The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

CHAP. XII. The Breadth, Chambers, and Stairs of the Temple. (Book 12)

THUS were the risings of the Temple to its height, in the parcels named: it is now equally requisite to take notice also of the length and breadth of it, and to observe into what lesser measures those dimensions were divided.

a 1.1 The length of it was from East to West, and it was an hundred cubits, and so was the breadth from North to South, in some part of it, but not in all. That part of it that bare this breadth, was only the Porch, for the building behind it was only seventy cubits broad. And the Porch stood before it as a cross building, reaching fifteen cubits South, and fifteen cubits North further out than the breadth of the Temple; which spaces on eithe•• ••••de were thus taken up, b 1.2 The thickness of the wall of the Porch at either end was five cubits, and from that wall to the wall of the Temple on either side were ten cubits.

So fair a Front there was at the entring; an hundred cubits broad, and an hundred and twenty cubits high; for so is Josephus to be understood, when speaking of the Temple built by Herod, he saith, it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; c 1.3 An hundred long, and twenty cubits above an hundred high; Not all the house throughout so high, for that the Talmud denies, giving so particular and exact account of an hundred only, as we have observed, but the Porch of this height rising twenty cubits above the height of the rest of the house.

Just in the middle of this fair Front d 1.4 was the Gate of the Porch, forty cubits high, and twenty cubits broad: e 1.5 It had no doors to it at all, but f 1.6 it was an open Gate, into which whosoever stood in the Court might look and see the space of the Porch within. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 &c. All this front was gilt with gold, and through it all the first house (that is, the Porch within) might be seen, and that glittered with gold also: Now by all this Front, Josephus, (for they are his words) meaneth not the whole face of the Porch, or all the hundred cubits long, and hundred and twenty high, but the very front of the Gate, or entrance only, which he sheweth to have been seventy cubits high, and twenty five broad: And herein the Talmud and he do not clash, though the Talmud say, that the height was only forty cubits, and the breadth but twenty, for it speaks only of the very hollow entrance, but he speaks also of the Posts and head or front of the whole Gate-house, as we observed about the other Gates before.

g 1.7 The Talmud likewise speaks of five 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 beams of some choice wood (the Learned Buxtorfius translates it quercinae) that were laid over this Gate, curiously wrought with knots and flowers, and a row of stone still laid between beam and beam: The low∣est beam that lay on the head of the Gate was a cubit on either side longer than the Gate was broad: then was laid on that a row of stone: After that another carved beam a cu∣bit on either end longer than the other; and then a row of stone. Then another beam, and so of the rest, every beam being a cubit at either end longer than that that lay be∣low it. These were thus laid over the Gate to bear the weight that was above; they rose to a great height, were curiously ingraven, and gilt, and from the highest there was a neat descending border gathered at either end of the beams, still inward and inward, as the beams shortned, and at last it ran down by the cheeks of the entry two cubits and an half broad, on either side the Gate: And this was the front that Josephus meaneth.

And now turn behind this Porch, at whether end you will, and look Westward: There ran the body of the Temple it self, pointing exactly upon the middle of the Porch,

or just upon this entrance that we have been speaking of, the breadth of it between wall and wall, just equal with the breadth of this entrance; but the walls and chambers built on either side, of such a breadth, as that the whole came to seventy cubits broad: and thus doth Ariel or the Lion of God, as the Jews interpret it, represent the proportion of a Lion, broad before in the large front the Porch, which was of an hundred cubits breadth, and narrow behind, in the buildings of the house reduced in breadth to seventy cubits; which breadth to take up in its several parcels, we will begin at the North side, and thus we find these particular measures.

• h 1.8 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The wall of the Gallery five cubits thick, this was the outmost wall of all, and it rose to the battlements or first Leads mentioned before; where the foundation for six cubits high, was said to be six cubits thick: but that odd cubit is not here reckoned, because they count it not from the very foundation, but from the wall above, as any one would count in such a building.
• 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The gallery three cubits broad.
• 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The wall of the chambers five cubits thick.
• 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The chambers themselves six cubits broad.
• 5. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The wall of the Temple six cubits thick.
• 6. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The breadth of the Temple within from wall to wall twenty cubits.
• 7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The other wall of it six cubits thick.
• 8. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The breadth of the chambers six cubits.
• 9. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The wall of the chambers five cubits thick.
• 10. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The place of the coming down of the water, three cubits broad.
• 11. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The outmost wall five cubits. Seventy in all.

i 1.9 Now the Chambers were in number eight and thirty, fifteen upon the Northside, fif∣teen upon the South, and eight at the West end. They were in three stories, five in the lowest stories, and five over them, and five over those; thus on the North and South sides: but at the West end there were three on the ground, and three over them, and two over those. Every Chamber was six cubits broad, and twice as long (only the two highest Chambers at the West end were of a greater length). k 1.10 And there was a space between the Chambers on the same floor, in manner of an entry of some seven cubits and an half broad, that you might pass in it betwixt Chamber and Chamber, to every Chamber door which was upon the side.

Before these Chambers there ran a Gallery from the East end of the building to the West (but at the West end there was none such) of three cubits broad, by which you were carried along to any of these Entries between the Chambers, and so to any Chamber door: In the outmost wall of the Fabrick, toward the North and the South, there were four doors on either side, into four entries (for so many there were between five Cham∣bers) but as soon as you were come within the doors, there ran a Gallery along on your right hand and left, over which you stepped into the entry that was before you: or if you went not in at the door that was just opposite to the Entry that you would go to, you might go in at any door you thought good, and this Gallery would lead you to that Entry.

