SECT. I. The steps up to it.
IN taking particular account of the length of the building from East to West, (which was an hundred cubits) we will first begin at the Porch (which was the beautiful Front Eastward) and view severally every special place and parcel till we come to the West end.
a 1.1 The spreading of the Porch in length was an hundred cubits, and in height an hun∣dred and twenty cubits higher than the height of the Temple: And this Porch which was a cross building to the Temple it self, and so high above it, may not improperly be con∣ceived to be that place whither Satan brought our Saviour in his temptation, when he is said to have brought him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, properly to the wing of the Temple.
There were several things at this Front, before we stir from it, that were very remark∣able, and cannot be passed without observation: And the first that we will look upon, shall be the steps that rose up out of the Court into this entrance, which were c 1.2 twelve in number, every step half a cubit rising, six cubits in the whole rise, and so much was the floor of the Porch higher than the floor of the Court. And here we meet with a passage in the Treatise Middoth, in the place cited in the Margin, which is exceeding hard to be understood, and the very same also in Maymonides, in whom it is harder. The words are these: Having spoken of the steps that went up to the Porch, that they were twelve, and that the rise of every step was half a cubit, and the bredth of it to stand upon a cubit, it comes on and saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Which applyed to the steps, and their rising, I should tran∣slate to this sense, At every cubits rise there was a half pace of three cubits broad, and at the highest cubits rise there was a half pace of four cubits broad. The meaning is this, That as you had gone up two steps (which being half a cubit high apiece, made but a cubit rise) at the third step the space you tread upon was enlarged, and was three cubits broad, whereas the steps themselves that you had come up, were but one cubit breadth: And so from this inlarged breadth, or half space, step two steps further and there was another, and after two steps more another, and after two steps yet more there was the highest, which was an half space, or inlargment of four cubits breadth: And so every third step of the twelve was an half pace, or such an inlargement, which made the Ascent exceed∣ing beautiful and stately. And this helpeth to understand a passage in the Treatise Joma, which at the first reading is not easie to be understood. Where relating how when the High Priest on the day of Expiation had slain his own Bullock, he gave the blood to one to stir it, to keep it from congealing, it saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 d 1.3 That he stirred it about, upon the fourth half pace of the Temple; which Maymony ex∣presseth, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 e 1.4 He stirred it about that it should not con∣geal, upon the fourth half pace of the Temple without; that is, upon the very top of these twelve steps that went up into the Porch. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 f 1.5 Baal Aruch (after the pro∣duction of many examples of it) renders by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Standings, or Pillars, or Benches; I find not a fitter word for it here to express it by than Half-pace.
Now g 1.6 Maymony in Beth habbechirah, or in his Treatise of the Temple, having to deal with these words of the Talmud that we have been speaking of, doth utter them thus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Round about the Walls of the Porch from below upward they were thus: One cubit plain, and then an half pace of three cubits, one cubit plain (or an ordinary rising of steps) and then another half pace of three cubits, and so up; so that the half paces did go about the Walls of the Porch; His meaning is the same with what was said before, but he addeth somewhat more, and that is, that these twelve steps thus beautifully spreading, every third step into an half pace, did not only go up to the entrance into the Porch, but also there was such steps all along the front of the Porch Eastward; and also such steps at either end of it, North and South; and the reason of this was because the floor of the Porch was higher so much than, the floor of the Court, and there then were Doors in the Buildings besides the great Door that gave passage into the Temple, and into these Doors you could not get without such steps.