, you must understand by exhedra the whole block of chambers, one hundred cubits long.
[156] 2
[157] v. x. So the Septuagint according to the Alexandrine MS and the Arabic translation. But if with the Heb. Vulg. you read חלשכה exhedra, you must understand by exhedra the whole block of chambers, one hundred cubits long.
[158] 3
[159] 4
[160] y. Vulg. דרך אמה אחת of a way of one cubit. Sept. ארך מאח אמח of a length of one hundred cubits.
[161] 5
[162] 6
[Editorial Note 112] ‘retraction’ is Newton’s word; see Chronology, 341.
[163] 7
[164] 8
[165] 9
[166] 10
[167] z Vulg. חחצר of the court. Sept מהלך of the passage.
[168] a So the Sept.
[169] 11
[170] b Vulg. כן רחכך thus their width. Septuagint וכרחכן and in their breadth.
[171] c Vulg. וכל, and all. Sept. וככל and in all.
[172] 12
[173] d Vulg. וכפחחי and thus the doors. Jerome and the Syriac כפחחי thus the doors Sept. Missing.
[174] 13
[175] 14
[176] 15
[177] e In the Heb. something is missing. Sept. ὑπόδηιγμα του ὄικου pattern or figure of the house.
[178] 16
[179] f Vulg. חמש אמוח קנים five cubits of reeds, which makes little sense. Sept חמש מאות five hundred, and according to the Arabic translation חמש מאות אמות five hundred cubits, which is best. Further, the preceding words [with the measuring reed] which are in the Hebr., are redundant and do not occur in the Sept.
[180] 17
[181] g Heb reeds. Sept. cubits. That cubits in the septuagint should not be construed as reeds, is shown at length ✝[182] by L. Capellus arguing against a certain wild idea of Villalpandus, and those cubits thus by ‡ ‡ And those cubits are made up from individual measurements as follows. The length of the outer gateway situated on the north is fifty cubits, from there to the inner gate fifty cubits, the length of the inner gate fifty cubits, the width of the inner court a hundred cubits, the length of the southern inner gate fifty cubits, from there to the southern outer gate is a hundred cubits, the length of that gate fifty cubits. Total: five hundred cubits. This therefore is the width of the court between the outer faces of the outer gates, and thus the length of the outer wall whose height and width were one reed is five hundred cubits on each side on the outside. Add fifty cubits for the space outside the wall [reading suburbanum for suburbarum] all around, and each of the sides of the square will be six hundred cubits.
[182] ✝ In Walton in the Prolegomena to the Polyglot Bible
[183] 18
[184] 19
[185]
h. The order of the phrases is reversed in the Heb. Vulg. For the Angel did not pass in one bound from the north side to the south side, as it is there, but measured it by going around the four sides in order, as in the text which was in the Septuagint.
[186] 20
[187] g Heb reeds. Sept. cubits. That cubits in the septuagint should not be construed as reeds, is shown at length ✝[182] by L. Capellus arguing against a certain wild idea of Villalpandus, and those cubits thus by ‡ ‡ And those cubits are made up from individual measurements as follows. The length of the outer gateway situated on the north is fifty cubits, from there to the inner gate fifty cubits, the length of the inner gate fifty cubits, the width of the inner court a hundred cubits, the length of the southern inner gate fifty cubits, from there to the southern outer gate is a hundred cubits, the length of that gate fifty cubits. Total: five hundred cubits. This therefore is the width of the court between the outer faces of the outer gates, and thus the length of the outer wall whose height and width were one reed is five hundred cubits on each side on the outside. Add fifty cubits for the space outside the wall [reading suburbanum for suburbarum] all around, and each of the sides of the square will be six hundred cubits.
[188] Cap 43.1
[189] 2
[190] 3
[191] 4
[192] 5
[193] 6
[194] 7
[195] Cap. 46.19
[196] 20
[Editorial Note 113] Apparently, the grain-offering.
[197] 21
[198] 22
[199] 23
[200] 24
[Editorial Note 114] Ezekiel 47.13 ff. and especially 48.8 ff.
[Editorial Note 115] The repetition is in the text.
[Editorial Note 116] The repetition is in the text.
[Editorial Note 117] Newton reviews these officials at Chronology, pp. 338-39.
[Editorial Note 118] The insertion of quae spoils the syntax of the sentence.
