the Gate was three cubits (curiously wrought and richly gilt) on either side, and thirty five cubits above the Gate to the roof or first floor of the entry of the Porch: and this is the meaning of Josephus, as it appeareth plainly enough by these his two passages. For as to the first he saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, That the Gate of the House (meaning this that we are about) was gilt all over, and so was the Wall all about it: And as to the second, he hath this saying, somewhat difficult, but well understood resolving the matter according as hath been spoken. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. But the Temple having two floors, or being double roofed, that within was lower than that without, and had gilded doors of fifty five cubits high, and sixteen broad.
Now by what he saith that the Temple was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or double floored or roofed, his meaning is, that as you stood in the Temple there was a first floor over your head, and a room above that, which was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of which we have spoken before, and above that there was the roof; Had all the House been open to the very roof, as our Churches are, there could have been no difference between the height of the Holy and most Holy place to the roof, but both had been alike.
But both places being floored over, and having an upper Chamber above them, there was a difference made in the height of this first floor: for in the Holy place it was five and fifty cubits from the ground, but in the Most Holy place it was but twenty, as shall be shewed. Now the Porch had its floor lay at the least as high if not higher than the floor of the Holy place: and so the space above the Gate to the first floor was a goodly space, and made a fair front: It seemeth by our Author that the first floor of the Porch was ninety cubits high, yet doth he reckon the height of the Gate but five and fifty, because he reckons only to the height of the floor of the Holy place, and the height of the front of the Gate of the Oracle, for he speaketh of them both alike.
Thus much being observed concerning the height and bredth of this Gate; it is also to be remembred that the Wall of the Temple was six cubits thick, as was observed when we measured the breadth of the building. The two Leaves of the Gate there∣fore which were five cubits broad apiece, were hung up a little within the thickness of the Wall from the Porch, so that when they were opened they covered the whole thickness of the Wall on the right hand and the left, that as you passed through you could not see it.
Now at the very farthest of the thickness of the Wall towards the Holy place, there was a two-leaved Door likewise parallel'd to this that we have surveyed, which when the Leaves opened, they fell back to the Wall which was at the lower end of the House, and covered a place which was ungilded: for all the Walls were gilded but only the places where the Leaves of the Doors fell back.
And thus had you two several Doors of two folding Leaves apiece to go through be∣tween the Porch and the Temple, the one standing within a cubit of the Porch, and the other at the very edge of the Wall within, and so when they were both shut there was a five-cubit space between them, which was so much space in the thickness of the Tem∣ple Wall.
The outer Door is called commonly by the Jews, the great Door of the Temple, not but that the inner Door was as big, but because of the great front that this Gate had, which the other had not: And of this outer Door there are these memorials or remark∣able things recorded among them. First, That the Morning Sacrifice was never killed till this Door was opened: And so it is recorded in the Treatise Tamid, or concerning the dayly Sacrifice 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 That he that was to slay the Sacrifice, killed him not till he heard the noise of the great Gate opening.
And there they relate the noise of this Gate might be heard to Jericho, and so the noise of divers other things there mentioned, in which they do Hyperbolize for the glorifying of the matters of the Temple. And a second thing for which this door is renowned among them, is, For that it had two Wickets in it, in either leaf one, one in the North leaf, and another in the South: And that through that in the South no Man passed, but that that was it of which Ezekiel saith, This Gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no Man shall enter in by it, &c.
Now for the opening of these Doors every morning, the way was thus: One took a Key and opened the Wicket in the North leaf of the Door, and went in, into the five cubit space between the two Doors: and there he went in at a Door into the very Wall where there was a hollow passage into the Holy place, coming forth in the place where one of the Leaves of the inner Door fell to the Wall.