The city of Jerusalem

by C. R. Conder

The Priests’ Court had three gates on the north and three on the south,[261] and near the “Water Gate,” on the south, was the “Chamber of the Draw-well,” where apparently a wheel and rope were used to draw water. There is a great rock-cut tank still in use just outside the line of the south wall of the Priests’ Court. Taking these two indications of position with the levels, it appears to me evident that the exact position of the Temple is fixed by the existing remains of its subterranean excavations, as I first suggested in 1878.

The general appearance of the Temple and its courts is best understood by means of the excellent model made by Miss M. A. Duthoit.[262] The most striking feature is the manner in which the courts are dwarfed by the huge square pylon of the Holy House, the flat roof being 150 feet above the level of the Priests’ Court. The roof was finished by a simple cornice, but the effect of the great mass was unbroken by any other adornment, save the golden vine running above and at the sides of the high eastern portal with its heavy veil.

HEROD’S TEMPLE.

Block plan with rock levels.

All the gates were gilded except that of Nicanor, which stood above the round flight of fifteen steps on which the “songs of degrees” are said to have been chanted. This gate was plated with electrum—a mixture of gold and silver. It was presented by Nicanor, a Jew, and the ossuary containing the bones of his family was found, a few years since, by Miss Gladys Dixon in a tomb on the Mount of Olives.[263] It bears a text in Greek: “Bones of those of the Nicanor Alexandreôs who made the gates,” with the words “Niḳanor Aleksa” beneath, in Hebrew. This great gate-house faced the Women’s Court on the west. The court had four roofless enclosures 40 cubits square, divided off by pillars, one at each corner. In that to the south-east the Nazirites assembled, and wood for the altar was stacked in that opposite on the north-east. In the south-west enclosure the oil for the Temple lamps was stored, and into that to the north-west lepers were brought from outside, in order that they might show themselves to the priests at the Gate Nicanor.

THE OUTER GATES

The “Mountain of the House,” as the outer rampart is called in the Mishnah, had five gates—or eight, according to Josephus. On the south were the two Ḥuldah Gates already described. On the east was the Gate Shushan opposite the Temple; it is said to have been adorned by a representation of “Shushan the palace.” On the west was Ḳîpunos, which bore a Greek name signifying “adornment.” This may have been the “Beautiful Gate,”[264] and was the main entrance—probably at the end of the bridge leading to the Royal Cloister. Josephus says that besides this gate two others led to the “suburbs,” and a fourth to the “other city” (near the Akra) “where the road descended down the valley by a great number of steps.”[265] These gates are still to be seen, one near the Tyropœon bridge, now called the “Prophet’s Gate,” with a subterranean passage like those of the Ḥuldah Gates; the next to the north at the present “Gate of the Chain,” where an ancient causeway on arches was discovered by Sir Charles Warren. The fourth gate—farthest north—has been converted into a tank, but the opening through the Herodian wall still exists. It was immediately west of the Holy House, for it lies between the Ṣakhrah and the “Pool of the Bath,” where there is now an accumulation of 90 feet of rubbish over the rock. The street must have here descended rapidly southwards, to pass under the arches of the causeway and of the Tyropœon bridge—which accounts for the notice of steps in the roadway.

The gate on the north is called Ṭadi in some texts of the Mishnah, and Tari in others. The first word means “secret,” and the other “new.” The secret passage from Antonia to the East Gate of the Temple[266] no doubt started at this gate, and was identical with that already described as leading to Ṭadi, and to the bath-house, from Moḳed. The passage between that gate-house and Nicanor, which would enable Herod to reach the Court of the Women, is unknown, and perhaps only led along the north cloister of the Priests’ Court, or outside it. There was also a secret passage from Herod’s palace in the upper city which has been traced. This led to the gate at the causeway on the west.[267]

The dread of divine displeasure rendered the service of the Temple one of fear and trembling.[268] In the darkness, before dawn, the “man of the mountain of the house” went his rounds to visit the priests and Levites who guarded the sanctuary by night. At cock-crow the huge altar was first cleansed, by the priest to whom the lot fell. From the Gate-house Moḳed he went in the dim light of the three great fires of fig-tree wood, nut, and pine, which glowed under the ashes. His brethren listened to hear the creaking of the wheel of the draw-well, as he sanctified his hands and feet. Then they came running to aid him, taking away the unburnt fragments of sacrifices, heaping up the ashes, and feeding the undying flame. As the red light spread behind the dark mountains of Moab, southwards “towards Hebron,” they brought out and slew the lamb of the “perpetual” sacrifice each morning, and prepared the incense and the shew-bread.