[255] Mishnah, Middoth, ii. 1. Abarbanel on this passage says, “The mountain was indeed much larger than 500 cubits would contain either way, but the sanctity did not extend outside this.”
[256] See my “Handbook to Bible,” p. 371. Tosephoth Yom Tob.
[257] The exact measures are: south wall of Ḥaram, 922 feet outside; east wall, 1,530 to the Roman north-east corner; west wall to Antonia, 1,601 feet; north wall, 1,042 feet. The north-east and south-west angles are right angles; the south-east angle measures 92½°. The old scarp on north side of the platform is about 1,180 feet north of the south wall.
[258] Mishnah, Middoth, ii. 3: “All steps were half a cubit high.”
[259] Josephus, “Wars,” V. ii. 5, VI. i. 8, ii. 7, iv. 1. The south-east part of the platform of the Dome of the Rock is supported probably by vaults. The entrance to these, on the east, was visible in 1881, though built up.
[260] Mishnah, Middoth, i. 6–9.
[261] Ibid., i. 4. On north the gates Niṣúṣ (“projecting”), Ḳorban (“gift”), and Môḳed (“hearth”), enumerated from east to west; on the south Dalaḳ (“burning”), Ḳorban (“gift”), and Mim (“waters”). The chamber of the draw-well (gulah) was on south near the last (v. 4). See Tamid, i. 4.
[262] For plan and details, see Constantine l’Empereur, Codex Middoth, 1630; and Conder’s “Handbook to the Bible” (3rd edit. 1882), pp. 359–86. For model (Religious Tract Society), see [Frontispiece].
[263] Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly, April 1903, p. 126, Oct. 1903, p. 326.
[264] Acts iii. 2.