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. XV. The most Holy place. (Book 15)

SECT. I. The Partition space. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

THE Holy and the most Holy place were divided asunder by a threefold partition, namely by a cubit space, and by two Veils, on either side of that space: The partition space which a 1.1 was a cubit broad, and no more, by the Jews is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which b 1.2 Rabbi Nathan confesseth to be a Greek word, and he saith it signifieth within or without, as meaning, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that it was doubtful to them, whether it were within or without; and thus it is interpreted c 1.3 in the Jerusalem Talmud: d 1.4 Maymony helps us to their meaning thus, In the Temple there was a Wall which parted be∣tween the Holy and most Holy place, a cubit thick. But when they builded the second Temple, they doubted whether the thickness of that Wall belonged to the measure of the Holy place, or to the measure of the most Holy place: Therefore they made the most Holy place twenty cubits long compleat: and they made the Holy place forty cubits long compleat. And they left a space be∣twixt the Holy and most Holy place of a cubit breadth; and in the second Temple they built not a Wall there, but they made two veils, one at the end of the most Holy place (Eastward), and the other at the end of the Holy place (Westward) and between them there was a cu∣bits breadth, according to the thickness of the Wall that had been in the first Temple: But in the first Temple there was but one Veil.

The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 therefore is well conceived by the Learned e 1.5 Lempereur to be the Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which signifieth a disease in the Eye, distempering the sight, and hinder∣ing it, and so were the Eyes of the understanding of the builders of the second Temple at a stand about this place, whether it should belong to the Holy or most Holy place, and thereupon they called the place it self 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

The Wall that Solomon built for the parting of the Holy and most Holy place, being a cubit thick (in stead of which this space was left) had these things regardable and con∣siderable in it, and not easie to be understood.

First, For the entring of the Oracle, he made doors of Olive-Tree. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 1 King. VI. 31. These later words are very difficult of construction, and if we go to Glossaries for the explication of them, they will give us variety of senses, but little fa∣cility of understanding. The Chaldee renders it only, Their posts with its lintel were order∣ly set, taking the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the sense of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ranked in order, and giving but very little light unto the obscure place. David Kimchi, and Rabbi Solomon seem to un∣derstand it, that the posts of the doors were not four square but five square, if we may use such a word, or wrought into five ribs, as their own words are. But Levi Gershom hath a far fetch for it, for he thinks 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 meaneth the fifth Gate that was in the Temple as you went forward; the Temple door the fourth, the Porch door the third, the door of the inner Court the second, and of the outer Court the first.

To me the words seem to bear this construction; The post which was the door cheeks was at the fifth cubit; meaning from either Wall of the House, come inward five cubits, and there was the door cheek, and so the House being twenty cubits broad, the door hereby is concluded to be ten. And this may the rather be so interpreted, because the Text had been taking notice of the breadth of the House immediately before; as when it was speaking of the Cherubims Wings, it saith, the Wing of the one touched the one Wall, and the Wing of the other touched the other Wall; and speaking of the adorning of the House, it saith, all the Walls of the House were Carved, and the Floor Gilt, and then he comes on to speak of the partition betwixt the one House and the other, and saith, That the Oracle had a two leaved door of Olive-tree, and the fifth cubit from either Wall was the post which served for the cheeks of the door: And so it is said in vers. 33. He made for the door of the Temple posts of Olive-tree, from the fourth cubit; that is, four cubits from either side Wall he set up an Olive beam for a post on either

side the door, of a cubit thickness, and so the door came to be ten cubits broad.