Thus was it with the lowest Chambers, and the like Gallery and Entries were also in the middle story, and in the highest: Now the way to go up into them, was by a large pair of turning stairs, in a Turret at the North-East corner of the North side; by which stairs you went up to the first floor, and there if you would, you might land in the Gal∣lery, and go there to what Entry or Chamber you would; or if you would go higher, you might do so likewise into the Gallery in the third story; and if you had a mind, you might yet go higher up these stairs, up to the Leads, to walk over the Chambers, on the roof, round about their whole pyle.

But besides this Staircase-turret, which thus conveyed to the roof of the buildings, there was such another, at the furthest end of every one of the Entries that have been spoken of, which carried up to the first and second floor, or to the upper Chambers, but went not so high, as to convey to the roof: And so had you gone in at any of the four doors to the ground Chambers, either on the North side of the House, or on the South, stepping over the Gallery, you came into the Entry between two Chambers, one on your right hand, and another on your left, and their doors opening into the Entry, and facing one another; but before you, towards the Temple wall, there was a round large Turret-like stair case, into which you might go out of either Chamber, and so go up stairs into the Chambers over head: and from thence up stairs again, into the Chambers over them. And thus are we to understand that Talmudick passage, of no small difficulty at the first sight. l 1.11 There were three doors to every one of the Chambers, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 One to the Chamber on the right hand, and another to the Chamber on the left (that is, one door to the Entry on the one side, and another to

the Entry on the other,) and one to the Chamber over head, that is, into this Stair-case that carried up to the Chambers above. And thus m 1.12 one went up from the lowest story to the high∣est by the middle: for n 1.13 they went up with winding stairs into the middle story, and out of the middle into the third.

The West-end Chambers had no Gallery at all before them, but you stepped imme∣diately through the doors that were in the outmost wall into the Entries, and at the end of the Entries there was such a Stair-case as this, which conveyed and carried you up from story to story. On the South there were such Galleries in the three heights, as there were on the North, and such Stair-cases at the end of the Entries, joining to the Temple∣wall, but that space where the Galleries were, was called by another name. Not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Mesibbah, as it was called on the North-side, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the place of the coming down of the water: Not as if here were the gutters to carry off the rains from the whole House, but because in this space were laid the pipes that brought water down from the Fountain Etam, to the Cistern or Well, in the Well-room that was made to receive them: They were so laid, as that they hindred not the access or passage in the Galleries, to any of the Chambers, and it may be they were not to be seen at all, but lay under ground in the ground gallery; but they were glad thus to distinguish between the North and South∣sides, by these different names, as that they might the easier and quicker be understood, when they spake of a Chamber in the Mesibbah, or of a Chamber in the conveyance of the water.

These Chambers, which were of this number, measure, posture and composure that hath been spoken, and whose floor and roof-beams rested upon benches in the Temple∣wall, as was observed before, were for the laying up some choice Treasures and Utensils, as also for Corn, Wine, and Oil, and whatsoever was brought in of Tithes, and first Fruits, for the sustenance and subsistence of the Priests that attended upon the Altar, and they were as Treasuries or Storehouses for that purpose, Neh. XII. 44. Mal. III. 10.

And now let us go up the stairs of the great Turret, in the North-East corner on the North-side (for there was none such on the South) that will carry us to the roof of this building, or on the Leads. At the top of the stairs he went out at a wicket, and his face was then towards the West. o 1.14 He walked upon the Leads along upon the North-side till he came to the West corner: when he came thither he turned his face toward the South corner: when he came to the South, he turned his face Eastward, and went all along on the South-side, till he came up a good way, and there was a door through the Temple-wall into the rooms over the Holy and most Holy places. In this room over them (which was fifty cu∣bits from the ground, and so were the Leads) there were these three things worth taking notice of.

• 1. That as soon as a man was stept within the door, there were two Cedar beams or Trees laid close together, sloping still upward, and lying along the wall, by which (they were laid so handsomly slope, and steps were either cut in them, or nailed upon them) one might go to the very top of the Temple, and this was the way to the higher Leads.
• 2. Just over the parting between the Holy and most Holy place, there were some little Pillasters set, which shewed the partition.
• 3. In the floor over the most holy place, there were divers holes like Trapdoors, through which, when occasion required, they let down Workmen by cords, to mend the walls of the most holy place as there was need. And they let them down in Chests or close Trunks, or some such things, where they could see nothing but their work be∣fore them, and the reason of this is given by the Jews 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 That they might not feed their Eyes with looking upon the most holy place. p 1.15 Once a year be∣tween Passover and Passover, they whited the Temple walls within: and for this and other necessary work about the House within, it was desired and endeavoured that Priests or Levites should do the work; but if such were not found to do it, then other Israe∣lites were admitted, and they were admitted to go through the doors into the most holy place, if Chests or Trunks, were not to be found in which to let them down.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Mid. per. 4.
• b 1.2

  Maym. in Beth babbechir. per. 4.
• c 1.3

  Ioseph. Ant. lib. 15. cap. 4.
• d 1.4

  Mid. per 3.
• e 1.5

  Maym. ubi sup.
• f 1.6

  Ioseph. de Bell. lib. 5. cap. 14.
• g 1.7

  Mid. ubi sup.
• h 1.8

  Ibid. per. 4.
• i 1.9

  Ibid. Sect. ••.
• k 1.10

  See Ezek. XL. 21.
• l 1.11

  Mid. ub•• s••••.
• m 1.12

  Ezek. XLI. 7
• n 1.13

  1 King. VI. 8.
• o 1.14

  Mid. ubi sup.
• p 1.15

  Mam. in Beth habbech. per. 4.