A second thing of difficulty to be understood about this partition Wall in Solomons Temple, is that which is spoken in vers. 22. of the same Chapter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And he made bars in chains of gold before the Oracle, and he overlaid it with gold. All the difficulty lies in the first word, for it is generally agreed by the best skilled in the Language, the Chaldee and the Rabbins that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth chains, but, what is meant by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is the Question. The word properly signifieth, He caused to pass over, but in this place, R. Solomon, and D. Kimchi take it in a Chaldee propriety, as signifying to make bars, because 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 bars, in the Hebrew is translated 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Chaldee. The sixteenth verse of 2 Chr. III. giveth some light to this obscurity, for there it is said, He made chains as in the Oracle, and put them on the heads of the pillars; by which he means the flower wreaths that we spake of before that went about the Chapiter, and the like is to be understood here. That upon this Wall which was before the Oracle, and divided betwixt the Holy and most Holy place, be made borders or chained wreaths, with a swel∣ling in the border like a bar in it, carried from the one side of the House to the other upon this Wall.

SECT. II. The Veil.

THE Veils were two, as was observed before, and the reason given why; a 1.6 and these two Veils were renewed every year, the old ones taken away, and new ones put in their room: It was woven of four colours, blew, purple, scarlet, and fine white linnen yarn, every one of these threds twisted six double, and woven upon hair for the warp, of seventy two hairs twisted into every thred. These two Veils rent at our Saviours death from the top to the bottom, Matth. XXVII. 51. and gave demonstra∣tion of the laying open and common of those Ceremonious things which had thitherto been reserved in such recluseness and singularity. The Evangelist indeed calleth it by the name of One Veil, and so also doth Josephus, when he saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, b 1.7 It was parted by a Veil. For, 1. Though they were two, yet hung they up to be but as one partition. 2. Had they known where the proper place of one Veil had been, there had been but one in this second Temple and no more.

Imagine what an amazement it would prove to the two Priests that were that Evening that our Saviour suffered, to mend the Lamps, and to burn the Incense, to see, and for the rest of the people to hear that the Veils rent of their own accord from the top to the bottom, and no Hand upon them. Had not a Veil been upon the Eyes of that Na∣tion, they might have seen more in this matter than they did, and made a better use of it than they made. Whether that story that is both in Josephus and in the Talmudicks, about the Gate of the Temple opening of its own accord, which we shall relate ere long, refer not to this story in the Gospel, be it referred to the Reader to judge. The Apostle himself gives us the typical application of this piece of the Sanctuary, Heb. X. 19, 20. Having boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the Veil, that is to say, his flesh.

SECT. III. The most Holy place it self.

THE most Holy place in Moses his Tabernacle was a perfect cube of ten cubits long, and ten cubits broad, and ten cubits high: And the like was it in the Temple that was built by Solomon of twenty cubits every way, 2 Chron. III. 8. For though the Tem∣ple it self were thirty cubits high, yet did he floor over the most Holy place at twenty cubits height: And to this sense is that verse to be understood, in 1 King. VI. 16. He built twenty cubits on the sides of the House, both the floor and the Walls with boards of Cedar; he even built them for it within, even for the Oracle, even for the most Holy place.

The beauty of the Walls of this place, was agreeable to the other; deckt with Che∣rubims and Palm-trees, and some precious Stones intermixed, Floor and Walls, and Roof and all gilded with Gold. It is said in 2 Chron. III. 9. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that he overlaid the upper chambers with gold, which may move a just Query, for over the Holy place there was no upper chamber at all, (that is, in the Temple built by Solomon, for of that we are speaking) but it was all open to the Roof, being but thirty cubits high: and over the most Holy place there was indeed an upper room of ten cubits high; but why this should be called Chambers in the plural number, and why it should be gilded at all, since there was no coming into it, nor no way to come there, is not easie to apprehend: And as

for the side Chambers, that were set on the outside of the House, is there warrant or reason to suppose them overlaid with Gold, where they were to lay up Corn and Wine, and such other things of Tythes and first Fruits? Therefore by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 might be under∣stood, not the upper Chambers in the common sense in which the word is used, for there was none over the Holy place but the upper Floor, or the Roof of the Holy and most Holy place, and so the Text sheweth that the Rooms were all overlaid with Gold every where, both the Floor on which they trod, and the Walls and the Floor or Roof over head.

But another Text in the Book of Chronicles helpeth to resolve this doubt, and that is, 1 Chron. XXIX. 3. Moreover because I have set mine affection on the House of my God, I have of mine own proper good; of Gold and Silver which I have given to the House of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy House: Even three thousand talents of Gold, of the Gold of Ophir, and seventy thousand talents of refined Silver, to overlay the Walls of the Houses withal; where these two things are remarkable. First, That he saith this preparation was above what he had prepared for the holy House, and yet, he saith, he had prepared it for the House of God. And secondly, That here is mention of Silver to overlay the Walls withal, whereas it is plain, that within the Temple it self all the overlaying was of Gold. Therefore it is thus to be understood, that beside the store of Gold that David had provided for the gildings of the House within, in the Holy and most Holy place, he had also laid by a stock of Gold and Silver both, to gild and over∣lay the Chambers over the Porch (for there were upper Chambers diverse in it, the height of it being one hundred and twenty cubits) and to beautifie the side Chambers, and the other Chambers that were about the Courts.

Now in the Temple after the Captivity, we do not find that they were so curious to reduce the compass of the most Holy place to a cubick form, but that the height of it did exceed the breadth, it being twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits broad, like that of Solomons, but the height far more for ought I find determined to the contrary.

SECT. IV. The Cherubims and Ark.

AS there were two Cherubims upon the Ark it self, so also did Solomon cause two Cherubims besides, to be made to stand over the Ark, it standing between them: they are so plainly and facilely described, in 1 Kings VI. 23. that I shall refer the Reader thither for the story of them, and say no more concerning them but only this, that as the two Cherubims upon the Mercy seat, may very well be resembled to Christs two natures, so these two that stood by, to the two Testaments; which in their beginning and end reach the two sides of the World, The Creation, and the last Judgment, and in the middle do sweetly join one to another.

The Ark (the strength and presence of the Lord, Psal. CV. 4. and the glory of Israel, 1 Sam. IV. 22. the most pregnant and proper resemblance of our Saviour, in whom God dwelleth among men) described, Exod. XXV. 10, &c. and XXXVII. 1. &c. a 1.8 was set upon a stone, up toward the West-end of the most Holy place, even under the middle wings of the two tall Cherubims that stood besides it: For the Cherubims spread forth their two wings over the place of the Ark, and the Cherubims covered the Ark, and the staves there∣of above. And they drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the Holy place before the Oracle; and they were not seen without, 1 King. VIII. 7, 8. 2 Chron. V. 8, 9. For before the Temple was built, while the Ark was in a moving posture, the staves whereby the Ark was born, were of an equal length on either side it, ready for the Priests shoulders when there was occasion for the Ark to flit; but now when they had brought it into Solomons Temple, where it was to fix and remove no more, they drew out the staves towards that side that looked down the most Holy place. b 1.9 Levi Gershom is of opini∣on, that these staves were not the same that were made by Moses, but of a longer size, and that they raught down to the very Door; and that though there were Doors betwixt the Holy and most Holy place, yet those Doors could not shut because of these staves. c 1.10 And Kimchi, and Jarchi come up very near to the same supposal, conceiving that the Ark stood not up near the Western Wall of the House, but more downward, towards the Door, and that the staves raught down to the Door; and on the day of Expiation, when the High Priest went into the Holy place, he went up to the Ark between these staves, and could not go off to one hand or other.

But that that hath strained from them this conception is, 1. Because they have strictly taken the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Text in the Book of Kings, for the Holy place without the Veil, whereas the Book of Chronicles doth expresly render it by the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Ark; for whereas the one place saith, that the heads of the staves were seen, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the other

hath it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And so the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 meaneth not the whole room, either of the Holy or most Holy place, but that singularly Holy place that was under the wings of the Cherubims; for of that place had the Text spoken immediately before, when it said, The Priests brought the Ark into the most Holy place, under the wings of the Cherubims. For the Cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the Ark, &c. and then he comes on and saith, And they drew out the staves, so that the ends of the staves appeared out of that holy place, meaning under the wings of the Cherubims. And 2. The Authors alledged have strictly taken 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to mean so, as one standing at the Door betwixt the Holy and most Holy place, had the most Holy place before him; whereas it signifieth in the same sense that it doth in that clause, in Gen. I. 20. Let the Fowl flie upon the Earth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which our English hath well rendred, in the open Firmament of Heaven. And so is it to be taken here, and the verse in hand may be properly understood thus; And they drew out the staves at length, so that the ends of the staves were seen from that Holy place in the open face of the Oracle: but they were not seen without. The staves were the same that were made by Moses, and their length not great, but only so much as to fit a Mans shoul∣der on either side of the Ark; and now when they had set the Ark between the two standing Cherubims on the Floor, the Cherubims inner wings covered the Ark, and the staves that were above at the ends of the Ark, but the rest of the staves drawn out down∣ward toward the Oracle Door, shot out from under the Cherubims wings, and appear∣ed in the open Face of the most Holy place, and the High Priest when he came to offer Incense at the Ark on the day of Expiation, he stood before the Ark between the staves.

d 1.11 It is fancied by the Jews, that Solomon when he built the Temple, foreseeing that the Temple should be destroyed, he caused very obscure and intricate Vaults under ground to be made, wherein to hide the Ark when any such danger came, that howsoever it went with the Temple, yet the Ark which was as the very life of the Temple might be safe. And they understand that passage in 2 Chron. XXXV. 3. Josiah said unto the Levites, Put the Holy Ark in the House which Solomon the son of David did build, &c. e 1.12 as if Joah having heard by the reading of Moses his Manuscript, and by Huldahs Prophesie, of the danger that hung over Jerusalem, he commanded to convey the Ark into this Vault, that it might be secured, and with it, say they, they laid up Aarons Rod, the pot of Manna, and the anointing Oil: For while the Ark stood in its place, upon the Stone mentioned, they hold that Aarons Rod and the pot of Manna stood before it, but now were all con∣veyed into obscurity, and the Stone upon which the Ark stood, lay over the mouth of the Vault. But Rabbi Solomon, which useth not ordinarily to forsake such Traditions, hath given a more serious Gloss upon the place; namely, whereas that Manasseh and Amon had removed the Ark out of its Habitation, and set up Images and abominations there of their own, Josiah speaketh to the Priests to restore it to its place again: what became of the Ark at the burning of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar we read not, it is most like it went to the fire also. How ever it sped, it was not in the second Temple, and is one of the five choice things that the Jews reckon wanting there. Yet had they an Ark there also of their own making, as they had a Breast-plate of Judgment; which though they both wanted the glory of the former, which was giving of Oracles, yet did they stand current as to the other matters of their Worship, as the former Breast-plate and Ark had done.

And so having thus gone through the many parts and particulars of the Temple it self, let us but take account of the several parcel measures, that made up the length of it an hundred cubits, and so we will turn our Eye and survey upon the Courts.

• f 1.13 1. The Wall of the Porch was five cubits thick.
• 2. The Porch it self eleven cubits broad.
• 3. The Wall of the Temple six cubits thick.
• 4. The Holy place forty cubits long.
• 5. The space between Holy and most Holy place one cubit.
• 6. The length of the most Holy place twenty cubits.
• 7. The Temple Wall six cubits thick.
• 8. The breadth of the Chambers at the end six cubits.
• 9. The Wall of the Chambers five cubits thick.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Mid. per. 4.
• b 1.2

  Aruch. ••in voce.
• c 1.3

  Talm. Ierus. per. 5.
• d 1.4

  Beth habbec. per. 4.
• e 1.5

  Const. Lemper. in Mid. p. 164.
• a 1.6

  Maym. in Kelt Mik. per. 7.
• b 1.7

  De bell. lib. ••. cap. 14.
• a 1.8

  Maym. in beth babbech. per. 4.
• b 1.9

  R. Lev. Ger. in 1 King. VIII.
• c 1.10

  Kimch ib. & K. ••ol. ibid.
• d 1.11

  Maym. ubi sap.
• e 1.12

  Kimch. in 2 Chron. XXXV.
• f 1.13

  Mid. per 4▪